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One year ago, the Smash community got Grinched.
- Thread starter TheDinoman
- Start date
Not paying attention to leaks is the solution, everyone. They're video games. Knowing about a video game before the people who made it want you to isn't important, or even good.
For issues of studio problems or more behind-the-scenes stuff, that dips into journalism. Or, even just pro-consumer hardware leaks like Emily telling people to wait on the Switch revision. But leaks of details about a game have continually demonstrated themselves to be harmful to discourse, real or fake.
For issues of studio problems or more behind-the-scenes stuff, that dips into journalism. Or, even just pro-consumer hardware leaks like Emily telling people to wait on the Switch revision. But leaks of details about a game have continually demonstrated themselves to be harmful to discourse, real or fake.
This whole fiasco was basically Smash's equivalent of The Great Divide Episode from Avatar: TLAB.
Except about 50 times as shittier.
Also, I guess I'm proud of winning the Grinch avatar bet? After the initial excitement the whole leak just felt too good (for the fans) to be true, the background inconsistencies sealed the deal on my part.
Except about 50 times as shittier.
Also, I guess I'm proud of winning the Grinch avatar bet? After the initial excitement the whole leak just felt too good (for the fans) to be true, the background inconsistencies sealed the deal on my part.
It was just so boring and anticlimactic, no one wanted to believe it
Like, the Box wasn't even the leak, people legit guessed Ken and Incineroar based on placements. sakurai/smash speculation had never been so predictable.
It's ok though, something had to be given to get that brilliant August Smash Direct. Still think that's the closest thing to the most universally praised direct there has been.
Still blows me away that so many people not only believed it despite all the evidence against it and the absurd number of new characters it promised, but insisted that it was literally impossible that it was fake and that skeptics were being ridiculous. Total clown show.
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Its a pity we lost Mach Rider, Chorus Kids and Hans. Much better than the last picks with inceneroar and piranha plant.
I really wanted to see what Sakurai could do with Mach Rider like he did with Kid Icarus, hopefully made her female. If Chorus Kids brought Rythm Heaven music and stage, thats already a fucking big win for the game (also would be interesting if the moveset would be rhythm based), and Hans, I love Golden Sun, if he brought a stage and more Golden Sun music, again a big win for the game.
Piranha Plant is still incredibly fucking lame, and I think the only fun aspect of it is the Mario victory screen cop out, the rest is incredibly meh. Would have prefered a Tetris block as the wtf character of this game, its more crazy and more history relevant.
Also seems theres a pattern with Sakurai, his reveals always defelate by the end. He loves to show the big guns at the beginning, then leave the most boring stuff at the end.
I really wanted to see what Sakurai could do with Mach Rider like he did with Kid Icarus, hopefully made her female. If Chorus Kids brought Rythm Heaven music and stage, thats already a fucking big win for the game (also would be interesting if the moveset would be rhythm based), and Hans, I love Golden Sun, if he brought a stage and more Golden Sun music, again a big win for the game.
Piranha Plant is still incredibly fucking lame, and I think the only fun aspect of it is the Mario victory screen cop out, the rest is incredibly meh. Would have prefered a Tetris block as the wtf character of this game, its more crazy and more history relevant.
Also seems theres a pattern with Sakurai, his reveals always defelate by the end. He loves to show the big guns at the beginning, then leave the most boring stuff at the end.
I still cannot believe anybody fell for that.
Like, how? How could anybody believe that nonsense?
It makes me feel bad for people who actually put effort in their fakes
Like, how? How could anybody believe that nonsense?
It makes me feel bad for people who actually put effort in their fakes
Can you show me a fake that had more effort put into it than this?
Still one of the most hilarious carnivals of stupid in recent memory.
What wasn't hilarious was the toxicity that came out of it, though.
What wasn't hilarious was the toxicity that came out of it, though.
Can't believe people believed this shit
The moment you see Geno you have to check out, shit's the siren call for fake leaks.
The moment you see Geno you have to check out, shit's the siren call for fake leaks.
The "leaked Switch prototype" one for example.
Also literally every fake that bothers to list somewhat believable things and doesn't include the Grinch.
At the time I knew the hoax was fake based on info that had been relayed to me, though I predominantly argued against it from the perspective of the inconsistencies of the material itself.
- Everything that spoke in favor of the hoax was around the surrounding factors. The paper trail was just too overt. All the info surrounding who leaked it was too readily accessible.
