Some information from a Nintendo game tester

Greetings everyone. I am a game tester who works for Nintendo of America here in Redmond, WA. I have been one of many people testing the North American version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the last few months. I have been watching some of these boards lately and reading the many rumors that are flying around, including the 35 character roster. Since the game is going to be launched in Japan in just a few days, and it appears that most of the major stuff from the game has already been leaked...I thought I would just let the cat out of the bag on a few things:


First...the 35 character roster is REAL, and that includes R.O.B. (Robotic Operating Buddy) as a playable character. He is Brawl's gimmick character much like Mr. Game & Watch was Melee's. Yes, even I admit that I am disappointed by this roster (I really would have liked to see at least 40 characters in the game) but I'm just a game tester...I had nothing to do with the developement of the game.


There will be 41 stages in the game, and 10 of those are from Super Smash Bros. Melee. So, 31 new stages, and 10 classic Melee stages. The four Melee stages that have not been announced on the Smash Bros. Dojo are Mute City, Final Destination, Poke Floats, and SubCon (Super Mario Bros. 2).

I'm not going to spill the beans on any new levels though, you'll have to find out about them yourselves when the game is released.

As for Ridley, Geno, Krystal, and Mega Man (who seem to be the four most talked about characters who haven't been announced or confirmed)...none of them are playable as you should all have guessed by now.

Ridley is a boss in the Subspace Emissary.

Geno is neither a playable character, nor an assist trophey. There is a regular trophy you can collect of him though. There is also a sticker of him.

Krystal (like Geno) is neither a playable character, nor is she an assist trophy. She makes a brief appearance during a Star Fox cutscene in Subspace Emissary where Fox is being briefed about a mission (Slippy and Peppy also make guest appearances here). Krystal has one line of spoken dialog. She is also a regulary trophy you can collect and a sticker.

Mega Man...it should be obvious to anyone by now that he is not in the game whatsoever. Snake and Sonic are the only two 3rd party characters.

Anyway, I just wanted to clear this up. I hope you all enjoy the game regardless of whether your favorite characters made it into the final cut or not. Remember...there's always Super Smash Bros. 4.

Please go away.

Huh. I think your full of shi*t.

What do you know about Tingle?

This is starting to turn into spam viruses similar to Myspace.

I highly doubt your authenticity.

With the date being so close to the Japanese release of Brawl, I won't even waste my time debating wheter or not this crap is real.

You might as well post some of the move-sets such as move-sets of characters like Wolf and R.O.B. Since you already let the cat out of the bag.

that megaman part is clearly true

Instead of flaming, I think we should ask questions. At times like these, I wish I were a mod/admin to be able to see the guy's IP and do a location search to see if it really originates from Washington.

Ok, this is where I draw the line. I find it difficult to believe that Krystal won't be an AT after her voice actress posted it on her website...would hardly be noteworthy if only a single line of dialogue. I think I also recall hearing something about motion capturing.

Either way, the same person actually removed the Brawl info off her site. :| Interesting...

You're no Reno or MarkMan. Give us movesets, SSE summaries, that kind of thing.

Right ... sure. And I'm Ted Allen.

I would need more evidence to be convinced of this.

Why lie?

I mean honestly why waste your time?

"I thought I would just let the cat out of the bag on a few things"
"I'm not going to spill the beans on any new levels though, you'll have to find out about them yourselves when the game is released."

No new stages, quite ironic.
And no real useful information other than a few statements that have absolutely no credibility beyond your word.

Sorry I just don't buy that you are a game tester who comes out 5 days before the games release.

Flaming is more fun. Who would waste their time finding out if this guy is actually telling the truth, when he's probably just some noob who came in and posted on everybody's "Fear" of the ****ty 35 roster?

ShortFuse said:

Instead of flaming, I think we should ask questions. At times like these, I wish I were a mod/admin to be able to see the guy's IP and do a location search to see if it really originates from Washington.

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I'd just rather see what member he is on this board by matching IPs.

It's pretty sad though, I didn't even get passed the first line of this because I got sick of it.

Matt Silver said:

Flaming is more fun. Who would waste their time finding out if this guy is actually telling the truth, when he's probably just some noob who came in and posted on everybody's "Fear" of the ****ty 35 roster?

