Spirits Conspicuously Absent from Super Smash Bros Ultimate

Hi everyone. This is the part where I make an excuse for being absent for like, two years, and follow it up with empty promises to write more, and write more often, but we all know that probably won’t stick. I mean, this stupid fuck’s presidency threw me into the same spiral most creative-types feel when everything is terrible; “Does-any-of-this-matter? The world is so shitty, why should I make dumb articles about 20-year-old video games when this insane fuck is going to kill us all? I should be doing something useful to help people.” But then I just watch Netflix and eat a box of Cheez-Its and think about what alcohol mixers I should drink straight, because I ran out of base liquors three days ago in my last spiral. Not triple sec, btw.

But hey, if anything can get me to write again, maybe it’s a new Smash Bros.

As any Smash Bros fan can tell you, 2/3 of the fun of a new game is the speculation and theorizing of new characters. Fans like to psychoanalyze the series director, Masahiro Sakurai, and weigh his thought process against games he may want to advertise, or what he’s a fan of, or series relevancy, or what color his sofa is, to figure out who he might have in store for us this time.

People really thought there was a secret message in here.

Once the game was released in December and we knew the roster, the hunt for DLC character clues began. The most likely place seems to be Super Smash Bros Ultimate’s new adventure mode, Spirits. Spirits features dozens of characters who got at least a brief consideration to be included before the development team decided to go in another direction and choose someone like Piranha Plant. You see, Spirits mode is the Smash equivalent of a silver medal. While characters like Inkling or King K. Rool made the cut and became fully-realized Smash Bros fighters, other popular choices like Mario RPG’s Geno, or Zelda’s Midna are represented by a stock photo accompanied by a palette-swapped Sheik with a Super Scope equipped, or Bayonetta with an assist trophy buddy. They’re still not playable, but it’s an honor just to be nominated.

Guts Man, looking exactly how you remember him.

There are some who contend that being included in Spirits mode doesn’t necessarily mean you’re out as a DLC option. I’m not sure I buy that. It seems to me, that if all this mental and physical energy went into creating a character and they ultimately decided to create a thematic reference-filled battle instead, that’s kind of the final word on that.  But as with all the “rules” the fans use to speculate, they apply until they don’t.

Playing through Spirits mode is a trip down memory lane for video game fans. It seems like everything is referenced at some point. Stanley the Bugman from Donkey Kong 3, Cammy from Street Fighter, Spark Man from Mega Man 3, Swanky Kong from Donkey Kong Country 2, and even some of the various Mario Kart vehicles. This makes some of the rare omissions all the more glaring. Why have they been left out? Are they legitimate roster options? Did Sakurai just deem them unimportant? Let’s speculate together.

1.       Porky (Earthbound, Mother 3)

Porky was the first character that people collectively realized was missing. And it’s not like he’s a minor character, either. Porky served as the main antagonist for both Ness and Lucas in the Earthbound series. That means Porky played a major role in more Earthbound games than either of the playable characters currently in the Smash Bros roster. On top of that, Porky made an appearance in Super Smash Bros Brawl as a boss. Every other boss from that game was referenced in some way in SSBU. It’s worth mentioning that Porky’s Absolutely Safe Capsule is in as a Spirit. Did Sakurai intend for this to be a stand-in for Porky? Is Porky still in there, watching Smash battles for all eternity? Is SSBU canon to the ending of Mother 3, and Porky, in the capsule, somehow made it to this universe? Is he’s absolutely safe in the Absolutely Safe Capsule, how did Galeem, the villain, manage to make him vanish with that giant laser beam that disintegrates everyone? Video games are weird.
However, the main villain of a niche series probably isn’t enough to put Porky over the top. I’d personally love to see him, especially the younger version from Earthbound who fights in a Bowser Jr-style mech, but chances are he’ll appear as a downloadable Spirit somewhere down the line. You’ll probably even be able to enhance him from his Earthbound sprite to his Mother 3 one.

Spirits Scenario: Metal Bowser Jr. on Fourside.

