The element of surprise, Custom Movepools

Well, after the Nintendo Direct today, we learned of a new feature that is being implemented into Smash 4, Custom move pools. From what we’ve seen, it appears to be changing the stats of some moves with the main example being Mario’s fireball attack. If it’s bigger, it would do more damage but travel slower and not as far, but if you make the attack smaller, than the attack travels further and faster. I came up with a similar idea for Fan Disagreement but it takes this concept one step further.

My idea for Customisable move pools can actually completely change the characters attacks and even designs. Take Kirby for example, if you equip him with some sort of Fire sticker (yes this concept uses the stickers for now) then he become Fire Kirby, most of his attacks are Fire Kirby’s attacks including Fire Breath to replace Inhale and a Fire boost to replace his sprint B. Another example is Sonic, if you give him a Sword Sticker, then he has the ability to use Caliburn. His regular A attacks use Caliburn to attack and even his Homing attack gets a stat change, it does less damage in the first attack but while you’re close, you can do quick slashes with Caliburn to deal more damage. The Stickers would also change the Final Smashes: In these examples, Kirby’s Final Smash would be Monster Flame from Return to Dreamland and Sonic’s would be Excalibur Sonic.

In regards to the Smash Direct, I will be posting my opinions on the direct on my reviews Blog latter today so check it out to see my full opinions on what Sakurai revealed today.

The Pokemon Fighters

As you know from the Characters post, there are several Pokémon fighters in this design document. While balance hasn't affected Pikachu, Jigglypuff and Lucario, There are proposed changes to Mewtwo and enough changes to Pokémon Trainer to warrant him being a new character (i'll explain why latter).

As for Mewtwo, a lot of aspects of Mewtwo would be inspired by the Mewtwo in the Adventures Manga. Using a psychic spoon for melee attacks and several psychic and ghost moves for ranged attacks including Shadow Ball, Psychic and Confuse Ray. Mewtwo wouldn't have as good of a recovery as the flight characters but would act as a mid tier fighter in terms of strength, players would be able to use moves quickly for little damage or charge them for stronger attacks. His defult Final Smash would be Psystrike but there aren't a lot of details to discuss about it yet. As for the Mega Forms, that's for a latter time :)

Now for the two Pokémon Trainers, Pokémon Trainer M and Pokémon Trainer F. At first glance, they appear to be clone characters but at this moment, that's not the case. The gimmick for the Pokémon Trainers is that, depending on the skin chosen will affect what Pokémon they have access to. On top of that, each of them are getting a 4th Pokémon and the removal of the Stamina System in exchange for something a bit harder to use. Using the Stock system, each Pokémon's percentage affects their ability to fight and, should they be knocked out, then they won't be able to fight again for the duration of the fight. When the Pokémon get in the deep percentage (at the moment, this is over 400%) their standard attacks will also do damage to themselves, but their special attacks get stronger (exact details depend on the Pokémon in question). This is to make the combat similar to the main games. As for the 4th Pokémon, the intention is to make the 4th Pokémon reflect a feature that was implemented in that generation (the exception to this is generation V)

Now to the fighters themselves, who will use the names that they have in the adventures manga (but I will include their official names as well for clarification)
Red (Red): Charizard, Bulbasaur, Wartortle and Kabutops
Blue (Leaf): Blastoise, Charmander, Ivysaur and Alakazam
Gold (Ethen): Typhlosion, Chikorita, Croconaw and Umbreon
Kris (Lyra): Meganium, Tododile, Quilava and Espeon
Ruby (Brendan): Swampert, Torchic, Grovile and Minum
Sapphire (May): Blaziken, Treecko, Marshtomp and Plusle
Diamond (Lucas): Torterra, Piplup, Monferno and Gallade
Platina (Dawn): Empoleon, Chimchar, Grotle and Froslass
Black (Hilbert): Emboar, Snivy, Dewott and Zoroark
White (Hilda): Serperior, Oshawott, Pignite and Emolga
Xavier (Calem): Greninja, Fennekin, Quilladin and Mawile (To change at a latter date)
Yvette (Serena): Delphox, Chespin, Frogadier and Sylveon (To change at a latter date)

There are other features about the Pokémon trainers, but that is for latter