Brawl dishing out even more Fire Emblem love

With yesterday’s announcement of Ike being a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii), Fire Emblem had its first and only (confirmed) presence in the game- that is, until today. Castle Seige, set in the Fire Emblem universe (not from a particular place or game, though), is a medieval-like stage that has three (known?) levels to it: first, the outside of the castle, where there (apparently) is a battle trying to be won below, and later in the match, boom! The floor shatters, and everyone falls into the castle.

You fight there, and statues (from what I see) can wonder into the playing field, which you can shatter to bits. You can see an army of soldiers in the background, fitting the whole battle thing. After you play some more (no times are confirmed for anything yet), the floor shatters, and you fall into the Underground. The Dojo leaves us hanging, showing a hazy-brown screenshot with what look like water ripples, as the combatants are falling further down…

The stage looks very nice (graphics-wise) and is very rich in color- one of the nicest looking yet!

Brawl Dojo update: Ike from Fire Emblem playable, Pitfall, DK Final Smash

Since Monday, we’ve seen three updates from the Super Smash Bros. Dojo, the website that gives a new tidbit of information about Brawl every midnight (PDT). The first day showed us Donkey Kong’s Final Smash, taken directly from the DK Bongo games. Once activated, Donkey Kong whips out a fresh set of DK Bongos and starts jammin’, and the deadly rhythms inflict damage on your opponents- feel the power…of MUSIC! He finishes with a nice, rhythmic clap, which’ll probably send your enemies flying.

The second day brought us an item that we haven’t seen in past Smash games: Pitfall, from Animal Crossing. You grab it, throw it, it disappears, and if someone walks over it…bam- they’re stuck in the ground for [x] amount of time. Those really got on my nerves in Animal Crossing DS, so…I imagine it being much more annoying while I’m trying to play Smash Bros.!

The third and most recent update brought the best sort: a new playable character. Ike, from Fire Emblem, will be playable in Brawl, with a special move called “Aether”, which is a single sword slash that is quite powerful. There seems to be a lot of disagreement in the Brawl community regarding this, but we have yet to see the fates of Roy & Marth (Roy’s our boy!)- they could both be taken in out for Ike, or both left in, leaving three characters from Fire Emblem, or just one or the other.We’ll keep you updated, but if you can’t wait, check out the Smash Bros. Dojo at 12:00AM (PDT) or 3:00AM (EDT) at SmashBros.com.

New stage announced in Brawl: Rumble Falls

Monday’s daily update at the Smash Bros. Dojo brought us a new stage: Rumble Falls, which seemsRumble Fallsto be be based off of Icicle Mountain (Ice Climbers stage in Melee), is a Jungle-themed Donkey Kong stage, with scenery from Donkey Kong Jungle Beat. As in Icicle Mountain, if you don’t keep going higher, you’ll get “left in the dust” (read: die). You start at the bottom of a waterfall, but even when you get to the top of the mountain, a beanstalk goes higher and higher. Seems interesting. Maybe they’ll throw a Kremlings into the mix as a substitute for those Coca-Cola polar bears…

Nintendo finally reveals what’s up with Nintendogs in Smash Bros Brawl

Assist TrophyFinally, some explanation on why such a cute dog is in beat-em up game! Today, Nintendo told us about a new kind of Pokeball like item called Assist Trophies. Like Pokeballs, you have no idea who’s inside until you use the item. And you can’t throw the item at other players.

It would seem like Assist Trophies can be bad or good. Nintendogs in BrawlWith the Nintendogs, it would seem they act like a Porygon 2 and a Golden. We assume that when it moves it’s paws up and down, there is a potential for hurting other players, yet it really seems to do nothing very helpful as it just blocks the entire screen.

Hammer Bro!Other than Nintendogs, Nintendo revealed a Hammer Bro as one of the many Brawl Assist Trophy characters (they say that characters who couldn’t make it as a playable character were made as Assist Trophy characters). The Hammer Bro can attack other players by chucking hammers at them at very close range.

Unfortunately, you can’t control your Assist Trophy character, which might be good or bad in some cases.