Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Super Smash Bros Brawl #2

More stages, more mayhem, less confidence in my level design when the actual stages turn out better.

#4 - Wario Stage (WarioWorld) - Wario is one of the many confirmed new characters, but it's unknown if he'll get his own stage. It seems extremely likely though. Wario has appeared in many of his own games after debuting in Super Mario Land 2 for the Game Boy, usually in the search of treasure of some kind. So what better stage for him than his own treasure room?

Basically, the stage will consist of a normal lower central area with two uphill slopes on either side made of gold coins. The coins will have the consistancy of sand, and you gradually sink in them if you spend too long standing on it and will need to constantly jump to get out. Moving around the coin piles could give you a neat effect where coins fly out wherever you're walking. In the background, various Wario World enemies would walk around, and the boss of Wario World (an evil purple crystal) periodically shoots its lasers at the players. I'm thinking the stage could also use something like various treasure items dropping from above and damaging those underneath (at which point jumping into the gold pile to avoid damage might be an idea), though it is a bit similar to the Game & Watch level (unless that stage doesn't make it into the new game, at which point this part becomes viable).

#5 - Pikmin World (Pikmin) - In the very off-off-chance Captain Olimar becomes a playable character, I thought a stage with those cute little Pikmin would be called for. In fact, I reckon there should be one even if Captain Olimar isn't a playable character (which seems very likely).

This level would be scaled out (though it's still very much zoomed in, considering how small Pikmin are) so the characters are about 5x bigger than the Pikmin. The level has various mundane items the players can use as platforms and slopes for height advantages or defensive positions. As you are playing the Pikmin are walking around picking up the items around the level and taking them back to their onion spaceship (which will float above the centre of the stage) for them to disappear up into. If one of the players is standing between an item and the Pikmin horde, they will be "collected" instead and brought to the onion. The player will bounce harmlessly off the onion instead of actually going inside, but they'll be helpless between when the Pikmin get them and when they attempt to beam them up.

There may be an extra little thing where all the characters have their Pikmin weight ratio, as in the amount of Pikmin required to pick them up. Heavier characters can resist getting collected by the horde for longer, as will any character who collects a super mushroom (since their increased size will also increase their weight) or the metal cap power-up. The Pikmin may start small in number (not enough to threaten anyone at the start) but increase in number after they find an item and bring it back. Towards the end of the level, when all the items are gone and the ground is covered with Pikmin, characters will be frequently picked up and deposited by the onion.

The players may also get the chance of attacking the tiny Pikmin and killing them (with the usual little ghost animation) and feel really, really bad for doing so.

#6 - Yoshi Stage (Touch Fuzzy Get Dizzy) - Another "comedy option" level not to be taken seriously. This stage basically recreates the infamous level in Yoshi's Island where Yoshi trips out whenever he touches one of the ubiquitous "fuzzy" enemies in that level. His actions are screwed up, he has trouble walking, and looks about as inebriated as Pete Doherty leaving the courthouse. The screen also goes fairly insane, with the platforms starting to wave and the background going psychedelic. Obviously this will be somewhat hard to translate for four players playing simultaneously, but it would be so funny to watch it seems a shame not to try and figure out a way it can work.

The stage would be somewhat uncomplicated in terms of space to move around in and how far away the edges of the stage are. The fuzzies would float gently around until a player accidentally bumps into one, at which point the background would go crazy for everyone (hopefully allowing a chain reaction of fuzzy casualties). The A and B moves are now switched, so B + Up will now do a regular A + Up attack and vice versa. There may also be random effects depending on who's been "fuzzied", some of which I'll list below:

1) Character constantly attacks without stopping, as if to fend off some invisible enemy.
2) Character shrinks for absolutely no reason, except in actuality they're still regular height and people can attack them as thus.
3) Character continues to grow until they fills the screen, and then pops. The character returns to where they was previously standing afterwards. It should utterly confuse all players on screen since no-one will be able to see where they're going.
4) The screen goes black and the first credit screen show up, as if the game was reset. The action continues shortly after in case someone takes it seriously and turns the console off.
5) The character can now jump twice as high, as if the gravity was greatly reduced.
6) The character collapses to the ground and refuses to get up until the effects have worn off.
7) The character bursts on fire. No actual harm is done to them however.
8) Character Specific: Yoshi gets into one of his own eggs and rolls around a bit.
9) Character Specific: Samus spastically screw-attacks around the stage at random until the effects wear off.
10) Character Specific: Jigglypuff just goes to sleep.

Well, you get the idea. It's the sort of a stage one can play after a trip the closest drinking establishment.