MLGF
Smash Lord
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2013
- Messages
- 1,922
So... I think Smash is one of the most broken fanbases I'd ever seen. TBH, I don't even like posting around these parts because it's just a war. On the flip, I wrote this a while back, with the intention of it explaining the importance of Smash to someone who has never even played the game, and I hope it'll inform some people. Hopefully it's a good read for you guys and it'll explain a lot on Melee.
The 90's Fighter
The 90’s were one of the most influential eras of gaming. Arcades were prominent and the best of those games have shaped their genre in ways that are still relevant today. One of the most defining examples of this was Street Fighter II. Street Fighter II was a 2D fighter created by the Japanese software development team Capcom and the games’ ideas, that seem so standard for the genre now, were created all in one game. The game was a two-player fighter, so the goal was fairly simple, to attack the opponent until their life hit zero and win the round.
Street Fighter II, while creating this fun arcade game also created two other tricks that increased the depth of the game exponentially. The first of these was the special moves. Special Moves are extremely well known in the fighting game community in todays age, but back then it was amazing. By inputting specific directions on the arcade stick and pressing a specific button, the player could perform a special move and each character was different. For example Ryu, the titular main character of the franchise, could throw a fireball by crouching, moving forward, and punching. Meanwhile Guile, the stereotypical military tough guy, would have to hold down and then push the arcade stick up to perform a flash kick. These were largely hidden from players unless they jammed in a lot of quarters, but the players who put in the most effort benefitted greatly as they had natural advantages over their friends.
The second trait that influenced the whole fighting game genre in Street Fighter II was the combo system. Certain moves can actually cancel into others, allowing the person who masters this to create strings of moves that can lead to easy victories. As much as all fighters rely on this now, the combo system was a glitch. The developers discovered it before the game was released, and merely decided to keep it to see how players would take advantage of it. Combos became a hit and upgraded versions of the game would feature a combo counter and damage scaling, or the decrease of damage as the combo string goes longer, to make combos more obvious to learn and easier to fight against.
To put it simply, Street Fighter II was an influential game that had imitators both poor and amazing and imitators can be seen everywhere. Mortal Kombat focused less on the fast fluid gameplay and more on the gore and presentation while King of Fighters 98’ made team combat a prevalent feature. Despite how much they tried to differentiate themselves, they all were based on Street Fighter and they all had special moves and combos. The most avid fans became extremely good, and the games actually grew competitive scenes with high prize awards that are still seen today at competitions like EVO.
While Street Fighter was a game meant to be a simple arcade game, it proved to be an extremely deep competitive game. But this growth began to isolate newcomers. The fans may like it, but the people just trying to get into it were easily outdone and lost interest. Fighting games, while appealing to a hardcore crowd, were becoming extremely exclusive because the casual audience was left behind.
A Smashing Revolution
Years later; at the very end of the twentieth centaury a man who worked for Nintendo by the name of Mashihiro Sakurai wanted to reinvent the fighting game genre on a game for the Nintendo 64. On a small budget and an equally small development time, Super Smash Brothers was released. Smash was a crossover of 10 different Nintendo franchises and took many different directions then what most fighters had taken since Street Fighter II. Gone were the inputs that became more and more ridiculous, all the characters had three special moves that were done as easy as hitting a button.
The game not only offered different execution of moves, but also how one lost. Matches took place in a box, and when you left the box vicinity, you lost a life. If you are sent off to the stage and in the air, you can jump to go back to the stage and not reach the endpoints of the box. Considering how common platformers were at the time, the idea was brilliant and many younger people quickly could comprehend it. Not only that, but the game was loaded with items and an assortment of wacky stages, and offered up to four players at one, so the chaos made the game feel extremely open to anyone willing to plug in and play. It did not matter how good one actually was at the game, it was so simplistic that anyone felt like a pro the first time they played. Smash was quick to pick up and learn, anyone could enjoy it and the floor of depth was so low everyone felt amazing while playing.
But appearances can certainly be deceiving, Smash had depth that was comparable to its competition. Techniques that decreased lag and combo strings that could lead to death in a single hit were actually possible, despite its initial premise. The depth that fighters held so dearly was not gone, but hidden. Sadly, Smash Brothers did not get the exposure needed to show anyone that it had that depth, as it was vastly overshadowed.
