I hate your smash bros opinions... 

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You can’t run from Xenoblade forever

"Game would be better with only sword characters". That would be a hilarious mod idea, every character gets a sword and those with a sword get two.

Xenoblade summarized as "The fans want to but the cartridge up their butt" is exactly why I watch these videos lmfao. Hoping for more videos in the near future King!

calling 2nd graders old is a certified smash moment

I can't believe the origin of dribbling the basketball is someone finding a loophole of passing the ball to yourself

I’m loving the switch to video essay style videos, and this was a good format allowing you to talk more about the game as a whole. Deffo a big fan of what you’re doing with your channel. Keep up the great work!

21:06 This is an atrocious take. R.O.B. earned his spot by literally saving video games. Edit: My hot take is that there are way too many stereotypes and stigmas around maining certain characters. The stereotype for most JRPG characters are that only people who like their games play them but my sister has mained Shulk since Smash 4 despite never playing a Xenoblade game. Why? Because his Monado Arts are awesome and a good way to flex on lesser players. Because he’s fun to play as and against. Now I’m not as far from the stereotypes as her, not even close, but whenever another Sonic main does the stereotypical timeout I feel immeasurable disappointment. Maybe if people learned to use his numerous tools to run circles around opposing players he wouldn’t be stigmatized? His down-air is a great combo escape that can also be used to close in on unsuspecting opponents and his side/down-b chains into most of his other aerials. Heck, I’d be satisfying if more people realized that there’s a difference between dodging and running away. But alas the people who don’t exhibit his trademark bravery give us a bad name. That said I’m just as much a stereotypical Ganon main as I am a hype Sonic main so it’s not like I’m oh so special. 😅

15:28 I started going to tournaments as I improved at the game but I also love playing with items. I think more high-level players should try items because if you've seen any item combo videos, you'll know that high-level players are better at using them than casuals and I'd like to see more high-level item play. yes it's unbalanced and adds an element of randomness but they add so much depth to the game.

My hot take is that lobbies are way more fun than Quick Play for me personally. Even with stangers. I just like the options it provides over the standard Online mode.

I feel like the mob mentality one is definitely interesting, there's just so much in this world that we wouldn't care to look into and would rather just see what others think. That's why hours long retrospectives or movie reviews are so enticing even if you haven't interacted with the given franchise, it's someone going over what you generally need to know along with their thoughts on it. It's basically "I did/watched this thing so you don't have to". Obviously forming strong opinions on something *you've* never directly interacted with can be bad but sometimes you just can't help it.

In my opinion, I think DLC definitely did a number on Smash. From a competitive standpoint. Casually, in my opinion, I think it was an overall net positive. Not only did it keep people on the content hype train for this game, but it also gave them more chances to show how certain franchises still have their spots in gaming.

A Xenoblade 3 rep means more Xenoblade music, which is a good thing. Matthew from the DLC would be a fun addition, since he is not a swordfighter.

For custom moves they should limit it to one move per character and it's different for each character. Some might get a different up b, others a different side b and other's a different down b. (Or just one of each) Those are less moves you need to account for balancing than how 4 did it.

My hot take: people talk way too much about how Ultimate has more "variety" in its characters and how it's more "balanced" than previous smash games (even HopCat says it at 27:50), but balance and variety don't mean much to me when so many of the characters are so LAME to play against or as. Seriously, how many times do you play online and are actually happy with every character you fight against? And guess what the most optimal counterplay is to all of these so-called balanced characters, it's to play EVEN LAMER against them

"You can win a local with Ganon, but when everyone else is as elite as you, you're just handicapping yourself" Best quote ever, Gluttony proves this

7:07 The thing about DLC, is that they are just better than a normal character in most aspects half the time, DLCs need to be tuned down a lot. Examples of good DLC charactets would be like terry, kazuya, and byleth. They are actually possible to play against AND are fun, examples of DLC that aren't broken but also not fun: banjo, sora, minmin. The three before (terry, kazuya, byleth) really hit a good balance of a strong fighter thats still possible to play and have fun against.