- The illustrations are not that hard to fake. Speaking from the perspective of being an artist, Smash Bros.' mural art isn't what I'd call "difficult" to replicate considering multiple characters on that mural vary in being off-model (you can find several mural hoaxes online that look convincing, including a good Bomberman one), and the blurry photo offsets any mistakes in each individual illustration.
- The "Bandai Namco" connection with the printing company was erroneous because they wouldn't be the ones doing it.
- The banner background. This was the biggest smoking gun in regards to the leak's veracity and pretty much killed it outright. Eagle eyed Smash viewers unearthed a background of the banner from E3 which was only sighted on Treehouse streams, and it looked completely inconsistent with the background that was presented in the leak, including a giant outcropping where an island/castle was supposed to be, that gave the impression that they had painted over the characters that covered those spots. People tried to rationalize it multiple ways by trying to induce Photoshop filters/blur to fix that problem spot even though it only introduced more inconsistencies with other spots and didn't explain other problems, to which a few argued that the company itself painted it over which... yeah that's grasping.
- The obvious question - sitting on that many unreleased characters when there were so many opportunities they could've revealed characters at other times.
All in all, the people who made this leak knew what they were doing but "best leak ever" was never something I agreed with. They clearly worked more to set up the narrative rather than the illustrations, which is realistic if you work your way backwards.
- Everything that spoke in favor of the hoax was around the surrounding factors. The paper trail was just too overt. All the info surrounding who leaked it was too readily accessible.
- The illustrations are not that hard to fake. Speaking from the perspective of being an artist, Smash Bros.' mural art isn't what I'd call "difficult" to replicate considering multiple characters on that mural vary in being off-model (you can find several mural hoaxes online that look convincing, including a good Bomberman one), and the blurry photo offsets any mistakes in each individual illustration.
- The "Bandai Namco" connection with the printing company was erroneous because they wouldn't be the ones doing it.
- The banner background. This was the biggest smoking gun in regards to the leak's veracity and pretty much killed it outright. Eagle eyed Smash viewers unearthed a background of the banner from E3 which was only sighted on Treehouse streams, and it looked completely inconsistent with the background that was presented in the leak, including a giant outcropping where an island/castle was supposed to be, that gave the impression that they had painted over the characters that covered those spots. People tried to rationalize it multiple ways by trying to induce Photoshop filters/blur to fix that problem spot even though it only introduced more inconsistencies with other spots and didn't explain other problems, to which a few argued that the company itself painted it over which... yeah that's grasping.
- The obvious question - sitting on that many unreleased characters when there were so many opportunities they could've revealed characters at other times.
All in all, the people who made this leak knew what they were doing but "best leak ever" was never something I agreed with. They clearly worked more to set up the narrative rather than the illustrations, which is realistic if you work your way backwards.
you know the leak didn't claim the Grinch was going to be in the game, right
I still can't believe people fell for this.
It was a blurry, potato cam photo in 2018, but people were like "THEY HAVE CAD CAM SOFTWARE IT MUST BE REAL!"
It was a blurry, potato cam photo in 2018, but people were like "THEY HAVE CAD CAM SOFTWARE IT MUST BE REAL!"
I really liked this fake. Is really clever and well done. Brought up some funny memes at that time.
What I didn't like is how many insiders labeled the "believers" back then as dumb, but the only way that they knew it was fake was because they had insider-informations.
What I didn't like is how many insiders labeled the "believers" back then as dumb, but the only way that they knew it was fake was because they had insider-informations.
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Ahhh ok, my bad, I misremembered! Yeah then it makes totally sense. I will update my post. Really want to apologise for that
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This had really annoyed me too. Had they not had insider information, they would have released an hour long video about it. This is a good fake no matter how you look at it, but people with insider info just played dumb and treated others as dumb for believing it. It was very disappointing. Even if one could argue it was too many characters to be revealed, they could have been DLC.
Reminder that no one, no even insiders, managed to disprove this leak other than to say "I know it's not real because I know who's really in there". The leak was actually foolproof in all the details, with the background image being the only thing that was shaky. People saying it was obviously fake are ignoring the amount of details that made it look real. Respect to the leaker for being a mastermind.
Then it wasn't foolproof.
Hot take: the Smashified Rayman hoax was more foolproof than this. People somehow didn't learn the right lesson from that.
As someone who was quoted a lot in the Resetera OP, it was a rollercoaster. It started off as really fun - I loved pointing out things like the Grinch artwork - but it quickly turned sour.
I dunno why both sides couldn't treat it like a fun "hey maybe" discussion point and not something to stake their entire online persona on. Like it had notable flaws, but it had really bizarre unexplainable elements, too. And let's be honest, it was exciting after months and months of "Kencineroar". Sure it's easy to look back now and be like "lol why did people believe this" but it's not exactly hard to see why in the moment.
