Getting past the Doldrums

It’s about time the blog got a new entry, I’m hoping to start it back off on the right foot now. Okay so from what I’ve seen so far competition is great but spometimes I can see players get in the doldrums of repetitive play. What do I mean? I mean that there is no mindgaming or rather any new form of mindgaming. Ats stop as well as so does tactical play. Players even though they want to play in a competitive environment go for the same struts. It’s demeaning and sadly we all do it.

But how can we get past the doldrums of smash? One way is learning new advance techniques and applying them. Then there is learning different mind gaming tactics. For example, a Ivysaur player might be prone to always go for a razor leaf to grab combination…which is great but gets old fast. I’ve learned to change a razor leaf into 3 to 4 different attacks and fakes. Most of them wield less results than a side special grapple/dash attack combo but they do make me far less predictable. Now I know I’m still not the best player to be saying this but I’m just trying to make a point.

Is Heavy Brawl the New Competitve Standard? And is Brawl deep enough to be the main smash bros. competitve game?

Okay, in case you haven’t, READ THIS THREAD!!! It is a thread on why Heavy Brawl SHOULD BE the new competitve standard mode. In case you haven’t heard, many players feel Brawl is going backwards. Instead of developing combos, and a offensive meta-game, we’re getting more defensive, camping more (you know who you ARE!), not learning many offensive (advanced) techniques, we’re learning more AND TOO MANY defensive (advanced) techniques and so forth. Even some of the most well-respected and appreciated spokespeople for the competiteve/pro smash community like Gimpyfish (read his thoughts here on the matter by the way) and MookieRah have said we’re going backwards, or we’re not going anywhere, or rather, not that fast.

Some agree with this, some do not. So, allow me to show multiple sides of this deep story. There is no denying Brawl is the most defensive smash game. That is basically a undeniable fact. Multiple air dodging, perfect shielding, shield grabbing is improved, and it is a lot harder to combo, due to wierd physics on it (I forget the actual word for it). In other words-combos happen, but not as often. They appear in quick, fast motions ONLY, and not in long chains. It’s a lot smaller, and not as long. And there is a lot more focus on the A-A-A combo as well, which has it’s ups and downs, like overreliance on it, and quick, fast, and easy small combos. While there is enough to last for a good while, I’m putting the smash community to max at 4 years from Brawl’s release on Brawl. That is when I’m putting on the competitive decline.

Banned! Part 1: Ballers Are Gonna Ball

Yep folks, it’s that time again. We’ve all been dreading it like a flu shot, but we gotta man up and take it dirty. Real dirty. Like a fat prostitute with a third eye made of bar peanuts dirty.

So starts our series on what’s gonna be banned from professional tournaments. Your friends at the Shining Fists Blog will take a different stage, item, character, whatever, and explain why you’ll never see Ken within a hundred miles of it. Hey, it’s a tough job, but we’re tough guys. Just look at my biceps. These guns can punch threw cows. Steel Cows. With chainsaw hooves.

Today’s topic: Smash Balls

1 Week Till Brawl: Import Impressions

Here’s an interesting little story: I was invited to go to a LAN party at some dorm near my college. He told me they’d have Team Fortress 2, Unreal Tournament, Starcraft, etc. It sounded like fun, so I forced a friend of mine (who was feeling incredibly lazy) to come along with me. We got lost a couple of times on the way, and we even though about turning around and going home, but we finally got there. It all seemed pretty normal, until I noticed someone was playing Smash on the TV. I first thought “Wow! Melee! Awesome!” But it seemed to pretty to be Melee. And what was that? MEDAKNIGHT??????!?!?!?!?!

Another Unlockable Character

*Please don’t read on if your avoiding spoilers

*Screams* The scariest smash stage EVUR!

All little children might not want to see this stage. It’s a little to scary for seniors and pregneant women as well. I don’t even think Falco can handle this. But if u do wish to continue, u r not allowed to sue me due to shock.

you’ll have to unlock that piece

It has been revealed with today’s dojo update that Stage builder pieces may be unlocked. The only thing revealed to be unlockable are stage pieces so don’t expect new backgrounds other than the starting three. If you want more information check out the appropriate dojo update here

Two Characters that JUST missed the final roster.

Well, if you haven’t already, read Homelessvagrant’s post on characters that just missed being in the game. Note that was just “in” the game. No one said any of those would have been playable. They could have been Pokéball Pokémon, Assist Trophies, NPCs, Stickers, and/or Trophies for all we know, if they aren’t already are one of those. Now, some major spoilers are coming. So if you don’t want spoilers on the roster (who didn’t make the cut), stop reading NOW!

 

A look at Final Destination

With the latest stage update from the dojo we get a showing of the new Final Destination stage. The biggest thing of intrest with this stage is the fact that it is playable from the start (the unlockable/starters in this game are quite odd) and one of it’s new songs (listen to it here) anyways with that here’s Final Destination.

Brawl’s report Card; reports are in!

Before I satart may I warn everyone that spoilers are rampant in this post. Secret characters and stages are revealed. Thus if you are being spoiler free avoid this post like the plague. Today we are going over numbers to see exactly how well Sakurai and team (because the man didn’t do it himself) did in representing each of Nintendo’s franchises within this game. Again I repeat Spoilers are present. Now lets get started. unlockables are marked in orange and past stages are marked in blue.