If you were a Metroid fan watching the E3 Invitational in the July of 2014, these words from Smash director Masahiro Sakurai were a godsend. For the past 3 iterations of the series, Samus had been at best, a mid-tier character. Her fans had it rough.
Finally though, Samus was getting some love; or so it seemed. In a deja vu situation, she was again what she once was: mediocre.
Come release-time, the character had an extremely limited set of options. She wasn’t performing well at tournaments. While specialists for other characters had access to strings, assured combos and kill set-ups, the Samus community was stuck with a two-hit jab combo that wasn’t even a true combo.
Really, who could make a kit as disheveled as that work?
Enter Mr. Danish Butter Cookie -- “The Strategist”.
Finding his start on YouTube back in early 2014, Danish’s was originally focused on let’s plays and random gameplay videos, and although he’d go on to make some Super Smash Bros. Brawl videos, he describes it as having been “nothing serious”. He cites watching Rush Hour Smash’s Falcon Mixclip as the real reason he decided to dedicate himself to making Smash content:“For the longest time, I used every character. I tried to make montages and tutorials in the early stages of Smash 4.” Early into his channel’s lifespan, his most popular videos were in his “Moveset and Guides” series, which demonstrated all of a character's moves and explained how they could be applied to battle in a very basic fashion. “In retrospective I think they look pretty bad, but of course we were all just learning how to play the game then, so I think that’s a given.”
“One day, I decided I would try to use Samus because there were no good montages of her.
During one of my matches, I accidentally placed a bomb on the ledge, and it made my opponent slide off-stage. This fascinated me greatly, and it wasn’t long before I learned how to do it consistently so that I could confirm into down-air spike.
I started using a lot of Samus. Her bombs and spacing game fit my play style, and for some reason I was doing really well with her. At the time, my editing was improving greatly, so I decided to make The Strategist 1.”
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Notsuchabadguy: Tell me, what’s your creative process? How long does a video take to make, and what are the steps involved?
Mr. Danish: The song comes first. I have a huge library of music, which I listen to through the day, whether at the gym, in the car, or just sitting in my room. Sometimes I'll stumble onto a song, and I'll picture a character that fits it's mood, then the montage just builds in my head.
From there, I start crafting combos in my head, and imagine which ones would fit certain parts of the song, and after everything is complete, I start trying to get the clips! Once the clips are done, I edit the video!
Getting the clips isn't the hard part, it's crafting the uniqueness of them. Sometimes it's just in the moment, but other times I'm repeatedly trying to get the same clip but I just can't get in the right situation. This can seriously delay a project.
When I begin editing, I cannot stop, unless I am forced to. I will stay up until 7:00A.M. editing a video, if it's rendering a pre copy for 6 hours then I can relax, but if I'm doing something to fit the rhythm, my mind just won't let it go and I have to finish it. For someone normal, they edit about 1 hour at a time and relax, maybe a few hours more, but I usually edit a video for a good 10 hours straight, minus the rendering.
N: What about your "For Honor" series? For the people that don't know: What’s it about, how is it made and when can we expect more of it?
MD: For Honor is mainly to showcase players that I wanna play against, and character matchups that I feel others would be interested in. These include players like Cyro, Hooded, Styles, and many more. The list is huge, but the problem is not everyone is available at the same time. Add the fact that I am now trying to get professional commentary on the top, the commentators have a schedule as well. There will be many more for honors to come, and hopefully more consistently, but of course with so many people being involved in one project, we can only wait for each part to be done.
The newest for honor is actually already done as we speak, we’re just waiting for the commentators to become available!
MD: I’m planning on a lot more tutorials and guides, including a new series called anti-guide where instead of teaching you how to play the character, it's about how to fight them. Of course there will be more montages, but these will have a bit of a twist, because they'll feature a special guest that people will go absolutely nuts over and I’m super hyped for that. There will be more stories, as I want people to know me as well as be entertained by my gameplay -- I want to connect with my audience.
I also really want to stream more: It's stressful, but I think I can get over it. The problem with it for me is that I’m very picky about how I spend my time. I'm one of those guys who consistently reminds themselves that time is our most limited resource, so if I'm not enjoying streaming, then I’m simply wasting a large chunk of time. I don't waste a second of any activity doing anything that isn’t productive.
And of course, I want to do more For Honors, even doubles. Me and Jonny Westside plan to advance the double Samus team we have going, and the fact that I am in SoCal means that I will show up a lot more in tournaments.
N: How can people who enjoy your content support you?
MD: I think just keep doing what you're doing! Click that sub button if you randomly check out the channel, I promise every video has something interesting in it and is also edited nicely. If possible, share it on social media! If you're feeling really generous, support me on my Patreon! There are some goodies in there you might like, and it will tremendously help me with everything.
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If you wish to enjoy more of Mr. Danish Butter Cookie’s content, be sure to check out his YouTube or Twitch channel! You can also follow him on Twitter for further updates on when videos are being uploaded and when he’s assisting tournaments. If you wish to further support him, consider visiting his Patreon.
Smashboards would like to thank Danish for giving us permission to make this article, as well as for allowing us some of his time for an interview.
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