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Flaming's stupid and knee jerk. Ask him questions. If he doesn't answer, flame away. -_- Or you can just simply ignore him.

Is this guy full of S**t? Or what!

KaiserX said:

Flaming's stupid and knee jerk. Ask him questions. If he doesn't answer, flame away. -_- Or you can just simply ignore him.

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Like he's going to give us real stuff.

Matt Silver said:

Like he's going to give us real stuff.

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And that's the part where you flame away.

Or ignore.

Or wait until 1/31 to flame away.

It all makes sense, sadly.

Oh well. Even if it's true, the game will be awesome.

People have to deal with the fact that we just might end up with a crappy 35 character roster.

A roster leak happened with Melee, and no one believed it because of how horrible it was with Dr. Mario, Pichu, Ganondorf being a Falcon-clone, and Roy. Everyone REFUSED to believe it when it was leaked. This seems to be the same type of thing, however it isn't confirmed all points are showing it's most likely THE roster or part of the roster.

Seriously, all I hear people doing on these boards is bashing the 35 character roster just because THEIR FAVORITE CHARACTER isn't on it. People are just gonna have to face the reality that it might just be the roster.

Any sort of voice acting in a major game would be worth mentioning on a resume. She apparently voices multiple characters, like Knuckle Joe (per her online resume, information since removed). If Krystal has a line or two of dialog, it would make sense to include it. Yes, I'm disappointed to hear it, but I guess her presence is what we'll have to accept.

But I'm wary the fact that most leaks and spoilers match up exactly. Looking at it one way, they're all telling the truth and it's believable. The other way, they're all spilling the same fake information. They neglect to reveal too much, but just enough.

Either way, it's coming on sooner rather than later.

Luke Groundwalker said:

People have to deal with the fact that we just might end up with a crappy 35 character roster.

A roster leak happened with Melee, and no one believed it because of how horrible it was with Dr. Mario, Pichu, Ganondorf being a Falcon-clone, and Roy. Everyone REFUSED to believe it when it was leaked. This seems to be the same type of thing, however it isn't confirmed all points are showing it's most likely THE roster or part of the roster.

Seriously, all I hear people doing on these boards is bashing the 35 character roster just because THEIR FAVORITE CHARACTER isn't on it. People are just gonna have to face the reality that it might just be the roster.

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That's the thing. People automatically believe this by comparing it to Melee's situation, and doing that is basically going with the worse roster out there. I'm bashing that roster because it just seems so illogical to me, and I don't know where all the support of it came from.

Matt Silver said:

That's the thing. People automatically believe this by comparing it to Melee's situation, and doing that is basically going with the worse roster out there. I'm bashing that roster because it just seems so illogical to me, and I don't know where all the support of it came from.

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How is it illogical? I mean, most of the actual work done on the game was the ton of features in the game. The features make up probably around 70% of the whole game. That, and to create a balanced and original roster is hard on its own, and I'm sure Sakurai struggled to put as much as he can in despite what number it is.

And the support comes from, y'know, the guy who leaks it on NeoGaf has been leaking very accurate info for years now?

What gets me is that Nintendo would SOOOOO not pay to just make Geno a trophy/sticker. Lulz.

Matt Silver said:

That's the thing. People automatically believe this by comparing it to Melee's situation, and doing that is basically going with the worse roster out there. I'm bashing that roster because it just seems so illogical to me, and I don't know where all the support of it came from.

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No, they are, unlike you, preparing for disappointment. The roster more probably than not won't be 50 characters with Ridley, Geno, vague FE characters, Wolf Link, Young Link, LttP Link, Weakest Link, Dubious Link No-one Cares About. I would currently be fine if my favourite characters would "just" be a sticker, trophy, AT, or have a single line in the Subspace Emissary. Seeing as this is regarded as "the last Smash Bros. game" (see Iwata Asks), they tried to put as much Nintendo representation in it as possible. And that CANNOT all be playable.

No response after 10 minutes. Seems like he didn't want to "let the cat out of the bag" as he claimed.

In truth, if a person were a game tester for Nintendo, I would have expected a post long ago saying "GUYS!!! I HIT THE JACKPOT! I'M A BRAWL GAME TESTER! I'll share the news as I get it" and would become a reliable "prophet".

