Smash Bros. DOJO!! updates

In 2007 up to the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. Dojo!!, the website dedicated to information about the game and hosted by the game's chief developer Masahiro Sakurai, underwent a redesign and proceeded to show pieces of new information about the game at a rate of once every weekday. Each update provided by Sakurai to the site is reworded and reposted here.

List of updates
This list of updates covers all updates posted from November 1 to the present; for updates posted from May 22 to October 31, see Smash Bros. DOJO!! updates (archive).

November

 * November 1: "Meta Knight: Final Smash" : Meta Knight's Final Smash is identified as Galaxia Darkness: He swings his cape forward as if it's a grab move. If there's no one in front of him, the move and its Smash Ball is wasted. Any characters that get caught up by his cape get slashed a lot and receive loads of damage and get knocked around a lot, all the while shrouding the entire stage in darkness.


 * November 2: "On-Screen Appearances" : In the original Super Smash Bros., characters would appear onto the stage in their own unique methods in the 3-second countdown prior to the start of the match (Mario jumping out of a warp pipe, etc.). As this update reveals, this cosmetic aspect makes a return in Brawl.


 * November 5: "Fox's Misfortune" : A video continuing the story of the video in the "Donkey Kong Makes His Stand" video: Fox McCloud and his Arwing have crashed near the Kong's jungle. When Diddy Kong arrives to investigate, suddenly out of the lake Rayquaza emerges and takes Diddy hostage. Fox suddenly appears from the Arwing, rescues Diddy, and drives Rayquaza off by reflecting its Dragon Pulse back at it with his Reflector.
 * November 5: "Fire Emblem: Fire Emblem Theme" : The first music file in a long while is posted, this time being the main Fire Emblem theme arranged by the same individuals behind the Super Smash Bros. Brawl main theme, and with new lyrics added. Sakurai actually posts the translated lyrics with this update.


 * November 6: "Items from Previous Installments" : This update reveals a lot of items from the two previous Super Smash Bros. games returning in generally unchanged form, which are the Beam Sword, Home-run Bat, Fire Flower, Freezie, Party ball, Super Mushroom, Bob-omb, and Green Shell. The Beam Sword is light blue and can become very long with attacks, while each character's style of smashing swing with the bat is now unique to that character.


 * November 7: "Gray Fox" : The first Assist Trophy to be revealed for a third-party franchise in Brawl is Gray Fox (a.k.a. Frank Jaeger the Cyborg Ninja) from the Metal Gear series. He acts similar to Samurai Goroh and Lyn in sword-attack, but he slices repeatedly and the sword swings can reflect projectiles.
 * November 7: "Grab and Throw" : Another How To Play update illustrating basic Smash Bros. concepts, this time covering the concept of grabbing opponents and attacking and/or throwing them.


 * November 8: "Lucas: Special Moves." : All four of Lucas' special moves are revealed. His up, down, and forward Special moves are essentially the same PK Thunder, PK Fire, and PSI Magnet moves that Ness had previously, but with PK Fire being more powerful and shooting out its projectile horizontally. His new Standard Special move is PK Freeze, which is chargeable like Ness' PK Flash but sacrifices power for freezing capability. The update also shows the more psonic nature of Lucas' normal attacks, and his grab is a Rope Snake that's used as an item in the Mother games and as a Tether Recovery measure in this game.


 * November 9: "Norfair" : The Metroid stage previously seen during playtests at E for All is officially described in this update as Norfair, which is a similar lava-based stage as SSB's Planet Zebes and SSBM's Brinstar.


 * November 12: "Great Aether" : Ike's Final Smash, Great Aether, is officially showcased. The motions are same as his Aether attack, but is larger, more powerful, and can affect more enemies.


 * November 13: "Three Different Taunts" : The taunting system returns, but with a new twist; each character has three available taunts to them this time. They are achieved by pressing any of three directions on the D-pad for every control setup except the Wiimote + nunchuk setup, in which case the controls are the following: The 1 button for the "up taunt", the 2 button for the "down taunt", and the 1 and 2 buttons simultaneously for the "side taunt". It is currently unknown how taunts are accessible with the Wiimote-only setup, as the d-pad is used for movement.