Odds Porky is a future DLC Spirit: 6/10
Odds Porky is a future DLC character: 2/10

2.       The Metroid Hunters (Metroid Prime Series)

Metroid, as a series, has historically been about the struggles of one character; Samus Aran. She takes out armies of Space Pirates and all manner of creepy space beasts on solo missions while working for a faceless federation.
As video games became more cinematic, the mute, solo adventures of Samus seemed quaint and outdated, so she was given some supporting characters to flesh out her world, er… galaxy.
I’m of the mind that Samus and Zero Suit Samus were the perfect reps for Smash. When it came right down to it, these games were stories about one woman. Having her repped twice was a great option. But other fans disagreed. Many wanted to see her nemesis, Ridley, show up despite his immensity. They got their wish in SSBU. Samus even got a clone character in Dark Samus, bringing the Metroid character count up to four.
Part of the expanded Metroid roster came in the form of rival bounty hunters. This is probably the best way to give her some characters to play off of while still keeping Samus as a free agent. Unfortunately, every Hunter they introduced had no personality and played exactly the same way as Samus, down to the ability to become a ball and roll around on the ground. As a result, only two token Hunters, Trace and Kanden were included as Spirits. This left Noxus, Weavel, Spire, and fan-favorite Sylux out in the cold.
Sakurai used a lot of token representation to pull double duty so he wouldn’t have thousands upon thousands of Spirits to include and code. For example, most people know the Mario enemy Dry Bones. They’re a race of skeletal turtle zombies that showed up in Super Mario Bros 3 and are still pretty major enemies. But they aren’t in the game, despite fellow enemies like Goomba and Blooper and Boo making the cut. However, Dry Bowser, a skeletal form of Mario’s famous nemesis DID make the cut. Now we get a major character without the overlap of a very similar, lesser character. This is also the case for the Yarn version of Yoshi’s dog, Poochy. Regular ol’ Poochy isn’t in, but Yarn Poochy can represent Poochy AND the yarn aesthetic from a different Yoshi game.
This, I think, is why we got 2/6 of the Hunters. The weird thing is that Sylux is far and away the most popular Hunter thanks to a tease in Metroid Prime 3 that he’s going to be a bigger player in the future. But he isn’t yet.
Many think Sylux will be DLC down the line when Metroid Prime 4 comes out, but that’s a commitment to a character who is, thus far, a generic alien. Smash representation means you’ve made it to the big leagues. It means Nintendo can’t force you into a box in the basement and forget about you for 15 years. It means you’re a face of the brand. Look at what happened to Roy after his first Smash appearance. He’s not a favorite character in his home franchise and has kind of been forced as an “All-Star” only because of his association with Smash. Is Nintendo willing to make that gamble again?
So while the other Hunters have no chance at being playable, Sylux COULD get one if he is a major antagonist in Metroid Prime 4 and Nintendo plans to being him back in the future as a major recurring character.

Spirits Scenario: Dark Samus (Noxus), Ganondorf w/Screw Attack (Weavel), Incineroar w/Screw Attack (Spire), Samus (Sylux) on Frigate Orpheon.

Odds the Hunters are future DLC Spirits: 4/10
Odds the Hunters are future DLC characters: 0/10
Odds Sylux is a future DLC Spirit: 8/10
Odds Sylux is a future DLC character: 4/10

3.       Mario’s Partners (Paper Mario Series)

I’ve gotta say, the Mario RPG spinoffs got some pretty good spirit representation. Geno, Mallow, Peasley, Fawful, and Vivian all made the cut, which is a great amount of characters for a spinoff series. It does seem odd, however, that Vivian is the only Paper Mario partner to make the cut. I mean, if you have to pick one, Vivian is the winner, no question. She’s the most interesting, has the best design, and actually has a character arc. Parakarry can’t claim that. It IS a bit odd that major characters from two games are just completely absent, but at what point do you draw the line with RPG casts? It’s not like they’re from Fire Emblem.
Will we see them pop in down the line? Maybe as Spirits if we get another Paper Mario game. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the partners pull double duty; Just Goombario to rep the Goomba partners, Koops to rep the Koopa ones, and maybe one or two others. But then again, Mario is an enormous series that includes every RPG, Party, Kart, Tennis, Soccer, etc. game series. I can see why Sakurai and company would want to draw a hard line with the RPG reps.
I don’t think there’s any way they get in as playable characters, though. Geno fans would riot.

Spirits Scenario: Kirby w/Mario Hat (Goombario), Squirtle (Kooper), Tiny Wendy (Bombette), Jigglypuff (Bow), Tiny Bowser w/Raccoon Tail (Parakarry), Pac-Man w/Hot Head (Watt), and Roy w/Jet Pack (Lakilester) on Paper Mario.

Odds Mario’s Partners are future DLC Spirits: 5/10
Odds Mario’s Partners are future DLC characters: 0/10

4.       Any Human Character (Pokémon Series)

I’m not going to pretend that the non-Pokémon characters are anywhere near as important as the Pokémon, themselves, so I can see why so many of the 600+ creatures made it into SSBU. Especially when they have a whole item dedicated to them. However, the NPCs are the ones who drive the plot. Some, like Professor Oak and Misty even made it into Melee as trophies. So why weren’t a couple characters chosen from each generation chosen to be Spirits?
My guess? They would all have to be represented by the Pokémon Trainer in Spirits mode, and then be restricted to either Charizard, Ivysaur, or Squirtle. That would give every trainer fight a “been there, done that” kind of feel. Who cares if the spirit is Cynthia or Brock or Giovanni when each fight is really just Ivysaur? Or, if they could represent Cynthia’s signature Garchomp with a blue Charizard… why not just include Garchomp as a spirit instead, and cut out the middleman?

