Smash Bros Progression Series || Ep1: Casual Smash 64

Super Smash Bros, released in 1999 for the Nintendo 64, was the first game in the franchise that carved out its own branch in the tree that is the fighting game genre. As the legend goes (and not fact checked) the origins of smash began at an arcade where the game’s director, Masahiro Sakurai was playing and destroying someone at a fighting game cabinet only to later find out he was playing against a couple who were there to have fun and try out the game for the first time. This created the desire for a fighting game that was easy to learn but hard to master, morphing through the years into the Smash Bros franchise we know today.

Smash 64 is also well known for its small but legendary character roster, including the most iconic Nintendo characters at the time (and Jigglypuff), including Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Fox, Kirby, and Pikachu. All of which would return in all future entries and be one of if not the best characters in every game in some cases.

In this series, special guest Jayman and myself will be building a roster via spins of an online wheel including the characters included in a given smash game, competing in a crew battle like format to which the winner would receive a prize to update their roster.

However, we will be competing in a retro format featuring only the ruleset and stage list from that time with each new episode featuring a different side to that game or the next game in the franchise in chronological order, constantly upgrading our rosters before competing at the end of each blog.

This is the Smash Bros Progression Series.

Inspired by Cimooo's "Yugioh Progression Series" on YouTube

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Series Rules

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The first thing that has to be addressed is that we will be playing in Smash Ultimate for the entire series, with us only using the characters, items, and stages that were included in the game we are currently on (this time being casual smash 64). It’s the easiest game to play online as it doesn’t require us to have an emulator or a hacked console to play them together with some of the older games. However, it also gives an opportunity to talk about the differences of these games and the changes made between them, which would make the blogging portion of this so much more interesting.

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Character Wheels

These wheels will be how Jayman and I build our rosters throughout the series. Whoever we get from the wheel we get to keep for the entire series (with a few exceptions). How many spins we get is determined by the number of characters in each game. Any duplicates will result in a respin. This means you can only get, for example, Mario once in the entire series.

There are two different wheels. The Roster Wheel and the Prize Wheel. The Roster Wheel will be spun before each set, and will be the bulk of how we get our characters. This wheel will only include each game’s base roster. This means no unlockable characters and no dlc (if applicable). When we get to Smash Ultimate, the Roster Wheel will be a little different considering everyone but the original 8 are unlockable but I’ll cover that when it becomes relevant.

The Prize Wheel is awarded to the winner of each round, where they will get a shot at one of the unlockable characters or dlc. They will only get one spin of this wheel however, so they will have to win the next set to have another shot at these characters. By the nature of these rules, some characters will only be obtainable through the Prize Wheel (or obtained much earlier than the Roster Wheel) so the stakes are high.

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Universal Set Rules

Although the ruleset will be different depending on the era of smash we are in, there are some universal rules. Every set will be a 5v5 set that is almost like a reverse crew battle if you are familiar with those. To start, both players will select in advance the characters they want to use in that episode.

The goal is to be the first player to win once with all 5 characters they chose. They may switch to another character even if they haven’t won with them yet. But once the character is played, the player must eventually get a win with them.

For example: if I play and lose with Donkey Kong, I may switch to Link whenever I want. But I must eventually return to Donkey Kong and get a win with that character.

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Game Schedule

The Smash Progression Series will be 10 episodes long. “But aren't there only five smash games?” you might be thinking. And you’d be right. Each smash game will be given 2 separate episodes. One for its casual scene and the other for its competitive scene.

Items are self explanatory, but for stages the casual ruleset will use every stage that made its debut in that game. The competitive ruleset will include the legal stages from that game regardless of where the stage originated. And since the hazards toggle is only in Smash Ultimate, it will not be used until we get to that game.

We will be progressing through the games in this order:

~Ep1: Casual 64

~Ep2: Competitive 64

~Ep3: Casual Melee

~Ep4: Competitive Melee

~Ep5: Casual Brawl

~Ep6: Competitive Brawl

~Ep7: Casual SSB4 (Wii U + 3ds)

~Ep8: Competitive SSB4

~Ep9: Casual Ultimate

~Ep10: Competitive Ultimate

~Ep11: Smash Progression Playoffs

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Progression Playoffs

At the end of all 10 episodes will be a special set to tie the series together and crown a champion. The winner of each episode will lock in one character from the team they played to be on their playoff roster. However, doing so would mean they lose access to that character until playoffs begin. The question will be if we opt to lock in our best characters early to guarantee we get to use them for playoffs, or do we hold on to them to help win other episodes at the risk of losing them to a ban (explained in the next section).