I think the problem with the view of the Xenoblade popularity is that the Smash western fanbase doesn't like the games or the characters too much, but broadly they actually are pretty popular games. XC2 had lifetime sales of around the 2-3 million mark, and XC3 is also on the way to reaching that point. It's in about the same overall sales ballpark as Fire Emblem, and is now treated as a mainline RPG series for Nintendo. Pyra and Mythra were also the most popular character in all of Ultimate in Japan after their launch. They were still the most popular character in the entire roster post Sora's addition, so it wasn't flash in the pan popularity over there either. So, similar to Hero, they are hugely popular, just not with the western crowd that conversely shit themselves over Banjo, that much of the eastern audience snoozed on. Worldwide Xenoblade is a quite popular series and has much more relevance than series that were popular a long time ago but haven't had any modern day success like, say, Star Fox. Hell, Metroid Dread didn't turn hugely higher numbers despite how high it's franchise recognition is.

13:25 I agree! The problem isn't the number of Fire Emblem reps, the problem is the number of similar sword users. Add a lance user like Ephraim or Azura (or give Lucina the lance from her brave alt in Heroes), add an axe user like Hector or Edelgard (or give Ike the axe from his brave alt in Heroes), add another magic character like Micaiah or Veyle, and ditch all of the Marth clones. Boom, problem solved.

As a Bowser main, Leon makes the character look epic. The confirms and low percent combos along with some silly moves and a shield break make him peak like Ganon, but no one knows or cares Bowser has combos or confirms. Also due to Bowser’s lack of multiple combos, top Bowsers must constantly improvise and adapt. Sometimes Bowser is better aggressive, sometimes he’s better defensively, and there’s a healthy yet changing midpoint of how fast/slow to play Also Bowser is funny

Bailout(the editor) is so based and I absolutely respect him Xenoblade fans rise up

16:01 "Smash is about having fun" *shows a clip of Issabelle ledgetrapping*

Great video but good lord the Xenoblade stigma is strong, they are absolutely fantastic games with many great features (gameplay, ost, story (!) etc.). A shame most people just shrug them off as “anime waifu” games, which is probably only really accurate for XC2

16:15 this is another competitive thing, steves don't do flashy clips because its optimal to just mine and the cheese some one with blocks offstage, I feel there is an opportunity for a more aggressive flashy steve but you would have to risk going for it, and generally if you are winning tournaments you don't want to risk losing your income on an off meta idea

I love Bailout's edits to HopCat's disses on Xenoblade lol

Never thought I’d see hop not fighting the fire emblem take but fighting the Xenoblade take 😭

Xenoblade 3 is my all time favorite game, so you bet your ass i want Noah and/or Mio in the next Smash game. Now, even if they don't make it in some music from 3 HAS to be in the next game, i want those Aionios beats in Smash NOW! I'm talking Keves/Agnus battle theme, Tactical action, Vs moebius, You Will know our names-finale, Immediate Threat, New Battle!, Alpha the divine end, the fogbeast theme (i know it's technically from Future Connected, but it's in Future Redeemed, shut up), Kaleidoscopic core, Brilliant wings, ALL of it!

The video that mentioned basketball was a unintended movement option is Core-a-gaming’s video “The Korean Backdash”

24:55 I think they meant a random spike, zach's offstage combo into down air was actually cool.

Okay, hot take of mine, slightly agreeing with the olimar gag at the end. Olimar actually is alot cooler of a smash charachter beneath the surface with the resource management. Fun to watch? That part i disagree with, but as a pikmin fan I am happy with him in smash regardless

Olimar in Pikmin: best Nintendo protagonist no joke, a family man, very realistic and touching character who care so much for Pikmin that he thought them to dance and sing with them Olimar in smash : ahah plant trow go brrr

I have never played a Xenoblade game, and I do agree we need 1 from every game, but that would depend on the next game’s roster size

I really enjoyed this video. This style of video is pretty unique, super chill, and suits you well. It feels like its very natural for you. Also, fun editing and the banter between you and your editor was great.

Maturing in smash is realizing Olimar is hype 🗿 i promise i’m not an olimar main i’m just a dabuz stan

You should make more of these. Easy to pop out consistently and is a popular style of content that usually get decent views.

8:25 As someone who does youtube, I can safely say the hype for Sora was there. I'm a small channel, and that managed to easily become my highest video video within a month

The only thing this video was missing was a final frame of the editor telling Hop to play Xenoblade...