I'll always look back fondly on the first couple hours but yeah.
I dunno why both sides couldn't treat it like a fun "hey maybe" discussion point and not something to stake their entire online persona on. Like it had notable flaws, but it had really bizarre unexplainable elements, too. And let's be honest, it was exciting after months and months of "Kencineroar". Sure it's easy to look back now and be like "lol why did people believe this" but it's not exactly hard to see why in the moment.
I'll always look back fondly on the first couple hours but yeah.
Well obviously... But the background wasn't necessary a dealbreaker. The Rayman leak was just a render, this was some big brain 50 steps ahead type of shit. I think people really forget how deep it went.
For one thing, they created a full banner with 7 completely new renders. And then, you have all the thing around it that lined up. It goes so far beyong the Rayman one.
Some Insiders were being forward with that. I'm pretty sure that few people said it was fake. It's more of some Grinch supporters were like this:
I can't believe that some people here are trying to revisioned their history to make themselves look like more innocent in this scenario.
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And somehow the only character I really wanted out of that list that I also deemed most unlikely is the only one actually in the game, Banjo was the main thing halting me from going all in on this carnival of crazy.
(Issac would've been sorta neat but whatever to the rest, though RH deserves something)
(Issac would've been sorta neat but whatever to the rest, though RH deserves something)
That's the funny thing. Everyone said they learned their lesson there and would never be fooled again.
It wasn't though, the creator had to recreate the whole character select screen, make the animations look convincing AND make another render for Mewtwo.
He even went into detail in his reveal video.
As always, after it's all said and done, it was "OBVIOUSLY" fake.
Exactly like the ESRB leak for Smash 4 was OBVIOUSLY fake.
Exactly like the ESRB leak for Smash 4 was OBVIOUSLY fake.
OP
OP
I mean, the ESRB Leak did have gameplay footage that verified it. It wasn't just a bunch of blurry images.
Also it's final lineup was the complete opposite of the Grinch Leak's. Whereas the Grinch Leak was too good to be true, the ESRB Leak was disappointing enough to feel real. It wasn't like it had a bunch of big requested characters like K. Rool and Ridley at once like that, it was just stuff like Duck Hunt, Bowser Jr., and...Dark Pit.
I initially believed it, mostly because it looks really, really convincing
But as time went on and more and more people came out against it, and some holes started being punched into it (no Pokemon, the raw background image was found) I no longer really believed in it.
Although Shadow still got robbed. He should have been an echo...
But as time went on and more and more people came out against it, and some holes started being punched into it (no Pokemon, the raw background image was found) I no longer really believed in it.
Although Shadow still got robbed. He should have been an echo...
Some Insiders were being forward with that. I'm pretty sure that few people said it was fake. It's more of some Grinch supporters were like this:
I can't believe that some people here are trying to revisioned their history to make themselves look like more innocent in this scenario.
The Grinch mess was a desperate attempt by "fans" to latch onto something that wasn't Kencineroar that quickly "evolved" into an overall smear campaign on Nintendo insiders, and people latched onto because a non-shitty narrative and people's shitty understanding in what an actual disproof is easily overrides the fact that there was no actual proof behind it.
It's disappointing seeing anyone attempt to portray any of it positively and horrifyingly only proves that it will happen again.
I fell for it hook, line and sinker. Even tried a little google-fu to find the place where it was made. Once insiders kept coming out against it I knew it was fake but stayed on Team Real because I wanted to believe
It was fun running around with Grinchgang avatars
It was fun running around with Grinchgang avatars
OP
OP
It's times like these why I'm glad I'm wise enough to never, ever partake in any avatar bets. lol
Yup, I have seen some people trying to justified it on some social media, and few people were incredibly naive when they said no harms and it's all fun when some people were harassed over the leaks. Hopefully this kind of behaviors wouldn't happens again but its more likely to happens.
Yea. It was mostly just a pushback from people getting pissed at kencineroar being forgone at that point. People whined about all the talk just being kencineroar. Kind of funny because no one minded when it was all erdrick and banjo.
People always think the last fake leak will be the one that wakes people up, but it only raises the bar for the next one. One day we'll get a professional and fully rendered trailer that will just be a fake leak.
At least Erdrick was the result of datamining and Banjo the result of a strong tease from an actual insider. Hell even the squabbling between Terry and Nakoruru was a result of a legit page leak.
This was borne from nothing. Nothing but desperate fanboy dreams fighting against reality.