When playoffs begin, our final teams will be the ones we locked in from the previous episodes and we will go head to head in a crew battle format. This means when we lose with a character that character is eliminated. The last player standing wins. The main difference between this and an actual crew battle is that stocks will reset between matches and the winning player may switch to another character after every game.

The ruleset in the Playoff set will change between every game played, being decided via a wheel containing all the rulesets used in the previous 10 episodes. So we will have to adapt quickly between rulesets. Like for instance going from Casual SSB4 rules one game and Competitive Melee the next game. Our ability to adapt and pick the right character for the ruleset will be vital to our odds of winning.

As you may have noticed, playoffs might not be 100% even. It could be a 5v5, a 4v6, or even a 1v9. It all fully depends on how we do in the first 10 episodes. The only way playoffs won’t happen is if there is a 10-0 sweep. Winning before playoffs begin will matter a ton.

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Emergency Bans

At the end of each episode, the losing player will have the opportunity to ban one character. However, the ban will apply to both players (so if Mario is banned, neither of us can use Mario) and we are each limited to 2 bans for the entire series. And a character can only be banned after they are played by either player in an episode, so we won’t be able to preemptively ban a character before they even hit the stage.The strategy then becomes when to use these bans. We might even purposely play a character ourselves with the sole reason to ban them after. Depends how vindictive we want to get with it.

There is some counterplay as well, as the winning player will have the opportunity to lock a character they played that episode in for Playoffs before the losing player can ban. Any character chosen for Playoffs is immune to being banned since the player who locked them in loses access to them anyway.

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Intro to Smash 64

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With all the housekeeping taken care of, let's get into what makes Smash 64 unique and how it impacts the gameplay of this episode. Being the first game in the franchise, a lot of what it introduced carried over to most, if not all future games. But that also means it lacked basic features of future games. The biggest of this being Side Special.

The lack of a side special in retrospect limits the options each character has in a given situation. But from the perspective of when the game first released you can’t miss what you never had. And even without a side special there were more than enough ways to deal with your opponent.

Smash 64 is most well known today for having a lot of hitstun. This means after being hit, there’s a significant amount of time that has to before you are able to act. In addition to the items present and the lack of an air dodge mechanic, Smash 64 has the strongest combo game in the entire series. This also makes 64 the most punishing game, as landing one hit can lead to a lot of damage, as well as players being able to hog the ledge to block recovery attempts.

This game also has the first instance of tech like L-Canceling and Z-dropping. L-canceling is the technique that allows you to shorten your landing lag by pressing the L button. Z-drops is when holding an item you can press the grab button, you will toss the item behind you. If you do this in the air, the item will softly drop under you. Both of these added even further to the 64 combo game.

Unfortunately, playing online makes it difficult to replicate the restrictions of no air dodging or side b, as Ultimate’s online input delay and buffer system means purposely restricting ourselves would lead to more misinputs than good gameplay. Ledge hogging is also not an option for us since Ult uses the ledge trump mechanic introduced in SSB4.

Fortunately, Ultimate also doesn’t have L-canceling. This may be a controversial opinion as it undisputedly makes the game more technical. However, L-cancels aren’t hard to learn and in a setting where everyone is L-canceling then the act of actually pressing the L button is wasted motion. I’d rather have native low landing lag so I can spend that action I would be using for an L-cancel to do anything else that’ll benefit me in a match. Another bonus is that no L-cancels are easier on the hands.

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Relevance of Hitstun

To further elaborate on how absurd Smash 64's hitstun, let's start by taking a look at some of Smash Ultimate's item combos so we can compare the two later. Ultimate's item combos mostly rely on redirection, as after a certain % the character your combo-ing will fly too far away for a follow up. You'll see items like motion sensor bombs, launch stars, pitfalls, and timers a ton in these. And if you include stage builder combos you'd see portals and being hit off lava.