History Repeats
It was the sequel however, that overshadowed the previous game. Super Smash Brothers Melee for the Nintendo Gamecube was a game made from many sleepless nights and constant work, but the game benefitted from the hard work and the rush of production. The roster of 12 was increased to 26, the stages increased in both quality and quantity, the game pushed the limits of what was expected at the time, and was deeper then its predecessor despite being just as simple to play. The ability to cancel the lag of aerial moves was made, the gravity became much heavier, and the game was far faster.
The game introduced a new defensive maneuver called air dodging, allowing the player to dodge in the air to escape further hits while also controller ones direction and momentum. Despite that, it was not exploitable. Air dodging could only be done once in the air before the player entered a helpless state, introducing a medium between deadly combos and intense mind-games. Not only this, but players could direct where they were sent in the air by pushing on the controller in a direction after being hit, which is once again a very natural response. The game was far less offensively “broken” then its predecessor while still retaining a huge offensive focus and having the ability to demand more technical skill then the developers could imagine. Despite this, it was still easy to play. Young children could feel like pros by running to the stage, throwing a pokeball and mashing buttons. Meanwhile the people who dug deeper would find an endless void of potential, one that has never been reached to this day.
With all these traits it was not surprise that over the years, Melee began to develop a large competitive scene. The game, that was meant as a high speed party game, was become one of the quickest and deepest fighting games around. Melee’s high-speed combos and focus on made the game one of the most entertaining games to learn, play, and watch. Not only that, but it was simple. Anyone could watch the game and understand what was going on because they likely played it. Companies like Major League Gaming took interest and Melee became one of the first games to ever join the MLG circuit due to its combo of accessibility and depth.
Melee has withstood the test of time in many different ways. In terms of a competitive game, its years played has made it so that so much as been learned. To put it simply, the best players of 2005 likely would not be able to even dent the typical players of today’s era. Its skill ceiling has allowed it to be played for over ten years and its scene today is actually stronger then it has ever been. Super Smash Brothers Melee has had a whole documentary on its competitive scene, has returned to Major League Gaming, has become prevalent in many mainstay fighting game tournaments, and has even surpassed the lifespan of its sequel.
The Brawl to break them all
Super Smash Brothers Brawl was the first game in the series made with a relatively normal life cycle for its popularity. The game had an average development cycle, for the amount of content in the game at least, and was given an extremely large budget to work with. The excitement from both groups, the casuals and hardcores, made this game one of the most anticipated games ever. I myself, in sixth grade begged for a Wii on Christmas specifically so I could play this. The casual audience couldn’t wait to play with many new characters and enter the wacky stages. Meanwhile, the Melee players had hoped Smash would take the same directions as other fighters had. They would embrace the competitive scene and balance the mechanics so that the roster would be more balanced for 1v1 fights… and they were also really excited to use new characters.
Sadly, Brawl did not just ignore the competitive scene’s pleas; Brawl took intentional directions to kick out the competitive players founded in the original and Melee. Gone was lag cancelling techniques and fast paced gameplay. The game had tripping, a random function that hindered mobility, intentionally trying to slow the movement in Melee. The greatest mistake however was that the airdodge mechanic that offered so many great combos was now changed. You could now do it repeatedly, making it far less tactical. Not only that, but it could cancel hitstun at the 16th frame (compared to Melee’s 29th frame). This made actual combos less practical. The game became less of combos, speed, and movement and more of “who gets hit less” according to Melee players.
What Sakurai has gone on to say since the release of Brawl is that he wishes to make a game “where anyone can win”. Sadly, this goal proved to be unachievable. Brawl does actually have a competitive scene and a scene for the top players exist. Sakurai’s goal had been proven to be unachievable, but he achieved many other things from this that can only be considered horrendous.
The casuals and competitive players for the first time had actual strife and argument. Beforehand, there were a plethora of arguments about competitive smash but this argument makes the entire topic far worse. Many casuals began thinking Melee players were horrible people despite their playstyle not interfering with their own, claiming that playing the game in a way they enjoy is horrendous. Competitive players were admittedly stuck up about the whole topic as well, and treated Brawl as a joke. Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman is the overall, in that he places extremely high in both Brawl and Melee, best player of all time has gone on to talk about how bad Brawl is despite his high placing. The other consequence is simply from a gameplay perspective, the game’s new slow pace and defensive style made matches dull and boring to watch. Gone were high executional combos and miraculous aerial movements, it was a game of punishing mistakes.
