I still remember when the Dragon Quest staff said that including Hero was one of the last requests Iwata made before he passed and so they honored it. Goddamn.
Dragon Quest's inclusion in Smash still deserves more respect. Literally the grandfather of the genre, and without it, we wouldn't have series such as Final Fantasy, Pokémon, Tales or Persona. Or at least not as we know today.
@@mirzapramudya1580 Oh yeah man. They were best pals and Iwata was basically his mentor. They co-created the first Smash game together and came up with the Smash Ballot together. Iwata passed away knowing that Sora won the ballot _and_ believing that it would be impossible for Nintendo to get the okay from Disney. Sakurai went above and beyond with Ultimate in part because he wanted to honor Iwata as much as he possibly could. Makes everything about this game all the more magical with that context.
@@BSBINC1 My only guess as to why his Wild Wolf costume wasn't added was because it would have conflicted with his hat being involved in so much of his animations. They'd have to do a lot more work on it than just for example, changing Omnislash into its Advent Children version for Cloud's alt.
I always go into a laughing fit whenever I remember that Minecraft Steve was immediately followed by Sephiroth, and they sit right next to each other in the roster Truly the duality of man
What was so cool was everyone figured out who it was at a different time, i knew the second those mob sounds played and the eyes flashed in the darkness but it hit at a different time for everyone
@@royalcass I think I started thinking it was Steve the moment Mario crashed into the cave, because I saw the blocky shape of the ceiling, and then of course the mob eyes [especially the Enderman's] and sounds just solidified that
I remember, very distinctly, a tweet being shared before the Kazuya reveal, when people were miffed with Pyra- something to the effect of _"Oh they can't possibly do that bad, at this point Nintendo would have to execute Captain Falcon live on-stage to mess up."_ Lo and behold, Kazuya shows up and executes Captain Falcon live on-stage, only everyone loves it.
The “execute Captain Falcon live” tweet wasn’t made in relation to Smash being disappointing, but E3 being underwhelming (See Square Enix and Capcom). The tweet was saying that the bar for success for Nintendo’s E3 conference was so low that the only way they can screw up was to execute Captain Falcon live on-stage.
However you feel about Sora aside: the final image of Sora and Mario shaking hands with characters like Sephiroth, Ryu, Ridley, etc... in the background is an absolutely monumental moment. It truly was "Ultimate"
It gets better with context. Kingdom Hearts came about because Square believed the only character in the world that could compete with Mario in terms of popularity was Mickey Mouse. That's why they approached Disney with the proposal for the Square/Disney crossover. Now Sora, the character created for Kingdom Hearts, gets to meet the character he was created to overcome.
Nintendo probably paid more to get Sora in than all of their other 3rd part characters combined. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Sakurai came out and said that he’d been trying to get Sora in since Smash 4.
Funny thing about Sora’s reveal trailer, the sparkles around him when he is flying around implies that he’s using Tinkerbell’s fairy dust so you’re not far off when you say he’s like Peter Pan
people forget that Peter Pan actually taught Sora HOW to fly, basically doing his "faith, trust, and pixie dust" spiel from the Disney movie in KH1. So, I bet Peter is looking at Max in disappointment going, "Well, I taught him how to do that, so I should HOPE he feels like me going in like that, Max!"
@@hector4470 pixie* dust. (hate to be that guy, but while we call them fairies on Earth, to Disney and everyone else who cares about the semantics they are technically pixies)
To be fair, if there's something most of Ultimate's trailers have is the fact that they were very good at catching people off-guard. Barring Byleth and Min Min, none of them were obvious as far as character reveals were concerned, and that gives them a lot of points.
@@randumo24 Safer Sephiroth is confirmed to be the strongest character in FF7. He lost due to the combined efforts of the power of friendship and his overcockiness causing him to go easy on Cloud constantly. In Smash though, yeah. Plenty of stronger characters. Kirby series, End-Game Shulk, and Creative Mode Steve for example. Depending on how much you scale some more questionable feats, Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Rosalina, Metroid series, Kid Icarus series, Sonic and Mewtwo have a shot. I also don't think Sephiroth can actually kill Ganon, but exploding the planet might be an issue for the Dark Lord. Also unsure about Ness and Lucas (Idk jack all about Mother) but there's a chance they may be super strong too.
Due to dissidia basically every final fantasy character in there is multiversal because in canon, everyone can have a crack at killing desperado chaos who defeats an ultimate form of shinryu, who in base form shaped multiple universes or stages based on the character's memories which he stole obviously.
@@angeltripper8518 Yea, in FF7 Cloud couldn't beat Sephiroth 1 on 1 (Up until power of friendship goes out the wazoo and Sephiroth is no longer at 100%). Only people that could contend with him are Angeal and Genesis (Even then he clearly outclass them) and Zack (In Crisis Core, if Sephiroth uses Octaslash, Zack blocks all of his attack; He only takes damage from the push back. And Zack can contend with a Goddess.); And Sephiroth is clearly stronger than them.
1:10:04 I literally just realized that both Kirby and Pit stand above all the other characters and glow brighter than them, so much of Sakurai's heart and soul is in this.
