The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate hype train has come to an end, ever since Sora was released as the last fighter on October 18th last year (very early to the party, I know). Ever since that moment, it’s become a sort of trend to look back at all the reveal trailers we’ve gotten for the franchise over the years, from Super Smash Bros. Brawl all the way to the current title. It’s become so much of a trend that the beloved director for the games himself, Masahiro Sakurai, recently got in on the fun as well, looking back at his own work and providing commentary in an ongoing blog post on Nintendo’s website (the blog only goes as far back as the first trailer for Smash 4 though).
With this going on, I thought it’d be fun to provide my own thoughts and opinions on the trailers, and couple them with some of Sakurai’s as well. I also never had the chance to talk about Smash, a game I’ve loved and had so much fun with before, so this is also a great opportunity to get that out of the way. If you’d like to see Sakurai’s thoughts and opinions alone, as well as all the trailers in one place, you can do so by clicking this link. But now, let’s get into it.
Super Smash Bros. – Trailer 1 (Nintendo 3DS/Wii U)
Prior to the release of Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS/WiiU, or Smash 4 as I previously referred to them as, I haven’t played much of the Smash games. I’ve only played a bit of the previous titles with family on specific occasions, like Christmas. Coincidentally enough, it was the Christmas before this game was announced that I got my first 3DS and played Super Smash Bros. Brawl while visiting my other family members. That play session was a blast and I wanted to experience more things like that… then came along a trailer for a new Smash game, for the handheld system I just got months ago. This was also the trailer that got me interested in playing Animal Crossing years later, due to it revealing Villager as a playable character. So I have a lot of good memories from this trailer.
Mega Man Joins the Battle!
This is the first trailer for the Super Smash Bros. series dedicated to revealing a character. I wasn’t fond of Mega Man at this time, despite playing and enjoying a couple of his games. But this trailer made me excited for both Mega Man in this game and what other characters could come afterwards. Despite the franchise already having Sonic and Snake as playable characters (the latter of the two not returning to Smash 4), Mega Man was an extremely unique character that seemed impossible to make work in not only a platform fighter, but one from Nintendo. However, as we’d come to fully understand, the impossible is Sakurai’s specialty.
Wii Fit Trainer Joins the Battle!
This was a surprise to many people, and it seems like they intended it to be that way. According to Sakurai, this was the first trailer where they tried to pull the tactic of making it seem like it was something else before revealing the fighter. In the context of an E3 video, I think it worked very well. It’s funny that they had trouble making Mario hold his hands over his head though.
Comet Observatory
In my opinion, this is the trailer that paved the way for many of the high quality trailers we’d see, especially in Smash Ultimate. The way they started off blending Kirby Air Ride and Mario Kart only to reveal Rosalina & Luma together as a fighter was very nice. Not to mention the overall quality of the trailer was the best out of all the trailers we had at that point. I was also excited for this character because I loved Super Mario Galaxy, especially the sequel.
Champion of the Ring
This was the first trailer that went with a style completely different from the others. I like how Sakurai was open about it being used to save their budget more than anything else. However, they managed to make it work pretty well for the type of character Little Mac is. As for Little Mac himself, I personally wasn’t excited about him because I wasn’t familiar with the Punch-Out! Series. But I can’t deny they made playing him look very appealing.
Challenger From the Shadows
This trailer was more meant to reveal Greninja as a new character, but it started off by announcing the return of Charizard as a standalone fighter. As someone that absolutely loved the sixth generation of Pokemon, and Pokemon in general, I was ecstatic about this reveal. It sucked a bit that Squirtle and Ivysaur wouldn’t be coming back though, but it’s understandable that they didn’t return as well. I also really love the shot of all the Pokemon at the beginning…makes you wonder what trainer threw all of them.
Goddess of Light
Sakurai said something very interesting here. Apparently, when Dark Pit was shown at the end of the trailer, it wasn’t meant to be a reveal that he’d be a playable character; it was still supposed to be a surprise. Many people, myself included, judged this as one of the weakest character reveals due to how quick it was and how little it actually showed; now that I know it wasn’t even meant to be one, this makes me look at Dark Pit’s inclusion in the trailer a bit differently. Aside from that, this trailer not only got me interested in Palutena’s gameplay and inclusion in Smash, but it also eventually got me into playing Kid Icarus: Uprising. The gameplay portion of the trailer was also meant to show off the custom moves mechanic of the game, which is something Palutena was more than suited for.
Red, Blue, Yellow
I’m not exactly sure why they did it, but I love the “red, blue, yellow” theme they had going on at the beginning of the trailer. The moment at the end where they compared Pac-Man and Mr. Game & Watch’s debut years (1980) to Mario and Donkey Kong’s (1981) was also very nice, it’s the little character interactions like that that make me really love Smash. Now, Pac-Man being added was undoubtedly a huge reveal, and a lot of people didn’t expect him to have his classic design while fighting the way he does. I don’t think they could’ve done the gameplay trailer any better. On a sorta unrelated note, does anyone else wish the Pac-Maze stage from the 3DS made it into Smash Ultimate?