 * November 14: "Handicap" : The Handicap feature returns, albeit in a far different form: the handicap this time refers to how much % damage the fighting character starts off with. You can start a character off at %50 damage, and that character will reappear on the stage with that amount of damage already received each time he returns to the stage following getting KO'ed.


 * November 15: "Meta Knight: Special Moves" : Meta Knight's four special moves, in spite of being showcased in a previous update, are explained in further detail. Mainly, his down special move Dimensional Cape allows him to move a short distance away elsewhere before he reappers, and his forward special move (which the site oddly now names "Drill Rush") can have its direction controlled as well.
 * November 15: "Kirby: Meta Knight's Revenge" : A music update that showcases Kirby music: a jazz-influenced medley of music heard in the Kirby Super Star subgame "Revenge of the Meta Knight". It will be available on the Battleship Halberd stage.


 * November 16: "Spectator" : Reveals that Brawl, like a lot of modern console games with online connectivity, will feature a "spectator mode" where you can watch matches being played by other players elsewhere, and you can actually bet some of your coins on characters you think might win, similar to casino-style betting on live horse races. Prizes are usually more coins, but depending on how many players are involved in the match a successful bet might even yield further prizes, like stickers.


 * November 19: "Ice Climbers: Final Smash" : The Final Smash of the Ice Climbers is the Iceberg, which summons a titanic mountain-shaped iceberg from the bottom of the stage to impale through it, damaging opponents and making ledges not completely engulfed by the iceberg smaller and more slippery. It does not affect the Ice Climbers themselves.


 * November 20: "Smart Bomb" : The Smart Bomb is showcased. It is a throwable bomb that generates a huge spherical explosion like the giant Bullet Bills in Melee. But once in a while the bomb will fail to detonate; it is the same story with Electrode, also showcased in the update.
 * November 20: "Training": The Training mode returns, featuring all of the exact same functionality as the Training mode of Melee. One new item appears to be a soccer ball.


 * November 21: "Color Changes" : Reveals the return of alternate colors for fighting characters, with each character having about six different colors this time. Alternate colors for several characters, such as Fire Mario, Yeti DK, Dark Link, Zelda as her colors were in Melee, and Fusion Samus, are shown.


 * November 22: "Saki Amamiya" : The character from the game Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Earth, Saki Amamiya, is confirmed as an assist trophy. With his unique armament called a Cannon Sword, he attacks with close-up sword slashes, jumps into the air, and shoots powerful projectiles.


 * November 23: "Lucas: Final Smash" : Lucas' Final Smash is the PK Starstorm, in which he calls down a vertical rain of large glowing meteorites to blast down through the stage. Avoiding this move seems very hard to achieve.
 * November 23: "Charged Special Moves" : This How To Play update covers the concept of some special moves being able to be charged up and unleashed at various points. Charged Special Moves include DK's Giant Punch, Link's Hero's Bow, Pikachu's Skull Bash, and Samus' Charge Shot.


 * November 26: "Control" : A Game Modes update that confirms what a long-past update hinted at previously: that you can assign to your registered name your customized configurations for the four controller types, and you can save it to your Wii Remote to carry your controller setups to a different Wii system (detailed instructions included in the update itself). It also confirms that with the Wii Remote/Nunchuk setup, you can perform Smash attacks by jerking the Wii Remote itself in the appropriate directions.


 * November 27: "Widescreen Support" : Brawl, like most Wii titles, supports widescreen display. Whether the screen is at the 4:3 standard display (the default) or the 16:9 widescreen display (the alternative viewing mode introduced in this update) can be chosen easily in a menu screen. Sakurai notes that if your television has screen-size settings called Wide and Full, the Full option is the ideal option to use because there is a chance the image may be shifted toward the center of the screen on Wide.
 * November 27: "Donkey Kong" : A music file that was arranged by a musician prominent in Nintendo's past, Hirokazu Tanaka, who was not included as part of the list of musicians until now when he "secretly joined the fray". It is a markedly distinctive track that takes elements of the simple music from the original coin-op arcade game Donkey Kong.