@@perky8390bruh he took years off his lifespan doing these games, he has done the impossible and no one could ever achieve it ever again, I'd say he earned the right to put his firstborn son front and center of the game
@@mayo10able the hint was that the backpack looked different from the other Luigi’s Mansion games. Plus the Plunger was never a thing in the first two games
I really like in the sephiroth trailer after he stabs Mario and goes to block cloud, Mario is still on his sword you can even see him get flung away like that’s just amazing
Not only the trailers are great, but they're full of details. For example, the last time you see the Belmonts hitting Drac with the whip and the returning boomerangs at the same time, that's a reference to the strat used to skip cycles in the speedrun.
Sakurai is such an absolute fucking nerd for video games and it shows in every tiny little aspect of Smash as a whole. You can always tell the sheer passion that went into this series as it slowly morphed from just a fun crossover to the pure celebration of everything video games are and have been.
yeah its crazy that they even were referencing tricks and technical stuff about games, like Wii-fit trainer doing a pose in the world of light trailer because in smash 4 she had i-frames while doing that
I love how the Sora trailer has so many existing characters in it, even the different gender alts for Villager, Wii Fit and Pokémon trainer. It felt like such a celebration of everything.
Even if you don't like Kingdom Hearts, it represents a legacy all on its own. Square Enix has such a huge gaming history, and Disney has such a huge history, and Sora represents both of those. Him shaking hands with the gaming icon himself, Mario. It 100% is a celebration of all of it.
lmao huh, those were just there for references to the actual game, they're not celebrating the characters in smash you cringe lord, its a call back to the KH games
@@yeahright3901the f*ck are you talking about. They’re talking about every single smash bros character being put in 1 trailer, including the alt styles. How’s that a call back to KH
I like the trailer for Princess Daisy. 👑🌼 The Queen of Slang & Sass. 🔥 The ghetto girl was long overdue. I Love the only Princess with a Ch0la 😎 attitude. Her Empire of Sarasa Land Land needs to return in a main console game. Her Palace looked very detailed in the mario KC Mangas from the 90s. 😍 Thank you legendary Gunpei Yokoi for creating Samus Aran, Palutena, Princess Daisy, Lip, and Nana. Strong Females. 💪 RIP Gunpei Yokoi. Gone too soon! :"(
I didn’t realize that the trailer was different for the actual reveal during the Game Awards vs the official trailer. They didn’t say “He went alone to the game awards?” just “He went alone?”
The Sephiroth trailer single handedly makes me want to get into FF7. I genuinely couldn't care less about final fantasy, but that trailer is just so good.
@@snowy.skulll I had bought it a few weeks ago as part of a sale. That trailer made me boot up the game. I never got far after the Midgar portion. This year, I decided to start over from the beginning and actually finish it.
What I find so intricately well-designed about the Everyone is Here video is the fact that all the hype is so evenly distributed and beautifully paced instead of focused on one big reveal, which makes the video not feel as long as it is while also not becoming stale after one big moment. Snake's reveal was very evidently the big bang, but sprinkled around it are a lot of short but huge moments as well. Every single reactor to this trailer had their eyes glued to the screen for the entirety of its duration. -The reveal of new Battlefield -Breath of the Wild Link -New Zelda design -Mewtwo is base game now instead of DLC -The return of Ice Climbers -Inkling's first gameplay moment -Pokemon Trainer returns (and Squirtle and Ivysaur) -Ryu returns -Ocarina of Time Ganon returns -Cloud returns against all odds, as immediate foreshadowing of what's to come -SNAAAAAAAAAAAKE -The phrase "Everyone is Here!" officially dropped -Pichu being immediately shown in order to reinforce the "Everyone is Here" point -Various other DLC from the previous game are also confirmed to be in the base game (among others, Roy and Bayonetta) -As the music ramps up in intensity, Toon Link is accompanied by Young Link to further reinforce that EVERYONE IS HERE -With the music about to wrap up triumphantly, Wolf jumps in as the last bit of confirmation that, yes, we mean EVERYONE -The title drop: SUPER SMASH BROS ULTIMATE -And finally, the huge banner, and one last time, the phrase "Everyone is Here!"
I think the last bit of the trailer is especially clever. Showing Luigi and Yoshi, incredibly recognizable characters that are a given to be included in smash are shown last as if to say "yeah, we know this trailer was so good and jam-packed that you didn't even realize that Yoshi and Luigi weren't there". So damn good, man. Either that, or they sincerely forgot to put them somewhere in the trailer and had to throw them in there last second to make up for it lmao
And in the middle of all of this, the trailer is also showing unique and important changes: Giga Bowser isn't controlled, he now delivers a massive punch from the background. Link can fire two arrows at once. Donkey Kong showcases the slowdown screen. Marth's Shield Breaker can now be angled. Villager's grab can now pick up items. And the list continues.
Yeah, the fact that they talk about TGA in the trailer added to the craziness. Plus, the fake out before the commercial break, which lead into the trailer. That’s immersive marketing at its best.