11:04 blud really hit the character limit 💀

I have a couple of hot takes myself: 1. One winged angel is objectively the most BS comeback mechanic in the game. You can't really plan for it, unlike stuff like Arsene which has a meter or Go Meter and Kazuya Angry mode where you know it comes into play after they hit 100%. And it also gives out way more buffs than it needs to, increased speed, power, and weight, super armor smash attacks, and a third jump. 2. Ultimate Deluxe or a port of Ultimate would be a bad idea. We're not sure how much stuff would be fixed from normal Ultimate, World of Light would still be underwhelming, and the roster would arguably be too big, not just for balancing competitive but for any normal player.

Three Houses is unironically my second favorite game

Xenoblade 2 and 3 are my #1 favorite games ever. 1 and X are good, but I don’t like the UI for the battle system and for some reason I couldn’t emotionally connect with the stories like 2 and 3

"Sora is fun to play and watch" who hurt you?

I really commend the music choice for this video, very distinguishable compared to many smash videos and helps with the entertainment value a lot

I agree with Nakat. Sora is the funnest character to play in the game and my personal favorite. I would say he's a fair bit funner to play than to watch, though. Spellswords are my favorite character archetype, and mastering Magic in combination with Sora's unique floaty movement and recovery is satisfying.

20:35 Probably Secret Base. They have tons of videos on rules and exploits in sports, and I do remember they made one about dribbling.

Hop and the editors beef in this vid was hilarious😂😂

I want to see a casual tier list. Like little mac, k rool and such being top tier bc in causal they're actually good lol

10:26 I agree it is a human thing. But the overall maturity of the Smash Community makes it REALLY hard to have your own opinion.

It's always cool watching Hopcat after watching poppt1 , they compensate each other

I'd love to see more videos like this! Interesting takes, and it was interesting on seeing how your thoughts on some takes differed from mine! Go for it!

Tournaments should include smash balls. Just for the moments.

At 1:38 for the editor: it's a meme in the persona 5 community, someone made parody videos of the game where they named the MC this way and it caught on

This editor was hilarious 🤣

Having seen ads for Isrkai Slow Live I nearly choked on my beverage hearing you being sponsored by them.

4:30 I love when editors do this 😂

Love this idea. Here's my hot take: smash NEEDS characters who are bad and/or use cheese to win. If every character is on an even playing field, the competitive scene would be boring and the average player would be far more frustrated with losing knowing that it's 100% their own lack of skill. If everyone is super, no one is.

My hot take is that I would rather have more drastic balance patches that changed the meta than barely recognizable DLC

Perhaps it's a hot take, ROB was a fantastic addition to Smash. ROB basically saved not just Nintendo, but video games as a whole in the 80s Plus, if you're a fan of the Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) you've seen episode 100 and know ROB is great (and evil)

feel like going over these on stream woud be fun

0:10 it will be 5 in 2 months, not 6

Pretty sure the video about dribbling youre talking about is ''The korean backdash'' by Core-A gaming. Banger video

20:00 the wavedash was never an exploit, not even in melee, it was found by the devs while they were programming and they didn't patch it out because they didn't think it would be something bad. Asumsaus has a good video on that.

bro best sponsor segment ever watching hop promote that kind of game is hilarious not my kind of game but the segment was so funny i almost want to get it just to support hop

I need Noah in the next smash game Xenoblade 3 was so amazing

2:35 “quick interruption, I just fired my editor” (Joke)

2:34 First time I’ve ever heard such honest words for a sponsor 👏👏

Greninja mains have a 75-80% chance they also enjoy playing the Naruto fighting games

Like the concept of this video, would love to see more. Also, I think the editor is trying to get a message across, not sure though...😂

Steve takes skill to play, but he has very little counter play. Even if effective counterplay is eventually developed. It doesnt change that top level steve is unfairly dominant and could hurt the health and interest in the game depending on his abundance.

15:00 SO HAPPY SOMEONE SAID THIS.

You cannot underrate Subspace Emissary, the cutscenes and the story are genuinely fantastic, the way the characters interact is amazing. The levels and locations are cool, the bosses are big and bad, and finally beating the final boss Tabuu was huge for young me (I didn't know how to dodge so it took a while)

I’m just kinda learning that hopcat isn’t really a fan of any franchise in particular but Pokémon and smash which makes it funny to like, tally the amount of times he says “I don’t know this franchise” lmao

13:17 "just space you moves" meanwhile cloud up-b's literally any non swordy with max spacing out of shield. Yeah I know spacing is important but it's rendered null by some of the out of shield options (Cloud up b, Game and Watch up b, to name some big problem out of shield monsters).

