Headscratchers / Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U

• In Smash Run, how come you can Goomba Stomp Goombas and Koopa Troopas, but not Lakitus, Hammer Bros. or Bullet Bills? That levels follow series rules for the various enemies, so this inconsistency sticks out.
  • Bullet Bills are using the Mario Galaxy rules.
• What is exactly new about this Peach’s design? It's the very same design as used in Brawl◊! There aren't any major differences. It's not like Peach wears a different dress or looks prettier. The only difference that I can see is that SSB4!Peach is more colorful compared to Brawl!Peach... but all veterans are more colorful compared to their appearance in Brawl, so I'm really confused. I'm almost thinking people are thinking that Peach's Brawl design is the same as her design in Melee◊, which is obviously different. The fact that I've heard nobody gushing over Peach's design when she was introduced in Brawl, but that people really like SSB4's (being the same design but with more colors like everyone else), would support this.
  • She looks a bit darker in color, I guess.
    • Maybe they're just really excited that she's back, period, and the OP for that assumed they liked her new design, not just that she's in the game.
  • Her facial structure is slightly different in this game than in Melee or Brawl, making her more like her Mario-verse appearance, similar to what happened with the other Mario characters. However, when I say "slightly", I mean just that; it's not all that noticeable really (especially compared to her more obvious design changes from Melee to Brawl), but it's there. That said, I also recall a few people on this site's Smash Bros thread in the forums saying that Peach looked better in this game than she used to, and being someone that mains her, I'm inclined to agree. If you want another example, Toon Link was also said to look better in this game compared to Brawl, even if he looks similar to his Brawl design (though this is probably because Toon Link is now part of a cast of equally colorful characters, so he's not clashing with the somewhat more realistic aesthetics the characters in Brawl had in their designs).
• For Rosalina and Luma, why does the URL for her profile use "Rosetta", her Japanese name, on the English site?
  • I wouldn't be surprised if Bowser's uses "Koopa", and so on. The English version of the site may have been set up (though not necessarily written) by Japanese folks.
    • No, Rosalina's the only character this happens to. Probably just a simple oversight.
    • Greninja and Charizard also have urls with their Japanese names used instead. It most likely is an oversight, but it could also be because the site is mostly an officially translated Japanese site. As for why Bowser and Mega Man don't follow this, it probably has something to do with timing of their reveals coinciding with the first reveal of the games themselves, so it's possible the site and the first set of characters were initially created with more of an English slant to it.^note Though it's not like Japan is that unaware of the English names of those two characters anyway, so they didn't mind using them.
    • For anyone who cares, Robin's page does the same, he Japanese name "Reflet" is in the URL.
• In the E3 trailer (I believe it's in Nintendo's E3 confrence video, I don't think it's in any other trailer), Mega Man's reveal has an intentional Loading Screen before his Flavor Text appears. Um... why? Is that supposed to be referencing something.
  • It was actually a recreation of the level intro screen from some of the 8-bit Mega Man (Classic) games, where the level's Robot Master boss would appear in the spot Mega Man teleported into.
• So in the Nintendo Direct video, the stages in the 3DS version will have 2 songs. Does that mean that there won't be any CDs in this version? Also, on Tortimer's Island stage, will the spectators only be limited to Kapp'n, Tortimer, Leilani, Leila, and Grams? And will that also mean no Saturday night special from K.K. Slider like in Brawl?
  • As Sakurai stated, the games are still in development.
  • Obviously, the "2 songs per stage" deal is because of space constraints.
    • Why would there be space constraints on an 8-14Gb SD card?
    • Not everyone owns an 8-14 GB card...
    • The games themselves are on 8-14Gb cards.
    • Why wouldn't there be?
    • Just to be safe.
    • Um...how much CAN 3DS game cards even hold? Maybe it'll install extra data like for Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep to reduce loading?
    • The 3DS game card can hold 1-8 GB of data, IIRC.
• In the Charizard trailer, why didn't Mario use F.L.U.D.D. on Charizard? Did he just feel like beating something up with his bare hands that day?
  • F.L.U.D.D. doesn't do any damage; it just pushes the foe back. Wouldn't help all that much.
