Welcome to the fifth installment of Super Smash Fighter! This week, we’re going to be comparing the offstage game in Super Smash Bros. Melee to a traditional fighter.
OFFSTAGE
One thing that makes a platform fighter like Super Smash Bros. Melee stand out from a traditional fighter is the involvement of stages. Unlike the traditional fighting game, a different stage will only change the pace of a match, but it can be the deciding factor of a match at times. This stage interaction comes from both platforms and blast zones, and benefits different characters in different ways.
Although we’ve seen attempts at adding unique interactions with stages in fighting games, like with NetherRealm Studios’ recent inclusion of interactable elements in their past few games, they don’t quite have the same impact as they do in in a platform fighter. One of the biggest factors of stage interaction in a platform fighter like Melee is the offstage game. When a player is offstage, they’re forced into a situation where they only have a handful of options, and picking the wrong option will result in the loss of a stock.
Let’s take a look at a quick example. A Marth player forward smashes a Fox on Final Destination, and the Fox is now off stage
Right now, the Fox has a few options. He can use his double jump and Side-B to the ledge, but Marth can D-Tilt him, or simply grab the ledge if he’s fast enough. If Fox Side-B’s above the ledge, he could also get hit by Marth’s jab and be forced into another unfavorable situation. He can use his Up-B to try and sweetspot the ledge, but he’s put in the same scenario there. He can try and angle an Up-B to go above the ledge, then fast fall to ledge or stage, but the Marth can F-Smash him again if he does that. He can sink lower and sweetspot his up b to ledge, but Marth can simply grab the ledge in that scenario.
Now, there’s other options the Fox can do here, especially when considering stage teching, but for the sake of simplicity, let’s keep it at that. The bottom line is that Fox is at a huge disadvantage here. The Marth isn’t guaranteed to react to everything the Fox does, so if the Fox picks the right option, he can live. If not, he loses a stock.
The same can be said about the reverse scenario. If Marth is off stage, he has even less options, and Fox has the tools to edge guard him. He can grab the ledge, or he could just shine spike Marth. In this case, the Marth has to mix-up Side-B air stalls and his Up-B timing, whereas Fox would have only had to mix-up his Up-B angles or Side-B timing.
This is why stage control is so important. If you control center stage, you can force your opponent off the stage to go for an edge guard or gimp and net an early kill, as opposed to fishing for an U-Smash when your opponent is at a high percent. Something similar can be said about a traditional fighting game.
THE CORNER
In a traditional fighter, stage control can be just as important as it is in Smash. When you force an opponent further and further and back, they’ll eventually hit the end of the screen. This is referred to as “the corner”. When you’re in the corner, you can’t run away or space your moves nearly as well, as you don’t have the room to do so. This means that if you’re in the corner, you’re in a disadvantageous situation and you’re usually forced to block. This opens you up to all sorts of mix-ups from the opponent.
On top of that, most traditional fighters have characters with various for the corner. Since there’s a wall behind the opponent, a character can go for combos that wouldn’t normally work, since the opponent would normally be pushed away. Depending on the game and character, this bonus can be anything from a few hits to extend a normal combo, to a combo that does double the damage of your normal combos.
Getting out of the corner can often be as, if not more difficult than recovering in Melee. In some games, once you successfully block a string from the opponent by reading their high-low mix-ups, you can easily punish them. While in other games, you may need a read outside of blocking to figure out when you can safely punish your opponent with a reversal.
Of course, there are also games that give you more tools to escape corner pressure. In the Marvel Vs. Capcom series, a recurring mechanic is the “push block”, which allows you to push an opponent away from you while you’re blocking. As a sort of balance check, many characters have more mix-ups they can do in the corner, or just more ways to force the opponent to keep blocking. In our article about projectiles, which you can read here, we went over some examples of this with things Dr. Doom’s “Hidden Missiles” assist. There are also characters who can teleport behind you and cross you up, even in the corner. Character’s like Strider, Vergil, and Dante are proficient at this, but there’s more plenty of other characters who can teleport.
In games like Guilty Gear and Blazblue, another mechanic exists that can be used to escape corner pressure. The “Burst” mechanic allows you to break out of pressure or a combo from the opponent, but the Burst gauge that allows you to do this refills slowly, and is the only meter that doesn’t reset at the end of a game. This makes performing a burst risky, since if you miss, you probably won’t be getting another burst until the next game, but if you hit, it can save you from losing a game.
CONCLUSION
Although they’re different in concept, being in the corner and being off stage are very similar situations. In both scenarios, you have a small handful of options to escape, and you generally have to read your opponent to do so. It becomes a tense mind game for both players, and can be the difference between losing a stock and losing 50% of your health.
As always, there are more games to explore with all different sorts of options, like in some NetherRealm Studios games where some characters can jump out of the corner thanks to specific stage elements. There’s also the ability to wall jump that some characters have, which can be used to recover in Melee or to get out of the corner in a game like Street Fighter, but talking about all these options would make this article far too long.
See you all next week!
