Super Smash Bros. Leaked Newcomers (Thoughts)

     Super Smash Bros fans have gotten some incredible recent news lately. We have been treated to leaked footage of new characters to the roster of the upcoming Super Smash Bros game for the 3DS and Wii U. The new characters introduced were Shulk from Xenoblade and Bowser Jr. from the Super Mario series. A YouTube user named Izat True posted videos of Shulk and Bowser Jr. fighting before they were taken down. Luckily someone has made a copy!

     Just last week a picture online showed the alleged complete roster of who will be in the game. Again, Shulk and Bowser Jr. was in the final roster. The characters also in the picture last week also showed that characters form previous games Ganondorf, Ness, Dr. Mario, Falco from Star Fox, R.O.B. returning. The character not returning, sadly, are Ice Climbers, Wolf from Star Fox, Lucas from the Mother series, and Snake from the Metal Gear series who was added as a third-party character. Characters who we've known to be already in the game due to pictures and video game footage but haven't been officially announced are Jigglypuff and Mr. Game & Watch.

     The picture of the "final" roster was considered to be fake, but seeing footage of Shulk and Bowser Jr. actually fighting in the game makes it seem as maybe it's not so fake at all. Newcomers that haven't been shown in action from the supposed leaked picture of the final roster are Dark Pit from Kid Icarus Uprising and shockingly the Dog from Duck Hunt. Here are my thoughts on the supposed final roster.

     Shulk seems to be another sword fighter, like the Links, and most of the Fire Emblem cast. Honestly, I'm not that excited for Shulk. I'm not too familiar with the Xenoblade series, but I'm fully aware that he has been demanded by fans to be added to the series. It's nice to see that the director, Masahiro Sakurai would hear the fans' wishes and add him in. Bowser Jr.'s fight mechanics seem to be him doing most of the fighting in his Koopa Clown Car a la Pac-Man from Street Fighter X Tekken.  Bowser Jr., even though I have not warmed up to him being in the game as they not only have a ton of Mario characters in the game (Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Rosalina and Luma, Bowser, and Yoshi, Donkey Kong and Wario if you're counting them) but Bowser Jr. would who I considered to be last on the list of Mario characters to add as his character is not iconic enough to be considered. There are far more characters in the Mario games that could've been included in Super Smash Bros. Geno, Waluigi, and even Princess Daisy comes off the top of the head and have are in high demand by fans to be added. But nonetheless, Bowser Jr. seems he will be a lot of fun to play. There is a rumor that Bowser could be swapped out for any of the Koopalings which, ironically, would make up for the idea of him being in the game.

     As for the supposed returning characters, there are a few surprises and some givens. I'm not surprised about Ness and Jigglypuff being brought back. They are a part of the original twelve that have been in all of the games in the series to date. Lucas was pretty much a given he would not return. Gannondorf was already known that he would return. It would've been weird to see Link and Princess Zelda without Gannondorf because they are key characters in the Legend of Zelda series. Also Ganondorf is also supposedly to be Sakurai's main character to use playing Super Smash Bros. I'm shocked and saddened to not see Ice Climbers not returning. They have been a staple appearing in Melee and Brawl. We could've done without R.O.B and had Ice Climbers in his place. What's also shocking to see is Dr. Mario returning to the series. He was in Melee but was taken out of Brawl. Hopefully Sakurai has tweaked him enough so that he isn't too much of a clone character (Ganondorf too).

     The recent leaks have been big, but that's not all. There is news that this isn't even the final roster. The person responsible for the leak picture has stated that more characters could be in the game. The characters that have been cut may not have been and there are supposedly new characters like Dixie Kong, Chorus Kids from Rhythm Heaven, and even Mewtwo from returning. We'll see when the game comes out in October 3 for the 3DS and in November/December for the Wii U.

Ubisoft, Step Your Female Game Up!

     Last week Ubisoft released a new trailer introducing a new character, Elise, in their upcoming game Assassin's Creed: Unity. According to Ubisoft:
"As an independent young noblewoman, Elise is determined to secure her place in the Templar dynasty amidst the chaos of the French Revolution. Her quest leads her to cross paths with Arno and establish an unlikely bond with him."
     She is the romantic love interest for the lead character, Arno, and assists him in battles in the game. This seems to be a response to the outcry from fans had back during E3 when there were acusations of Ubisoft being sexist for not including female characters in the Assassin's Creed games. To recap, the Creative director for Unity, Alex Amancio said the following:
"It's double the animations, it's double the voices, all that stuff and double the visual assets," Amancio later said. "Especially because we have customizable assassins. It was really a lot of extra production work."
     So they have obviously learned from their mistakes and with Elise, things should be fine, right? Not so much.
     Elise, even though she sounds like she is a good addition in the series, is a minor character. She shows promise, but just as much potential for her character to stand out, Ubisoft can easily ruin that. While can be truly the independent woman Ubisoft wants to present her as, but there could be times where she can be considered helpless and be deduced to glorified damsel in distress character the main character has to rescue her or the writers will develop her character poorly. It would've been nice if she was the protagonist or at least had a bigger role. It Almost seems that there is an issue with how Ubisoft in putting women in bigger roles in the main Assassin's Creed series.
     In Ubisoft's defense, they did give us a female protagonist in Assassin's Creed III: Liberation but, there are some issues about that. The female protagonist for Liberation, Aveline de Grandpré, was almost a thrown-in character and Elise could possibly be. One, Liberation was for the Vita which nobody plays , and two it was a spinoff. This is kinda lazy. It's almost like Ubisoft isn't really listening to the demands of their fans. The idea that they can just throw in a girl in the games and thinking that will shut people up isn't going to cut it. There is a high demand for better women characters in the series and even a female assassin in the main series but, then again, they just don't care. Why is that?
     Ubisoft, like other developers in the gaming industry, seems to be stuck in the past when it comes to diversity in games. They still believe that it is mainly men who buys video games. This isn't true anymore. There are more female gamers then there was before. The demographic of who buys and plays video games is changing and Ubisoft needs to realize this and get with the program that they need to upgrade with how they write and design women in their main titles. Interestingly enough, Nintendo is taking notice to this and have responded by giving more and better roles for women in their upcoming games like Hyrule Warriors with not only Princess Zelda being playable, but showing a more larger female cast to help Link on his latest quest and an including more female characters in the upcoming Super Smash Bros game. So yeah, you need to do better Ubisoft.