Super Smash Bros. (Wii U) -- Contender Chronicle #02

We're back! The chronicle continues, and we watch Erdrick's ascent to greatness (...it could happen! ...maybe?) with utmost interest. Just how much data do we have out there on the workings of these quirky collectible players, anyway? All I know is that official word from Nintendo seems to keep the details deliberately vague and mysterious, but it presents an extremely fascinating potential point of study for artificial... er... "intelligence"... Let's talk some basics about what I know about amiibo Figure Players. For starters, they "learn" in real time and gain levels, although to what degree this directly correlates to their skill raises far more questions than they answer. What CAN be directly observed is that they will regularly "LEVEL UP!" mid-battle, with a special little fanfare you won't hear anytime else in the game and the Level number updated next to their portrait and damage counter at the bottom of the screen. In my experience, this seems to be most significantly a product of time spent in battle. Damage given and taken will introduce small variances, but most FP level ups will simply happen naturally at a certain (unknown to me) rate and regardless of what they're doing at that precise moment. This also means that if a Figure Player is defeated, they will stop gaining experience for that match until it is concluded. However, Figure Players WILL gain their most significant bumps to experience on the results screen, with larger bonuses the worse their placement in the match. That is, as was the initial explanation when they were introduced during a NIntendo Direct, they gain more experience from losing and playing against skilled opponents (a bit of a tautological truism if you think about it, not an actual evaluation of skill on the part of the explanation or suggestion the FP's ability to gauge "skill"... it loses, therefore it considers the opponent "more skilled" and applies the bonus experience accordingly), so losing early in a Stock match can actually result in greater gains than if they survived longer. This is all naturally some circumstantial suppositions made with the advantage of being totally unverifiable by virtue of FP data being essentially unquantifiable... so... you have no choice but to take my word for it! --- Match #1 -- Boxing Ring Bowser (Yu-Gi-Joou) vs. Yoshi (RAD) vs. Erdrick [Link] I find it interesting that the name "Erdrick" shown on the big screen. It's not that surprising, since that's also what it says under his vitals and portrait, and it totally also displays Mii Fighter names and the like, but it's still a nice touch. --- Match #2 -- Gamer Ganondorf (Yu-Gi-Joou) vs. Pit (RAD) vs. Erdrick [Link] AI players are terrible at Gamer... so I feel like it's a given that Erdrick would "learn" a lot from "skilled players" defeating him... man, 5-Volt must be immensely skilled! Think what we could all learn from her! --- Match #3 -- Kongo Jungle (N64) Little Mac (Yu-Gi-Joou) vs. Kirby (RAD) vs. Erdrick [Link] Remember when I said this was pretty fresh off Smash Wii U's launch? I find one of the biggest hurdles in acclimating to the new game is understanding the full ramifications of certain characters' inclusions in the game. Y'know, like Robin's disposable weapons, Palutena's diverse special moves (only the base four of which will you regularly see in normal play, sadly), the variety of possibilities any time you see a Mii Fighter... and... yes, Little Mac. Little Mac WILL wreck you... or wreck himself. Regardless, someone's getting wrecked, that's for sure... and often, it's the player having less experience with Mac, whether giving or receiving. Barring that, the onus is on Mac to not-die in the time it takes him to make others feel the sting of his fists. One thing I find notable and worth noticing is that even in the absence of customization being enabled, Figure Players can use custom moves whereas regular players cannot. Then again, this is also technically the case with Mii Fighters... sadly not so with Palutena, but the logistics would get kinda fuzzy if we carried everything to logical extremes. It bears mention that Kirby can't copy custom specials of any kind and will always get that character's neutral special #1, the default version per that character. So you get regular Hero's Bow from Erdrick, Mii Brawlers give you Shot Put (but you get a nifty cardboard cutout of the source Mii's face!), and Palutena's Autoreticle will always be copied.