Oh wait. That’s exactly what they did.

Adding trainers to SSBU isn’t the tough part; it’s adding their team. You could have Misty as a Pokémon Trainer clone, but you’d still need to come up with three Pokémon for her to use. And if you add her, that makes the Pokémon Trainer gimmick less unique AND bloats the roster with another three Pokémon fighters.

Spirit Scenario:
Zero Suit Samus in two-piece (Misty), Squirtle x 3. Pokeballs spawn water types only.
Dr. Mario (Professor Oak), Charizard, Squirtle, Ivysar, Pikachu. Master Balls only.

Odds Human Pokémon characters are future DLC Spirits: 2/10
Odds Human Pokémon characters are future DLC characters: 0/10

5.       The cast of Kirby 64 (Kirby 64)

Fan-favorite Adeleine is getting all the coverage, but let’s take a step back; All the partner characters from Kirby’s Dreamland 2 and 3 are Spirits. Gooey is a Spirit, several enemies are Spirits, Daroach from Squeak Squad, Prince Fluff from Epic Yarn, and Magolor from Returns are all in. But not one single character from Kirby 64 is a Spirit. This includes Adeleine, Ribbon, and big boss, Zero2. This seems like a glaring hole in Kirby’s representation. Ribbon was even a part of the final boss battle. Many people speculate that their omission is because Sakurai plans to make Adeleine a playable fighter, but she’s not exactly a heavy-hitter in the Kirby series outside of the very hardcore. Bandanna Dee and Magolor (both Spirits!) have larger fanbases than her, and she really only seems to be loved because of the webcomic Brawl in the Family and the 20-Year Nostalgia Cycle (Kirby’s Dream Land 3 and Kirby 64, the two games she was featured in, came out in 1998 and 2000, respectively).
Barring a Kirby 64 remake and the 64 gang getting Spirits to cross-promote, I can’t see them making it in in any form.

At least Ribbon and Adeleine made it into Kirby Star Allies!

Spirits Scenario: Villager (F) and Tiny Pit (Pink) on Dream Land. Vince assists.

Odds the Kirby 64 cast are future DLC Spirits: 3/10
Odds the Kirby 64 cast are future DLC characters: 0/10

6.       Someone from Pro Wrestling (Pro Wrestling)

No, I don’t mean Hulk Hogan, or The Rock, or “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan. When the NES released back in the late 1980s, Nintendo’s first wave of first-party games (known as the “Black Box Games”) launched alongside it. Some, like Super Mario Bros, Duck Hunt, and Excitebike became classics. Others were more generic filler titles that have mostly been forgotten for one reason or another. These include Urban Champion, Tennis, and yes, Pro Wrestling. Pro Wrestling isn’t really a remarkable game, except for its victory screen, which, if you’ve been playing video games for a while, might sound familiar. That’s not to say that some of the character designs aren’t fix. Wrestlers like Starman (Not that one) and The Amazon are really fun and could use an update for modern days.
However, while those Black Box games were all referenced as Spirits in SSBU, Pro Wrestling was strangely absent. Bubbles from Clu Clu Land was a Spirit, as were the Urban Champion, Mach Rider, and representatives from the sports titles like Baseball, Hockey, Volleyball, and Tennis. So why no Pro Wrestling? The reason may be similar to that of Geno or Sukapon; Nintendo no longer holds the license to Pro Wrestling. The game’s creator, Masato Masuda, left Nintendo and brought the license to Pro Wrestling with him to Try Company, Ltd (Later, HUMAN) where it lays dormant to this day.

Spirits Scenario: Ryu (Fighter Hayabusa), Captain Falcon (Star Man), Incineroar (Giant Panther), Little Mac (Kin Corn Carn), Greninja (The Amazon), Ken (King Slender), Ganondorf (Great Puma) in the Wrestling Ring.

Odds a Pro Wrestler is future Spirits DLC: 0/10
Odds a Pro Wrestler is future character DLC: 0/10

7.       Mike Jones (StarTropics Series)

Who?

That’s still relevant, right?

*does a quick Google search*

Oh Jesus. That guy was popular in 2004. I guess not.

