Nintendo Direct

"Direct" redirects here. For the type of move that makes direct contact, see Specials: Direct.

Nintendo Direct is a series of online video presentations made by Nintendo at irregular intervals to demonstrate and announce new games. Alongside other games, announcements about Super Smash Bros. 4 have been made at Nintendo Direct presentations.

Generic Nintendo Directs

• In the E3 Direct on June 11, 2013, Satoru Iwata revealed the first trailer for Super Smash Bros. 4 for the Wii U and the 3DS, which also demonstrated the addition of Villager. After the main trailer, Mega Man debuted in a separate video. Wii Fit Trainer's reveal trailer was also later shown on the same day in Nintendo's E3 booth.
• The normal presentation on August 7th, 2013 confirmed Luigi as a playable character for the new titles, as part of The Year of Luigi. Interestingly, while every other character that has been revealed in a Nintendo Direct had a reveal trailer or video footage showing them off in Smash 4, Luigi's reveal was just an announcement with some accompanying screenshots.
• The normal presentation on October 1st, 2013, confirmed Sonic's return as a playable character, showing his reveal trailer.
• The normal December 18th, 2013 presentation confirmed Rosalina as a newcomer, showing her reveal trailer, in addition to indirectly confirming the return of the Fire Flower, Green Shell, and Poké Ball through Rosalina's trailer.
• The February 13th, 2014 presentation confirmed Little Mac as a newcomer, showing his reveal trailer.
• The August 29th, 2014 presentation, which was only presented in Japanese, confirmed Shulk as a newcomer, who had been leaked shortly prior.
• The November 5th, 2014 presentation showed the trailer for Duck Hunt, meaning that all newcomer trailers had been shown at that point.

Super Smash Bros. Direct 4.8.2014

This special direct was fronted by Masahiro Sakurai and was completely focused on giving information about Super Smash Bros. 4, in addition to revealing new and returning elements. It was known as the Dairantou Smash Brothers Direct, "大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ Direct" in Japan, though this Nintendo Direct was referred to as Super Smash Bros. Direct in Japan as well.

Character announcements

• Zero Suit Samus and Sheik were each confirmed to return as completely solo characters, with it additionally being announced that characters will no longer be able to transform into another character mid-match. While not directly stated, this announcement disconfirmed the Pokemon Trainer returning as a playable character in the same design style he had in Brawl, since his fundamental concept was based around character switching.
• Yoshi was confirmed to return as a playable character, with his altered posture and movement being explicitly shown off.
• After the Smash Direct finished, a reveal trailer was played, that showed off the Poké Ball Pokemon, revealed Charizard's return as a solo playable character, and revealed Greninja as a newcomer.
• Some differences to returning characters' movesets have been shown and explained, including Final Smashes.
• Special moves will be customizable to some extent; though the details have yet to be revealed, it has been shown that it will go beyond just altering a move's damage and knockback output, with the function and properties of special moves being able to be completely changed. However, it was confirmed that, whilst they would be usable during local multiplayer and "With Friends" online play, they would be disallowed during "With Anyone" play.

Stage announcements

Several stages were revealed and/or showcased, including past stages from Brawl and Melee. It has also been revealed that the Wii U and 3DS versions will have different past stages. In addition, it was confirmed that some stages will have boss characters that appear and attack players during normal gameplay, that can be fought and defeated; when defeated, they will erupt in a massive explosion, that will harm all players except for the one who dealt the finishing blow. It was also shown that most stages will have a "Final Destination form", which turns the stage into a single large flat platform with no additional platforms, while removing all stage hazards.

Multiplayer announcements

The Online mode was confirmed to be be present on both versions. The other multiplayer announcements revealed were:

• Two game modes for "With Anyone" were announced: a casual-geared mode similar to Basic Brawl called For Fun, and a competitive-geared mode called For Glory.
• Players will no longer be anonymous on the "With Anyone" modes, with their Nintendo Network ID being fully visible.
• Players can now be reported for frequently disconnecting during matches and for griefing, which can result in the offending players getting banned from playing on the wi-fi modes. Players who abuse the report system to falsely report others can get penalised as well.
• A ranking system called Global Smash Power will be implemented. Unlike rankings in other games, it uses an inverse ranking system showing how many people the player has outranked, rather than just stating their place in a global ranking, and it will be influenced by the player's single-player mode scores.
• The 3DS-exclusive Smash Run multiplayer mode was revealed, a mode that has players compete against each other while collecting powerups, in gameplay similar to The Subspace Emissary.