    • That doesn't mean that it wouldn't be worth doing. If I remember, Charizard's tail has a flame on the end. If that flame goes out, the Charizard passes out. So frankly, it'd be worth doing, it'd guarantee Mario a win if it happened to extinguish Charizard's flame.
    • There are two problems with that; one, Mario is an honorable fighter, and putting Charizard's flame out would be unfair. Two, if I remember correctly, Charizard's flame doesn't affect its health; it just shows how healthy it is. In fact, Pokémon Crystal's Pokédex says about Charmander, "If it's healthy, the flame on the tip of its tail will burn vigorously, even if it gets a bit wet." And besides, Greninja used a Water Shuriken on Charizard and it was none the worse for wear. Really, using F.L.U.D.D. wouldn't help at all.
• Why is Lucina listed as a veteran on the Smash Bros website?
  • If it helps, she's getting the full newcomer treatment on the mobile version of the site. I heard someone say they didn't give her a full newcomer rectangle because how the site's laid out it wouldn't work and they need more veterans confirmed or something. All I have is my phone right now, so I can't really look myself.
  • Lucina poses as Marth for the first few chapters of Fire Emblem: Awakening - and she posed it so well she fooled the Developers.
• Rayman's model was created by Ubisoft and sent to Nintendo to create a trophy from. But the Pic of the Day◊ and the Official Rayman Twitter feed◊ have posted different trophies. In particular, the shape of the head, eyes, and torso are all different. It can't be from the 3DS version because of the background, resolution, and advanced shading. So... what's going on here?
  • Most likely, the version shown as the Pic of the Day was an earlier version of it- people didn't like the look, so they tweaked it and replaced the image with a new one.
• Why does Pac-man use the ghosts to attack?
  • After getting his smash invitation, Pac-Man couldn't think of any Smash attacks.That's when the ghosts offered their services so they could be in a big-time game like Smash Bros., too. Or you could just say Sakurai wanted a good representation of the original Pac-man game in his move set and was willing to brush aside the fact that they're enemies for that cause, but I like the former explanation better.
  • All of the sprites from the original Pac-Man arcade game end up as his attacks; the dots and power pellet are used in his side special, the fruits are used in his neutral special, and he himself transforms into his ball form to represent his original sprite. The ghosts for smash attacks complete the set.
• Are there several mistranslations in regards to attack names? Samus can get the 'Mega Bomb' attack for her Down+B move, yet I'm pretty sure they meant the Power Bomb. Similarly, Charizard can get Rock Hurl instead of presumably Rock Throw. Is this a case of "Blind Idiot" Translation or am I just overthinking it?
  • Neither. Those are just the custom moves.
• Apparently, Lucario is wild. How can he Mega Evolve?
  • Where does the game say that he's wild? I thought he was based on Aaron's Lucario.
    • Compare his stage introduction to that of Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Charizard or Greninja. There's no Poké Ball.
    • If Lucario in Smash is based on Aaron's Lucario (which, considering both are voiced by the same person, is logical), then it doesn't even have a Pokeball to come out of; hence the different intro.
    • Like most that use their own energy, I assume sheer Willpower. His cry of "MAX AURA!" when he does so seems to suggest he's assuming the form through the unleashing of his full power. I suppose he's no longer holding back against his opponent.
    • Alternatively, the Smash Ball simply gives him the necessary energy/trigger, and is thus for every other final smash.
• Why are there no Sonic remixes? He wasn't held back by being rushed into the game this time around, and both Mega Man and Pac-Man got a ton of great remixes. And yet so far no Sonic remixes have been seen at all, despite having such a large amount of games filled with incredible music.
  • There might be some remixes in the Wii U version. There's probably at least one Sonic remix in that huge, huge library of songs.
  • It could be possible that Sega didn't want any of Sonic's songs remixed. That may also explain Sonic's somewhat limited color alts, the same with Pac-Man.
• Why does Bandai-Namco's logo appear twice in a row at the end of the credits?
  • I think it's because they both co-developed the game and had characters/items in the game (Pac-Man, the S-flag, and the Boss Galaga item).
  • One is Bandai Namco Studios (the actual game development) and one is Bandai Namco Games (the overarching video-game-related part of Bandai Namco Entertainment).
• Little Mac's debut appearance is in 1987, between Kid Icarus and Mega Man. However, when fought in All-Star Mode, which is in chronological order, he is placed with the arcade fighters in 1983/1984: between Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt, to be exact. Why?