While the casuals flocked to it, the Melee players stuck to Melee.
Super Smash Brothers Melee appealed to both groups effortlessly. Brawl however cleaved out a percentage of the community for no real reason. One can argue that it was to increase sales, as Brawl had sold an 8 million to Melee’s 7 million. One can argue back that the Wii had such a larger install base however, that Melee did better on a relative scale. Regardless, players had continued to stick with Melee for over a decade now. Brawl meanwhile suffered the fate of popular Wii games and became mod food due to the Wii’s ease of hacking.
A quick look at the many Brawl mods
Unsurprisingly, Brawl had mods to make the game play more competitively. Balance patches came in Balanced Brawl and a mechanic that eliminated the ability to dodge out of hitstun called Brawl+ was made. It may sound silly to bring up, but all of them got rid of tripping because nobody in the universe thought it was a good idea. The only one has been noteworthy in recent times has been Project M however. Project M is a mod to make the game play more like Melee. The mod changes brawl to have heavier physics and brings back the airdodge system. In fact, it brings back all of Melee’s physics. To the way characters slide against the ground to the lag cancelling aerials, it was practically Melee. The mod brought many balances to the game such as new tools for characters and stronger characters overall, even bringing back 2 Melee characters that were cut in Brawl. To put it simply, the competitive scene enjoys it greatly and some players have turned to playing that mod solely. Meanwhile, casual players have also greatly enjoyed it for the new take of characters and additions. If this game had been the sequel to Melee, the community likely would not be cleaved and the game likely would have made Melee invalid, making Smash a community that still continued to support both groups.
As it stands now however, Melee is the primary game played at tournaments and has one of the most prominent scenes to this day. The ease of use made people too intimidated by traditional fighters flock to it, while the competitive depth that Brawl lacked brought in competitive players that still play to this day. Melee is quite possibly, the greatest proof that something can appeal to multiple groups with ease if executed correctly. Sadly, if one looks at the response competitive players have made to the new game and the mod, along with the casuals response to the latter one can see that this sort of era may never occur again.
This is as brief as this is gonna get BTW.
The 90's Fighter
The 90’s were one of the most influential eras of gaming. Arcades were prominent and the best of those games have shaped their genre in ways that are still relevant today. One of the most defining examples of this was Street Fighter II. Street Fighter II was a 2D fighter created by the Japanese software development team Capcom and the games’ ideas, that seem so standard for the genre now, were created all in one game. The game was a two-player fighter, so the goal was fairly simple, to attack the opponent until their life hit zero and win the round.
Street Fighter II, while creating this fun arcade game also created two other tricks that increased the depth of the game exponentially. The first of these was the special moves. Special Moves are extremely well known in the fighting game community in todays age, but back then it was amazing. By inputting specific directions on the arcade stick and pressing a specific button, the player could perform a special move and each character was different. For example Ryu, the titular main character of the franchise, could throw a fireball by crouching, moving forward, and punching. Meanwhile Guile, the stereotypical military tough guy, would have to hold down and then push the arcade stick up to perform a flash kick. These were largely hidden from players unless they jammed in a lot of quarters, but the players who put in the most effort benefitted greatly as they had natural advantages over their friends.
The second trait that influenced the whole fighting game genre in Street Fighter II was the combo system. Certain moves can actually cancel into others, allowing the person who masters this to create strings of moves that can lead to easy victories. As much as all fighters rely on this now, the combo system was a glitch. The developers discovered it before the game was released, and merely decided to keep it to see how players would take advantage of it. Combos became a hit and upgraded versions of the game would feature a combo counter and damage scaling, or the decrease of damage as the combo string goes longer, to make combos more obvious to learn and easier to fight against.
To put it simply, Street Fighter II was an influential game that had imitators both poor and amazing and imitators can be seen everywhere. Mortal Kombat focused less on the fast fluid gameplay and more on the gore and presentation while King of Fighters 98’ made team combat a prevalent feature. Despite how much they tried to differentiate themselves, they all were based on Street Fighter and they all had special moves and combos. The most avid fans became extremely good, and the games actually grew competitive scenes with high prize awards that are still seen today at competitions like EVO.
