Melee Mondays: Week 13

Hello, and welcome to another installment of Melee Mondays! In these journal entries, I will give you all a taste every week of what I have planned for my dream game, Super Smash Bros. Melee: Masterpiece Edition. Without further ado, lets's go!

Character Highlight: Ness

First Appearance: Earthbound (1994)
In-game Appearance: I wanna make him look as close as possible to his Earthbound clay art while mixing a few color elements from his Smash 4 appearance. For example, his shirts stripes are perfectly straightened, and his colors are overall brighter and bolder. However, the blue on his hat and shirt still have their indigo hue.
Voice clips: I plan to use his entire set of Smash 4 clips, not because it ain't nostalgic, but it at least sounds less goofy than the last voice he had~


Ness was once an ordinary happy boy who lived in the rural parts of Onett, but everything changed once a meteorite struck the town. Inside it was an alien bee from the future that warns Ness about the invasion of an almighty alien warlord named Giygas, and only he can stop him from taking over the world. Ness would also learn he is blessed with a psychic power called PSI. He would later team up with many close friends, fight bizarre monsters, and frequently look up stuff on Wikibound to find the best weakness against those said monsters; because seriously, Earthbound's a pretty hard game if you don't know what you're doing. It was the SNES days, what'd you expect?

Ness has more frequently than not had alot of glaring strengths and weaknesses. All of his attributes really mix him up to be perhaps one of the most unique fighters in Smash. Most of his specials are actually used by his friends in Earthbound, and his recovery move is literally a projectile! Let me phrase that "unique" doesn't always transition to "great." Because Ness' recovery move is a projectile, that means he can fail to successfully recover if either his projectile hits something, or it just simply misses to hit himself. His air game was decent, but his ground game greatly flawed, with only one reliable KO smash attack, and projectiles only good for situations... I think it's time we start leveling him up.

Specials:
Neutral: PK Flash
Side: PK Fire
Up: PK Thunder
Down: PSI Magnet
Final Smash: PK Starstorm

Notable Custom Specials:
Neutral 3: PK Flash α (a much faster, weaker, smaller variant of PK Flash)
Side 3: Vacuum PK Fire (much larger, and sucks in enemies; flames don't burn as long)
Up 2: PSI Teleport (just that; a teleporting recovery; only deals damage on the warp out)
Down 3: PSI Shield (reflects projectiles instead of absorbing them)

Up Taunt: faces the screen and nods while saying "Okay!"
Side Taunt: holds out his bat in triumph
Down Taunt: shows off his PSI mumbo-jumbo

Notable Changes:
+ Moves like his up tilt and down air now use PSI to grant them extra reach.
+ Down air's startup lag has been reduced significantly to match Smash 4's speed.
- Because of the extra reach, down air now has a sourspot.
+ PK Flash's startup and end lag have been reduced.
+ PK Thunder is now more flexible to steer.
+ PSI Sheild has expanded enough to where allies can hide inside it.
+ Several of his tilts and aerials have been buffed for more effective comboing.
+ Down Smash has been buffed.
o If Ness lands a mortal smash attack / special attack, a "SMAAAASH!!" effect is created instead of the usual red lightning.

Alts:
Yellow & blue: default
White & red: Fuel's clothing from Mother 3
Black & yellow: could possibly resemble the bee from the beginning of Earthbound, but the colors also resemble the uniforms of a Japanese Baseball team called the "Hanshin Tigers."
Yellow & orange w green cap: genuine alt
Blue & purple: Ness' younger self that he encounters in Magicant; shirt also resembles his pajamas
Black w purple cap: Mr. Saturn tee
Cyan: Master Belch tee
Blue w purple cap: shirt based off the tile background of the file select screen in Earthbound
Turqoise: Dr. Andonut's ship is on the shirt of this alt
Pink: Paula's sprite is on the shirt of this alt
Red, white & blue: a mix between Ninten's artwork and his live-action commercial appearance for Earthbound Beginnings
-------------------------------

Entrance: appears from a portal after using PSI Teleport
_____________________________________________________________

Stage Highlight: Onett

Theme: Earthbound / Mother

Like I mentioned earlier, Onett is the hometown of Earthbound's main protagonist, Ness. I don't know about you guys, but "Onett" has always sounded too close to "omelette" to me. Who knows, maybe they have good breakfast restaurants; it certainly has to be better than keeping your burgers next to your pizzas and cookies in the same backpack for more or less than a week's worth in that game.