  • The original Punch-Out!! arcade game debuted in 1983, and the "true" challenger for that section should be the wireframe "challenger" (who may or may not be Mac) from that game. The same reason why the Koopalings can show up in Bowser Jr.'s stead long after their debut.
• Is there a reason why neither Sonic the Hedgehog nor Sonic the Hedgehog 2 are not included in Masterpieces? Pac-Man and Mega Man 2 are, and both of those Sonic games have been released on Nintendo systems many times.
  • Mega Man 2 is on the NES, and Pac-Man is the NES port of the game. Sonic, by contrast, was never on a Nintendo system until Sonic Adventure 2, meaning there's not much to draw upon. In addition, the Wii U Virtual Console has no Sonic games, and the Nintendo 3DS only has Game Gear games (which are not quite Masterpiece material); since the Masterpieces are taken from games that are already available on the eShop, there would be no way to include a Sonic game without a lot of unnecessary work.
  • Except a bunch of Sonic games are available on the Wii Shop, which Wii U has a Wii built into it. (Especially if you transfer your Wii data to your Wii U.) So it's not like you can't play them on your Wii U.
  • I have not gotten why at least Sonic Advance is not on the Wii-U's VC. Or the fact that the Genesis, which was one of the first systems to have games on the Wii's VC, isn't on the Wii U's VC yet.
• A Screen KO now takes up an equal about of time as a Star KO (or I suppose the other way around). But what's the point in doing so if most KOs that go up to the top of the screen have the character instantly KOed in a flash of light like any other direction? You still have one type of top-of-the-screen KO taking a shorter time than the others, and to my knowledge, Smash Bros. Wii U and 3DS are the first games where characters are commonly instantly KOed when launched upwards—all previous Smash Bros. games guaranteed either a Screen KO or a Star KO.
  • Typically, getting blasted off of the top of the screen is reserved for multi-man challenges in order to cut down on wait time between waves of fighters. To get blasted off the top in normal play takes either a LOT of damage accumulation or a LOT of force in order to launch someone INSANELY hard. Roughly 80% of the time you're going to get a star or screen KO with it being random which one you get. With that in mind, they made the two the same length to cut down on the randomness and resulting unfair losses. You'd be surprised how many times a fight can come down to who left the screen first in an explosive clash, and having a seemingly assured victory taken from you because your character bounced off the screen instead of flying off into the distance behind the person who left first can be a maddening experience.
    • Hmm, your Smash Bros. experience sounds different from mine. Playing matches and spectating them, it seems like a good 90% of KOs I see end in the flash of light. But in any case, the point still stands: The purpose of the Star KO and the Screen KO taking an equal amount of time out of competitive fairness is completely undermined by the existence of a third type of top-of-screen KO that takes up a shorter amount of time.
• Why is the charge time for Link's Power Bow custom B Special different in the 3DS and Wii U versions? In the 3DS it's barely slower than the regular bow but yet in the Wii U version its twice as long. You'd think if it was a balance thing (its pretty broken in the 3DS version) they would apply it evenly across both platforms.
  • This seems to be fixed with the new update for the 3DS version, bringing it in line with the Wii U version's charge time.
• Perhaps it's the fault of my bad hearing, but what is Viridi saying before she drops the Reset Bomb?
  • "Good riddance, human scum! The world's better off without you!" It was also her first line in Kid Icarus Uprising.
• Marth speaks English in Codename: STEAM. Why didn't they get this VA for Smash?
  • It's probably to adhere to Marth's debut game being Japan-exclusive and keep the tradition going. It's the same thing with Mega Man and Pac-Man, since both were voiced previously but only use sounds from their old games in Smash.
    • For Megaman I can understand, since Megaman's voices have been...less than impressive. Pacman hasn't had the best voice record, either (plus nostalgia). I'm expecting that the next Smash game will have Marth speaking English in the localized version of the game.
    • And you'd be right about that. Keep your eyes open!
