Gaming
esports
This is how Nintendo is fixing Bayonetta in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is coming real fast, and ahead of its release this month we checked in with a handful of pros to see if Nintendo have fixed one of the biggest issues in previous titles.
While the Smash Bros. finals at this year's Evo may not have been as exciting as previous years, it was still full of matches that got people on their feet. Ishiguro 'Raito' Tetsuya's wacky Duck Hunt and Jestise 'MVD' Negron's quick-witted Diddy Kong kept things interesting as the tournament dwindled down to the top eight players. The parity in characters wouldn't last, though.
The grand finals, between Zack 'CaptainZack' Lauth and Bharat 'Lima' Chintapall, were between two Bayonetta mains – a character widely despised for her overpowered mechanics. The night died down before the final game started, as dozens of viewers headed home in disappointment. They weren't interested in seeing what they considered Smash 4's kryptonite character face off in primetime in one of the most important tournaments of the year.
That incident, alongside drama with Bayonetta before and after the tournament, has only stoked the controversy in the community. Many are hoping that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which comes to Nintendo Switch on December 7, will correct the issues with the stylish diva.
"I think Bayonetta will still be really good, but not as much of an issue that she was in Smash 4," Montreal Smash 4 player Jayson 'Jayy' Medeiros tells us. "It felt like you had to know every countermeasure to all of her options before, and even then she could beat you due to her rage ladders and such. The developers already did a great job of adjusting her for Ultimate, though. They've hindered most of her key combo tools."
Few have gotten their hands on Ultimate, with playable builds only appearing at events like E3, CEO, and EVO. Even still, the game has been absolutely picked apart. Streams, Nintendo Directs, and those event play sessions have allowed pros to see what the game will be like ahead of time, and many believe Bayonetta has changed for the better. Maybe game director Masahiro Sakurai is always watching.
A better Bayonetta
After dissecting info available from all kinds of sources, the community consensus seems to be that Bayonetta will still be a top tier character, although not as powerful as before. "Looking at the parts of her game that made her dominant in Smash 4, I think she'll still be a mid-to-high tier character due to her edge guarding abilities. The off-the-top kills seem to be balanced out now," says Smash 4 player Joshua 'Shoe' Shoeman. "I predict she'll be in the top 15 of the game after some time."
One of Bayonetta's strongest kill options was forcing players up into the air, and pushing them offscreen. It's something that helped Lima dominate on his way to Evo 2018's grand finals. Once you're caught in one of her combo's, it's incredibly hard to get out. That seems to be fixed in Ultimate.
"Nintendo basically removed her favourite kill options from Smash 4, since they nerfed things like Witch Time, and her Up Air. I think this will make Bayo hard to be successful with," Medeiros tells us. "Players might struggle with her, since it's easier to know how to get out of her combos, and avoid getting caught in Witch time."
These changes, among other adjustments, have lead players to believe that the community should have a better reception to Bayonetta's appearance in Ultimate. "The community will be more lenient, as she seems unlikely to be the best anymore. She isn't lacking in defined weakness," says Smash 4 player Tyler 'tyroy' Awdisho. "She'll probably become more of a counter pick or character specialist character that won't be seen as often, and thus have less hate for it."
However, people who've played the game have only touched a demo. The full game could reflect tweaks and changes made recently, and we can't count our chickens before they hatch.
"If Bayonetta's too strong, perhaps making her hitboxes weaker at pressuring platforms would reduce her strength on triple platform layouts," Awdisho adds. "It seems like now her main method of killing will be dragging into the blast zone, and edge guarding, rather than up and back air."
A powerful Pikachu
Who's joining Ultimate’s top tier?
© Nintendo
It's still too early to establish an accurate tier list, but players have started to believe that characters like Young Link, Diddy Kong, Sheik, Inkling, Meta Knight, Marth, Mewtwo, and other returning characters may make up the higher tiers. One surprise, though, is the star of the Switch's latest Pokémon RPG.
"Pikachu is looking really scary, as it still has the absurd neutral that it's always had," Medeiros says. "But now he has a bunch of buffs. Its down-air now spikes, which is always great to have, and its neutral is a multi-hit move similar to Mewtwo's."
While still early, Pikachu could help mix up the meta, and ranking of top players if it ends up something higher than the B tier, where it was located in Smash 4. "Pikachu will be great at throwing opponents off the level, taking their airdodge and jump, and not letting them recover due to its thunderbolts, thunder, and other moves," Medeiros adds.
Outside Pikachu, several new characters, like Inkling Boy & Girl and returning characters, including the already-dominant Sheik, are shaping up to be members of the powerful group. But some are hoping that some unexpected faces rise up.
"My sleeper character is King K. Rool," Shoeman says. "I think he has tricky setups with his projectiles, and he'll have some unique kill setups that are hard to avoid," he adds. "Plus he has solid kill throws, and moves that lead into potential kill situations."
Regardless of how much time people have sunk into demos and watching Nintendo invitational footage, nothing is certain until people can really get stuck into Ultimate. "The thing is that a lot of characters are looking scary so we can't really tell if there's a set top tier just yet," Medeiros says. "Give the game a couple weeks after release, maybe a major or two, and we should get a good idea of the top tiers."
