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It's been a little while since Little Mac was revealed as the newest playable fighter
in Super Smash Bros for Wii U and 3DS. And in that time a couple of new details have
been revealed about the boxing champ. So we thought we'd bring out the analysis machine
one more time to see what secrets and hidden details we could find. But that's not all.
We also took into account all of your ideas to see if we could paint a clearer picture
of Little Mac.
As always, be sure to watch our first analysis of Little Mac as we'll be referring back to
it from time to time. With that said, let's get started.
Since our first analysis, Sakurai has revealed that infinite combos like Fox's kick will
no longer be infinite and instead have a finisher. What we didn't realize was that we actually
see this in motion during Little Mac's reveal where he's punching Dedede, Donkey Kong, and
Fox. At first we thought he'd be able to smoothly transition from that rapid punch to another
of his moves without a delay, but thanks to this new info, we see that his uppercut is
actually his finisher.
But xEmixalx noticed one other significant change about these combos. It no longer pushes
the opponent back. In past Smash Bros games, this was potentially a way for those on the
receiving end to escape the rapid attacks. But since they now have a finisher, this is
no longer necessary. It's another look at just how this new entry is handling balancing.
Ibrahim Mazroua also had an idea about one of Little Mac's attacks. He believes the downward
punch that Mac performs when entering the stage is actually the same one used against
Mega Man a little later. The difference is that the former was used in the air while
the latter is used on the ground. If he is correct, then this is an extremely good example
of just how much better Mac's ground game will be compared to his air game.
Then there's southsing1 who noted that Mac seems to have a bit of a cooldown after using
his charged punch against Pit and the Villager. He actually makes a bit of a pose and doesn't
move which means if he misses this attack, then he would be wide open for other players.
It once again highlights the risk versus reward with a lot of characters' movesets.
But there was one element of Mac that we originally thought was unique to him alone. When we slowed
down the footage of his counter move, we saw a quick clip of a heartbeat monitor. We assumed
that it signified the timing necessary for his counter. But JackAzzMcTitties pointed
out that Marth has a screenshot on his character page that also shows off the heartbeat monitor.
Since it's only a screenshot, it's impossible to tell if the timing is exactly the same,
but it's interesting that there's now a visual clue for counter maneuvers even if it is incredibly
difficult to actually see.
Manny Picha also noted that we missed a significant detail in Little Mac's screenshots. There's
a picture of the boxing stage in for the 3DS version. This seems to fly in the face of
Sakurai's statement that the 3DS version will mainly feature stages based on handheld games,
and Punch-Out has never appeared on a handheld. At first we thought that it would only be
the Smash Bros version of the stage since Sakurai has shown that there will be two variations,
but looking at the sign in the background clearly shows Punch-Out scrolling across the
screen.
Perhaps the stage made the cut because of the Smash Bros version, and they decided to
just bring the Punch-Out version with it. Or, as an even crazier theory, maybe this
hints at the possibility of a third variation of the boxing ring. One that features Dedede
since that is where his boss fight took place in the original Kirby's Dream Land. They could
even add some visual touches from Kirby Super Star and replace the crowd with enemies from
Kirby games.
But the boxing ring is also home to several other clues about Little Mac. For one, during
the sequence that shows his Power Meter increasing, time is actually sped up. GamerTimeUSA and
many others noted that the flames in his icon are moving much faster than before. That means
it takes longer for that meter to fill than we first thought. And considering the amount
of damage Bowser took before he used it, the one-hit KO may be even trickier to use than
we first thought.
However, even if players likely won't get to use it a lot, it will be absolutely devastating.
Not only does it knock out anyone hit with it instantly, it actually has some range to
it. James gonz realized that Mac's punch actually goes across half the boxing arena. It's not
the longest range, but certainly enough to catch someone that's trying to dodge away.
xEmilxalx also noticed something interesting about Bowser and Mega Man's knockout animation.
For one, Mega Man actually flies off the screen much faster than Bowser which is odd considering
Bowser had 231% damage. He believes this could mean that Mac's one-hit KO is only meant for
one opponent and Bowser was just collateral because of his high percentage. But we believe
that this is actually evidence that a character's weight will have an even greater effect. Mega
Man is obviously lighter than Bowser so he flies off faster. But even Bowser at a high
percentage doesn't fly as fast possibly meaning that heavier characters will be much harder
to knockout than before.
In addition, xEmilxalx points out that Bowser and Mega Man were knocked out into the top
part of the screen. In the past, this would cause them to blink out in the background
or get knocked against the front of the screen. But that doesn't happen. Instead an effect
like they got knocked out to the side occurs. The only time this happened before was during
bonus modes like Multi-Man. Is this fun little animation gone, or has it simply not been
implemented yet? Or could it be because this is one of the very few arenas with a roof?
Finally, many, many of you pointed out that during that same scene, we can see that Bowser
and Mega Man are listed as Koopa and Rock Man respectively. We didn't point it out before
because that's their Japanese names, and this footage was likely taken from the Japanese
build of the game.
Okay, we're almost done here, but there's still one more thing worth pointing out. Throughout
the trailer, we noted that Mac never flinches when taking damage. His animation just keeps
going meaning his moves have excellent priority over the other characters, or he has some
kind of innate ability to shrug off light damage. We still don't have the exact answer,
And that's everything new we could dig up on Little Mac as well as your theories. But
of course, if we still missed something, please let us know in the comments. If you liked
this video, be sure to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter at GameXplain. Thanks
for watching, and make sure to stay tuned to GameXplain for more on Smash Bros and other
things gaming too.