Mike Jones is not a rapper from 2004. He’s the lead character from StarTropics and its sequel on the NES. StarTropics plays a lot like Zelda with a tropical island aesthetic, but instead of swords and boomerangs, you use yo-yos and bolos and snowman dolls that freeze your enemies in their tracks. They’re cute and goofy and I have fond memories of the series from when I was a kid.
Unfortunately, they were made for a western audience by Nintendo and are virtually unknown in Japan. This is a real shame, because it would be fun to see Mike back at it and maybe see his series relaunched.
The games were also made by the same group that worked on Punch-Out, so it’s strange to me that it wasn’t released in Japan as well.
This seems like the perfect opportunity for Sakurai to throw a bone to western audiences and introduce the franchise to Japan by tossing Mike and Zoda and Dr. Jones Spirits into a DLC patch. But I can’t see that happening. This seems like the kind of game that would be on Sakurai’s radar, though. Dude loves his random gaming trivia.

Spirits Scenario: Ness on Tortimer Island with Beastballs.

Odds Mike Jones is a future Spirits DLC: 1/10
Odds Mike Jones is a future character DLC: 0/10

8.       Lolo (Eggerland/Adventures of Lolo Series)

Way back before Kirby broke onto the scene, Lolo was HAL’s poster boy. You played as a little blue sphere with eyes, Lolo, as he pushed blocks around and tried to climb a tower to rescue his girlfriend, Lala. Three Lolo games were made for the NES in total, and they were all great puzzle games with a lot of character.
HAL then shifted focus to Kirby and even brought Lolo and Lala along for the ride by making them recurring bosses.
The only standout HAL franchises are Lolo and Kirby. Aside from those, the bulk of HAL’s catalogue is board games, though they also helped with the Earthbound and Smash Bros series. There is no chance Lolo isn’t on Sakurai’s radar, as Sakurai got his start at HAL, and created both the Kirby and Super Smash Bros games. In fact, I’d consider this to be the most curious omission in SSBU.
One of Sakurai’s trademarks is his love of video game history. He’s included a retired NES character in every Smash Bros game since Melee (Ice Climbers in Melee, Pit in Brawl, Duck Hunt in Smash Bros 4), except SSBU. Every other NES-era character either still has a franchise going today (Samus, Link, Mario), or is already a Spirit, as listed in the Pro Wrestling section. Lolo is the last NES-era character who could possibly be viable in a Smash game, and even that is a stretch. I don’t think Sakurai plans to add the little guy to Smash, but having the final DLC fighter as a throwback to the NES and his tenure at HAL is exactly the kind of thing I could see Sakurai doing.

Spirits Scenario: Kirby (Blue) and Jigglypuff on Great Cave Offensive with Wheeled Crates.

Odds Lolo is a future Spirits DLC: 3/10
Odds Lolo is a future character DLC: 3/10

So that's my Smash article. Feel free to tell me how dumb I am for believing Spirits means characters can't be playable. I'm used to it after I bought into the "Box Theory.", but that ended up going ok.

Hey, I wrote an article! Enjoy it while it's relevant! 

Understanding Undertale

Warning: Given the subject of this essay, expect spoilers throughout.

Part 1

It's tough to call something a “masterpiece.” When you assign that label, the subject instantly becomes singled out and scrutinized in a vacuum. A masterpiece challenges convention and begs to be looked at alongside its more conventional contemporaries. Context is always important. Take Chuck Jones's “What's Opera, Doc?” for example. It was voted the best cartoon of all time by 1,000 animators in the business for the way it elevated the art form to a new level. If you try to explain a Bugs Bunny cartoon to someone who has never seen one before and use “What's Opera, Doc?” as your example, you'll be left with a person who is probably confused and maybe even upset. Why would someone watch cartoons if they're so sad? What's with the singing? Why does that bald guy have an oversized suit of armor? By looking at this single example, you miss the convention of the Bugs/Elmer Fudd relationship. You lose the context of the methods the hunter has used for years to best the rabbit, and the way Bugs has outsmarted him at every turn. You miss out on how “What's Opera, Doc?” took that formula and flipped it around completely in order to surprise the audience and open them up to the larger picture of what animation can do. Undertale is, I believe, a masterpiece. And to explore how they did everything right, it's important to see what its contemporaries did wrong.

In 2013 a company called Eden Industries wanted to pick up the Mother series' mantle with their game, “Citizens of Earth.” CoE was an attempt to create an RPG with a “modern setting and (the) humorous tone of Earthbound,” according to the Kickstarter page. On paper, the idea was great. Fans of the Mother series were old enough now that they had jobs in the industry and wanted to take hints from their favorite game to forge a Western take on a JRPG that, in turn, was a JRPG take on Western culture. The trailer for CoE showed off the irreverent humor, an eclectic cast of characters, and familiar battle sequences that stirred up visions of Dragon Quest and Earthbound. We had a series that looked like it could deliver and fill the Mother-shaped holes in our hearts. A new group of developers could carry Itoi's torch. The stage was set, and the bar was high.

