Nintendo Adds Two Robins, Lucina, and Captain Falcon to Smash Bros.

I find it really weird how big Luigi looks, standing next to that generic looking anime character whom I don't know anything about.

I still can't believe it took them this long to announce Captain Falcon for this game.

Also, every day that goes by without a new F-Zero being announced by Nintendo, I die a little inside.

So many Fire Emblem characters.

Captain Falco?

I have no affinity for Fire Emblem, but I'm always game for some Smash Bros character announcements.

If Patrick's so dying for a Fire Emblem game to play, maybe he should try one of the dozen or so games that (gasp) existed before Awakening.

Which one would you recommend?

@patrickklepek: The first one that came to the states, Blazing Sword for the GBA is excellent, although pretty challenging. But if you can beat it you'll be considered a Fire Emblem vet.

If you want something more accessible Sacred Stones is pretty good.

Path of Radience, the one with Ike on the Gamecube is also really good, but there are no 'marriage endings'. So if you're looking for another matchmaking sim, that won't be it. The sequel, Radiant Dawn, is very weak. I'd skip it.

The lady roster is now up to 12! Very cool!

Sakurai confirmed that Lucina is a Marth clone, btw, with a more spread-out power balance.

https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAADRUqGH9l5mlg

You probably have an Ambassador 3DS so why not jump into the game you (likely) already own: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.

I think the issue here would be that none of the previous games had the exact same mechanics as Awakening, so Patrick might not actually enjoy them as much as he did the 3DS game. I know that's how I feel, but then I haven't played the more recent console releases because the Gamecube releases are rare and incredibly expensive to acquire now.

Oh, also, obligatory comment about "so what characters *aren't* they tossing in?" every time I see a new Smash Bros character announcement, although this one is more in my interests than most. Lucina/notMarth is awesome.

Is it just me or does this look kinda generic, graphically? I only say this because I was so impressed by what Nintendo did with Mario Kart 8 while this on the other hand just looks like a slightly higher res version of Brawl. Also how weird would it be if Nintendo started announcing Platinum characters for SMB4?

If you like the core of Awakening, that is there but even better in the old games. Awakening was admittedly a step to make the series more accessible but I thought it lost some of the focus of the previous ones. I still think all the GBA ones are much better than Awakening, more challenging and more pure SRPG.

@patrickklepek Other than Awakening I think Sacred Stones would be the most accessible to someone somewhat new to the series, because it is one of the few Fire Emblem games where grinding is an option. If you have an ambassador 3DS then you already own it.

More importantly, a new F-Zero would be nice.

True that he should of been announced a while ago, but this was one sweet way to have him revealed in the Fire Emblem Awakening cutscene style! And yeah, I want a new F-Zero too. At least re-release F-Zero GX in HD for the Wii U if anything!

@def: agreed the sacred stones is really solid. The GameCube game is also pretty good. I would just say avoid Shadow Dragom. I know it's a remake but something about it just seems kind of flat and soulless compared to the others.

@patrickklepek: Fire Emblem for GBA was my favorite. Best balance between simplicity and complexity.

Way too many Fire Emblem characters.

Seisen no Keifu. It's the best.

@patrickklepek: I love the Fire Emblem series, but I'd recommend you just wait for the next installment. You don't need to spend 30 hours through Sacred Stones to appreciate the series mechanics. Try out that copy of Valkyria Chronicles or something from your backlog instead.

I'd personally recommend Path of Radiance, but it being the GameCube entry, it can be pretty expensive to find these days. I tend to prefer its mechanics over the GBA entries and it also doesn't suffer from an uneven difficulty curve like Radiant Dawn.

Shadow Dragon is not a bad game, either, but as a remake of the very first Fire Emblem, it has the baggage of its simplistic story and a lack of support relationships.

@patrickklepek:

If you're willing to look at the SNES ones that were fan-translated, Fire Emblem 3 was a remake and a sequel of the original, and it is the one with Marth. That one is pretty good. The best one I've played though, is Fire Emblem 4, it's probably the most unique one in the series as among other things, it has fewer battles, but the ones are massive, spread out over a massive area, with save points mid battle.