Something that sucks about the Byleth trailer is that it's built like the Joker trailer: we're shown the character/series first, and then the big reveal moment is when Smash is revealed, unlike most other trailers. But this style of trailer worked for Joker because it was shown at the Game Awards, meaning that it presenting itself as a regular Persona 5 trailer works because that's something that can totally show up at an event like that, making the reveal that it's actually a Smash trailer surprising and impactful. But for Byleth, the trailer was shown in a Smash-specific Direct. We knew going in that it would be a Smash reveal, so making that the big reveal moment didn't work at all and just made the trailer boring as hell.
Another thing to note is that Joker's Reveal was all original... while Byleth's was during the part when he got green hair. Like I'm an FE fan who played 3H a lot and I felt annoyed that they chose that way to reveal them. I mean, why THAT part? They could've done something with the 3H animation that wasn't giving me Corrin trailer vibes. But nope. Slow the pace and have Solon and Sothis there instead of making a FE character, regardless of who they are, be HYPED!
I'm one of the people that think Byleth was definitely a bump-up in the dlc schedule for some BTS development reason (my money's on Steve giving them trouble) and the awkwardness of the trailer is one of the biggest red flags. It's glaringly obvious how this was very clearly being made for a Nintendo Direct not specifically a smash one, like Pyra. Plus a 3H character is entirely in line with the rest of FP2. We'll never know but if you're willing to talk with an asterisk, both Byleth and their trailer were an almost transparent swap-in.
@@mcfry13 Nah, Three Houses came out in June or July in 2019. Byleth’s Smash reveal was in January 2020. I actually thought Byleth’s chances were over at the time because they missed the advertisement period. Unfortunately I was wrong
My favorite thing about Smash Ultimate is looking at the final copyright screen in the Sora trailer. Just seeing all of those company names in one game is actually fucking insane. It's the biggest accomplishment in all of video gaming history. Smash Ultimate was truly something special.
For context at 29:41 Hero was never banned, but there was a lot of discussion about his legality, not because of the instakill move, but because the menu language created a possible barrier to entry for tournament play. There were examples of japanese players getting blown out by american hero players in tournaments because they weren't familiar with the menu commands in english, and didn't know what they were activating, or which of the 4 of 20 possible commands came up on the menu
One of the most perfect things about the Kazuya trailer is how the sense of humor in Smash trailers and Tekken cutscenes is basically indistinguishable. That end with Kirby could've easily been straight out of a Tekken game if not for Kirby.
The “everyone is here” trailer is the one trailer that NOBODY can hate, you’ll always find one schmuck or another clowning on a reveal for the character that they cucked but smash’s first showcase made sure nobody got left behind
@@StuffFilms yep. A bunch of fools yapping their mouths. At the time they wouldn’t want to admit they were wrong. But after the grand finale, they have to lol
I feel like the Kazuya reveal was brought down by how little time they give from when the trailer starts to the actual reveal. It’s good to have intrigue and let the hype build up within the trailer!
I would agree if it wasn't for the fact that I and everyone i knew could immediately tell it was a Tekken rep. At that point it's just, who's the most popular Tekken character If you watch other reactions, pretty much everyone goes "someone's being thrown off a volcano? It's Tekken," at that point there's not much room for intrigue
@@putainclasse1986 basically, one of the main characters threw another main character into a volcano, and it's a recurring trope of the same character getting thrown in/throwing the other character in for revenge
Honestly, the funniest (and most memorable to me) part about the Kazuya trailer isn't even a part of the trailer. I was watching the episode of Death Battle with Heihachi Mishima and Geese Howard before the trailer was revealed, which was a hilarious coincidence where I thought "Did I accidentally will this into existence?"
It would be amazing if they released a “Complete” edition of Smash Ultimate, with all dlc, miifighter skins, extra spirits, the Sephiroth battle mode, complete OST, the full mural printed in high quality on cloth, artbook AND all these trailers in a physical package. One can dream. Nintendo could sell that as a limited edition for USD300 and it would sell out in seconds.
Snake deserves more credit here. He was the one that stated that Nintendo was willing to leave its comfort zone of characters that they mostly own. He was the first character to come as a complete surprise with a reveal trailer. Plus, he was also the real staple in that "EVERYONE IS HERE" delivery.
Still remembered Snake's reveal in Brawl. After the amazing Brawl trailer, it goes into the Codec conversation and you're wondering, "What does Metal Gear got to do with Smash?" and then you see the cardboard box in Brawl and you're like, "No way...NO FUCKING WAY!!!"
after that reveal trailer everyone realized almost everything was possible. snake opened the gates to insane crossovers no one imagined before his appearance in smash.
Yeah Snake deserves more than what he gets, it’s always Sonic who gets looked back for Brawl. I bet Sonic fans are still upset he didn’t get a 2nd Rep before Castlevania, Street Fighter and Final Fantasy, and Sonic’s moveset not being improved upon after his rushed Brawl inclusion.
Another thing about Snake's impact here was this reveal was soon after the fiasco with Kojima and Konami falling out. His presence was something no one expected during that time.