And, by all accounts, Citizens of Earth should have worked. The game opens with, in typical RPG trope fashion, the main character, the Vice President of Earth, being woken up by his mother. The game knew from the outset exactly how to skewer the beloved genre. It was as if Mel Brooks tried his hand at game design. The VP was funny, the battle mechanics were interesting and engaging, and the game knew its fanbase, sneaking sly nods to Earthbound in for those of us in the know. But the problems with CoE became apparent very early on. Load times grate on your nerves, especially when you're trying to get familiar with a new area. Directives can be vague, frustrating, or not exist at all. This is particularly frustrating when moving the plot forward requires a certain character and the game gives no information to do so. However, the real failings of CoE lie in the details. The characters, as varied as they are, have no real personality. They just spout their lines, and only exist as tools for you to use to battle wave after wave of the same few enemies, made doubly frustrating by the insane respawn rate. Items are unimaginative and useless. You'll be swimming in the same few HP-restoring coffees and donuts for the whole game. It also makes collecting chests more of a compulsion than an exciting experience, because an overwhelming majority of the time, they contain nothing but another coffee.

There's also an inherent problem with having an aloof main character like the VP who is impossible to identify with, and only bland support characters to back him up; The plot loses any momentum. And some of you may be saying “Well, Ness or Crono never even speak, and those are two of the best JRPGs ever.” And to you, I say that Ness and Crono are silent protagonists, and the player projects themselves and their intentions onto them. Those protagonists are also surrounded by a myriad of characters who DO have a stake in the game. They become your moral compass. Jeff and Apple Kid and Lucca and Frog become rallying support for the cause. CoE's very talkative protagonist who thinks only of himself is surrounded by characters who have almost no personality at all. So at no time does the player feel compelled to move forward, because none of the characters seem invested. Nobody in the game seems to care or understand what they're doing, so why should the player? The game also makes the mistake of thinking that ramping up the insanity of the plot is the same as raising the stakes. You find yourself on an alien spaceship eventually and for the life of me, I can't remember why. It's as if it happens simply because Earthbound has aliens. Like it's expected. And that's the biggest sin that this game could have made; it did what was expected of it. It didn't rise above its peers, but instead, it sold itself on the promise of being a Mother successor and only succeeded in being a serviceable, run-of-the-mill RPG experience, albeit with a sense of humor. Again, when the great Mel Brooks makes a parody, it's because he loves and understands the source material. He know how to make homage and also how to get you to identify with his characters. There's a heart in his films that comes across, hand-in-hand with the insanity. Citizens of Earth takes a half measure in heart and the experience suffers for it. It got the wackiness right, but Eden Industries making a parody more along the lines of “Epic Movie” than “Blazing Saddles.”

From the moment you begin Undertale, the game greets you with visual cues, all before you even enter your first battle. The pixel art is simplistic and made up of a few colors. It looks as if it could fit in with the likes of the SNES brethren that inspired it. Like in every Mother game, Undertale's protagonist wears a striped, two-tone t-shirt. Like in those traditional JRPGs, Undertale's protagonist is mute. And the bed of flowers the protagonist wakes up on looks very familiar to a recurring flower in Mother 3. You may not even notice that your brain is taking all of this in, but from this moment on, Undertale has you exactly where it wants you. And it doesn't let go.

The most clear-cut example of subversion of expectation is in Undertale's battle system. Similarly to Citizens of Earth, the enemies are presented in full view, just like in Dragon Quest or Mother games of old. You're given a couple options from the menu, as in an old Final Fantasy game, and you're led to believe that those commands are the same as always. For those new to the genre, Flowey, the unassuming first enemy of the game, instructs the player on the unique “bullet hell” minigame that occurs on every enemy turn. A red heart, a stand-in for the player, is confined to a small box where projectiles move around and try to make contact with you. Flowey instructs the player to gather up the “friendliness pellets” in order to proceed, and with that, Undertale has introduced its central mechanic by lying to the player. If you figured it out and dodged Flowey's attack, you feel smarter than the game. If not, you're rescued by another NPC who will teach you how to “really” play the game. Either way, you're playing by the game's rules, even if you don't know it. If you suspect Undertale is just going against convention and you play along as if it's some kind of anti-RPG, Undertale knows that, too. The game knows what you know, and it knows how you can plan to overcome the obstacles it throws at you-sometimes literally. If you've caught on, be assured that the game knows this and it already several steps ahead of you. After you've met the friendly NPC Toriel, you settle in and begin to learn how to play from someone you trust. Then the game goads you into accidentally killing her.