• On another note, why exactly is Ridley the stage hazard in Pyrosphere? Not only is he just a poor boss in general, but surely one of Metroid's most iconic villains should deserve better than being a mere stage hazard? If Pyrosphere needed a boss, they could have used one of the other bosses in that area (like Vorash). Ridley doesn't even resemble his Other M design, so not even that explains it. And surely they would have figured out that Meta Ridley requires, well, metal parts and not misnamed Varia Ridley as Meta Ridley?
  • He is a boss because they didn't think he fit as a playable character and they wanted to appease the western fans who have been begging for Ridley since Brawl. Ridley is also a composite character like many other characters, taking traits and inspiration from other sources, so he is primary based on Other M along with nods to Metroid Prime and Super Metroid.
  • Another thing to note is Ridley is using his Other M look and was fought in the Pyrosphere in that game anyway, in addition to Varia Ridley not even being a thing, so it's not like the designers had no basis putting him there.
• Why don't you earn gold playing online? (Outside of Spectate of course.) It seems odd seeing as online is potentiality the most played game mode for some people and that winning against a human player feels more rewarding than winning against a CPU.
  • In With Friends online mode you do earn coins, just like you do in LAN battles.
• How come when amiibo are defeated in a stock match, the announcer says "amiibo defeated"? Wouldn't "Computer Player" make more sense?
  • The Amiibo players are considered their own class. Unlike a Computer Player, which has a set scale of difficulty of 1-9, the Amiibos learn from the opponents they fight against to a degree [based on highest probability rather than specifically countering a player's tactics], and go up to Level 50. It is also a nice touch to acknowledge the player for using their bonus features as opposed to saying 'Computer Player' indiscriminately.
• In the poster for Bayonetta's reveal, I noticed that Lucina is placed alongside the forces of darkness. Doesn't that seem... out of character for her? I remember that she fought against such forces in her home game.
  • Weirder still, she has the divine Exalt blood running through her veins! She's one of the holiest characters in the entire game, outside of, say, the Kid Icarus universe. It would've made much more sense to have her fighting Robin, who has evil blood in him.
  • Dark Is Not Evil. How else do you explain Little Mac, Charizard, and Meta Knight?
  • Well yeah, but Lucina on the side of light vs Robin would've made way, way more sense even from that perspective.
• How come Cloud is speaking in Japanese the whole time? Doesn't he have an English voice actor? What, was Steve Burton not available?
  • The most popular theory currently is that, given that Steve didn't seem to know whether or not he was reprising Cloud for Smash Bros, that there was an issue with Steve being a unionized actor; Smash Bros.' casting was a non-union work, and talent unions usually frown upon its actors partaking in non-union jobs. That's one of the main reasons certain VAs work under pseudonyms.
• How does Samus fit those ridiculously bulky high-heeled jet boots into her completely flat-booted powersuit?
  • She doesn't. The boots are completely separate from the Zero Suit.
• Why doesn't the music from Pac-Land play in the Pac-Land stage? And why are the ghosts absent in that stage? I would say it was because they both came from the cartoon, but that hasn't stopped the game from appearing unedited on the Virtual Console and in Namco Museum.
  • From what I can gather, it IS because of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Re-releases of Pac-Land go through special permission with Time Warner for the music rights that Super Smash Bros. for Wii U did not. (I also noticed songs are far less likely to be remixed if originally composed by a non-Japanese person. Besides the Donkey Kong ones, there's only been a handful.)
• Something a bit odd that I noticed for the DLC costumes for the Mii Swordfighters. They include costumes based on characters that fight using swords: Link, Dunban and Zero. Apparently all three of them use their left hands to wield their swords (Dunban does due to injuring his right arm) while Mii Swordfighters are always right handed.
  • They're just cosplaying Mii Fighters. They're not the originals. Please take that into consideration.
• I don't suppose anyone knows what kind of executive meddling has caused the very little representation of Cloud and the Final Fantasy series? He got very little despite this being in a crossover game where guests have remixed themes.
• Every newcomer had a snappy tagline when introduced as a fighter, except Dark Pit. Why is that? I get that he made a cameo in Palutena's trailer, but when he was formally announced?
  • Dark Pit was made into an actual character, as opposed to one of Pit's palettes, so late into development that they simply didn't bother.
• Out of all the clones to choose from, why bring back Dr. Mario? They could have used someone like Lucas or Wolf. Or, if they wanted to bring in a new character, why not Dark Samus? The only reason Dr. Mario bothers me is that he is literally the same character as Mario, not a character who at least is physically different like Samus or Sheik.