You can see what I mean by watching this video put out by Panda

In Smash 64 however, you have all the time in the world by comparison to land the next hit. It's to the point where items aren't even required to get a lengthy and flashy combo. You'll still see redirection used, but that's more out of a desire to make the combo even longer or to kill with a specific move rather than because they need it to kill.

Take a look at this video of some of Prince's really old 64 combos and think about how much time you'd have between hits to do anything in another game to escape. But in 64, the only thing you have is sdi (smash directional input). More about that and the competitive implications of 64's hitstun in the next episode.

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64 Items

The heart and sole of casual play began here with the smash 64 item list. Notable staples are the Hammer, Pokeball, Star Rod, Invincibility star, and Homerun Bat. When you think of Smash Bros, you think of these items first. And in this format these items are gonna be the powerhouses. Everything will depend on how well we use these items.

Another big inclusion is the Maxim Tomato and the Heart Container. Not every item from 64 is in Ultimate, so this smaller item list means these healing items will be more prevalent. Getting heals or preventing each other from healing could swing each game. In addition to the smaller character pool, these items play a massive role in why Casual 64 is the only game in the Smash Progression series to be a 4v4 instead of a 5v5.

To make a note for all future games, in Ultimate you cannot turn off specific types of containers. It’s all or nothing. So we will be seeing containers like the party ball and grass long before they were introduced.

Pokeballs are also a major topic. Simply put, Ultimate has a stronger pokemon line up due to legendaries alone (master balls are off but you can still get them from standard pokeballs). The only pokemon these two games share are Meowth (who has a different attack pattern for payday), Mew, and Snorlax (who hasn’t changed since 64). And just like the healing items, the small item pool means more pokeball spawns. This is THE most impactful item in this format.

The Pokeball also means having to introduce the Victini Rule. Victini, when spawned, will give the player that owns it a final smash. The issue is that final smashes were not included until Brawl. So in the 64 and Melee rounds if Victini spawns we will burn the final smash and continue as if it didn’t happen.

The rest of the items, although not as powerful as the ones mentioned above, are still really good in their own right. Beam Sword gives any character extra range, Bob-omb and Motion Sensor Bomb can steal stocks, Bumper removes space, and the Green Shell is a strong throw item. Ray Gun and Fire Flower are pretty mediocre items unfortunately.

Notable exclusions from the item list are the Fan, Red Shell, and Hitmonlee (pokeball spawn). The fan is in short an item that allows you to wobble your opponent for free. Red shell is similar to the hothead item in that it will move back and forth across any platform it is on. However, if a player is on the same platform, the red shell will home in on the player regardless of who initially threw it. That property made it terrifying to play around. Hitmonlee as a pokemon will longe at a player once. If it hits it will do a high amount of damage and knockback. It’s one of the most iconic pokemon from that game alongside Onix (who only drops rocks).

Even with these items missing, every spawn in this format will matter (except Fire Flower cause it sucks)

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Stage List

Luckily for the series, 7 of the 9 versus mode stages from Smash 64 is playable in Ultimate. Peach’s Castle and Dreamland are the smallest on the list and will probably be the most fun to play on. Kongo Jungle is the only stage with a semi solid main stage. With the characters available sharking won’t be viable, but it does open the door for more recovery options than other stages.

Hyrule Castle and Super Happy Tree (known as Yoshi’s Island in 64) are the two largest stages on the list, giving characters with high mobility a major advantage. Saffron City and Mushroom Kingdom aren’t as big but are still pretty big. Just like with Hyrule and Yoshi’s, mobility is huge, but Saffron and Mushroom have more choke points to corner opponents in.

The size of these stages were one of the main reasons why characters like Pikachu and Kirby were so good in 64 (and why Dreamland is the only legal stage in 64), and we might see something similar shape up in this Progression Series.

The two missing stages from 64 in Ultimate are Planet Zebes and Sector Z. Those stages were replaced by Brinstar and Corneria in Melee as they are just smaller versions of the stages from 64. Brinstar and Corneria are in Smash Ultimate, but are being considered as Melee stages for the purposes of this series. Makes things simpler when it comes to other stages that are essentially just reworks of an older stage.