Theres small hints in each one that give you an idea but the sephiroth one still has me surprised. Theres literally nothing in that that tells you it's him. One of the best parts of the trailer was definitely the look on Cloud's face. It's the ah shit here we go again meme brought to life 😂
Something important to consider regarding the build up/hype level of Isabelle, Byleth, and Pyra/Mythra's trailers is the context under which they were shown. It's something that's lost when watching them on their own like Max did here, because they all have the Smash Logo opener to tell you that they're a Smash trailer. But Isabelle didn't have that. Her trailer was shown completely on its own, at a point where we hadn't had a new Animal Crossing game since New Leaf on 3DS, and it was 100% intended to trick you into thinking it was a trailer for a new Animal Crossing at first, which is why they also followed it _immediately_ with a reveal _for_ a new Animal Crossing. Pyra/Mythra's was shown under a similar circumstance, except Xenoblade 2 had already been out. It was shown without the Smash Logo Opener to trick you into thinking it was related to Xenoblade 2, and that helps with the misdirection and buildup (unless you've played and completed the game, but external knowledge of all these characters spoils the reveal in a lot of instances.) In both those cases they were deliberately created with similar, or the exact same, assets that were used in their respective games, and they could get away with it because they were missing the Smash Logo Opener. Byleth, on the other hand, was not only made to purposefully look like Fire Emblem, but it was at the very least part of a presentation that was outright advertised as being "a smash bros reveal presentation." And as soon as the trailer starts, you know it's Fire Emblem, then like 10 seconds later, you see Byleth and the reveal is pretty much squandered. It's unfortunate that the character that was practically guaranteed to be received the most poorly, was damn near manufactured to be as disappointing as possible. -For FE fans, there are plenty of other characters people would've preferred, even within the limits of 3 Houses -The trailer was shown in a context that obliterates any hope of an exciting reveal -Byleth was released following 3 absolutely insane "impossible" characters, and 1 really cool, unexpected third party -Byleth was released as the final character in Fighter's Pass 1, and we didn't know there would be more DLC until later in the stream It's like they wanted people to be disappointed.
You hear "DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN", you realize some of the best video game music ever is playing, and King Edgelord himself shows up and not only takes himself seriously, but jokes around with classic FF7 imagery(the Mario "stab", the Zelda shot), and you realize not only is this a great Smash trailer, this is just a great trailer. AND IT WILL NEVER BE -JUST- A MEMORY.
I literally couldn't get the word Sephiroth out fast enough when I heard One Winged Angel play. I thought it was Virgil cause a DMC announcement was also the same day. Then the theme came on and all I could do was gasp.
50:42 I love that all you need is those first few notes of One Winged Angel to realize who it is and immediately lose your shit. Sakurai wasn't kidding when he said that Sephiroth is one of the most iconic villains in gaming
The first two drum beats wake a deep memory, and by the fourth you know exactly what is hanging back behind Galeem and people are breaking down cheering, its great
I'm not a KH fan but that whole trailer and the last scene of Sora shaking hands with Mario, made me feel really happy. It's a celebration of videogames and it's beautiful.
There will never be anything like this again, I highly doubt any other game will hit this height, I would love to be proven wrong. But in our generation I don't see it happen. Nintendo and Sakurai did the absolute impossible and they deserve to flex on everyone for it.
I'm just now tuning in ever since Sora was announced, I wish I would have looked more into it when it FIRST come out bro it's still cool but dang I definitely see what you mean
@@28thKwaj even if a new smash bros comes out they definitely won’t have this much content on it. The success of the game will depend on innovation and characters.
I mean, he does use time-warp magic. And if he can learn Meteor after no one else in the world knew it anymore, I think he would be capable of modifying time-warp magic to actually travel through time.
Funnily enough, Simple and Clean actually WAS played in the Sora trailer, but it was Yoko Shimomura's orchestral version. Needless to say, it was hype as hell.
This game just makes you love video games. Being the ultimate game about video games. Sora’s reveal means so much with that final look man. The handshake and the big spread of everyone watching is just everything man. You gotta love it.
I love the ARMS trailer because not only they are just straight up beating each other up to get the invitation, but it also confirms that you can just straight up jump an invitee to be in Smash
I absolutley adore the shot at the end of Sora's trailer where he's in the air and all the backgrounds cycle. It's such a brillant shot, and it really feels celebratory for what Smash has done.
I'm pretty sure it's technically a reference to the intro of the game where Pikachu is stood on a stage watching the backgrounds cycle. Sort of a bookends thing
Regardless of what it is a reference to, that shot is one of my favorite trailer moments ever. Combined with the music it makes me emotional even though I’ve never played a kingdom hearts game
It really is more appropriate being attached to the Game Awards, crashing a big event like that with something as unexpected as a Smash announcement works so well, they couldn't have chosen a better place for it
Yeah I really don’t know why the person who made that playlist used the non-Game Awards version when they had videos from other channels for the Echo Fighter trailers.
@@GaiashKetoji Judging by the endcards from every video, it seemed Max was watching a playlist from Nintendo UK. It the official channel was hosting the trailer, it makes sense that they removed every mention of a third party
24:46 It was definitely a lot of the shock because even people who played Persona 5 didn’t consider Joker as an option for Smash. Just like in the song Last Surprise, we never saw him coming.