By Book, Blade, and Crest of Flame
Looking back at the Robin and Lucina reveal trailer now, I really wish I played Fire Emblem: Awakening. While the trailer didn’t do much to get me interested in Fire Emblem, it did get me interested in using a resource-managing magic user. Now…what I don’t like is how they revealed Chrom being in Robin’s Final Smash, especially after he talked about getting his chance to fight another day. It felt shoehorned in, not impactful at all, and Chrom could’ve either been used way better than that, or just not been there.
Looks like we don’t have a choice!
At this point, I had zero idea what Xenoblade Chronicles was. So when everyone was freaking out over Shulk’s accent, I was here wondering who this guy was, who the guy at the end of the trailer could’ve been, and how Shulk would play in Smash. I feel like the trailer demonstrated his in-game abilities perfectly though…as someone that has never played his game before.
The Future of Evil
Bowser Jr. was a character that made so much sense to add into the game, but I never gave the idea any thought. But there we were, with not only Bowser Jr. as a playable character, in an epic trailer, but he also comes with all of his Koopa Kid companions. This wasn’t a character I’d play much of, but my hype for them was through the roof nonetheless. It’s a bit funny that they went beyond their expectations budget-wise but I think it paid off handsomely.
An Unlikely Team
I thought I couldn’t get any more surprised than I did for Wii Fit Trainer’s inclusion. But Duck Hunt managed to make it into Smash 4, in the form of the game’s dog and duck fighting together, along with some outside entity using the NES Zapper in their Smash Attacks. Duck Hunt’s definitely a popular arcade game with older players, myself included, so I was excited for him. The beginning of the gameplay section syncing with the music also made this one of my favorite character reveal trailers.
Mewtwo Strikes Back!
Mewtwo, while being a fighter not new to the Smash series at this point, was the first ever fighter made as downloadable content, or DLC, for Smash. The rest of the Smash 4 fighters from here on will be DLC as well. While Sakurai explained that Mewtwo’s trailer was simple due to it being announced as a fighter elsewhere, I still wish they did more with it. I can’t complain much though, since I not only liked the trailer anyways, but would also come to main Mewtwo throughout the rest of Smash 4’s life cycle. The heck was Pikachu doing at the end though?
Lucas Comes Out of Nowhere!
I didn’t remember much of Subspace Emissary the first time I saw Lucas’s reveal trailer. But seeing that it was meant to be the reverse of what happened in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, where Ness rescued Lucas at the last second, made me appreciate this trailer a lot more. I also really like the soundtrack for it.
Roy Seals the Deal!
Roy is the last of the DLC fighters that are veterans of the franchise, all characters after this will be brand new. I love how Sakurai says that it’s pretty much a trailer of Roy just beating people up. Despite that, it looks like they had a whole lot of fun with making it, especially with Roy hitting the Koopa Kid Roy away, as well as the train of swordie Roys’ fully charged Neutral Specials killing each other.
Here comes a new challenger! RYU.
Ryu and Street Fighter are amazing additions to Smash. It’s unfortunate that the news got leaked so long ago, but they did a great job on the trailer nonetheless, especially with the Street Fighter II Turbo reference at the beginning. I’m a Juri guy though, so Ryu didn’t entice me that much, but I was happy for my older brother, he ended up loving to use Ryu.
Cloud Storms into Battle!
Cloud’s inclusion is seen by the general Smash community as one that truly opened the gates for any character to be possible, and rightfully so. I personally felt that way with Pac-Man, but even I can say that Cloud had so much more going against him than Pac-Man did at that point. They made a lot of references to Final Fantasy VII while showing off Cloud’s unique Limit mechanic. The only thing I found weird was the standoff between Cloud and Ike at the end before Ike just accepts a Final Smash. Other than that, the trailer was amazing.
Corrin Chooses to Smash!
“Big brother is now big sister.” “Wow, even better!” They weren’t wrong, honestly.
This was a great trailer that showed off the personalities of the different characters in the Fire Emblem Fates games. However, this was a game that wasn’t even out in the United States before Corrin got into the game (and also wasn’t out in Japan for that long), so they came off as a character included just for promotion purposes. It’s sad that that’s the case, especially since they’re a very unique fighter (aside from being from Fire Emblem of course). This was also the character that started the ridiculous “too many Fire Emblem/sword characters” mentality within the community.
Bayonetta Gets Wicked!
And now we’re at the final Smash 4 character, Bayonetta. This was sorta the start of the explanation videos we’d get for Smash Ultimate’s DLC characters; Palutena served that purpose very well in this trailer. Also, the whole angels versus witches thing they had going on got me really interested in playing the Bayonetta games when I eventually got a Switch (because I definitely wasn’t buying a WiiU for them). As for Smash, they made Bayonetta look insane in gameplay, and that insaneness got turned up to 11 when professional players got a hold of her. She was just too powerful, and nerfs did nothing to change that. It was still an amazing experience though.
And that’s it for my thoughts on the Smash 4 trailers. I had a lot of fun reflecting back on these, and I’m sure Sakurai did too. I doubt he’ll do this same thing for the Smash Ultimate trailers, but I really hope he does. I’m really interested in what he has to say about offing Mario in so many of them. If he doesn’t at some point, I’ll get to it myself. That’s gonna be so long though.
What do you think about the Smash 4 trailers? Which ones did you like the most? Which ones did you like the least, and why? Did you end up maining any of these new characters or playing a new game from them? I’d love to hear your thoughts.