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Character Roster

The character roster for Smash 64 is insane, and unlike in that game none of these characters are objectively bad. Jayman and I will be getting 4 spins of the Roster Wheel, meaning we will have access to only half of the original 8 characters. For future episodes I will only be mentioning notable characters, but the nature of Smash 64 makes everyone here notable.

Mario is an all rounder, and the addition of the cape makes him infinitely more versatile than he was in 64. Flood won’t be very useful starting out, but further down the line will be very useful for certain match ups. Mario won’t hold you back at all in the 64 ruleset, but he’s very much a pick to have for future episodes.

Donkey Kong might not seem that great on paper being the only heavy, but his strength shows in the format. He’s going to live a long time on these large stages and kill the light characters early (who I feel are gonna be the best on the casual 64 ruleset). And to top it off, DK is one of Jayman’s best characters. Getting him this early could be huge. Imo, Dk jumps up the most on the tier list from 64 out of the base game characters.

I would be here all day talking about how good Link is in this ruleset. To put it simply, he’s powerful and can create his own advantage through the remote bombs. An aggressive playstyle benefits him more with the stages too.

Samus is probably the worst pick of the available characters but she’s far from bad. I’d just rather get any of the other picks.

Fox is the character I’m the least sure about. He has the mobility to own the large stages but I feel he might struggle to kill.

Yoshi is Yoshi. Annoying as ever, but strategically one of the best pulls you can get.

Kirby in this mode is one of the better picks for his recovery alone. His advantage off grab combos isn’t anything to scoff at either. Most importantly, his jumps will make him the best at avoiding legendaries that spawn from the pokeball. He’s gonna be good now, but as the series progresses I think Kirky is going to become less useful (eventually being power creeped out by better characters)

Last but certainly not least is Pikachu. Simply put he’s the best character for the casual 64 ruleset and will likely be in contention for the best in any ruleset. Picking him up now is a major advantage that I doubt neither of us want to miss out on.

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Prize Wheel Prospects

The 4 unlockables from 64 are massive making this episode a must win for both Jayman and I.

Luigi, previously being the worst character in Smash 64, is the exact opposite now. He has a favorable matchup in ultimate against a lot of the 64 cast to getting him is huge for episode 2.

Captain Falcon would be a fitting draw. Although there is no F-zero stage in 64, he feels right at home fighting on Dreamland.

Jigglypuff is probably the worst character here. She’ll be decent in competitive formats but completely suck in casual matches. The winner of this set has a 75% chance to not get Puff, so if we do that’ll be a major disadvantage.

Ness is one of my mains, so unlocking him now would be even stronger than Jayman getting DK. Not only that, but the 64 Prize wheel has the best odds of any wheel in the entire series to get him. So these first two episodes are a must win for me.

(Incase you were wondering, Jayman plays Bowser so from Melee onwards he’ll have the chance to unlock him from the Roster Wheel. If I don’t get Ness before he gets Bowser I’m at a huge disadvantage).

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Time to Get Started

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From this point onwards the pre-set analysis is done. All that’s left to do is spin the wheel and play the game.

Casual 64 will be played at 4 stocks, 8 minutes, with the items mentioned above (on high), and random stage select (from our stage list).

Let the games begin.

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Spin the Wheel

We start off with the most anticipated moment of the series, spinning the wheel for the very first time. Going into it, we both had a pretty similar attitude in that we were confident in our abilities with any of the available 8 characters. But we both wanted just one specific character. Jayman wanted DK since it's one of his mains, and I wanted Pikachu cause I thought he was the best in the format.

Jayman got to spin first, and he received Mario as not only his first character but the first character picked by the wheel in the entire series. Fitting given his status. Jayman then gets Kirby, Dk, and Yoshi to round out his team.

It was then my go, and the wheel decided to have a little fun with me. On the first spin I was centimeters away from getting Pikachu, but the wheel gave me Mario in dramatic fashion. On the second spin, the same thing occurred, this time almost giving me Link, but I ended up with Samus instead. Spin number 3 is what finally landed me Pikachu, and my last spin also happened to be Yoshi.

With no need to select a team, we went straight into the set.

