Clarification on Jason K. Addae

 Today my dad told me that the topics I discuss here on my blog and on my podcast, are over the top. In all honesty, I really didn't know he tuned in. Not that I'm being covert, but actually, at this point, I thought the viewership was narrowed down to a specific niche. However, nonetheless, I have to write this to clarify myself, I believe once again.

  To start with, he told me this while admitting he didn't actually listen to or read any of the posts. The thing about me, is that I stated very often on my Magnum Opus project, that I speak in depth about whatever topic I discuss, and I don't speak colloquially often. For the average person to process what I discuss, they have to discard the way they interpret most of their peers. Even when it may seem I am taking sides in a matter or becoming "involved" as some people interpret it, that is not the case. If you listen carefully to may analysis on any topic, be it entertainment or touching on political happenings, I am not speaking in a mundane sense. I'm am correlating it to a bigger point. If I have any opinions, usually it is on a mindstate, and never a social position involving politics.


  Please do not interpret my work or discussions as vulgar or profane, as they are nothing of the sort. Listen or read carefully, and keep in mind that often, what I say has several, or a single, much deeper inference than it would seem if looked at from a colloquial standpoint. It's not to insult the average joe, but I'm not him. And I understand that in recent history, society as a larger and larger whole, tend to not have patience, and consider everything in its simplest state and as generalized as possible. I however, have not changed. I don't think that way, nor do those I roll with. If you look into my work, you have to be prepared to think deep, or you will just confuse yourself. I know predominantly, many of my relatives frequent these pages and exploits, and often draw negative conclusions, because they base how they interpret it on their image of me as a relative and/or child. My family is not a super intimate one. While loving, we don't get to know each other's insides. However, with my transparency, the opportunity is always here for those willing to think.

Price of Admission- Super Smash Brothers Ultimate- Review

  I must say, there is something special about getting value out of a purchase. I've been adamantly critical of online gaming and the moves that this current generation have been making in the entertainment industry, and I still am. However, it's amazing when what makes gaming or any entertainment great, shines through all of the crap, on that rare occasion.

  I preordered Super Smash Brothers Ultimated early in 2018, and decided midway through, to switch to a digital copy, which I did, and received on launch date. I was, and still am, disgusted with the offline single player modes. There is absolutely no excuse for the lack of content. And the problem is that developers don't feel pushed to add modes, because the majority of the idiots playing the game, feel that it's "loaded" with single player content, simply because they feel single player content and the fact that they can play matches in versus or online, are the same thing. Meanwhile, games that held down the genre in Smash's absence, like  Brawlout, for the same platform, continue to expand their single player content, first adding party modes and arcade mode expansions, and now recently adding trial modes as well as stages and characters.

  However, with all of that said, I have to praise the design of the combat system in Ultimate, as well as the AI design. Going back, and playing Smash 4, one to the things that stands out, is the improved challenge from the computer matches. This could have been better taken advantage of, with a challenge and trial mode, to help you  work out the deeper mechanics of the game. I feel that even with tough matches against the CPU, you still need to have a mode that puts you against a gauntlet of unique challenges and fights, to help build situational skills. SFV did this, and Brawlout has done this as well. It is very essential.

  When it comes to aesthetics, Smash Ultimate shines. The game has not only deep mechanics, but gorgeous visuals, and textures, graphics and lighting that pops to the highest power. It also has an enormous roster of over 70 characters from the entire series, and over 100 stages. In all honesty, when ever you play a fighter after this game, you will have a hard time looking at rosters and stages the same. No game comes even close. Unfortunately, many of the levels are player killers, and ruin competition by randomly locking in on, and killing a player for several stocks during battle at times. And there is nothing you can do about it- from the stomping boots of WarioWare's stage, to the falling blocks of the Wii Pet stage, to the  horror book kills in the Spooky stage, they all feel stupid and cheap. In fact, with so many stages, so few of them feel meant for honest battle. The game does boast an insanely good soundtrack, also huge. You collect over 800 songs, some remixes, but nonetheless, amazing content.