I'm losing track. Anyway, Onett can feel like a rather claustrophobic stage with how the two houses are placed. That, and the feeling the floor is lava because of the reckless drivers that zoom by on a regular basis to flatten your sorry butt! So yeah, this stage appears more or less made for some chaotic, suspenseful fun.

Speaking of the drivers, how come none of them hit you in Earthbound? They don't even slow down when you're by; they come to an instant halt the moment you touch the car! Does Ness have some special time-warping PSI ability that stops them in their tracks??... Then why doesn't he use it more often when enemies are chasing him?! Why can't he use it in Smash?! WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO JEFF IF HE WERE ALONE?! HE CAN'T USE PSI!!!

My Music:
Onett: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wv8xK…

Onett / Winters Theme: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzfVBP…

Pollyanna (I Believe in You): www.youtube.com/watch?v=VddU_W…

Smiles and Tears: www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0rqgr…

Humoresque of a Little Dog: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLGmjP…

Enemy Battle!: (a remix compilation of the multiple types of enemies you fight in Earthbound)

Onett (original): www.youtube.com/watch?v=h66gq4…

Twoson (CD): www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHxPpm…

Mind of a Theif (CD): www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL_RPM…

Mother 3 Love Theme (unlock ???): www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmfoL2…
____________________________________________________________________

New Trophy Highlight: Jimmy T.

First Appearance: Warioware: Mega Microgame$

Trophy Description: Jimmy Thang is a middle-aged man who has an obsession for big flamboyant wigs, and an even bigger obsession for dancing. His entire family loves dancing, and his girlfriend even dumped him because she believed he loved dancing more than he loved her; maybe she should've first known about his heritage before making that decision. Whenever he isn't making games with Wario, he's dancing out at his favorite nightclub, Club Sugar. You won't believe disco isn't dead until you've seen Jimmy dance it out like the floor's hot! 
_______________________________________________________

Misc. Highlight: SUPER-secret Characters

If you were paying attention to the My Music selection for Onett, you'd find that one of the songs is only unlockable by unlocking an unknown character. Well, the beans are out, because in Super Smash Bros. Melee: Masterpiece Edition, I'm adding what I'd like to call Super-secret Characters to the game!

I was originally gonna make them DLC-exclusive, but the fact I've planned these guys ahead of time makes it feel wrong to just save them for DLC development. You've seen Sakurai's talk about DLC, and how most games these days are doing it as a scam. Well, like Sakurai, I've decided to only add DLC characters either if deadlines keep me from adding them to the final product, or if I decide on new stuff after the release of the game.

Anyway, these Super-secret Fighters can only be made unlockable after you unlock the full Melee roster, and they might require you to do some crazy things. I can give you two hints on what these characters could be: A) they are all playable characters from other Smash games, and B) each of these characters have been in some way related to the development of the original Melee as a playable character, whether it be requested by another developer at the time, or couldn't be finished due to hardware complications. Who knows, I might add an extra or two from games that promoted the Gamecube. I already revealed too much by mentioning one of the songs played on Onett, but I challenge you to guess the rest of the super-secret roster; I'm not gonna answer, but it's fun to watch you guess.

By the way, these new fighters are not necessary for unlocking All-Star Mode. Once you do unlock them all, it will change to True All-Star Mode.



I hope you enjoyed this week's Melee Monday! Please watch to stay updated with more content. Until then, see ya'!