Top Four Characters I Want in Smash - Number Three · 8:54am Feb 14th, 2019
In a really neat little coincidence, MythrilMoth recently posted a creative writing exercise, prompting the user to write a character trailer for Smash. Since this goes along well with this ongoing blog series (which you can view part one of here), I’ve decided to go ahead and post my next pick! Disclaimer: Any resemblences to other blog posts by other fic writers is purely coincidental. Honest.
The Trailer
The Scene opens with the familiar cross-shaped Smash logo cutting across the screen. As the camera fades in, we see a shot of Lucas, lying face-down in a field of golden flowers, the entire scene awash in ethereal light. As he slowly picks himself up off the ground, we get a good look at his face. He’s scared, uncertain, and very clearly alone.
Despite his apparent distress, Lucas soon manages to continue moving forward. The camera tracks him from the side as he walks, and as he does so we see the scenery slowly begin to change. The golden flowers grow sparser, and the bright light slowly fades, revealing a backround of solid rock — Lucas is, in fact, on the inside of the cave. As the subterranean environment slowly begins to impose itself in the viewer’s eye, a faint trickle of water starts to become apparent. Above, the cavern ceiling glitters and sparkles, as though embedded with numerous starry gemstones.
As Lucas walks along, he begins to shiver — either because of the cold, or because of something else. Either way, it’s apparent that he is becoming increasingly distressed, and it isn’t clear why...
...that is, until the silence of the cave is broken by a heavy, metallic CLANK.
Instantly, Lucas freezes. The look on his face makes it clear that he’s absolutely terrified. And as he’s caught in a deer-in-headlights response, a second CLANK sounds. Then another. Then another. The sounds grow increasingly fast, spaced closer and closer together — and they’re getting louder.
Lucas’s head darts back and forth, desperately searching for the source of the disturbance. Now visibly panicking, he pulls out a large stick, holding it in both hands with a white-knuckle grip. He turns around, brandishing his makeshift weapon, then turns around again, and then a third time... but still he sees nothing.
Several tense seconds pass, until at last it seems the metallic sounds have stopped. As Lucas lets out a sigh of relief, something odd appears on the screen, superimposed in black-and-white...
With a sudden yelp, Lucas swivels around and falls flat onto his backside. As he looks up, the camera switches perspective. A close-up, worm’s-eye shot of a pair of heavily armored legs, slowly tracking upward to reveal a figure in menacing plate mail, with a single eye gleaming beneath the helmet.
The figure reaches for its own helmet with a free hand, motioning as though pulling it off. The screen briefly fades to white, and...
Number 3:
UNDYNE Spearheads the Competition!
As the splash card ends, Undyne is shown in a new stage, based on the Waterfall region in Undertale. In a series of short clips, we see her absolutely wailing on another character — alternating between Ness and Lucas in different shots. Her movement is shown to be extremely slow (demonstrated in a clip with her running alongside Inceneroar, the slowest runner, and only barely surpassing his run speed), but nearly all of the attacks she demonstrates have absurdly long reach — particularly her forward smash, where she throws a small javelin forward that covers a range just barely longer than Simon’s forward smash. Most of her other moves use spears in a similar fashion, using broad sweeps and long jabs of her spear to cover a greater range than most characters can with normal attacks, including sword-based characters.
As the trailer ends, the music fades out, and the camera fades to black...
Number 3ε:
Smash cut to Papyrus posing, fully-rendered, on the Waterfall stage. A montage ensues which demonstrates his own moveset, nearly identical to Undyne, but with elongated femur bones used in the place of spears.
As the trailer finally comes to a wrap, we see a logo plainly displaying “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate x UNDERTALE,” before fading to Masahiro Sakurai as he explains the new characters.
Moveset
Mechanically speaking, both Papyrus and Undyne would play virtually identically to each other, with the key difference being mostly in range and mobility. While Papyrus is slightly lighter and faster on the ground, most of his bone-based attacks have less reach and power than Undyne’s do. Either way, both lean towards the heavyweight category (Undyne especially), and most of their gameplay will consist of taking advantage of their excellent spacing capabilities.
Papyrus and Undyne also have one difference in their side-special move, which I will cover briefly when we get there.
Neutral Special: Magic Javelin
Summons a spear/bone above their head, which hovers in place and tracks the motion of the opponent that was closest when the B button was pressed. After a short delay as the projectile rotates to aim itself, it will launch forward at great speed, dealing damage and knockback. As soon as the projectile is summoned, the character can then move about freely while it’s still “locking on,” allowing them to chain the projectile with others, or move in for a melee attack. This lets the projectile be easily comboed into other moves, though it does give the target ample time to react if they pay attention.
Side Special (Undyne): Rock Wrestler
Undyne lifts up a massive bolder and performs a jumping suplex with it, launching herself forward horizontally before slamming the boulder onto the ground. The move is a very powerful attack and a decent recovery option, even having super armor near the beginning of the boulder-lifting animation. However, it has moderately high landing lag and can be punished fairly easily.
Side Special (Papyrus): Spintrousle
Papyrus locks his arms by his sides and spins rapidly in a circle, launching himself forward. If used on the ground, he can control his movement while spinning to move back and forward, but with little traction. It also acts as a multi-hit move if it connects on the ground, but if used in midair it will deal minor knockback instead.
Down Special: Magic Punji
The character points at the ground, creating a patch of light on the floor that glows with the character’s color or team color. This patch cannot be covered by Inkling’s ink, and will trigger as soon as an opponent steps on it. When they do, spears/bones will suddenly burst out of the patch, dealing damage and causing flinching. Up to two punji traps can be active at a time, creating a trap while two others are already on the field will create it, but will cause the least recently created trap to vanish.
Up Special: Royal Guard Jump
Channeling their inner Highwind, the character leaps diagonally upward with a spear/bone held out. Pressing B before entering free-fall will cause the character to then plunge diagonally downwards in a spear/bone plant.
Final Smash (Undyne): Undying Spirit!
Undyne thrusts her spear forward. Anyone hit by it is caught in a cutscene attack where Undyne transforms into her Undying form, and a text box appears on the screen:
As the text finishes scrolling, Undyne lobs a truly impressive amount of spears, dealing extreme damage and knockback when the attack hits.
Final Smash (Papyrus): Bone Blaster!
Similar to Undyne’s in execution, except as the initial hit lands, the text box that appears is:
As the text finishes scrolling, Papyrus summons a massive dragonlike skull, which in intense, blinding white laser. As the laser hits, the enemy is dealt extreme damage and knockback.
Nice. You may have captured the character better than I did. You certainly did a better cinematic than trolling the audience.
As soon as I read behind you, I thought SANS.
I was very wrong.