Undertale is layer upon layer of tropes, reversals of tropes, self-referential humor, fourth-wall shattering dialogue and characters, and surprise after surprise after surprise. Even if, in a panic, you reset the game because you've accidentally killed your new friend, the game knows. It knows if you've played the game before. It knows if you've closed the game in the middle of important dialogue. The game of Undertale extends beyond the act of playing it. It's not just a timeline of events from the intro to the final boss. Undertale is an interplay of experimentation and branching paths of human choice and itself. The game invites you to try new approaches, then calls you out on it. The world of Undertale is a post-postmodern look at not only RPGs, but video games, morality, and gaming culture in general. Every time you think you've figured out the game, the rules change. Undertale is the world's best Poker player and you think you can take them on because you've mastered Go Fish.

By the time you reach the game's first “real” boss fight, one half of the comedic skeleton brother duo, Papyrus. The rules change, and the bullet hell becomes something of a Mario-style platformer where your heart must leap over giant bones to avoid damage. The end of the battle showcases the action box expand ever-upward as your heart leaps over all obstacles. It's hilarious, unexpected, and just a hint of the surprises to come. Each boss has a different take on battle, and with each one, conventions fall away. And yet, the game still manages to surprise you when the final boss (on one of the paths) shows itself to be a photorealistic monstrosity of eyeballs and thorns that is as shocking to see revealed as it is disturbing to look at. “But of course,” you think. “This isn't REALLY a SNES game. It's been a computer game the whole time. It doesn't have to adhere to any rules.” Undertale has tricked you again.

You can play Undertale like a traditional JRPG, but doing so demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to play video games. Inventory management gets skewered when you try to pick up some mystical object, only to be told that your inventory is full. You drop the item, and that dropped item runs off with the mystical object in question. Even the “But thou must” options become irrelevant in regular dialogue, because the real choices aren't even delivered in that format, opting for an “actions speak louder than words” scenario. In battles, you can kill every frog or depressed ghost you come across to gain EXP and cash, but the game openly challenges you on it. By the time you reach the end, Sans, the second of the skeleton brothers, reveals that the traditional EXP and LV, present in so many JRPGs, aren't exactly what you might have believed. Altering something so integral to the role-playing experience puts everything into perspective. Undertale holds you personally responsible for your actions. After all, that blank slate of a character was you. It wasn't Ness or Cecil or the Vice President of Earth. The purposefully nondescript protagonist is a proxy for you, and Sans makes sure that you know that there is no separation, in his eyes, between you.

There's a heart in Undertale that makes it stand out. It plays to the fans of the genre by including ineffectual minibosses in the tradition of Final Fantasy V's Gilgamesh in Papyrus, it features an homage to Final Fantasy VI's famous opera sequence with the killbot, Mettaton. A village of cute, Mr. Saturn-esque creatures called Temmies, and a sequence in Dr. Alphys's lab that seems straight out of the Chimera Lab in Mother 3. It helps you grow to appreciate the characters by giving them dialogue that changes with your choices. One particularly touching scene, if you plan to kill everything in sight, has Sans beg the player not to continue, because he knows that deep down they just want to “finish” the game. On the other hand, going out of your way for a perfect ending, nets you a similar sequence begging you not to replay, because as things are, all the friends you've made are so happy. This, in itself, is a huge mixed signal, because the alternate approaches to the game and branching character directions and actions just beg for experimentation and replaying. But that's exactly what Sans warns against. This isn't just grinding on FF6's Veldt to learn new attacks, or mowing down wave after wave of FF4's Bombs to get a worthless-but rare!-secret summon. It's about the choice and the weight of every small step you've taken. And that's where games like Citizens of Earth got it wrong. Playing a Mother game isn't fulfilling simply because it's funny. The fandom hasn't grown and expanded because they laugh at the little things. Undertale shows that being laugh-out-loud funny is done best when there are high stakes, your characters are likable and full of personality, and you care about the characters you're interacting with.

Years ago, Roger Ebert asked if videogames can ever be considered art. The internet exploded and rallied against him with example after example of game design and art and emotion, but Undertale is the most concrete example yet. Undertale delivers an experience that can only be delivered in a video game medium. A film never changes due to your mood, but Undertale in particular shows that the game is a reflection of the player. It's a novel in the way you read into and experience characters and motivations. It's is an art exhibit, from the small things like character art and music to its lessons on morality and the consequences of your seemingly innocuous actions. It's an interactive puzzle in the way it invites the player to explore the very data files it's contained in to discover it's biggest mystery.