 * November 28: "Wario: Final Smash" : Wario's Final Smash is identified as Wario-Man. He eats a bit of garlic and dons pink-clored superhero attire, and for a period of time his battling abilities in general are enhanced. His midair-attacks now give him slight flying ability, and his special moves are made more powerful in nature, of particular note his Wario Chopper, which now becomes extremely powerful and so fast that Wario can easily end up zooming offscreen to a KO.


 * November 29: "Events" : The return of another single-player mode from Melee, Event Matches, which is a collection of special-situation Smash scenarios whose overall completion is one of Brawl's overall single-player goals. Each event this time has an image to help better identify it, and now each event can be played at three separate difficulty levels, each of which has a separate high score that can be recorded for it. Confirmed events are "Two Trouble Kings", "Pink Ball Repulsion", "Cleaning House in Skyworld", "Sleeping in the Eggs", and "Dark Link Duel".


 * November 30: "Melee Stages" : Confirms that Brawl will feature some classic stages returning from Melee, much like how Melee had a few old stages from the original Super Smash Bros. The one stage mentioned and showcased is the Temple, which appears identical. In general, however, some aspects of the returning stages are modified, and in addition to their old background music returning some of the old stages have new music arrangements for them, with a modification of the Temple music posted as a music file in the update.

December

 * December 3: "Friend List" : While the Wii itself includes a function called Wii Friends, the player will register a separate list of Smash friends in Brawl itself. The update gives a general description of how to create such a list and how to set up and play online mathches between friends on that list.


 * December 4: "Returning Pokemon" : Reveals a handful of Poke Ball Pokemon from the previous Smash Bros. games that will be making return appearances in Brawl. They are Staryu, Snorlax, Mew, Togepi, Bellossom, Wobbuffet, Entei, Suicune, Lugia, Ho-Oh, and Celebi, all apparently reprising their roles exactly. The extremely rare Mew and Celebi, in particular, have an added function; they will drop behind a present item like a CD before flying away.


 * December 5: "The Battle for the Smash Ball" : A How to Play update that uses a story, more or less, to further explain additional elements and aspects to the Smash Ball and Final Smashes. The Smash Ball will be floating across the stage when it appears, and a character can only be able to use their Final Smash by breaking the ball with attacks, rather than grabbing it as was the previous belief. When the character has the telltale fiery aura around them, they can use the Final Smash by simply pressing the button for the Neutral Special move without any directional input. But if they are attacked, the Smash Ball may reappear out of the character for somebody else to break and acquire. The update also reveals a system called the Pity Final Smash, where in long matches where one player is losing a lot of lives/points they may return to the stage with the Final Smash aura on them already as a sort of "bonus chance". Finally, the Item Switch menu is confirmed to return, with Smash Balls being one of the items whose appearance rates can be turned off and on.
 * December 5: "X: Tunnel Scene" : This music file is one of reportedly a handful added to the game by Sakurai simply because he liked it and was not influenced by popular opinion to include it. The music itself comes from a Japan-only Game Boy game named X, and Sakurai confirms there won't be any stage based on X in Brawl; there will be songs playing on stages themed after certain games and franchises that hail from other games that are completely unrelated.


 * December 6: "King Dedede: Final Smash" : Revealed this time is the Waddle Dee Army Final Smash. King Dedede summons many Waddle Dees to swarm the stage with much faster movement than when he normally uses his forward special move, the Waddle Dee Toss, and dangerous spiky Gordos occasionally appear along the Waddle Dees as well.


 * December 7: "With Anyone/Basic Brawl" : Delves into the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection aspect of Brawl more deeply and comprehensively. One main point is that in the With Anyone mode (not the With Friends mode), when playing either the Basic Brawl mode or the Team Battle mode, if an online human opponent gets disconnected, his character will be taken over by the CPU to prevent matches from ending abruptly without a conclusion. Another is that there is nothing restricting the player from fighting an opponent using a new character the player hasn't unlocked yet (and most characters in Brawl will be earnable in the Subspace Emissary mode), so there may be "spoilers" involved in playing online (but Sakurai concedes that that most likely does not matter much given the nature of how information proliferates across the Internet). Finally, the character and stage selection screens (at least as they appeared during the E for All event) are officially showcased with images.


