Sorry about the lat posting, I had planned to post this from my parent's house, but it wouldn't let me put it up for some reason! Well, better late than never...

If Konami could only pick one character to represent them in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I would hope it would be the character I'm featuring today. He's a character from two of the best games in a long running and successful series of games that started out on the NES. He meets the requirements of having been in a Nintendo game before, but most people know him best from his appearance in an original Playstation smash hit game. He's a one man army standing against an assortment of the most evil creatures ever assembled. I'm talking, of course, about:


Richter Belmont

B: Dagger - The standard long distance weapon makes it's appearance at the B button. Richter launches a dagger in the direction he's facing. If it hits an opponent, it'll deal a maximum of 5% damage. This weapon will travel all the way across the screen until it hits something or disappears off the edge of the stage. There can only be one Dagger on the screen at a time.
< or >B: Cross-erang - It behaves exactly like the cross sub-weapon in all of the Castlevania games. You throw the cross out in the direction you're facing, and it goes out for a while before coming back. I've got a question: how exactly does it come back?!? Can anyone explain how this sub-weapon works? Anyway, the weapon will only go about half of the distance of the Flat Zone stage before coming back. If it hits an opponent it'll do a maximum of 7% damage and pass through them. Once it's gone it's maximum distance, it'll come back in the other direction and continue until it disappears off the edge of the stage, or hits Richter. Don't worry it won't hurt you, after all, you threw it! There can only be one Cross-erang on the screen at a time.
^B: Axe - Remember fighting the very first giant bat enemy from the first Castlevania? That fight would've been much more difficult without this sub-weapon. Richter tosses an axe in an upward arc through the air, doing a maximum of 18% damage to anyone it comes in contact with. Unlike Richter's other sub-weapons, he can have two Axes on screen at a time.
vB: Holy Water - It burns, it burns! Richter tosses a bottle of holy water at the ground. It bursts into flames at the point of contact and the holy blue flames slowly die down over a period of 7 seconds. If you catch an opponent in them for the entire duration, it'll do a maximum of 15% fire damage.
Final Smash: Stopwatch - There's a method to this special move madness, and this Final Smash is no different. Richter pulls out a stop watch and any remaining opponents (including assist trophies and pokemon summoned by opponents) are frozen in place for 5 seconds. It's like hitting all of your opponents with a freezie at once! This move may not be able to guarantee KOs for the player using Richter, but it will certainly help the player along! Make sure to make the best of this time by recovering lost health or getting some KOs in. Don't get too reckless though; if an opponent was in the middle of an attack, and you bump into it (i.e. they're swinging the bat, and you walk into the tip of it) you'll be hit just as if they were still moving!

Did you notice the pattern? All of Richter's special moves are based on the sub-weapons he's had access to. being a versatile warrior is the only way to slay the legions of monsters under Dracula's control!

That leaves the question of his recovery move. How will he do a third jump when he's in real trouble? Well, Richter would actually have his rising uppercut move mapped to his ^+A smash in both the air and on the ground. Also, he's got tether recovery ability by using his whip, which he also uses to grab opponents.

Richter's Stage:

Remember, keep your wii-mote strapped to your wrist... this level may bring back the desire to throw your controller!



It's the Clock Tower! This stage is a vertically scrolling stage that goes up, and then back down. It doesn't scroll in various speeds like the Ice Climber's stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but instead it scrolls up to the top at a slow but steady pace, and then scrolls back down at a slow but steady pace. You'll want to keep your eyes peeled for any suspicious looking blocks along the walls of the stage during the brawl; some of them may break to reveal useful items!

Hazards:
With the constant scrolling, you may get stuck at the bottom or top of the screen and be KO'd. Also, flying medusa heads periodically fly by. Don't worry, they won't turn you in to stone, but they will do a maximum of 4% damage, and may cause you to fall to your doom. Try to avoid them, or kill them if you must. The gears in this stage also rotate, so you're constantly on the move in this memorable (if frustrating) stage.

How likely is it that Richter Belmont will appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl? Unfortunately, not very likely. Personally, I think he would fit in perfectly (more so than Solid Snake) considering all of his sub-weapons, however; I also think that since Nintendo announced that there will only be two or three third party characters in Brawl the chances of having two out of three of them be from Konami are poor. I'm hoping Nintendo is really just leading us on with the two to three number, and that they've go something in the neighborhood of 5-10 actually lined up with the 3-8 additional characters being hidden characters kept secret.

There are so many iconic third party characters that are linked to Nintendo... so many that actually got their start on a Nintendo system... that it's hard to imagine that Nintendo is only going to do two or three third party characters. Hopefully since the Super Smash Bros. series is such a big hit Nintendo will decide to make a sequel within this console generation, and maybe add more third party characters. Reggie (I know you're reading) you tell Sakurai that I want Richter!

Come back tomorrow for more rampant, unfounded speculation as I count down the days until the US release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl!