Smash Bros. DOJO!! updates

In 2007 up to the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Smash Bros. Dojo!!, the website dedicated to information about the game and hosted by the game's chief developer Masahiro Sakurai, underwent a redesign and proceeded to show pieces of new information about the game at a rate of once every weekday. Each update provided by Sakurai to the site is reworded and reposted here.

List of updates

This list of updates covers all updates posted from February 1 to the present.

For updates posted from May 22 to July 31, see Smash Bros. DOJO!! updates (archive).

For updates posted from August 1 to October 31, see Smash Bros. DOJO!! updates (archive 2).

For updates posted from November 1 to January 31, see Smash Bros. DOJO!! updates (archive 3).

February

With Super Smash Bros. Brawl now released in Japan, the site displays a rather large promotional image of the game, along with a slight redesign that now accomodates players who do not want to see spoilers of the game, making the main page of DOJO no longer a blog-style page where the newest update is automatically shown.

• February 1: "Ness" [1]: The first "secret feature" update is the first unlockable character since Sonic: Ness, a returning veteran. He is pretty much a clone of Lucas, but the update goes into detail how Ness and Lucas' versions of their shared Special moves differ.

• February 4: "Port Town Aero Dive" [2]: The Port Town Aero Dive stage is officially explained in this update to be quite literally the same style of moving-and-stopping stage as Melee's Mute City, but with the track now being a huge one that appears in F-Zero GX.

• February 5: "Final Destination" [3]: A second stage update in a row, this officially portrays the returning Final Destination stage. Gameplaywise it's the same flat even stage, but the update takes the time to detail the new realistic scenery that the stage cycles through. It also mentions that the boss Master Hand is fought on this level in various single-player modes.

• February 6: "Assist Trophies" [4]: An update covering several assist trophies at once, including Hammer Bro, Lakitu, Nintendog, Jill & Drill Dozer, Helirin, Jeff, Kat & Ana, Tingle, and Metroid.

• February 7: "Marth" [5]: The second secret character update, this time concerning the returning character Marth from Melee. Like with Ness before, his unlock method is provided, as well as in-depth tips about his special moves and his Final Smash, Critical Hit.

• February 8: "Enemies and Allies" [6]: A secret feature update which is a movie found within the Subspace Emissary mode, a story-based mode which unfolds without a single word of audible dialogue the entire way. It shows Marth and Meta Knight interacting. Sakurai also makes a vague reference to a character that can tell the difference between friend and foe in an unusual way...
• February 8: "Zero Suit Samus: Final Smash" [7]: This update shows the Final Smash of Zero Suit Samus, which is the name of her normal form: Power Suit Samus. She changes back to her armored form in a sequence that damages nearby enemies. Also, it is detailed how one can play as Zero Suit Samus without using any Smash Balls. The first way involves holding down the shield button while selecting normal Samus' headshot on the character select screen. The second way involves pressing the up taunt, down taunt, and up taunt buttons to change from Samus to Zero Suit Samus in normal play. This allows her to be treatable as two separate characters in competitive item-less play.

• February 11: "Quick Techniques" [8]: In this How To Play update, a lot of small, subtle techniques are revealed to exist in the game, and won't be covered in the game's instruction manual. The Ukemi, for example, essentially replaces the L-Cancel, where pressing the Shield button right before coming into contact with a wall/floor/ceiling will cause a slight bound that will cancel momentum. Other techniques are the Perfect Shield, a concept called Stale-Move Negation (which causes moves used repeatedly to gradually do less damage), something that can happen during attacks called Glancing Blows, the ability to swim in watery stages, the Small Jump (which is literally the Short Hop renamed for Brawl), a type of special longer-range grab every character can do called the Pivot Grab, a concept called Eat While Reclining which allows you to pick up and use Food items near you even if you're in a knocked-down state, and a concept with reflection moves that has to do with breaking reflectors in which a projectile that is reflected repeatedly gains damage and power each time.

• February 12: "Mario Bros." [9]: A Hidden Feature update that officially profiles an unlockable stage, which is the one based on the original arcade Mario Bros.. It being a rigidly layered stage with pixelated enemy sprites walking across to damage combatants, fighting successfully involves very different priorities.

• February 13: "Hidden Parts in Stage Builder" [10]: This hidden feature update reveals that there are parts usable in the Stage Builder mode that are unlockable, such as ferris wheel-style platforms and springboards, and these are unlocked by extended usage of the mode.
• February 13: "Yoshi: Special Moves" [11]: Showcases Yoshi's Up Special Move, the Egg Throw, which is more maneuverable and controllable, and his Standard Special Move, the Egg Lay, which encases enemies in eggs as before and enemies have a harder time breaking out of eggs if they have more damaged life meters.

• February 14: "Green Hill Zone" [12]: A hidden feature update about the unlockable Sonic stage, Green Hill Zone, which is unlocked as soon as you unlock Sonic himself. This lengthy, smoothly flowing stage has portions that will collapse as attacks are performed on them, and in the background three guest characters Tails, Knuckles, and Silver will appear racing along.