  The game has a super simple Classic mode that everyone seems to dote over, which makes no sense to me at all. It is ridiculously short, and has curtailed difficulty with the stupid way it is set up. Basically, you start with the ability to slide a difficulty scale up or down to decide where to start. You are limited to starting with no more than a 5 out of 10 difficulty. This is similar to Smash 4, except for the fact that in Smash 4, the limit was not 5, but rather the complete 9.9 or so, and the mode lasted way longer, allowing you to sustain play at that level. In Ultimate, there are only about 6 classic fights. There is an extremely stupid mid-level, where you collect coins in a times run. It lasts 30 seconds, and is the exact same level for everyone, each time through. The mode sucks, and I'm sick of idiot arguing contrary to that with me. Then you have the adventure mode, which has received constant criticism. It also lacks real enjoyable replayability, being long, but repetitive.

  The money modes that usually help to salvage the game, have been removed, as apparently, the developers wanted to "take the game more seriously." That is also a joke I will get into shortly. All-star mode as well as multi-man melee, have been crammed into one mode. The trimmings for All-star have been completely removed, and there is no middle hub world in the mode. It is now an endless mode, that has some minor fun factor, but no fulfillment whatsoever. Cruel Melee is also back, and is probably the better of the multi-man modes.

 I really like the changes to the mechanics, and I find myself often going into training to try things, with no clear way of doing so. Training mode is also stupidly designed. Not only can you not record actions for the CPU, but the set actions they can perform are for no known reason, extremely limited. The only specials you can set them to perform, are their neutral special or forward smash attack. Whoever thought that up should be euthanized.  Yet, no one complains about this stuff. There is even a glitch, where the game itself won't load if you have your Wi-Fi still on, but aren't around a connection. This leads me off to another tangent:

  For some reason, this generation has become gridlocked. I took my phone out in the doctor's office the other day, while waiting for my appointment, and went to play some chess. I have chess, as well as Need For Speed on my phone and one or 2 other games. It just so happened that in the office, not for the first time, there was no wi-fi to be had. Would you know, the chess app would not load. I went to play Carmen Sandiego. No go- requires wi-fi and access to the net. I went to play Need For Speed- same thing. I went through every game on my phone and came to the realization that, today, you have to have internet access to use applications, even offline. And I'm surrounded by slow-boiling frogs, who don't even see this as an issue at all. It is more than an issue, because this generation has become overly social-reliant. People can't take a breath without the acknowledgment of the next person.

  The game's online mode has also rightly received criticism. However, I will say, that oddly enough, this is also where the game was saved to an extent. The fighting system, as I mentioned, is one of the things done very well in this game, and this shines in the overall online matches. However, the input lag in general, as well as character disparities, almost destroy this. As I said before, they wanted to be serious this time around. The problem is that they undermine this with the imbalance of characters. I use Little Mac, who is a short ranged boxer, with horrible recovery when off the stage. He has decent power and speed, but is a sitting due at range, and when launched. In the same friggin game, you have characters like Isabelle and Jigglypuff. Isabelle is a range spamming character who has excellent recovery. Jigglypuff is not a range character, but has very good speed, improved weight, and extremely high power and recovery. My secondary is Ganon, and there have been countless matches, when, as Ganon, who's signature is his power, I will go blow for blow and lose to a Jigglypuff. This is added to the fact that when you do launch characters like her, Snake, and Princess Peach, even right up to the blast zones at the corners of the screen, they have the ability to fly all the way back, fighting the whole way, with ease, when characters like Ganon and Mac have to hope they aren't launched too far and that they aren't aggressively pursued. This leads to incredibly imbalanced and control smashing matches, where you are derped out by a character whore who spams the simple crap they know to get a win. No skill needed. How serious does that look?

