You know, I’m not one to waste hours chain-watching YouTube videos, but boy am I glad I did so long enough for this one to appear. As most Smash Bros. fans know, there was a Nintendo Direct delivered by Masahiro Sakurai earlier this month that unloaded a trove of new info about the upcoming games. This included two new characters–Charizard and Greninja–as well as a heaping dose of supplemental information, like the inclusion of a Final Destination variant for every stage. If you need a recap, you can check out the summary we posted the following day.
Little did Sakurai know of the premium internet fodder he was supplying when he agreed to do the Direct, as can be seen in the video above. Personally, I’m a huge fan of this moment in particular.
If that’s not enough to convince you to watch, then I’m not sure what is. It’s a testament to Melee’s fantastic opening theme that it still gave me chills even with its creator artificially flailing to it like a possessed marionette, but that’s a different discussion entirely.
Of course, the whole thing has incited somewhat of a revolution, one folks henceforth appear to be referring to as “Sakurai Directs.” The idea has tons of potential, and one of the most well-done examples can be seen below. They even quote Kirby at one point!
The fad seems to have tapered off a bit since these videos first appeared, but that doesn’t mean it’s dead for good — there are bound to be more Nintendo Directs just over the horizon. If people can get Reggie in on one of these somehow, then it’d probably have a better chance of becoming a permanent meme. He is omnipresent, after all.