As, I mentioned, there is a bed of flowers that the player wakes up in at the beginning of Undertale. They look strikingly similar to the flowers that feature in Mother 3 as a symbol throughout most of the story. At first it bothered me because this game has no right to compare itself to Mother 3, let alone be so bold as to appropriate one of the most prominent and emotional symbols in the game. But it does. Toby Fox and Undertale have proven that they understand exactly what it means to make a video game in the modern day. Undertale stands on the shoulders of giants, and it looks down on them with fondness, appreciation, and determination.

An Overview of Undertale

Warning: This is a review/discussion of several role playing games, expect spoilers to be used liberally.

You're generally in one of two camps when it comes to “Undertale.” Either you peruse Tumblr or Reddit or Twitter for new fan art and secrets on a daily basis, or you're already moving to close this tab because you're just sick of hearing about it. If you're in the second camp, I get it. I've been there. I was there with “Five Nights at Freddy's” and with “Steven Universe” and with “Adventure Time.” The fanbase gets so rabid and excited that they talk about nothing but the subject in question weeks after you first heard about it and shrugged it off.

But “Undertale” deserves most of that hype. It's that good. On its face, it's nothing revolutionary. It's riding the nostalgia wave that “Shovel Knight” and “Retro City Rampage” and now even “Mario Maker” have exploited. It presents itself in a familiar 16-ish-bit graphic style that hearkens back to a simpler time in video games. Maybe to when you were a kid, when everything was flat and brightly colored and chip-tuned. But that's how “Undertale” first subverts your expectations.

It's no secret that I love RPGs. “Undertale,” I believe, is a great entry in the RPG genre, a genre that has been stagnating for a long time. It's no surprise that people have been flocking to MMORPGs while the latest single-player Final Fantasy game feels like a bloated, pretentious mess. In order to understand what “Undertale” does so well, we first need to look at the RPGs that led us here, specifically those on the NES and Super NES.

An average battle in "Dragon Quest."

Most video game genres give you all the information you need at the outset; Mario must save the princess, Mega Man must beat the evil robots, and Simon Belmont must kill Dracula. That's all the plot you get, and that's what drives you to reach the end. The RPG genre did something a little different; it slowed things down. At the beginning of the story you have almost no information, and by moving forward, you gain not only knowledge, but the drive and the strength to reach the end. The game draws you in and gets you invested. Drape that idea in a medieval theme, and you've got nearly every RPG that surfaced on the NES and most of the Super NES. The Ur-example of these tropes is “Dragon Quest” (called “Dragon Warrior” on the NES). “Dragon Quest” introduced several RPG mainstays that exist even today: the romantic swords and sorcery setting, fire, ice, and lightning magic, killing slimes for money, and then using that money to buy better items, and winning experience points to gain levels. “Dragon Quest” was also dialogue-heavy, allowing the player to interact with Non-Player Characters (NPCs) for additional information and to give the player some illusion of agency in a scripted setting where all outcomes led to the same path. Giving what the game considered a “wrong” answer would loop the dialogue until the “correct” one was chosen. These are the basics of the console RPG. Dragons were slain, worlds were saved, and nobody ever questioned why a ninja would be walking around in a medieval feudal town.

Dragon Quest's dialogue "options."

Enter Shigesato Itoi, a Japanese essayist-turned-game designer. His first game, “Mother,” was released for the Famicom (Japan's NES equivalent) in 1989. Gameplay-wise, “Mother” is a pretty standard RPG. It features random encounters, a mechanic in which monster parties are encountered without warning on the world map, a party of warriors from different backgrounds, and towns with shops that sell the newest equipment to help battle the latest monsters. Where “Mother” differs is in its presentation. Magic is now psychokinesis, swords are baseball bats, bows and arrows are slingshots, slimes are rowdy neighborhood dogs, and medieval European-style castles are now American-style cities. While “Mother” played with genre norms, it remained local to Japan. Western audiences didn't experience it for decades after the NES became defunct. “Mother” was a fun distraction, but the norm marched on, through four more Final Fantasy games and two additional Dragon Quests.

By the time the Super NES rolled around, RPG mainstays were cemented into the genre and everyone basically knew what to expect from the newest Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest. “Final Fantasy IV” pushed the genre by introducing dynamic playable characters who seemed to learn and change, all while adhering to the script. Advances in technology made the stories and characters better, but nothing really evolved beyond cosmetics. The fantasy RPG had been perfected and had become predictable, and with art of any form, the moment it becomes formulaic is the moment it becomes ripe for parody.