And the trailer was so well done too. Good music choices, the visual animation that's brand new but matches the visual style of P5 perfectly, the voice cast cameos and little references. All the characters get a lot of love but some felt like they went a little bit beyond and that was definitely one of them
For anyone wandering why Twintelle and Kid Cobra were the ones fighting it’s because Min Min and the other two were the fan favorites but the creator wanted Min Min in smash
I love that King K. Rool's trailer began BEFORE the actual trailer kicked in, with Sakurai's office shaking to loud approaching booms to signal the heavyweight croc's entrance.
And then it’s revealed that it’s actually King Dedede and Sakurai starts laughing. Then he’s like, “alright yeah you all know he’s coming here ya go” and then there’s King K. Rool
The Sephiroth trailer will go down as the best character reveal trailer of ANY fighting game ANYWHERE. EVERYONE was psyched. EVERYONE was talking about it. The theme song was noticed IMMEDIATELY! The CG scenes of everyone trying to hold of Sephiroth were EPIC! Very few could bring down Bayonetta with a single swipe of a sword. The Mario bit caught EVERYONE off-guard and kept everyone on their toes! It was THE PERFECT guest character reveal. Agreed with Max's 15 out of 10 rating for that trailer. NOTHING came close before or after for Ultimate except for MAYBE Sora but he was a LONG TIME requested character.
@@4546Bean One would have to be pretty young or completely out of the gaming loop to not know who Sephiroth is. I'm not even an FF fan and I knew exactly who he was.
As a HUGE FF7 (and FF in general) fan I was disappointed because 7 already got representation with Cloud. I was like “geez they had a crap ton of Square characters to choose from, but of course it had to be Sephirot.” And by the way, Terry’s trailer is the best one like ever
I feel like some of the magic of the Everyone is Here trailer was missed due to time and context. Throughout the various games a lot of characters have been left out for various reasons, whether popularity, hardware limitations or relevance and that combined with how many third party characters were introduced in the previous installment that would have been legal nightmares to bring back, everyone was expecting a roster cut or a brand new reduced roster but as the trailer slowly showed off more and more characters, including characters that were expected to not come back, the hype and excitement kept building up until the Everyone is Here Snake reveal moment that was such an explosive realisation that they went above and beyond. It still gives me chills watching it again. Definitely a perfect trailer. And then practically every trailer after that was meant to be a crowd pleaser, giving everyone exactly what they wanted and asked for. This game is genuinely a perfect game.
i would like to remind everyone of the greatest gag in all of smash ultimate trailers where sothis tells byleth that there are too many swordsmen, and that byleth also has a sword, so what should he do? and byleth's first idea is to become a woman
Yeah, that was a great nod to the whole "anime swordsman" shtick. Such a shame the trailer is so wierdly edited. The dialogue goes for way too long while there's no BGM and then they repeat basically the same scene twice. The evil mage didn't really add much to the reveal (Speaking as someone who never played Three Houses).
@@Taser9001 Byleth is mostly victim to the “everyone is here” aspect and the choices they made for Smash 4/Ultimate up to that point. If Byleth was the first FE character added since Robin, and Lucina, Chrom, and Corrin hadn’t all also been recent additions, it wouldn’t sting as much. Didn’t help that the previous four characters for fighter pass 1 were all third party characters from series with no other characters in the game, and then they add the 8th FE character to the game. Just sticks out so much more.
@@NerdStrikesBack Byleth is definitely my favorite of the DLC characters. Certainly the one I've played the most. But yeah their trailer was mostly rather lame (at least compared to practically every other DLC character) and also had the misfortunate of being the last of the first fighters pack. Swap them with any of the other reveals and people still would have been salty about it, but it definitely wouldn't have been as big a thing as it was.
For Kazuya, 2 things: 1: I remember how excited you were for the Heihachi stage addition, only to realize that he was just in the background. 2: If I remember this correctly, Sakurai said that the original plan would have been just 5 more characters, then he bumped into someone from Disney in the Elevator and made a pitch on having Sora in Smash. If not for that Elevator Pitch, Kazuya would have been the last fighter, which would have been satisfying, but not the perfect ending a lot of people feel that Sora's inclusion was.
K Rool is more than just a meme character and he can be legitimately intimidating in some games, but with the Crocodile Cacophony and Gangplank Galleon remixes, his moveset, and the trailer in general, Smash captured both the intimidating and goofy sides of his character well, even if they did clearly have a preference for the goofy side on the development team
@@shinuyashami5595 They were super aggressive about it too, lol. It was insane how much people defended a random speculation, even to the point where a lot of people still kept saying it even after we got some of the previews. I can remember it now. "JUST BECAUSE THEY CHANGED A LOT OF STUFF, AND THE PHYSICS ARE HEAVILY TWEAKED, AND THE UI IS COMPLETELY CHANGED, *DOES NOT* MEAN IT'S A SEQUEL"
While Max is definitely right that the Everyone Is Here trailer is one of the best ones out there for sure, one thing he missed since he wasn't sure who was or wasn't back is that before the Snake bombdrop, they brilliantly lead up to it with both the return of the Ice Climbers and the stealth drop of Pokemon trainer coming back, too. It was such a great "Wait a minute..." set-up.