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Game 1

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Game 1 was the absolute hardest to decide who to play as. You don't want to play your best character immediately but you don't want to give your opponent an early lead. I decided to start by playing Yoshi (blue skin), as he's easy enough to play but more importantly to get him out of the way early so a majority of this episode isn't yoshi matches.  Apparently Jayman had the exact idea as when we went to start the match we saw that we both chose Yoshi first with the exact same alt chosen. On one hand this is hilarious, and on the other it's unfortunate the first game of the entire Smash Progression Series was a Yoshi ditto.

Below is the match itself followed by some analysis and highlights from the match under the video itself. The rest of the games will follow this same format. I’d recommend watching each game before reviewing the analysis for it, as there will be moments in each game that I won’t mention.

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0:26

Jayman gets a star and takes control of the match. He uses the invincibility to secure items rather than aggressive attacks as you'd think. He gets a Zorark from a pokeball and takes the first stock and full control of the stage. He's free to take the crate and the goodies inside. 2 pokeballs and a hammer. Had the pokemon he got were better than what actually appeared, his advantage would have increased tremendously.

Besides the fact that this resulted in a stock being taken, it’s notable because it shows that sometimes it’s better to use an item to secure more advantage (either from taking stage or the other items) than it is to try to get full value out of the item you already have even if it feels like a waste in the moment. You will see this play a lot from both of us throughout this set.

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0:46

I waited on the respawn halo and spotted a newly spawned motion sensor bomb. I'm able to get to it first and use it to neutralize Jayman's hammer. He's launched off stage and is forced to z-drop the hammer to survive.

If we had been playing Smash 64, Jayman wouldn’t have been able to drop the hammer so he would just be forced to accept losing the stock in that situation. Interactions like this are a good example of how much mechanics have changed over time.

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1:00

I land a dash attack and managed to pick up a fire flower by accident. Usually this could mess someone up if they don't notice quick enough, but I was able to spot it early. I chase Jayman off the top platform, zdroping the fire flower to force a landing and then get the stock from a forward smash. The game would have been even if I didn't get Keldeo from the pokeball. From that point, Jayman is forced to avoid it until it goes away.

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1:40

Up to this point we were battling over the Home Run Bat. Jayman gets a Scizor. Normally that would be amazing. But I'm able to snatch the bat while Jayman is busy trying to land a star rod hit, and I land a Bat swing as Jayman goes for the pivot grab. Seconds later when Jayman respawns, he immediately gets a meowth from a pokeball and attempts to land a forward smash. It's misspaced and I barely land a second Bat swing, killing him at 0%

This is a massive momentum change in the matter of a few seconds. Although he had more control over the stage due to the pokemon, he had to work a lot harder to take back those 2 stocks. He manages to do so and on my last stock I had a 67% lead.

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2:53

Jayman is launched towards a party ball. The contents of which have a high likelihood of swinging the game in his favor. He just needed to stay there.

I think most people in my situation probably would have tried to jump up there and maybe try an up air. In that case, we'd be forced to scrap while the items spawn and anything could happen. Instead, I catch his get up by throwing my beam sword up.

That gave me full control of the space around the party ball to which Jayman is forced to fight me over. That advantage is much more comfortable than us having equal footing on that platform. While trying to fight me off, Jayman gets hit by a beam sword f-smash which takes the first game.

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Game 2

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Game 2 was fairly easy to pick a character for. I was least confident in my Samus, and counter picking Jayman if he chose to switch would be pointless since most match ups available are 50-50. Jayman stays with Yoshi, most likely out of convenience and the prospect of a free win.

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0:00

Jayman comes out of the gates blazing as he immediately throws out an egg and follows up with an up air. This gives him an early advantage and we'd spend the next few seconds trading hits until a party ball spawns a bunch of bob-ombs. We both are able to pick one up, but Jayman immediately hits me with his first. This also blows up the bomb in my hand so I essentially take twice the damage.

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0:49

Jayman gets a Deoxys which sets up a wall that allows him to get a free heal from a maxim tomato. I die soon after to a random down special. In that scuffle that led to the kill, Jayman gets Kyogre from a pokeball AND a heart container for a full heal. I get a defiant up air before immediately dying to Kyogre.

This play was equally as important as the double bat kills from game 1, creating an advantage that would be tough to comeback from. And unlike in game 1, Jayman comes out with full stage control and a fresh stock. (Plus Jayman gets another heart container within a few seconds).

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2:15

I get hit off stage and misinput a tether instead of an up b. Normally it wouldn't matter, but I was facing away from the ledge when it happened. You may be wondering how I could possibly hit grab instead of the b button (looking at players using gamecube controllers). I use a pro controller with everything mapped to the face buttons. Y is grab and X is shield.

Point is, I'm down 3 stocks at this point in the game. The chances of pulling that off is slim to none already, but then Jayman gets ANOTHER heart container immediately after.

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2:15

Jayman spawns in on his second stock and immediately gets a pokeball that turns out to be electrode. Most people know you can pick up and throw Electrode before it explodes but the timing is fairly hard if you aren't prepared. With that said, Jayman times the throw correctly and kills me with it.

Technically Jayman got a Jv2 to even the set at 1-1

My only regret is not putting Jayman’s logo on Yoshi’s shell in the victory screen

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Game 3

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I decided to stay with Samus this match after gaining some confidence in the last game. Even though I lost it showed Samus isn't as bad in this format as I theorized. It's completely up to how we play and the pokeball rng. Jayman proceeds to go to Kirby, evidently saving his best 2 characters for last.

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0:22

With full stage control via pokemon, Jayman gets a hammer. Instead of just dying, I grab the ledge and hit him with a get up attack followed up by a charge shot to catch his tech get up. This puts Jayman off stage forcing him to drop the hammer so he can live. Plays like this keeps the player without the hammer from being completely helpless in that situation as most people think when using items.

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1:18

I grabbed a beam sword to begin a rally, but it's immediately stuffed out by Jayman getting an invincibility star. I get launched off stage and Jayman gets a beautiful edgeguard by reading my recovery pattern. Soon after I respawn, Jayman gets another invincibility star. But at least I was able to get a giratina out of it.

A situation just like this is likely to have played out if we played Smash 64. In that game, Kirby’s down air is an even stronger spike than it is in Ultimate, added to the fact almost everyone in the game has a poor recovery. With that in mind, not only would it have been easier to land, but Jayman would have gotten a lot more of those spikes in this game.

Editor’s note. When going back to check the timestamps to make sure they were correct I noticed the beam sword was only visible on screen for only a second at most on the bottom right. How tf did I spot that while doing a basic Samus combo?! You can even see me hold back on the fair to get there faster.

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2:50

I toss a bob-omb at Jayman, to which he manages to parry. Normally this would be a clutch play, but I shoot a charge shot during his parry animation to guarantee it hits (essentially a frame trap punishing him for being good at the game). This interaction shows how parrys in ultimate is a cool mechanic poorly implemented, but that topic is for another time.

Had this been Smash 64, there wouldn't have even been a chance to parry to begin with. Jayman either would have died to the bomb or got his shield broken by the follow up charge shot

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4:20

A crate appears in the middle of us at the ledge. Jayman breaks it with a back air and I grab him for it. The crate had 3 motion sensor bombs in it. After throwing Jayman off stage, I quickly set up the trap of the century. 1 bomb at ledge, 1 bomb at roll distance, and 1 bomb on the closest platform.

What's genius about this set up is the second bomb that was set up. Instead of throwing it straight to the floor, I threw it up to block Jayman from just floating to the top platform. I can then back air to force him to ledge while the bomb falls back into place.

Literally all options were covered, and that allowed me to take the game. The score now 2 - 1 in my favor.

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Game 4

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After taking the win I decide Mario is the better pick for third so I could keep Pika just in case Jayman decides to go Dk. In hindsight this was flawed thinking because if DK did show up here and he won, I wouldn't be able to counterpick.

That aside, I was 100% sure he was staying with Kirby as a way to keep up the momentum rather than risk cooling his Kirby off. He does stay Kirby making a majority of my choice boil down to overthinking it.

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0:00 - 1:15

From the beginning all the way to the first stock taken is a brilliant show of two players who know exactly what the other is going to do. So many micro interactions there that swings the momentum of the match back and forth like a pendulum. If I broke down everything that happened this section would be a whole google docs page long. This continues for the rest of the match, but in future scenarios there's a clear player at an advantage when they occur.

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1:47

This starts with me opening a crate while Jayman gets a heart container from the grass on the lower level. The crate had 2 pokeballs and a home run bat. I grab one of the balls and Jayman grabs the bat. I nail him with the pokeball (Snorlax spawns) forcing him to drop the bat. This also leaves me free to get the 2nd pokeball (Abomasnow), the home run bat, and an invincibility star that spawns on the lower level.

This puts Jayman on the run and you can see some cool tech we use to stop each other, including "run off -> zdrop home run bat -> double jump back air to stage" from myself. This ends with Jayman running with a capsule containing a bumper. He goes to grab it via pivot tilt but gets hit by a charged bat swing. Oddly enough, the bumper kinda glitches visually looking as if it was thrown to the floor.

In the next few seconds Jayman kills me with a bob-omb while I charge the bat. Usually the home run bat auto reflects so it was odd dying to that. On further review, my best guess is that he got me in the start up animation before the reflector becomes active.

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2:42

Snivy dies instantly. This is the most Smash 64 thing to happen this set

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3:21

Jayman gets an electrode just like he did in game 2. But unlike game 2, Jayman mistimes picking it up. Just shows how difficult that can be to do under pressure.

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3:45

Jayman gets free pickings of a party ball to which he uses to get full stage control. I die from hitting a capsule bomb with a get up attack.

Jayman immediately gets Keldeo from a pokeball, which is exactly what he needed to close the 1 stock gap. He probably would have pulled it off if I didn't get a lucky pokeball spawn exactly where I was being hit towards. I threw it under Jayman, and it just so happened to be a Snorlax in one of the most unavoidable situations in any smash game.

The set is now 3 - 1 in my favor, but Jayman has the flexibility of his remaining characters.

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Game 5

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Before this game began I sat on the select screen as if I had a choice of who to play. All I had left was Pikachu so unsurprisingly that's who I played. Despite the 3 to 1 deficit, Jayman stays with Kirby. If he won here, he'd set himself up for a powerful final 2 games with a high chance of pulling off the comeback.

I don't have the replay for this game. I thought I saved it but I didn't. It was my Pikachu vs Jayman's Kirby as stated above, taking place on Super Happy Tree. The only notable thing to happen that I was Jayman getting me back for all those home run bat stocks by hitting me with one of his own.

Jayman wins that game making the score 3 - 2. All he has left is Mario and DK and the question becomes if he uses DK to try to guarantee a game 7, or he saves him for the game 7 for a higher chance of winning.

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Game 6

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After the win, Jayman decides to go Mario this game. Although easier for me to play against than his DK, the choice actually puts a lot of pressure on my end because I knew if I lost I'd have to face his DK in a winner take all situation. Jayman's Mario is no pushover either, which shows how good his DK is by comparison.

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0:22

I get a Scizor which gets stuck on the tent of the castle. Jayman then gets a Xerneas and a Bewear, completely cornering me and getting the early stock lead.

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0:58

With the stocks evened up, we find ourselves on the right side of the stage with a bunch of items. I have a homerun bat with my back against the wall. This is essentially the biggest game of chicken ever played, as I know Jayman can overwhelm me if he lands one throw while Jayman knows I could instantly reflect the items if he does commit to a throw. So we sit around trying to guess when the other will finally pull the trigger.

In the end I definitely lost that interaction. But if you slow the footage down, you can see our reactions in real time to when one of us charges the bat and we just barely move out of the way in time on reaction without accidentally walking into it.

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1:50

In my opinion, this is the play that decided the entire set. Jayman gets a Snivy, completely trapping me on the lower level and giving Jayman free pickings of the items spawned in the crate (2 pokeballs and a motion sensor bomb). Jayman picks up the bomb first and attempts to place it on the upper ledge to further trap me, but as soon as he does Snivy immediately blows it up on him and he dies for it.

The self-destruct wouldn't have been as impactful if it hadn't left me open to grabbing the 2 remaining pokeballs containing Latios and Starmie.

Jayman does a great job minimizing the damages, but it went from him starting to build a large stock lead to being down 57% when it's all said and done.