  • Lucas and Wolf aren't clones (they have different models and animations, for starters), and given that clones are last minute inclusions, Dark Samus was probably already added as an Assist Trophy by the time they decided to put Dr. Mario back in (not to mention, she deserves better than just being a clone).
  • Dr. Mario was originally supposed to be a costume to regular Mario, much like the Male/Female variants of Villager, Robin and Wii Fit Trainer. However, in order to give Dr. Mario some diversity (read: Pills instead of Fireballs), he was made a separate fighter.
    • It was more so because F.L.U.D.D. wouldn't make as much sense for Dr. Mario to use than because he throws Megavitamins instead of Mario's fireballs.
• Why are the trophy descriptions unnecessarily tongue-in-cheek?
  • Everything about the game is tongue and cheek. Has been for quite a while.
  • Looking at how tongue-in-cheek KI Uprising is, this seems to be Sakurai's style.
• Why are the trophy descriptions in SSB 3DS vastly different in the PAL version? It wasn't like that in the previous games.
  • The most likely situation is that Nintendo of America and Nintendo of Europe did their own separate localizations, resulting in different translations and descriptions. This would have been done to accommodate things like differences in the games themselves (e.g. games and characters that had different names in Europe) or cultural differences; North America and Europe have different senses of humour, so the trophy descriptions reflect that. Many other Nintendo games, particularly ones that aren't voiced, have separate localizations for PAL and NTSC regions—look at Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon for a notable example, where many characters have completely different names based on where you are in the world.
• Why don't the trophies in the 3DS version have that thing that says where the respective character/item/etc. first debuted? Would it really have been too much trouble to include something so small yet so useful?
  • Probably just because of limitations. The bottom screen is very small in comparison to most TVs on the console games, and it would have been hard to display the Trophy’s description along with the origin in a nice and clean way while still making it easily readable, so they just cut it.
• Why is Cloud himself the only FFVII trophy in SSB4? (and no, his two Alt.'s and Final Smash trophies don't count) Every other playable third-party character in the game has at least one other character from their respective franchise as a trophy.
  • It was most likely Square-Enix putting restrictions on what Nintendo could use. The same reason there are only two music tracks, and no Spirits in Ultimate prior to Sepiroth's inclusion.
• Why does the Wii U version have a stage based on Windy Hill Zone from Sonic Lost World, when both versions (Wii U & 3DS) of that game share the same stages?
  • Sakurai stated that the Wii U version will have more console stages and that the 3DS version will have more handheld stages, not that the Wii U version will only have console stages and that the 3DS version will only have handheld stages. Not to mention the three previous Smash Bros. were console titles, so that'd mean the Wii U would be the only version with past stages, which would be a waste.
  • Limitations on the 3DS, probably. Look closely at Windy Hill Zone and you'll notice that the battlefield is curved, as well as the trajectories of projectiles fired on the stage. The 3DS, being a weaker device, probably wouldn't be able to handle the sudden physics change.
• The Soccer Ball Trophy has the Super Mushroom in the background, indicating it came from the Super Mario universe. What makes it specifically the one from the Mario Strikers games? I'm sure there have been other Nintendo games with soccer balls in them.
  • What other games have soccer balls that set on fire when you kick them?
  • Super Mario 3D World, although they're only used against Bowser.
• On Intensity 5.1 or higher, Crazy Hand simply disappears and Master Hand transforms into Master Core when defeated. If these are the hands of a completely normal kid then why do they magically vanish and turn into a horrible black swarm, respectively?
  • Because that's fanon, and the game never actually says they're the hands of a "completely normal kid".
  • If we go with the idea of them being the hands of a kid, then Master Core still has an easy explanation. Master Core is a monster that the kid imagined up himself.
• Why are the tips only obtainable by clicking on a box and getting a random tip? For older players, this is a good refresher of concepts, but for newer players (or even older players who haven't got any experience with the new characters, stages, items, etc) this is the complete wrong way to go about providing helpful tips. What am I missing?
• Why does Pit not know who King Dedede is during his guidance conversation when he already know who Kirby and Meta Knight are? It's very jarring considering the fact they both debuted in Brawl.