 * December 10: "Bonsly" : Official confirmation and explanation of Bonsly as a Poke Ball Pokemon. This creature walks around on the stage, and it can be picked up, carried around, and hurled as a throwing item. It packs quite a punch when it hits an enemy it is thrown at and may even KO an opponent who's only at 50% health, though it can be repelled by Fox's Reflector.


 * December 11: "Rotation" : Explains a multiplayer option called Rotation mode, which is essentially a mode that assists in allowing many players around a single Wii to play their time's worth in a tournament-like session, setting up a system where you can choose how many players there will be per match and how many total players there are. One main help of this mode had to do with auto-loading their controller preferences.


 * December 12: "Option" : This update, first of all, displays Super Smash Bros. Brawl's main menu screen, which contains six parts/buttons: Group, Solo, Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, Vault, Options, and Data. Then the Options submenu is detailed, and that has seven segments: Screen (which is where the previously explained WideScreen/FullScreen feature is toggled), Deflicker (introduced, having the same functionality as the Deflicker option from Melee), Rumble (introduced, where you set rumble separately for GameCube and Wii controllers, and set these preferences to logged names), Controls (a previously explained submenu where controls can be configured for the player's logged name and saved to the Wii Remote), Sound (introduced, where you adjust the volume ratio between sound effects and music and can go into the Sound Test sreen, which is now available in Brawl from the very start and does not have to be unlocked like in Melee), My Music (a previously explained submenu where music occurence rate for each stage can be edited), and Erase Data (where you can individually erase all your high scores, Brawl records, Adventure mode data, and Vault Data).
 * December 12: "Ice Climber" : A music file based on Ice Climber, this is a noticeably different arrangement of the music that was used for Melee. This song is notable in that it will change its frequency and tone in response to how the stage it will play on, The Summit, cracks and slides down hill.


 * December 13: "Mario Circuit" : The Mario Kart-themed stage seen in the Nintendo World 2006 trailer is finally officially showcased as Mario Circuit. Taking place at the elevated intersection of a Figure 8 track, the main thing totally new revealed about the stage is that fighters' attacks can KO the Shy Guys on the karts.


 * December 14: "Stafy" : A new Assist Trophy character, Stafy is a yellow five-sided star character that stars, so to speak, in the Japan-only game series known as Densetsu no Stafy. He'll do a spin-attack, but can be attacked unlike other Assist Trophies.
 * December 14: "Waluigi" : A second new Assist Trophy character, Waluigi from the Mario universe (not counted as part of the Wario universe, as some suspected) is hence confirmed not to be a playable character. He will embed a character in the ground with his merciless stomping attack (like DK's Headbutt), then will send the target flying with one of two finishing moves: A strong kick or his tennis racket.


 * December 17: "Co-op Events" : This reveals that the Event mode is divided into two categories: One for scenarios to be played solo and one that accomodates two-player cooperative play. Confirmed Co-op events include Two Trouble Kings, Master the Pokémon Tag Battle, Fastest, Shortest, Sudden Death, and ALL MINE!. This also confirms the return of Coin matches, and that Target Smashes support cooperative play.


 * December 18: "Frigate Orpheon" : This is the second all-new stage confirmed for the Metroid universe. Frigate Orpheon is the space vessel that Samus infiltrates in the prologue sequence to Metroid Prime, taking place in the core chamber where Samus faces off against the Parasite Queen. It is not known if the Parasite Queen within its cylindrical shield will influence the action up front, but this is a stage that will flip itself upside-down when a warning siren blares after a while.
 * December 18: "Mother: Porky's Theme" : Music that is a remix of a song that plays in Mother 3 whenever the villainous Pokey Minch's army, the Pigmasks, appears.


 * December 19: "Team Healer" : Team Battles will return in Brawl, and this update introduces an item whose usage is only relevant to such battles: The Team Healer, which is basically a blue spherical item that you throw at a teammate during battle to recover their health meter. The amount of health recovered is proportional to how much damage they have already taken. This item can end up healing an opponent if it is thrown and connects with one.