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2:20

A tremendous show of reads and reactions from both players. I grabbed a home run bat and charged it in the opposite direction. Jayman rightfully thinks I'm gonna spam the bat and runs towards me and goes for the cape to spin me the other way. But since I'm already facing the other way, the cape actually faces me towards him. That would normally be the stock, but Jayman reacts in time and rolls away instead of being shocked still.

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3:16

Another perfect example of mid set conditioning. I hit Jayman above me while holding a fire flower. I throw it up to cover him jumping above me. But Jayman has been seeing me do this for 5 straight games and tries to cape the flower on the way up to reflect it back at me.

He misses but even if he had reflected it, the fire flower is so bad it would come back down slow enough for me to easily avoid it. If it had been any other item, like say a beam sword, and assuming Jayman gets the reflect, I would have easily been hit for a lot of damage putting Jayman firmly back in control. A lot of awareness is needed to pull that kind of dodge off.

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3:58

Just watch this back until I drop the stock. So much happens and Jayman gets so much advantage off it. This end with me throwing a bumper at Jayman at point blank range, with both of us getting hit and oddly going in the opposite direction as you'd think. I slide to the right across the floor from the bumper hit straight into a motion sensor bomb that takes my stock. Just a crazy situation.

This leaves us both at 1 stock with me at an 87% lead

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4:56

A nuts combo as I get hit with a crate on wheels directly into a Bewear punch taking me from 15% all the way to 69%. The comeback was alive at that moment.

Jayman then gets a Lunala, putting him in an excellent situation to close out the game and go to game 7. But then tragedy hits.

The Tornado from the stage spawns under both of us with no opportunity to react to it appearing. I'm at 80% while Jayman is at 126%. I live the surprise and Jayman dies and loses the set from rng alone. Anyone who has played Smash 64 has painful memories of that exact situation happening to them.

I win the game, and the set with a score of 4 - 2

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Post Set Upkeep

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Winning via random bs wasn't ideal, but I can't really complain at getting my 1 in 4 shot at a main of my own. Looking at our rosters, Jayman has a serious advantage going into the next episode (competitive 64). The prize wheel needs to give my team a shot in the arm to compete.

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Playoffs Pick

The first thing that needed to be decided was which of my 4 characters from this episode am I going to lock in for my Playoffs team. Depending on who I choose I could give myself a big advantage for Playoffs, or I could handicap my roster for the rest of the series.

In the end, I ended up choosing Yoshi. In my eyes this choice is a win-win-loss. A win because we potentially will see 50% less yoshi matches for the remainder of the series. A win because he's gonna be very hard to eliminate in Playoffs. And a Loss because Yoshi is now the very first character to be locked in for finals.

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Ban?

Jayman chose not to use one of his character bans yet. Only having 2 makes using one at the very beginning a very bold decision. That patience will definitely pay off in the future, no matter how tempting a Yoshi ban sounds.

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Prize Wheel

And finally we have the Prize Wheel. Which of the 4 unlockable characters did I add to my collection? If you said Ness you would be very wrong. I don't have that kind of plot armor.

I got Captain Falcon as my prize character. ittedly he isn't my best character, but it's almost fitting potentially getting to see Falcon on Dreamland next episode. To be honest I'm glad it wasn't Jigglypuff

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Final Thoughts

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With everything done and dusted, I don’t think this could have gone any better than it had. Win or lose, it was a fun yet intense set to play. The main issue with the ruleset however is how big all these stages are. It was difficult for us to really trap on another unless we had the perfect item set up. But it was something we knew about ahead of time, since like I mentioned earlier all of these stages with the exception of Dreamland were banned from competitive play in Smash 64 for that very reason.

The stock count however I was pleasantly surprised with. Ultimate is a very different game than 64 (if that hasn’t been made clear enough by this point) in that it takes so much longer to take stocks in Ultimate than 64. However, the power of the items and the frequency in which we saw it completely made up for this, giving us shorter matches than I expected to have.

In regards to the series as a whole, I may have won this episode but I feel I’m definitely behind Jayman in of our rosters. The good thing is that neither of us can possibly get a bad character yet from the wheel. Next episode is a must win for both of us, and it’s gonna be very hard to pull off a repeat victory with that Donkey Kong chilling in the back.

You’ll just have to wait and see how this all plays out in the next episode of the Smash Brothers Progression Series