The story of “Mother 2”, aka “Earthbound”, is an interesting one. Like its predecessor, it almost remained a Japanese exclusive, despite its very American influences. When the decision was made by Nintendo to publish it in America, they weren't even quite sure how to market it. They settled on the “weirdness” factor, saddling “Earthbound” with the unfortunate tagline “This game stinks!” and showcasing a sentient puddle of vomit, a minor character in the story, as the mascot for the ads. What's more, none of the Dragon Quests appeared on the Super NES, despite still being released in Japan. Only two of the system's Final Fantasy games were brought over, and Nintendo of America decided that RPGs just weren't really for American audiences. The high price-tag or “Earthbound,” due to the inclusion of some bonus items, like an air freshener and player's guide, didn't help much. “Earthbound” was dead on arrival, but despite that, it began to gather a dedicated fanbase.

"Earthbound's" New-Age Retro Hippie wants to fight. (Note the similarity to Dragon Quest's battles)

But why? Mechanically, “Earthbound” doesn't do anything that revolutionary. Battles still look like they did back in “Dragon Quest,” but coated with a layer of LSD-laced paint. You still fight bosses and buy weapons and save the world. But “Earthbound” thrives in the small stuff. The weight of an evil alien from the future destroying humanity is always there, but it never seems to loom over you. Common enemies are light and funny, including Mad Ducks, UFOs wearing hair ribbons, and, of course, the New-Age Retro Hippie. NPCs like Mr. Saturn and Dungeon Man make you laugh at their absurdity, and the exaggerated musical score, full of a cacophony of horns, gives every scene the same tension you'd get from Elmer Fudd recieving a wedgie. All of this is wrapped in a bittersweet layer of interpersonal relationships, from Ness and his worrysome mother to Dr. Andonuts and his awkwardness around his son, Jeff. The game is light-hearted, but the fun distractions never take away from the creepy zombies that haunt Threed, or the cultists in the ironically-named Happy-Happy Village. “Earthbound” takes what the game presents as a serious threat and has your semi-mute group of preteens trying to distract themselves with small laughs before they have to deal with it. It has equal parts goofiness and darkness, and that spoke to people. Those fans who played “Earthbound” before it was a phenomenon still clamor about it today, partially because of the fresh paint on a tired genre, and partially because of the way the humor vs. seriousness can hit home.

When “Earthbound's” sequel, “Mother 3”, was announced, expectations were high. Think back when “Toy Story 3” was announced. The initial reaction was that we didn't need it. The story was fine as it stood, and anything new would tarnish what the first movies worked so hard to accomplish. But then, “Toy Story 3” came out, and not only was it good, but it left the first two in the dust when it came to emotional roller-coasters and feeling connected to the characters. “Mother 3” is the video game equivalent of “Toy Story 3”.

There's a reason fans have begged Nintendo to release “Mother 3” in the west for almost 10 years now. Everything “Earthbound” did was improved by “Mother 3.” The characters feel more real, the threat feels more personal, the battles are more engaging. Add parables of loss, family, blind consumerism, greed, and mistreatment of the planet's resources for personal gain, and you've got a sequel that improves on its predecessors in every way. “Mother 3” not only knows how to tell a story, but how to make you feel something. One early scene in particular, Flint's discovery of his wife, Hinawa's, death, remains one of the most poignant scenes in gaming. It's book-ended by jokes, but still filled with raw emotion. It's also played out with almost no dialogue.

The Mother series is brilliant because it not only embraces weirdness, but uses that weirdness to elevate its story. You're fighting hippopotamuses-turned-rocket launchers and hammerhead sharks with kangaroo pouches, but when you find out the selfish antagonist from “Earthbound” is doing it because he's now immortal and is simply bored, it feels wrong. You feel guilty, because those animals didn't deserve it. They're victims, just like you are. There's a streak of Vonnegut in the Mother series. The games are about humanity and it's flaws. It's about the relationship we have with Mother Earth and the line between using her resources and abusing her. It blurs the lines between the hilarious and the grotesque. It's the joy of small personal victories meeting the sheer disappointment of what humanity can be at its worst. It was... odd. But you couldn't appreciate the heartache without laughing at the oddness first, and you couldn't find relief in the oddness without caring about the heartache.

The Mother series not only flipped the RPG genre on its head, but proved that the player can have a personal stake in the story. It showed that the player can feel pity for those small enemies they come across on the way to the bad guy that leads them. It showed that the people you meet have a stake in how you continue your journey. And it showed that humanity can be terrible, but there are always some who are willing to question if we have to be. And not just because that's what the story dictates.

So what does all this have to do with “Undertale”?

Part 2