And game testers are people who work for Nintendo, not random people off the street. Sakurai already said that one of the music composers was one their game testers since he was a such a complete n00b.

Matt Silver said:

That's the thing. People automatically believe this by comparing it to Melee's situation, and doing that is basically going with the worse roster out there. I'm bashing that roster because it just seems so illogical to me, and I don't know where all the support of it came from.

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MarkMan and Reno are where the support came from. This is either the truth coming out or some idiot cashing in on their lies and/or misinformation.

Also, neither MarkMan or Reno said "35 characters." But PoR and Nysae did, if I recall right... Their observations matched MarkMan and Reno long beforehand.

Being "illogical," despite not being illogical in the first place, isn't much reason to "bash" anything. If R.O.B. were replaced with a crappy character that wasn't already "deconfirmed" via coin launcher or SSE enemy, you'd still be calling it "illogical" simply because you don't like it. Face it. Polls out there questioning "HOW MANY CHARACTERS DO YOU THINK ARE IN BRAWL" always end up having everyone voting the highest number. But it's not what you think, it's what you want. It's not the same thing.

This guy will either give us new information and prove himself valid, or we can all move the hell on. Flaming won't really work out either, as this may be pending a lock as it is.

What gets me is that Nintendo would SOOOOO not pay to just make Geno a trophy/sticker. Lulz.

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Yeah, that's a pretty epic find right there.

We gotta consider Geno is third party...er...second party...two and a half party? Party of five? Ok, he's not first party, we get that much. He'd still need to have his rights from Squeenix for this game.

lol pretty funny

Guys this guy lies right off the bat. Think about it? Nintendo had to give credit to SquareEnix just to use him in M&L for a brief period. Would they really waste their time to include him as a trophy/sticker? No. He's either a playable character or nothing.

I did say it was illogical to me. Sure sure, one leaker uses his power from the past to post some Brawl stuff. BAM! Everyone believes it. I'm just shocked that the developers of this game would make everything else so awesome and ignore the popular characters (Brawl is fanservice after all)? That's where my logic kicks in and thinks: "Why would it be like this?".

Call it denial or whatever, but I just don't think this roster makes sense (to me), and I just don't want it to be true (and a lot of people don't want it to be true I know, but it seems there's not many of those people fighting it).

Thanks TC, for coming and trolling.

I hadn't seen Gamefaqs' Brawl board in the last 5 minutes, so I'm glad you brought it to us.

Can we close this topic?

Oh, and the dude's right about Smash Bros. 4. With all the development time this Smash has had, we are guaranteed an expanded version in the near future. Think "Super Smash Bros. Brawl Turbo". I don't know if Sakurai would be involved, but Nintendo would be stupid to waste all the groundwork he and his team built.

Matt Silver said:

Call it denial .

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Oh, but I will

@OP, why would he bring Pokefloats back in when he talked about how he deliberately kept stages like that out of this game in the Iwata Asks piece?

please go away

Tinkerer said:

Oh, but I will

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Good on you.

Geno is the property of Square-Enix. What makes you think that Masahiro Sakurai and his team would try obtain the rights to Geno just to make him a trophy?

Where's the credit to your name? Wanna give us a name? Wanna give us some solid foundation of proof? No?

Then piss off.

5@/\/\U5 said:

@OP, why would he bring Pokefloats back in when he talked about how he deliberately kept stages like that out of this game in the Iwata Asks piece?

please go away

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Maybe Sakurai brought back Poke-Floats BECAUSE he didn't want to create more stages like it.

spindash said:

Geno is the property of Square-Enix. What makes you think that Masahiro Sakurai and his team would try obtain the rights to Geno just to make him a trophy?

Where's the credit to your name? Wanna give us a name? Wanna give us some solid foundation of proof? No?

Then piss off.

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I'm thinking Square wouldn't make Nintendo pay much, if at all, for something as small as a trophy. It would be like his Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga appearance.

Here we go with the 5 character roster believers trying to defend everything a leaker who supports it says.

The 35 character roster seems like the best conclusion from the "evidence" presented. A few people with more reputation than others all shared similar reports that compliment similar ideas, ect.

But this poster just seems to be jumping on their side so when the most likely presented roster is right (if it is) he can say he told everyone so.