Steve And Alex Are Going To Be Top Tier Characters In Super Smash, Aren't They?

When Steve and Alex from Minecraft were announced as new characters for Super Smash Bros Ultimate, social media went into a meltdown, even causing the Nintendo America account to crash in the process. Fans of the game had various opinions of these new additions, and while some people weren't pleased with Steve and Alex in the game, there is no denying what a significant move this is.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate is a huge game with so many modes and characters (there are over 100 levels) and the amount of work Masahiro Sakurai and his team put into the game is remarkable. In his presentation (Sakurai presents), the game's creator talked about how difficult it was to incorporate Minecraft Steve into the equation. This stems majorly from how Steve and Alex are designed with their inflexible shapes, something of an anomaly in a more dynamic world that Smash inhabits. This was a major problem for some of the fans who were opposed to the new additions. However, listening to Sakurai explain how they had to alter all the stages (again, over 100 of them) to make them compatible with Minecraft's style; I concluded that criticizing the addition of Steve and Alex would be unfair.

We live in a world ravaged by a pandemic, where many game developers could easily hide behind the limited movement and fail to put out new content for fans. But, The Smash team did their best to bring their fans something cheer about in frankly difficult times, so going hard on them because you aren't pleased with the addition seems a tad harsh.

That said, what can we expect from Steve and Alex in the game? If the information from the Sakurai presents Steve and Alex showcase is anything to go by, then we can expect that the duo will be S class characters that could become favorites.

What to expect from Minecraft Alex and Steve

Mr. Sakurai's presentation went into detail about what to expect from the new characters. The two have a bevy of moves in Super Smash Bros, many of which are extremely useful in battle. What intrigued me was how much care was taken to make the Minecraft characters as natural as possible within the boundaries of Smash.

The first thing to note is that Steve's range is pretty short, which could be seen as a bit of a disadvantage, but in the hands of skilled players, it should be no problem at all. In addition, the presence of Minecraft characters has also brought in some new mechanics into the game, the most important of which is the crafting table. Since crafting is such a huge part of Minecraft, it was imperative that Nintendo found a way to incorporate it into Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

The crafting table plays an important role in combat as Alex and Steve can use it to create new weapons to fight with. Also, as Sakurai explained, the material used is important as the stronger a material used to craft a weapon is, the stronger the weapon will be. For instance, a diamond sword is a lot stronger than a wooden one.

On top of that, Alex can also build blocks that can be used to traverse the stages. Other mechanics were also added to Smash, including mining, which is quite balanced. As Mr. Sakurai explained, the makeup of a stage also affects what can be mined from those stages. So, a level like that of Star Fox will yield a lot of iron. The same is true of a level that contains a lot of wood. That said, there are special stages like the Battlefield or Ω levels where mined items are a lot more random in nature.

Besides, Alex and Steve come equipped with a bunch of nifty moves, including a final smash called 'House of boom,' which propels an opponent into a dark room before the whole place goes 'BOOM.' This is all in addition to TNT moves, a special that makes use of a minecart. Steve can also summon magma and lava, which burn opponents and have lasting effects. In the Sakurai presents showcase, the game's developer exhibited how these various moves could be used as anti-airs and preventive measures for players trying to get back on the platform.

We still have a little while to go before the characters are ready to use, but, I must say, I'm terribly excited.