And the fact that the character shown right after Snake was Pichu, another character no one expected to return but for very different reasons. And that right before Snake was Cloud, a character that hit that balance of surprising that he was returning but not as shocking as Snake and Pichu because he was still a recent addition.
Same my only and small complaint is that they shouldn't have numbered the characters and should have only showed they names since I figured it out before ice climbers showed up. The only reason people didn't point out or notice the numbers is because everyone was hyped that we were getting a new smash bros in the first place.
Watching all these reveals makes me fall in love with the game all over again. All the characters, even the old ones, have such FLOURISH and identity to them! The animations in-game and in cutscenes are SO GOOD. There's so much care and love put behind it all, it's kind of a miracle it all even happened.
What I found amazing about the Min Min trailer was that they got back the VA for Captain Falcon (who didn't come back to voice Falcon since Smash 64) just to make noodle slurping noises.
My respect goes out to specifically the people who direct the gameplay choreography cutscenes/trailers. Thems some silly mfers. The things the characters do are always pretty unique and bring a smile to my face
The Belmont's trailer is still my absolute favorite. Crossing over Luigi's Mansion and Castlevania was an absolute stroke of genius. We didn't really get a lot of "worlds colliding" trailers like this one (or Rosalina from Smash 4, or Little Mac vs Ken vs Incineroar) where two games with common themes mesh together effortlessly like that. Getting us to believe that every video game world exists in the same universe and can be visited like that is something only Smash can really do. It's just so damn charming. THAT BEING SAID, it's almost impossible to argue that Sephiroth's wasn't the most impressive of the bunch. Even if you didn't know a thing about him or FF7, his trailer made you _want_ to know. And if you _were_ familiar with him...yeah, it was a huge pop-off moment. And incorporating _so many characters_ in the first part of the trailer like that? Richter, Zelda, Mewtwo, Inkling, Banjo and Kazooie, and Bayonetta? Like, come on, the Sephiroth trailer was a fucking feast for the eyes, man.
Not to mention just his theme BOOMING as Galeem falls. Like all those kiddos wanting to know how Sans is to the 2010s what Sephiroth was to the 2000s? They got to see exactly how.
What I noticed upon closer inspection later on that Max didn't seem to touch upon for his trailer review of Sephiroth's reveal was that there were more allusions to FFVII characters than just Zelda = Aerith. The attack against Sephiroth that proc's his One-Winged Angel state involved Mewtwo just standing there followed by three assailants; together they are the Turks (Mewtwo = Tseng, Sheik = Elena, Terry = Rude, Crom = Reno). The sudden attack in the last CG sequence by Bayonetta and Greninja, I dare say, could be said to represent Vincent and Yuffie, respectively, seeing as Vincent uses a handgun (Joker already was used in the trailer getting jobbed with the rest of the sword characters) and Yuffie is a ninja with a giant shuriken. Both are secret/optional characters to obtain for your party in FFVII.
God, even the list of non-Seph characters feels ridiculous. Seeing a list with Richter, Mewtwo, Banjo & Kazooie, and Bayonetta still feels insane to this day.
What i also liked about the Belmont's trailer was that it was a subtle hint that a new Luigi's mansion was on the way. The poltergust Luigi was using in that trailer was never seen before in his previous games until they revealed Luigi's Mansion 3.
The Banjo-Kazooie trailer gets even better after learning they got the original composer of the Banjo games, Grant Kirkhope, to make the new arrangement of the Spiral Mountain theme that plays on the trailer. He was the first non-Japanese composer to work on Smash, they went that far out of the way to make that reveal special for fans.
To be fair, they always try to get the original composers to do the remixes. They don't always succeed but they try. So Grant isn't really anything special there. It's still SUPER cool they grabbed him and that he accepted, but that was pretty much par for the course.
@@AdamEspersona I mean, I suppose that's fair... but if I recall correctly, Banjo was the first... and only western game made into a playable character (Not counting the mii costumes) so he kind of got to do that just by default. Not that I'm trying to lesson the achievement.
@@aliciafraser1835 True, but in terms of music, Grant Kirkhope’s inclusion is still a big deal. And there was no guarantee that he would be able to contribute. But then Sakurai said, “Hold my Jiggy” and did it anyway. Same with Toby Fox for the Megalovania remix that came with the Sans costume.
Sephiroth was something I never thought would happen but I was so hyped and screaming on stream when I heard One Winged Angel, it honestly still feels weird to me that he even got in and I’m glad I caught the reveal because I almost missed it
The Pyra/Mythra trailer was basically the Byleth trailer done right. Much better paced, and a properly done fake-out, unlike Byleth, who was in a Smash-specific Direct.
Disagree dude. It overstayed it's welcome for the first half. The only thing that made it better than Byleth's reveal was the fight with Shulk. That moment was great.
@@yuuhyakuya3863 Except the first half is just like the very first Smash trailer with the inklings. It's made to make you think it's just something about their game before it switches over to Smash. Problem with Byleth is we already knew it was gonna be Smash, so that felt really dragged out.