  What changed this overall negative experience, was one night. It sounds very impulsive and simple, but it really was one night, where the mechanics got a chance to shine. Similar to Street Fighter 5, where the Survival mode frustrated me and then gained my respect when I saw what it accomplished, this game did that with online Co-op. I was playing solo online attempting to achieve Elite Smash rank, which I was just shy of, and kind of gave up on at this point. On that night I speak of, I could have done it, if it weren't for sheer fatigue. I'll explain the story:

  I played solo the whole time, going through matches, winning the majority, and losing monster points for every loss, in a points system that makes no sense. I was frustrated and  had raged many times at this point, going through a couple of controllers on the way. Then I looked online to see what method all of these people were using to rank up. You see, the thing that really stings a competitive player, is not only to lose to inferior competition for extremely stupid reasons including lag, and character imbalance; but to have swag with a character, and see players that have none, outrank you with that same character. I have one of the best Little Macs online, skill-wise, because I've used him since he came out in Smash 4, and actually developed him. And when it comes to Ganon, I have yet to see players outside of pro-level, that demonstrate the level of swag I do with the character. Yet, I was seeing Ganons online that were close to elite, with absolutely no footsies and skill at all, and I wondered how they got there. Then I read that Co-op with Team Battle was the method to use to be successful. So I decided to try it. It wasn't as simple as that though.

  You are matched up with random players that are usually around your rank. And you have teams that can be difficult to deal with. I was using Ganon, as I decided to rank him up. The matchmaking system picks according to your presets, and if it can't fulfill that, it will default to a close, but random setup. At times, you may be put in a free for all with 3 or 4 players, instead of team battle. I played for a bit, with some success, but inconsistently. Then, I came across an Inkling player. Now, to be fair, Inkling is a high tier character. But she has weaknesses galore, just like Ganon, and can't derp people out at range. She does have good recovery. I teamed up with this dude who played her, and let me just preface with saying, this dude is now my ace boon koon.

  There is something that is special about friendship in general. When you meet a stranger, you never know what will come of it in advance, but you never need to be told who your best friends are. There are intangibles that make it clear. It can be summed up in one word- Synergy. When you and someone else compliment each other in a way that not only covers your flaws, but augments your strengths, it's a magic that you just can't manufacture. It happens or it doesn't. And it doesn't happen often. There was something about that Inkling player- shout-out to HyperLink. When we teamed up, it wasn't long before it was clear that our team was just different. As the level of competition rose, and we continued to dominate, I knew we had that synergy. We faced some extremely difficult teams, and after the first few wins, we both knew the other wasn't leaving. We just kept locking in our position for the next match, over and over and over again. And each team can do the same thing. We ran into some tough Luigi, Megaman, and Dark Pit teams, that would not leave the room. They insisted on playing not just the set, but endless matches, until they were satisfied. And each and every match, we found a way to win, and dominate teams like that, even at the high level. And along the way, we both got visibly better and more refined. There were matches that he came through and elevated to ultra-instinct level to pull out the win in 2 on 1 situations against tough opponents, and then there were matches when I did the same, which at first surprised me. It was refreshing to be playing so well and clearly, with a helper there to focus my attacks. And we had to win. Some of these teams would not go away until they were convinced we were better, or even simply, that we could deal with the difficult matchup. Some of them, I considered point bombers, who were willing to lose, as long as they knew they had difficult characters or teams to deal with and were a constant threat to run away with a win and major points. The fact that we weathered all of that was truly special.


   It was so memorable, and we both had the same rank and points and escalated up to the higher ranks together. It was about 130AM before I started to fatigue, and even then, we kept winning. What we had was clearly a dynasty. Over the course of those 4 or 5 hours, we literally lost only about 2 or 3 matches. At the end, the matches started dying out, and eventually the room became more empty. One of the last matches was a free for all, where for the first time the whole night, we were broken up. There was an unwritten and unsaid rule that we were to jump the fool in the middle. It was only a 3 player match that time. We dispatched of him, and then we fought each other. I think I won that match, and then we left the room. I went to sleep not long after, and I truly had a different outlook for the game at that point. The fact that teamwork was able to get us over the games flaws, was truly special. It made the game stand out to me more and it made the combat system seem more balanced. It really brought out the best in my abilities.

  I didn't really intend to review this game at first. In fact, I haven't been thinking about reviews. I have a bunch on my mind, and my computer is gone. I now used different equipment other than a full blown PC, so uploads are still a challenge. However, in light of it all, the game deserves my feedback, and as much as it disgusted me in the outset, I have an appreciation for the framework. This game has a bunch of still untapped potential, and hopefully Nintendo will see that at some point. But for now, I've hung it up, and I must say, I'm more satisfied than I thought I would be. I must give it a solid 8/10.