Dojo Day: Forge Edition

Here it is, the feature everyone's been waiting to try out! Bungie just sold the rights to the "Forge" real-time level editor to Nintendo, and they're using it in Super Smash Bros. Brawl! If you believed a word I just said, then you need to smash your head against a wall three times! Do it now! Exactly three! I'll know if you didn't do exactly three! Every sentence in this paragraph ends in an exclamation point! Welcome to Dojo Day!!!

Stage Builder: In all seriousness, this is a simple stage editor, not Forge. That's not to say that it isn't awesome, because this is probably one of the most interesting announcements the Dojo blog has made in its entire lifetime. You will not only be able to create, name, save, and of course play on your own Smash Bros. stages, but you will also have the ability to send them to your friends. Also, Sakurai revealed that the pink button that was blurred out a few weeks ago is a "submit" button that allows you to send stages and snapshots to Nintendo, who will send out a new stage (and presumably snapshot) to players each week. If we want to get speculative, the three minutes of video footage just might be able to be submitted as well.

Classic: As expected, Classic mode is back, and it still has the usual one-on-one random battles mixed in with special battles like teams and giants. You get coins in each battle, but Sakurai was very vague about what they would be used for. "No, no. You earn and save these up little by little as you play. And supposedly you can use them somewhere. But no—you don’t use them to shop."

The Summit: It's an Ice Climber stage that looks pretty basic as far as stages go. It takes place at the top of Icicle Mountain, and there are some vegetables up there, as well as an Aurora in the sky. At some point, the stage will break away, and slide down the side of the mountain. After that, it will land in the ocean, where it will float for the rest of the battle. Sometimes, a scary-looking fish (presumably from the Ice Climbers game, though I've never played the original) will jump out of the water and attack.

Meta Knight: Final Smash: Meta Knight has the first Final Smash not to either affect everyone or give the ability to rage across the screen killing anyone in your path. He swings out his cape, and if he catches and enemy in it, the entire screen goes black. Then, Meta Knight starts to slash at his opponent, damaging them and anyone near them. Fascinatingly, if the initial cape move misses, the entire Final Smash does as well.

On-Screen Appearances: Yes, they're finally back from the original Smash Bros., and you're as excited as I am. The characters will all have special entrances in each battle, such as Mario jumping out of a green pipe. Sakurai shows a few, but the highlights are Fox jumping out of an Arwing, Pit coming down through a beam of light, Ike warping in with a warp circle, and Snake dropping to the ground, where his optical camouflage starts to break up.

It's been a pretty good week, and not just because I won the lottery on Monday. What's making me even more excited than the end to the sentence "If I had a million dollars..." is that I will be able to edit stages in Brawl. The possibilities are endless, and this shows that Nintendo is definitely committed to providing a robust online for Brawl. However, it still clashes with their previously mentioned crippled online. Hopefuly that means that the delay will allow them to put more time into the online mode and possibly make it fun for those of us who are, you know, not soccermoms. I'm even starting to feel that Brawl could turn out to be another StarCraft, a game that is played online consistently until the release of the sequel, even when the original becomes an old and outdated game.

Other than that, the custom entrances are also fun. It was a small touch in the original Smash Bros. that was missing in Melee. It's this sort of attention to detail--the kind that includes fun little extras like snapshots and custom entrances--that makes us love Nintendo and their games. Or maybe it's just their ass-kicking, name-taking American president that does that...

[via Smash Bros. Dojo]