People don't play Yoshi right now even though he's really good, but that applies to half the cast. I feel like the tournament metagame is stagnated badly right now. Games outside of tournaments tend to be much more interesting.
When money's on the line, it definitely feels like people are going with what they know will let them win rather than try something outside the box. The two aren't mutually exclusive nor is it a bad thing to think, but I think we're more likely to experiment when we know we won't be losing anything major from the probable losses that come with it.
You should get with the times on this.
Funny thing about customs, I actually was never fully on board with adopting them so early. Mewtwo isn't out, and it's too late to decide some custom movesets for him so the likely fate for him is either default only or banned until after EVO. As well, I feel like people are now leaning too heavily on custom move gimmicks rather than dedicating this early time with the game to advance their character's default meta. If custom moves end up being too problematic down the line, the meta will end up regressing because so many people have invested time into customs rather than fully understanding their character's options.
On the other hand, this sudden customs movement has led to everyone discovering custom moves like that crazy Skull Bash, Timber Counter, Power Vision, Order Tackle + Reflector and so on much earlier than otherwise. We're finding out the bad alongside the good sooner than if we let customs be that side thing, and this only means we can develop new counter-strategies at a much earlier point in the game's life than if they were introduced later.
Customs are a weird thing, but I'm down with them because the Western scene is and I can't just ignore it. Plus, I get to actually win with Doc every-so-often. :3
Anyone see that thing about Sakurai saying Takamaru very nearly made the cut, but they ultimately decided against him because he's just not well-known enough?
Sorry, Takamaru fans. That's really gotta sting. Especially when you look at the roster and see Palutena, Duck Hunt, Dark Pit, Ike, and the other relatively unknown (to non-enthusiasts) characters on the roster. >_<
It read more like Sakurai was thinking about whether to throw Takamaru on the list of characters to bother working on, then decided "nah, put him with Chrom and the rest." I'm curious what other characters were trashed in this period before work on the game truly began.
Also, Palutena and Dark Pit were in Kid Icarus: Uprising, Duck Hunt dude come on, and Ike was in Brawl as "that cheap motherfucker with the strong-ass smash attacks" to casuals. Pretty good reps if you ask me.
