Nintendo Wii Fanboy

What do you think of Smash Bros. Brawl? Great game, right? Yeah, we think so, too. Is it missing something, though? Perhaps extra characters?

According to ONM, Sakurai himself cut a couple of characters from the roster. "I had a lot more characters, for example.. but sadly I can't discuss which ones didn't make it," he said to ONM in an interview that will be featured in their next issue, hitting newsstands on Friday. How does that sit with you?

For us, it's not much of a big deal. The game's already packed with a ton of characters, and even includes wonderful bits of fan service in Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog. So, we're not complaining.

Gallery: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Our Friday Video spot seemed an appropriate place to store these videos of Smash Bros. Brawl characters caught in compromising poses. Equal parts ridiculous and hilarious (because, really, who goes through all this effort?), the pair of videos show that every single fight in Smash Bros. Brawl is unpredictable. You never know if Snake is going to murder or sexually violate you.

The videos could be considered NSFW, so you'll have to head through the break to the "Adults Only" section of Wii Fanboy for the rest.

Solid Snake, who, as the most realistic human being in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and as a military operative who carries deadly projectile weapons into battle, should be the most serious character in the game. Instead, Snake's propensity for endless discussion via codec is used to make fun of not only himself, but every other character in the game -- made even more hilarious by David Hayter's inimitable character voice.

We've embedded one video after the break, showing Snake and Otacon's codec chat about (character). You may consider it a spoiler! People seem to consider all kinds of stuff related to Super Smash Bros. Brawl spoilers. If you're terrified of knowing who's in the game, don't look at this video and don't visit the nefarious uploader's YouTube page, which features five other videos, each revealing multiple characters and more chatter.

There's a rumor floating around that the lack of a playable character from Camp Capcom is due to a little game by the name of Resident Evil 4. You see, before it ended up on the PC and PS2, along with the Wii, it was meant to be entirely a GameCube exclusive. That didn't last that long, however.

With the inclusion of Sega's Sonic and Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Solid line of games, the inclusion of one of Capcom's characters (oh, let's say ... Mega Man) quite possibly would've been too much for this blogger's weak little heart. The rest of the world, however, probably would've liked to see one of Capcom's characters make it into the already overstuffed line-up of playable brawlers.

What Capcom character would you have liked to see in Brawl?

Some super-blurry pictures of Japanese magazine CoroCoro seem to confirm that Zelda will be able to transform into Sheik via what's being called a "Twilight Change." No doubt this is exactly like her transformation before, but, you know, with the Twilight Princess version of Zelda. It should at least be moderately interesting to see what the edgier Twilight Princess Sheik will look like. Even if we hadn't heard from Aonuma that Sheik would show up, this shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone. Pictured above is the card on which this information was found, which also shows what appears to be Zelda's Final Smash move: Light Arrows.

Sadly, the CoroCoro issue also mentions that Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog will be unlockable "secret" characters, even though both characters were revealed on the Dojo and in trailers and everything. All this means is that we have to spend agonizing hours playing as not-Snake.

[Update: Reader Sensai brings news that the card actually doesn't specify a down-B move at all for Zelda, leaving Sheik, and the identity of that special move, unconfirmed. What a "mystery!"]

[Via NeoGAF]

We really like the fact that Snake is in Brawl, especially the dichotomy that's created by the man's ... real-worldness and the franchise's cartoon world. But what we like even more than that is his Final Smash, which might just be the most badass thing since, well, Contra 4.

With Smash Ball in hand, Snake is able to summon a helicopter to the arena, which promptly drops a rope ladder to his position. Our hero then clambers up, before pulling out a grenade launcher and unleashing round after round at his foes. You target the launcher yourself (much like you would with the Dragoon), and get a dozen grenades in total, though only a limited amount of time to fire them.

There's a tasty double serving of updates today on the dojo, but the lowdown on Brawl's "Grab and Throw" manoeuver is likely to be overshadowed by the inclusion of a second Metal Gear Solid character.

The good news is it's not Raiden (we fear the internets would implode with fanboy vitriol), but Frank Jaeger, a.k.a cyborg ninja Gray Fox, a.k.a That Dude Who Engages In A Totally Badass Battle With Metal Gear REX Only To Get Heroically Stomped. The bad news: he's not playable, but merely an Assist Trophy. Nevertheless, a pretty cool addition.

Okay, this is going to be a little weird. But as we were watching all of the awesome new Smash Bros. footage featuring our BFF Solid Snake (with some allusions to the survival techniques of his "dad", Big Boss), we realized that not only is Snake one of our favorite characters ever, his inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl makes us enjoy both Smash Bros. and Snake a little bit more.

It's not just that the incongruity of a gravelly-voiced mercenary in the kid-friendly fighting game is hilarious. It has more to do with the juxtaposition of what is more or less a human guy from a world that is kind of like the real world with, say, Mario, who is supposed to be human but clearly isn't. It's intriguing. It generates some really interesting cognitive dissonance. And then Snake fires a Nikita missile or snaps Mario's neck (M rating, here we come!) and we get a different kind of cognitive dissonance.