Ive never even played p5 yet (waiting for switch ver. fingers crossed) but i got caught with the p5 hype and bought smash because of joker. He is the closest to an anime character too as you can tell i like anime.
I watched a stream of persona 5 4 days before the reveal, after playing the game years later, that trailer is a damn 11/10 even the gameplay trailer with futaba marking out over the cast was sweet.
...the "Everyone is HERE!" trailer...made me weep the first time I saw it. I was afraid, at the time, that the roster would be cut down, and then Snake decloaks on Shadow Moses Island.
I feel like Cloud and Sephiroth will always be the GOAT's of "There is no way that could ever happen" characters. You have to understand, FF7 was THE game that killed Nintendo's relationship with Squaresoft. Square, up until that point, was a second party developer exclusively for Nintendo and abandoned them for the Sony Playstation. Nintendo's executives were so god damn pissed at this that their refusal to engage with anything Square based did not end until they all retired. That is the ONLY reason we got those characters. And it was on both sides; Square exec's were feuding with Nintendo's too. The fact that Cloud got in was a miracle. But following up with Sephiroth? Christ. That was the final handshake to signify the end of a 20 year feud. It's one thing to get Disney's approval to slap their copyright on anything, but it's another to end a feud between two angry Japanese companies. That is on par with hearing Sony and Microsoft agree to work together.
Sora fits that spot more, considering making a deal with Disney is like dealing with the devil. The fact they managed to get him at all is a legal nightmare.
Cloud was one thing, but after Cloud I don't think ANYONE would expect to see Sephirtoh, especially after it was revealed how hard it was to get Cloud back for Ultimate. Like yeah people would joke but I dont think anyone sat there and said, yeah Sephiroth for sure is coming to the game. So when you finally see him you're just like holy shit not 1 but 2 FF7 characters
Dude. That sephiroth time travel thing and now he changes the smash timeline, and how it links to the on going remake theories, just blew my fucking mind. Never ever thought of it. Crazy
Sora's trailer straight up broke through my crippling depression. I felt so happy watching his intro to it---floating around smiling. Man that made me feel so good watching.
Max: "I'm not a Persona fan. My bias is definitely not showing here. That's a ten out of ten. I'll tell you when my bias is showing." Also Max: (first *half* of Terry's trailer) "This is an 11 out of 10 kind of situation." :D
One of my favourite things about watching all of these trailers is seeing the Character Copyright list on the final blackscreen get longer and longer as more and more completely unexpected collaborations get added to it
Pyra and Mythra's trailer animation being partially done by Monolith Soft was cool cause yeah they definitely earned the right to flex their cutscene animations
It also really played us, making us think it would be just more dlc for the game. But the fact that it was already dubbed in English (since most first trailers for XC2 were in Japanese), eventually reveals this is Smash related. ...and the fact that it said, "not actual gameplay". Either way, maybe the trailer itself was good, but given a decent subset of people wanted these characters, made it a big enough deal.
One thing that becomes really apparente is that Nintendo love Kirby just being a adorable chaotic pink marshmallow, and putting him in nearly every trailer.
Yeah it's why he's the only character that doesn't "die" in World of Light (he also was a major role in Subspace as well) Sakurai loves his little pink puff ball
@@DrCoomer_1 Yeah. Its not just that Sakurai created the Character, Sakurai Game Company that makes Smash is also the one that makes kirby. Thats why kirby is so central, not because nintendo, because Sora Ltd and Sakurai.
Lance the Decayed Guardian Idk where I heard this from but Sakurai wanted a beginner friendly character that could realistically survive that. Three characters come to mind, being Kirby, Sonic and Bayonette. Would you say Sonic and Bayo are beginner friendly? Now what about Kirby?
i love that like the second half or so of sora's trailer is just him hanging out with everybody then they end it with the handshake. it feels like such a warm welcoming ;--;
For the joker trailer, you need the context too. The way the announced him was at the game awards, and nobody knew it was a smash trailer. Mf just pulled up to a real event to announce himself for smash
Technically speaking, every "star" you see in Kingdom Hearts world represents a different world, and worlds can range from live-action to Pixar, to 1920s Monochrome cartoons. Under that basic premise it is technically possible for the Smash worlds to exist in Kingdom Hearts. I'm not saying it's official canon, I'm just saying it fits thematically.