Enenykite joins the brawl!

So there's gotta be a Wonderful 101 character announced soon, right?

Not really. Given the number of characters that franchises like Mario, Zelda and Pokemon typically rep, the inclusion of four Fire Emblem characters doesn't feel like overdoing it at all.

when i saw this it made me very happy, I loved the new Fire Emblem!!

@patrickklepek Your mouth to Intelligent Systems' ears, Patrick. I need a Wii U Fire Emblem in 2015 (whether it's the crossover with SMT or not).

Also, a good pair of Fire Emblem games to play are Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn (Gamecube and Wii, respectively). The story goes between both games, and is arguably the best storyline the series has seen.

Was it just a totally random snippet of misquoted information that got spun out and became this idea I have, or did someone actually say at some point that there were going to be less/no clones in the new Smash? Because they don't seem to be doing a very good job of that.

I mean, surely Lucina could very easily just have been a skin of Marth, like female Robin for male Robin.

Also it took me a long time to realise who 'Robin' was. Was white hair really the default!?

@hailinel said:

That's not quite comparable since Mario/Pokemon/Zelda are Nintendo's big three franchises. I don't think Fire Emblem's even in the top ten, numbers-wise.

Not that I can complain too much, I'm up for a big roster and I've seen nearly all the veterans I hope are coming back.

Here, have a muffler.

I'm not saying that Fire Emblem is as big as those other franchises, but if the complaint is in regards to giving Fire Emblem four character slots in the roster, it's a bit disingenuous when other games have had as much representation, if not more.

I was also really weirded out that the Robin looks just like the character I made.

@video_game_king: seisen no keifu in the privacy of your own home, buddy. this is a family site.

WHERE'S DEMI-FIEND.

Well Toon Link was announced early on so that no clones idea is odd.

You could also say Luigi could be a Mario skin. Lucina is a set character unlike the customizable avatar that Robin is.

And Yes, white hair was the default.

@patrickklepek: I'd recommend Path of Radiance for the Gamecube. It's a great game and it has a direct sequel in Radiant Dawn for the Wii. Playing those games will also give you an appreciation for Ike in Smash Bros.

@zeg: I think I remember a quote from Sakurai saying that he wanted less clones, but maybe i'm just making stuff up. Up until this point I don't think they are doing a bad job at all because Melee and Brawl had around 5 or 6 clone characters each and in this game i think the only 2 clone characters are Toon Link and Lucina. With that said if they announce Ganondorf/Mewtwo/Falco with only minor changes to their moveset, then yes it's just gonna be tha same as the past 2 games.

@patrickklepek: The GBA games (6-8) are a good place to start. Many people grew to love the series with FE7's localization, titled simply Fire Emblem, and it remains a popular favorite among fans.

From here you have two other camps who prefer the older games (FE4 being the cream of the crop) or the GC/Wii titles featuring Ike. It really just depends how far you're willing to explore, I'm just echoing what has already been said and some of us are so deep into it that we'll take anything we can get. I myself prefer the GBA games since I started with 6, but I can recommend them wholeheartedly to just about anyone willing to give the series a chance. Awakening borrowed several different aspects of games across the series, so some mechanics will be familiar.

Always nice to see you open to trying new things Patrick, even if it's just to get a better understanding of the genre/fanbase.

Wonder Red is a trophy in the game. No chance.

It's been a while since I've seen any new Smash footage so when they switched from the cartoon pre-rendered scene into the real game it made me really disappointed. I wonder if Nintendo will ever put out a console that has modern specs.

@patrickklepek: Fire Emblem 8 (Sacred Stones) on the GBA is the closest in structure to Fire Emblem: Awakening due to the ability to grind if you're having difficulties and overall lower difficulty. You likely have ambassador status on your 3DS, so you might actually already own a copy of this game!

Fire Emblem 7 (Known just as Fire Emblem in North America) for the GBA is probably the best in the series (though a very good argument can be made for Awakening) and the first to make it to North America.The game progresses sequentially from map to map, meaning you have very little opportunities to grind beyond enemy manipulation and the Arenas and you have to really work toward maxing out support conversations (Which you only get 5 of for each character in games prior to Awakening). It's probably the hardest game of the three I'm recommending, but the most rewarding experience.