While Street Fighter was a game meant to be a simple arcade game, it proved to be an extremely deep competitive game. But this growth began to isolate newcomers. The fans may like it, but the people just trying to get into it were easily outdone and lost interest. Fighting games, while appealing to a hardcore crowd, were becoming extremely exclusive because the casual audience was left behind.
A Smashing Revolution
Years later; at the very end of the twentieth centaury a man who worked for Nintendo by the name of Mashihiro Sakurai wanted to reinvent the fighting game genre on a game for the Nintendo 64. On a small budget and an equally small development time, Super Smash Brothers was released. Smash was a crossover of 10 different Nintendo franchises and took many different directions then what most fighters had taken since Street Fighter II. Gone were the inputs that became more and more ridiculous, all the characters had three special moves that were done as easy as hitting a button.
The game not only offered different execution of moves, but also how one lost. Matches took place in a box, and when you left the box vicinity, you lost a life. If you are sent off to the stage and in the air, you can jump to go back to the stage and not reach the endpoints of the box. Considering how common platformers were at the time, the idea was brilliant and many younger people quickly could comprehend it. Not only that, but the game was loaded with items and an assortment of wacky stages, and offered up to four players at one, so the chaos made the game feel extremely open to anyone willing to plug in and play. It did not matter how good one actually was at the game, it was so simplistic that anyone felt like a pro the first time they played. Smash was quick to pick up and learn, anyone could enjoy it and the floor of depth was so low everyone felt amazing while playing.
But appearances can certainly be deceiving, Smash had depth that was comparable to its competition. Techniques that decreased lag and combo strings that could lead to death in a single hit were actually possible, despite its initial premise. The depth that fighters held so dearly was not gone, but hidden. Sadly, Smash Brothers did not get the exposure needed to show anyone that it had that depth, as it was vastly overshadowed.
History Repeats
It was the sequel however, that overshadowed the previous game. Super Smash Brothers Melee for the Nintendo Gamecube was a game made from many sleepless nights and constant work, but the game benefitted from the hard work and the rush of production. The roster of 12 was increased to 26, the stages increased in both quality and quantity, the game pushed the limits of what was expected at the time, and was deeper then its predecessor despite being just as simple to play. The ability to cancel the lag of aerial moves was made, the gravity became much heavier, and the game was far faster.
The game introduced a new defensive maneuver called air dodging, allowing the player to dodge in the air to escape further hits while also controller ones direction and momentum. Despite that, it was not exploitable. Air dodging could only be done once in the air before the player entered a helpless state, introducing a medium between deadly combos and intense mind-games. Not only this, but players could direct where they were sent in the air by pushing on the controller in a direction after being hit, which is once again a very natural response. The game was far less offensively “broken” then its predecessor while still retaining a huge offensive focus and having the ability to demand more technical skill then the developers could imagine. Despite this, it was still easy to play. Young children could feel like pros by running to the stage, throwing a pokeball and mashing buttons. Meanwhile the people who dug deeper would find an endless void of potential, one that has never been reached to this day.
With all these traits it was not surprise that over the years, Melee began to develop a large competitive scene. The game, that was meant as a high speed party game, was become one of the quickest and deepest fighting games around. Melee’s high-speed combos and focus on made the game one of the most entertaining games to learn, play, and watch. Not only that, but it was simple. Anyone could watch the game and understand what was going on because they likely played it. Companies like Major League Gaming took interest and Melee became one of the first games to ever join the MLG circuit due to its combo of accessibility and depth.
Melee has withstood the test of time in many different ways. In terms of a competitive game, its years played has made it so that so much as been learned. To put it simply, the best players of 2005 likely would not be able to even dent the typical players of today’s era. Its skill ceiling has allowed it to be played for over ten years and its scene today is actually stronger then it has ever been. Super Smash Brothers Melee has had a whole documentary on its competitive scene, has returned to Major League Gaming, has become prevalent in many mainstay fighting game tournaments, and has even surpassed the lifespan of its sequel.