 * December 20: "Kirby: Special Moves" : Official confirmation of Kirby's signature neutral special move, Inhale. Mainly, the update provides one image each for 18 of Kirby's hats, which covers almost all characters revealed for this game up to this point, including Squirtle, Meta Knight, and Snake, with the characters' hats not yet shown at this point being Ivysaur, Charizard, Ike, Lucas, and Sonic.


 * December 21: "Subspace Emissary Movie" : The first movie file posted on DOJO in a month and a half, this is simply a preview of what to expect in the Subspace Emmisary.


 * December 24: "Overalls Wario" : Reveals that Wario is a character who comes in two base appearances, each with their own palette swaps: Wario in his WarioWare biker jacket and the "traditional" outfit of Wario outside those games. This is purely an aesthetic touch that does not affect gameplay. This is somewhat similar to how Peach has a Daisy costume that does not affect gameplay, but does introduce a few aesthetic changes.


 * December 25: "Sonic: Final Smash" : On this Christmas Day, two Sonic-related updates are provided. The first is Sonic's Final Smash, simply titled Super Sonic, which transforms the normal blue Sonic into his gold-colored Super form, giving him aerial fighting powers and drastically increased power and speed for a while.
 * December 25: "Sonic the Hedgehog: Angel Island Zone" : The second update is this music file based on the first stage music in Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for Genesis. Also mentioned in the update is that Live and Learn, which was used for the Sonic Joins the Brawl Trailer, is going to be in the game as well.


 * December 26: "Trophy Stands" : Some trophies, namely trophies of enemies and bosses that appear in the Subspace Emissary mode, can only be acquired through a unique means: by weakening them through attacks and then throwing a unique item called a Trophy Stand at them to convert them into trophies for your gallery. The update also confirms that Rayquaza will be an actual boss that Fox and Diddy fight as a gameplay stage in the single-player mode, and that damaging Rayquaza to near-zero health but throwing a Trophy Stand at it instead of a KO punch will add its trophy to your collection in addition to defeating it. You have to be lucky enough for a Trophy Stand to randomly appear when and where you want it, though. Finally, the update indicates that bosses can be battled repeatedly in the player's Subspace game file through certain circumstances, so missing out on capturing a boss's trophy the first time can be rectified at a later date.


 * December 27: "Coin Launcher" : Another game mode update that reveals more of the game's menu screen structure, this time taking a look into the Vault menu, which has five buttons: Trophy Gallery, Trophy Hoard, Coin Launcher, Sticker Album, and Sticker Center. The Coin Launcher, in particular, is detailed as Brawl's follow-up to Melee's Trophy Lottery, and while you still spend coins to try and get trophies, this time it is in more of a mini-game format. Basically, on a game table not unlike a pinball board, you shoot coins out of a launcher to try and shoot trophies sliding around, and you earn trophies by shooting them down with multiple coins. Interspersed with the trophies are "enemy formations", and defeating formations on the board with your coin bullets will earn you Sticker bonuses as well, and if a missile enemy is not shot down by the time it hits your coin launcher, you take damage to your overall coin total. The update also indicates that the amount of coins you get from the various other modes increases proportionally to how many other players are playing on your game at the same time.


 * December 28: "Dragoon" : The last updates of 2007, these are accompanied by a notice that the next week DOJO will be taking a break from its routine update schedule and plans to resume posting updates the following week, starting January 7 2008. This update details the second new item from the Kirby series, the Dragoon ultimate racing machine from Kirby Air Ride. This item is unique in that it only appears in pieces, one piece at a time randomly. Picking up a piece adds an image of that piece to the character's health meter portrait, and once all three pieces are gathered by that character, they can aim the Dragoon from off-screen, and then charge through where they aimed with force describable in terms of the Home-Run Bat. Like in Air Ride, characters can attack each other to force the other player to drop the piece they have; a character can also lose a piece by dying.
 * December 28: "Share" : A Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection update that delves further into how to set Internet settings so that one can receive screenshots and stages from friends and Nintendo. Although not explicitly stated, there appears to be a limiting factor for how much one can send at a time, but it's never stated if these "points" have to be earned, or if you are alloted a certain amount each day.