My hot take (or maybe room temperature take): Low tiers are hype to watch, at least for me

“What can Metal Sonic do?” You want my list?

I didn't think about it at the time but here's my (maybe hot) take : Final smashes shoud be more balanced and a part of competitive. It's kinda sad that one of the best moves to reference a character's origin game is never seen in competitive just because some of them are too powerful and others are so weak it's sad. I think they should be re-made in the next game to be less rare and more balanced, to the point that it's not game changing but really rewarding Edit : Oh wait someone else said it, I didn't watch the whole video when posting that 😅

If we get a Xenoblade 3 rep for the next Smash, like I want, would probably want it to be Mio over Noah ‘cause she would have a unique main weapon and not another sword.

I agree, the game is played to have fun, my way of having fun is learning about and applying every sweet spot, mind game and combo in the game😅 I play mortal kombat and Street fighter of course i love learning to play new characters

Crazy how Sora was so hyped, yet now I barely see anyone play him and he just feels so lame.

"If Smash Bros was a child, it'd be in Grade 2." Grade 1. It would be in grade 1. Typically, it's 4-5 for Kindergarten, and 5-6 for Grade One.

I'd say Final Smashs could actually balance the game, if you had an exact number, that can't increase and you could just activate them by pressing ZL and ZR simultaneously at any given time. Imagine the combos if everyone could just suddenly final smash. It would definitely be better than the smash ball that benefits the last hit, rather than who did the most damage to it and the smash meter rewards you for losing, which is always bad.

Bailout out here keeping him honest 😂

Hopcat: "duh obviously its not balanced, no one said it was" Also Hopcat: "custom moves would be too hard to balance"

Hot take: the roster should be small but every character should have a ton of stuff put into them - like Steve/Kazuya and it would function sort of like rock paper scissors. Where 1 character specifically beats another (on paper) but they’re all god

love it so far, keep up the good videos hop!

Hey Hop! You should make a video on Deep Rock Galactic, it’s a fun mix of FPS and Co-op gameplay focused on teamwork. I think you would enjoy it!

The ‘Ultimate’ iteration of the series doesn’t even have a solid round number of 100 fighters. 99, 100, or 101 would have been such a good note to attach to the game.

Remember wasd wasn’t intended either but got adopted because if a quake tournament where a guy used them instead if the arrow keys

it's funny to think that seeing the video, 2 minutes after the release, nobody has seen the end and are probably along side me right now.

My idea as to why R.O.B got into smash was because they needed robot enemies for subspace.

Doesn't play Xenoblade, while xenoblade music plays in the background.

Side note on the Sombra Overwatch thing at the start: last update they literally just entirely changed her, but now she is the problem, so I'm sure we'll see her get nerfed again in the near future lol.

While I definitely think the dlc could have been handled better I respect that they are so wild and out there. Almost all of them have weird unique mechanics and there was clearly a lot of effort put in and personally I'll take more weeks and out there designs even if it means worse balance though I completely understand why some people feel differently. Like you said if Steve wasn't so broken he would be one of the coolest characters in the game

Swimsuits (the nasa ones) actually give a competitive advantage, look up the history of the swimming Olympics. Love the vids man

This would be cool to do with other members of the underdogs to see if they also agree on if something is a hot take. A video with little z and a video with poppt would be cool.

You're ROCKING this haircut. Looking good :)

People like to say how balanced Smash is but it really isn't compared to most actual fighting games that are designed with competition in mind. In Smash you will never win anything major with a decent chunk of the cast. In SF6 for example, the low-tiers like Zangief and Lily already have tournament success.

I think fire emblem character are the perfect kind of character for smash, if they just decided to put effort into the characters rather than making this making this one’s nair a spin being the only difference it could really work Also I think for some characters they can afford to stray away from their original design, just look at the two characters that had completely made up movesets fox and falcon, two of the most legendary and beloved characters. If they were to just put effort into making moves have reasons and tying in with the whole kit smash could be more balanced, more fun, and more diverse.

Editor violated Sparg0 and Poppt1

I was not expecting my take to be first lmao I really liked the explanation and comparison, great vid :)