Fire Emblem 9 (Path of Radiance) is the lone Gamecube title in the series, which already puts up a big barrier due to you having to dig out your Wii/Gamecube from storage. Being a gamecube game, it's kind really ugly by today's standards, losing a lot of the animation and artistic charm that the GBA titles had (and Awakening brought back to the series). It's also the most expensive and rarest of the three. On the plus side, while it does move sequentially like Fire Emblem 7 with no overworld maps or optional missions, it's easier than Fire Emblem 7 and has a lot of quality of life features that you'd expect after playing Awakening (Support conversations outside of battle, highlighting on the map where multiple enemies can move at the same time, for example). You also gain Bonus EXP after each mission that you can allocate to any of your units to make sure they don't fall behind. Plus, Ike (the main character, who is playable in the new Smash game and seen in the trailer above) is one of the most broken characters in the series, so you can lean on him pretty heavily in the later portions of the game.

Any of those three are good titles to jump into after playing Awakening, which is the most approachable entrant in the series.

Anything prior to Fire Emblem 7 were Japan-only and, frankly, haven't aged all that well (Fire Emblem 6, the first (and weakest) GBA game, being the exception). Fire Emblem 10 (Radiant Dawn) on the Wii should only really be played if you're a big fan of the so-so story in Path of Radiance. Avoid Fire Emblem 11 (Shadow Dragon) on the DS.

While I'm a big fan of the Fire Emblem games and all three of the games I recommended above are excellent titles that are very much worth your time, I agree Valkyria Chronicles will probably be a more enjoyable because it's a completely different experience.

No console will ever have modern specs.
They'd have to be customizable PCs for that to happen.

Sakurai did express a desire for fewer clones in the new game, and so far, that is true. (No Ganondorf or Wolf/Falco in the game.) Sakurai did recently note on Miiverse however that unlike some of these other alternates in the new game (Female/Male variants of the Wii Fit Trainer, Villager, and Robin), Lucina and Marth do have some differing properties despite sharing the same moves. Thus, Lucina is different enough that she gets her own character slot rather than be considered an alternate Marth skin.

If they wanted to put more Fire Emblem characters in Smash, I would have liked them to go a little more obscure. Personally I would love to see a young Hector in Smash. Not every Fire Emblem character uses swords ya know.

You really can't go too wrong with any of the installments that have reached the US (the first DS one, Shadow Dragon is pretty weak, and the Wii one, Radiant Dawn, is a direct sequel to Path of Radiance for the Gamecube). The Sacred Stones is very easy, but it's also the one closest to Awakening in terms of mechanics (i.e. world map, infinite grinding, split promotions), and you probably own it if you cashed in on those 3DS ambassador program games. Not a bad place to start I think.

@patrickklepek said:

The thing about Awakening is that it's a sort of love letter to the series. It took as many mechanics and features from previous titles and tossed them in to sort of a "best of Fire Emblem" game. A World Map, marriage and children, split promotions, and so on. The older games start to fall into that SRPG hole that you've mentioned before. They don't have all of the features that made Awakening a joy to play despite its weak story. Characters aren't as fleshed out on the surface, as support conversations are optional rather than highly encouraged. I can't really recommend going back to them unless you really enjoyed the combat and mechanincs of Awakening and really want to get your hands dirty.

But if you are feeling bold, I'd recommend trying the first GBA game, just "Fire Emblem" in the US. It has a nice tutorial prologue to the main story. It's a short 10 chapter thing that would give a clear indication if you really wanted to keep going or not.

@chicken008 said:

More importantly, a new F-Zero would be nice.

Sakurai either making a dig at Nintendo, or teasing inside info. Either way, he knows what's up.

I'm glad to see Nintendo reppin' hard on Fire Emblem, Awakening was such a great game. Going forward, I'd still like to see a Metal Gear character somewhere in there, personally.

@def said:

Well... At least that's something.