January

 * January 7: "Melee Stages: Part 2" : The first update of 2008. The previous Melee Stages update reintroduced Temple as a returning stage for Brawl; this one reintroduces five more, which is Melee's Yoshi's Island, Corneria, Onett, Brinstar, and Rainbow Ride (The last of which is apparently renamed). All these stages appear exactly as before.


 * January 8: "STADIUM: Multi-Man Brawl" : Confirms the return of the Multi-Man Melee mode from Melee, renamed Multi-Man Brawl but otherwise keeping all six of the same submodes as before. Introduced as the Brawl counterparts to the Fighting Polygon Team and the Fighting Wire Frames are the Fighting Alloy Team, which are metallic in appearance and come in four colored and differently shaped varieties: Red Alloy, Blue Alloy, Yellow Alloy, and Green Alloy. This game mode also has a co-op Two Player-based version, and a Wi-Fi version called Team Multi-Man Brawl that is played With Friends.


 * January 9: "Olimar & Pikmin" : The first brand new character reveal in three months since King Dedede, Captain Olimar and the Pikmin from the Pikmin series are a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, hereby establishing the Pikmin universe. While no specific fighting details are revealed yet, Olimar generally fights by first plucking up to five colors of Pikmin so that they may be his battling utilities (he cannot perform Smash attacks without them around).
 * January 9: "Pikmin: World Map" : This subsequent update is a posting of arrranged Pikmin music. It is based on general world-map music.


 * January 10: "Snake: Final Smash" : Confirms Snake's Final Smash to be the Grenade Launcher, which is very unique: A helicopter swoops in and Snake grabs onto a ladder, and is pulled away from the battlefield toward the camera so that the back of Snake's head is close-up and visible on the left side of the screen, and for a short period of time he can shoot up to two clips of six grenade rounds each onto the stage in front to do explosive damage. Snake returns to the stage from the sky afterwards.


 * January 11: "Pikmin & Olimar: Special Moves" : Details all four of Pikmin & Olimar's Special moves. His neutral special is the Pikmin Pluck, where he can pick up a Pikmin from the ground like Peach's turnip, and he can have six Pikmin with him at any one time and their colors are randomly chosen. Each Pikmin color has its own setup of unique traits. He uses them one at a time for his Side, Up, and Down special moves. His Side Special Move, the Pikmin Throw, which throws Pikmin forward so they may stick to an opponent like a Gooey Bomb and damage the opponent over time. His Up Special move is the Pikmin Chain, which uses your currently visible Pikmin connected together as a whip-chain to recover to the field via Tether Recovery. And his Down Special move is the Pikmin Order, which is only useful if some of a Pikmin & Olimar player's Pikmin are standing around idly on the battlefield, so that the Pikmin will rejoin Olimar. This make Olimar one of Brawl's most unique characters.


 * January 14: "Challenges" : Confirms the existence of a feature similar to one seen in Kirby Air Ride: A tiled screen where requirements for various rewards throughout the game can be listed on each tile. The screen, called the Challenges screen, is all empty at first, but when you earn something its tile is activated to signify your achievement. Then the two tiles adjacent on either side have their requirements for their mystery rewards revealed, helping guide the player collect everything in the game faster than general. (Through this screen, for example, after you earn the "Frozen Hillside" music CD by conducting 10 Brawls on Battleship Halberd ten times, you learn from the tile to the right of it that you can get some sort of trophy by completing the Pink Ball Repulsion event match. Then after beating that match to get that trophy, another tile on the screen has its unlock method revealed, and so on and so forth.) The player is also allotted on their game files several Golden Hammers to use on some tiles so that they will get the rewards of some challenges without having to fulfill the actual unlock requirements. (Not all tiles can be forced open with these hammers, however, which probably includes tiles for new characters.)


 * January 15: "Distant Planet" : A Pikmin stage is revealed, based on the planet that the Pikmin games takes place in, which Brawl identifies as Distant Planet. The stage has many elements to it, including numbered pellets that characters can pick up and throw into onions so that items appear, torrential rains that damage and/or hinder the brawl, and the appearance of gigantic Bulborbs to swallow fighters whole. Seemingly more noteworthy than the update itself, though, is the notice that the game's release date has been delayed yet again, this time set for March 9th.