Putting Snake in the middle of a confluence of Nintendo universes makes them all look intensely bizarre, and makes Snake, a man who fights one-on-one with helicopters, seem like an everyman. When he expresses surprise at Wario's farting skill, he speaks for us. Of course, his everyman-ness still runs through a filter of Snake's life experience; he's still making long phone calls in the middle of a fight. He still sees strange animals as survival rations. There's really no other situation in which we'd be able to identify with this guy.

We don't really know how to form this discussion into a question, so we just thought we'd open it up to a discussion of Snake in Smash Bros. and how wonderfully weird the whole thing is. And then, for no reason, we're embedding the ridiculous "Eat Like Snake" Burger King commercial after the break, which has nothing at all to do with Smash Bros., Metal Gear, the Wii, or Snake, except that it has the word "Snake" in it.

There just might be a new level to topple our current favorite from Smash Bros. Melee, Hyrule. Not only is this stage a wonderful piece of nostalgia, it is also fairly functional and includes a feature we wish more stages had: nowhere to fall to your death. Seriously, we hate ourselves some plunging to doom. Oh, and occasionally a Metal Gear will appear. Rock!

Click on through to check out some videos aside from the ones featured this morning, including one where Snake talks about him and Samus taking their clothes off. "!" indeed.

We can't get enough of Snake. We admit, we have the biggest crush on the guy, going so far as to sketch his name in our notebook over and over again (we also draw a lot of unicorns). And when it was announced that he was joining the roster in Smash Bros. Brawl, we nearly wet our pants. When we learned that David Hayter would be voicing the spy again, we then wet our pants.

Check past the break for another video of Snake and Otacon discussing what Yoshi's gender is, as well as what he tastes like.

Oh man, yesterday we were just saying how we wanted an update for newcomer Snake and here we are. Not only do we get a character bio today, but we also get a move list breakdown for him. Oh, and we also get a nice piece of music to listen to while we drool over these fresh screens. Seriously, why are you wasting time reading this? Hit up the gallery below and check out Snake beating people down with a cardboard box.



Read - Snake's bio
Read - Snake's move list

Konami invited some lucky press folk who've been at TGS to sit in on a kind of Snake retrospective. Chronicling the career of the big guy, they even took some time to chat about his upcoming foray into the world of smashing. Kojima showed off Snake traversing some of the levels in Smash Bros. Brawl, as well as utilizing some of the game's unique items.

We can't wait until his dojo update ...

[Via Go Nintendo]

Today's Smash Bros. blog update provided two things we've all been waiting for since the countdown went up:

1. New information of any kind
2. The controller the game will use.

Those of you who said they'd adapt the game to Wiimote/Nunchuk play were right. Those of you who said they'd keep the Gamecube controller compatibility: you were right. Those of you who said it would use the Classic Controller: you were also right. Those of you who said you could play the game with a Wiimote turned on its side: if you existed, you would have been right as well.

We had cooled on the subject of Smash Bros., but now we're as excited as we were when we saw Snake pop out of that box. Not only is this going to extend the life of the game (by allowing players to master four different methods of control) but it is also going to allow for different styles of play, and therefore more variety in strategy and technique.

Some slightly disparaging remarks were made recently on this blog about Metal Gear Solid's Solid Snake. While a certain contingent of our staff may doubt the fighting ability of the son of Big Boss, but we know the truth. Snake is hardcore. He may ask a lot of questions ("Metal Gear?" "A Hind-D?") and he may have a habit of hiding in boxes, but he definitely has the combat prowess required for Smash Bros., made evident by the fact that he smashed his own brother.

This post is a big "!" for Snake fans. We can hear your thoughts. Come out of hiding and tell us how awesome Solid Snake is!

Last Saturday, Suda 51's company Grasshopper Manufacture held the coolest event ever, at least for game nerds: Snake vs. Zombie vol. 2, a series of informal panel discussions by big names in the Japanese game industry, including Hideo Kojima, Shinji Mikami, ICO's Fumito Ueda, and Tetsuya Mizuguchi. There were also musical performances from Metal Gear Solid 3/Portable Ops soundtrack composer Norihiko Hibino and Silent Hill series producer and composer Akira Yamaoka.

As if the mere existence of this event (and our non-attendance at said event) weren't causing us physical pain, now we have unbearable anticipation buzzing around in our heads. During a Kojima/Mikami panel hosted by Suda, Mikami, a man of taste, mentioned that his favorite Kojima game was Snatcher, to which the other two responded "Ah yes, Snatcher," followed by "Oh, should we announce it here?"

To sum up, in italics, there is a possibility that Hideo Kojima and Suda 51 are collaborating on some kind of Snatcher game. We do not care if it is a sequel, a remake, a port, an action figure, or an official recipe for Neo Kobe Pizza. We want ten.