Item announcements

• Several items were confirmed via a showcase, revealing previously unseen returning items, and revealing new items.
  • The returning items revealed were the Beam Sword and Smart Bomb. Other returning items revealed outside this item showcase during other parts of the Direct or in additional screenshots released to the press after the direct, were the Blast Box, Deku Nut, Franklin Badge, Freezie, Golden Hammer, Gooey Bomb, Hammer, Heart Container, Hothead, Lightning Bolt, Lip's Stick, Maxim Tomato, Mr. Saturn, Pitfall, Poison Mushroom, Sandbag, Screw Attack, Smoke Ball, Soccer Ball, Spring, Starman, Star Rod, Super Mushroom, Superspicy Curry, Team Healer, Timer, Unira, and Warp Star.
  • The new items revealed were the Back Shield, Bombchu, Fire Bar, POW Block, and Rocket Belt. Other new items revealed outside this item showcase during other parts of the Direct or in additional screenshots released to the press after the direct, were the Beehive, Boomerang, Drill, Killer Eye, Special Flag, Spiny Shell, and Super Leaf.
• Assist Trophy characters were showcased, revealing previously unseen or confirming already seen returning Assist Trophies, and revealing new Assist Trophies.
  • The returning Assist Trophies revealed and confirmed were Andross, Devil, Dr. Wright, Knuckle Joe, Lyn, Saki Amamiya, and Samurai Goroh.
  • The new Assist Trophies revealed were Chain Chomp, Color TV-Game 15, Dark Samus, Elec Man, and Midna. It was additionally shown what Ashley, Isabelle, Mother Brain, and Skull Kid do when summoned.
• Poké Ball Pokémon were showcased, revealing previously unseen Pokémon, as well as revealing new Pokémon. The Master Ball was also shown, which only contains rare and legendary Pokémon.
  • The returning Pokémon revealed were Bellossom, Deoxys, Electrode, Entei, Meowth, Metagross, and Staryu.
  • The new Pokémon revealed were Arceus, Eevee, Fennekin, Gogoat, Keldeo, Kyurem, Meloetta, Victini, and Xerneas (while Xerneas has been previously shown in a screenshot, this is the first time it was confirmed to be a Poké Ball Pokémon).
  • Some additional Pokémon that weren't part of this reveal appeared in other video of the Direct or in screenshots released to the press after the Direct. These Pokémon were Chespin, Darkrai, Goldeen, Latias, Lugia, Mew, Snorlax, and Spewpa, who appear as Poké Ball Pokémon as well.
  • In the beginning of Charizard's/Greninja's reveal trailer, many Pokémon can be briefly seen being spawned from a flurry of Poké Balls. Interestingly, most of the Pokémon are either Pokémon already confirmed to be Poké Ball Pokémon, or Pokémon that were Poké Ball Pokémon in the past games; it was later confirmed in a pic of the day that these Pokémon will have a role in Smash 4. The Pokémon shown here that weren't shown in the Direct or in any other screenshots, were Gardevoir, Giratina, Inkay, Kyogre, Oshawott, Togepi, Snivy, Suicune, Swirlix, and Zoroark.
• Through the broadcast, some of the new Trophies were shown.

Trivia

• As with most Brawl trailers, all gameplay seen in the Direct lacks voices for the playable characters (due to voice acting being one of the last parts of development). There are however two exceptions: the reveal of the Halberd stage, and the reveal of Yoshi, both which use voices from Brawl.
• Demonstration Wi-Fi battles are labeled as Tokyo vs. Kyoto, similar to the demonstration ones for Brawl.
• Diddy Kong's and Lucario's pictures by their percentages in the direct are strangely their Brawl artworks.
• The US broadcast was translated via a spoken translation, whilst the European broadcast used the same translator, but was subtitled.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U: 50-Fact Extravaganza

A Direct that revealed 50+ new elements included in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U aired on October 23rd at 3pm PDT. It was hosted by Xander Mobus, the announcer from Super Smash Bros. 4.

Character announcements

• Bowser Jr. was officially announced towards the end of the Direct, with his trailer.
• Jigglypuff was shown multiple times throughout the Direct, despite not being officially announced yet.
• Mewtwo was confirmed as a DLC character free for owners of both versions of the game towards the end of the Direct, with a release date of Spring 2015.

Stage announcements

A number of stages were confirmed for the Wii U version, including an official name for the previously leaked minecart stage. It also confirmed "big stages", designed for eight-player battles, including Big Battlefield and the aforementioned stage, as well as a Miiverse-based stage set for release post-launch.

Here are all the stages that were fully revealed:

• Big Battlefield
• Mario Circuit
• Mario Circuit
• Luigi's Mansion
• Woolly World
• Yoshi's Island
• Jungle Hijinx
• Kongo Jungle 64
• 75m
• Bridge of Eldin
• Norfair
• The Great Cave Offensive
• Temple
• Lylat Cruise
• Pokémon Stadium 2
• Port Town Aero Dive
• Skyworld
• Wrecking Crew
• Wuhu Island
• Miiverse

Mode Announcements

The mode Special Orders, which was previously teased by Sakurai on Miiverse, was officially announced. Additionally, the board game-like mode Smash Tour and Stage Builder, which were previously leaked by Amazon, were also confirmed, alongside Events, Special Smash, and other modes.

Trivia

• In PAL territories, this direct was named "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U: 50 Must-See Things".
  • Additionally, the release date listed for Earthbound was changed to "2013" - the year the game was first officially released in Europe.
• Skyworld was erroneously named a Legend of Zelda stage; it actually hails from the Kid Icarus series.
• The Fact 53 was erroneouly named Sound Test, but actually it was Sound Track.

External links

• SSB4 E3 Nintendo Direct trailer
• April 2014 SSB4 Nintendo Direct