It really makes me sad to see people in other videos ranking Terry's trailers so low, seeing all those SNK characters in their original pixel art bit designs, all chasing that smash invitation (and even dying/recreating iconic scenes while at it) before it falls dramatically to the floor. All for Terry Bogard to pick it up. Its stylish, extremely nostalgic for SNK fans, and had an amazing build up to the actual fighter. And tbh, a lot of Ultimate's reveals were amazing: Ridley's trailer was an epic escalation to a character everyone knew exactly who it was, but couldn't believe actually made it. Having Megaman and Mario _literally murdered_ just added to the already immaculate moment. Sora's trailer was the last key opening the final door to Ultimate's lifespan, giving the game and all the characters one last ride before they go. It was truly magical, especially with Simple and Clean running in the background with Sora flying in the air as if he's saying "yeah, this is real." Sephiroth's was an absolute nightmare, having debatingly the greatest buildup to any trailer by having Galeem, the boss of Ultimate that pretty much defeated the entire cast except for Kirby, being killed in _one shot,_ and all of the characters (including us the viewers) gasping, waiting in expectance to see who it was only for _one wing angel_ to start playing. The amount of Advent Children references, callbacks, and straight up frame by frame scenes with that Cloud vs Sephiroth scene (and Italian barbeque) just being perfection. And finally, Joker. While his reveal might not be the absolute favorite among most fans; I love it not just because of the character, but it was one of the only characters to not let the viewer know it was Smash until the reveal. Just having Joker running around in P5s beautiful art aesthetic, his teammates getting ready for another infiltration, only for Joker to flip the envelop to reveal a smash logo. It is simply perfection. No other reveal had that type of ambiguity because the rest were in a direct/smash presentation, meaning that people either knew it was a smash reveal no matter what (Byleth, Min-Min), or somewhat expected it (Isabel, Pyra). Joker on the other hand, was at the Game Awards, where Smash announcements never happened. Ultimate being released _the next day_ was just the cherry on top and why its number 1 for me.
I love Terry’s trailer, never played his game. I love Sephiroth’s trailer, barely played fifteen percent of FF7 I love Min-Min’s trailer, don’t like arms much. I LOVE Joker’s reveal, and haven’t played P5(waiting for that switch port) I love Byleth. Hate their reveal. It’s not the love of the characters from a fan perspective, it’s how much love the studio puts into the trailers. And a lot of those, even if I at first didn’t like that they took a slot, have that love. Those are just the DLC characters I appreciate the most too, there are so many beautiful moments from this game. God I love Smash
Joker’s was absolutely perfect. The only thing it was lacking was some gameplay/seeing a model, but even then, the suspense was enough! Joker’s honestly was one of the best crafted reveals, complete with the main VAs, new animation, and the meta-ness of it all. What a perfect reveal.
Snake's return immediately followed by Pichu just about brought a tear to my eye during the reveal. Also my god, is this almost half a decade old? Where the fuck do the years go
I love how each trailer has little nods to their own series. Kazuya and King K. Rool recreating the Bandai Namco logo animation from Tekken. Lucas posing like Rock Howard with Terry. Banjo and Diddy recreating the Konga fight from BK1. Sora feeding the Dream Drop Distance animals. K. Rool's head getting stomped three times. Simon Belmont using holy water to reveal chicken, then Richter recreating his holy water super move with the rain in Olimar's stage. Squirtle and Pyra recreating the NEVER TOUCH A MAN'S TURTLE!!!!! scene. Even the Mii Fighter costume trailers snuck in wild things like Sans on a text box, Doom Guy and Mario recreating the DOOM pose, etc.
I love the references so much. To list a few more: Alex chases a cucco from Zelda with her sword as if it’s a chicken in Minecraft, Zombie breaks a door down before being revealed, Zombie drops a piece of meat when thrown as if dropping rotten flesh when dying, Enderman picks up a box like he steals blocks, Enderman stares at Snake in his box, Enderman stands under the platform to avoid the rain. It’s all so good! In the Byleth trailer, there’s a shot of Byleth pointing forward with their sword and a bunch of little ice climbers rushing forward, likely a nod to Byleth being a professor and commander, sending her students to battle. In another shot, Byleth stands behind Isabelle with her fishing rod, a reference to the fishing minigame at the monastery. Sephiroth nearly stabs Zelda just like Aerith, and then even if he never actually stabbed Mario, the camera angle was made so that shot recreated exactly a scene and shot from Advent Children. There’s even the theory that Ken parried before showing his final smash specifically to reference Evo moment 37.
The ending of Banjo’s trailer with the giant Ivysaur is a really obscure reference to one particular jiggy in Banjo Tooie where you have to sneak up on a sleeping snake to steal it without waking him up
And I remember that before the reveals, Animal Crossing fans were kinda desperate for a new Animal Crossing game after it skipped the Wii U and were given some bits to keep them entertained
Byleth reveal also had a weird translation thing where they changed a joke for the English version. Strange little things like that made it seem really unconfident. And while the voice acting and animation was rad it's still just a scene from the game.
Close seconds are Simon/Sephiroth and Megaman They're wonderful. I'd say Hero is on the same level too, but I'm not Japanese to understand its importance.
I’ve always adored how the camera hung onto Pit in the Sephiroth trailer. Foreshadowing the One Winged Angel’s entrance by letting the camera sit on Smash’s angel character, and literally reflecting the physical representation of the curtain Sephiroth entered through in Pit’s eye.
I will always love the sheer hype from the early trailers where we didn't expect some of them to be Smash trailers, especially the Persona one. I don't even play Persona, but the massive reaction of "what is this, is this a DLC for that game, wait... IS THIS SMASH?!" was just magical.
sora trailer actively made me cry when it came out, he was my dream character and i already thought he had no chance with sephiroth three characters behind him, and it's an extremely emotional trailer being the last ultimate trailer. it's an absurdly good trailer