The Brawl to break them all
Super Smash Brothers Brawl was the first game in the series made with a relatively normal life cycle for its popularity. The game had an average development cycle, for the amount of content in the game at least, and was given an extremely large budget to work with. The excitement from both groups, the casuals and hardcores, made this game one of the most anticipated games ever. I myself, in sixth grade begged for a Wii on Christmas specifically so I could play this. The casual audience couldn’t wait to play with many new characters and enter the wacky stages. Meanwhile, the Melee players had hoped Smash would take the same directions as other fighters had. They would embrace the competitive scene and balance the mechanics so that the roster would be more balanced for 1v1 fights… and they were also really excited to use new characters.
Sadly, Brawl did not just ignore the competitive scene’s pleas; Brawl took intentional directions to kick out the competitive players founded in the original and Melee. Gone was lag cancelling techniques and fast paced gameplay. The game had tripping, a random function that hindered mobility, intentionally trying to slow the movement in Melee. The greatest mistake however was that the airdodge mechanic that offered so many great combos was now changed. You could now do it repeatedly, making it far less tactical. Not only that, but it could cancel hitstun at the 16th frame (compared to Melee’s 29th frame). This made actual combos less practical. The game became less of combos, speed, and movement and more of “who gets hit less” according to Melee players.
What Sakurai has gone on to say since the release of Brawl is that he wishes to make a game “where anyone can win”. Sadly, this goal proved to be unachievable. Brawl does actually have a competitive scene and a scene for the top players exist. Sakurai’s goal had been proven to be unachievable, but he achieved many other things from this that can only be considered horrendous.
The casuals and competitive players for the first time had actual strife and argument. Beforehand, there were a plethora of arguments about competitive smash but this argument makes the entire topic far worse. Many casuals began thinking Melee players were horrible people despite their playstyle not interfering with their own, claiming that playing the game in a way they enjoy is horrendous. Competitive players were admittedly stuck up about the whole topic as well, and treated Brawl as a joke. Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman is the overall, in that he places extremely high in both Brawl and Melee, best player of all time has gone on to talk about how bad Brawl is despite his high placing. The other consequence is simply from a gameplay perspective, the game’s new slow pace and defensive style made matches dull and boring to watch. Gone were high executional combos and miraculous aerial movements, it was a game of punishing mistakes.
While the casuals flocked to it, the Melee players stuck to Melee.
Super Smash Brothers Melee appealed to both groups effortlessly. Brawl however cleaved out a percentage of the community for no real reason. One can argue that it was to increase sales, as Brawl had sold an 8 million to Melee’s 7 million. One can argue back that the Wii had such a larger install base however, that Melee did better on a relative scale. Regardless, players had continued to stick with Melee for over a decade now. Brawl meanwhile suffered the fate of popular Wii games and became mod food due to the Wii’s ease of hacking.
A quick look at the many Brawl mods
Unsurprisingly, Brawl had mods to make the game play more competitively. Balance patches came in Balanced Brawl and a mechanic that eliminated the ability to dodge out of hitstun called Brawl+ was made. It may sound silly to bring up, but all of them got rid of tripping because nobody in the universe thought it was a good idea. The only one has been noteworthy in recent times has been Project M however. Project M is a mod to make the game play more like Melee. The mod changes brawl to have heavier physics and brings back the airdodge system. In fact, it brings back all of Melee’s physics. To the way characters slide against the ground to the lag cancelling aerials, it was practically Melee. The mod brought many balances to the game such as new tools for characters and stronger characters overall, even bringing back 2 Melee characters that were cut in Brawl. To put it simply, the competitive scene enjoys it greatly and some players have turned to playing that mod solely. Meanwhile, casual players have also greatly enjoyed it for the new take of characters and additions. If this game had been the sequel to Melee, the community likely would not be cleaved and the game likely would have made Melee invalid, making Smash a community that still continued to support both groups.
As it stands now however, Melee is the primary game played at tournaments and has one of the most prominent scenes to this day. The ease of use made people too intimidated by traditional fighters flock to it, while the competitive depth that Brawl lacked brought in competitive players that still play to this day. Melee is quite possibly, the greatest proof that something can appeal to multiple groups with ease if executed correctly. Sadly, if one looks at the response competitive players have made to the new game and the mod, along with the casuals response to the latter one can see that this sort of era may never occur again.
This is as brief as this is gonna get BTW.
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