Which had the better pre-release era: Brawl or Sm4sh?

[farvin111]

So I think we're at the point where we can start to look back. This is all coming to an end in less than 2 months, and I think the only real thing left is the August direct. After that, we part ways.

Personally, I enjoyed pre-Brawl just a tad more. It might be because I was just younger, but it felt more magical. At that point, there were some glaring omissions from Melee's roster, and with Snake's reveal, the gates were wide open for tons and tons of character suggestions. Also, at that point, it had been a while since Melee came out, so we were all excited for a modern update to the series. The E3 2006 trailer blasted all of our expectations out of the water, and that's when the hype train began. There were so many ideas and concepts that hadn't been in a smash game yet: online, stage builders, adventure modes, and more, so we could daydream and speculate all day (not saying there isn't anything left for smash 4 to innovate).

I had never followed a game before Brawl, so being able to ride the hype train with others through the Dojo was pretty novel to me. Throughout several months, we slowly built a relationship with Sakurai as some highly quotable yet highly eccentric mastermind and troll thanks to his sometimes bizarrely-translated Dojo posts.

That said, pre-Sm4sh hasn't been bad at all. I'd say it's very close to how legendary pre-Brawl was. The idea of pics of the day provides a trickle of information that prevents us from being too spoiled, yet Sakurai treats us every now and then with amazing trailers of newcomers. And because of Sakurai's sparse updates, when bombshells hit in the form of the April direct and E3 2014, it hyped us so much more than if we had Dojo-style updates every week. The invitational was just phenomenal-- not only did Sakurai personally come to the US for us, but Nintendo finally acknowledged the competitive smash scene as a positive thing. And speaking of Nintendo, I gotta say, their efforts in hype-building totally blows what they did for Brawl out of the water. They are really intending to sell this game hard.

 

[Katy Parry]

Aren't you gonna add a poll?

 

[Hong]

I don't like the character pages.

Mr. Sakurai claims it took too much time and energy... but I think that's just because he feels the need to get his hands on everything that goes online. Better to ask staff to take screenshots of the moves, describe them, and then approve it after it's all done. The character pages should have special moves, some history on the character, and a description of how they function. Just the same, I don't expect unique information every day. So in that sense, I'm content with just random screenshots. If he included information for characters, stages, and items, he would never need to put any thought into these screenshots.

Overall, between the character trailers, the directs and the invitational (NIntendo's best PR gesture IMO), I'll say this exceeds the Brawl pre-release days.

 

[MasterOfKnees]

I enjoyed Brawl's the most. It was basically a full-on hype train from start to finish, almost everyone had sky high expectations because we got just about every popular character with the few exceptions in Geno, Ridley, Mega Man and Krystal. It is probably worth mentioning that it completely crashed and burned at the end because the fanbase didn't literally get everything it wanted, and of course there was a lot of controversy about the gameplay. But still, the lead-up was so much better, we were constantly getting meaningful updates with only a few bad eggs like You Must Recover and with newcomers it was okay to have high expectations because we were actually getting bigshots like Wario, Diddy Kong, Dedede, Olimar, Meta Knight, and even Sonic. It was an extremely entertaining ride to be on, I've never been as hyped for just about anything as I was for Brawl, and the game itself holds a very special place for me because of this.

With Smash 4 I've been more involved directly with the community, I've made friends and I recognize most people around here, but there have been so much negativity and such tight "rules" for expectations, not to mention the newcomers and updates have been very lackluster in comparison imo, it hasn't been nearly as fun. Mind you I myself have been part of the negativity, I'm not pointing fingers at anyone here, Brawl probably spoiled me a lot on getting content I want, so I'm just really dissapointed I don't have a single newcomer I'm just dying to play as. Overall I just haven't been hyped as much as I was for Brawl, I'm excited to play the games of course, but it's not like I'm counting the seconds to its release, didn't care too much about not getting the summer release for the 3DS while the insides of me melted when Brawl was delayed. But just to not sound like a total downer I have actually had fun, otherwise I wouldn't stick around of course, but I'm more than ready to have the speculation period end at this point.

 

[lilt]

I can agree with everything Wariofan1 said.
He pretty much describes my own experience with the pre-Brawl- and pre-Sm4sh-era exactly
Furthermore, I've learned from Brawl extreme hype were the actual game couldn't hold up to, personally speaking.
I'm keeping my expectations low, to get the most out of Smash 4 after the release.
Another thing is, that it's already the 4. iteration. By now, you'll likely know what to get with a new Smash.
There goes a bit of excitement too.

 

[J04KlM]

Brawl was one of the most hyped up games of all time, it's hard to top the pre-Brawl days. The daily updates on Dojo was one thing, but then bam, third party characters, online play, stage builder and a story mode (SSE) for the first time in Smash is introduced. You didn't really know what to expect back then, and thus speculation was all over the place. The 14 year old me was so certain Brawl was gonna blow Melee out of the water.

But if it's anything i have learned from Brawl, it's that you should never have too much expectations. Because of this the game was a disappointment for me, and i don't want to repeat that same mistake with Smash 4. So i am keeping my expectations fairly low this time.

That said; Sakurai and Nintendo has been a lot closer to the fans during the pre-Smash 4 era, with Nintendo Directs, even a whole Smash Bros Direct and the Invitational Tournament. And for this reason alone i can say this era has technically been better than pre-Brawl, even though it might not feel like it because we're older now. I'm super hyped for Smash 4, not the same way i was with Brawl. But still very hyped, it might be better than Brawl and Melee or it might be worse. Time will tell.

 

[Tenchi Boom]

Probably Smash 4's. I remember Brawls build up very well. I think the ACTUAL daily updates about items, music, characters etc was great at the time, but upon release there wasn't much to be excited for. Whereas with Smash 4, we don't know hardly anything aside from the characters and items.

Plus, Brawl wasn't as visually impressive, so the screen shots were kind of meh.

 

[Reila]

I don't think Smash 4 is visually impressive either, to be honest. Comparing it to stuff you see in PC and other next gen systems, it looks okay at best.

Anyways, I am more worried about the post- release days. I really hope Smash 4 isn't eventually unfairly bashed like Brawl is. But to answer the thread, I think the Smash 4 pre-release days are much better than Brawl pre-release days. The newcomer trailers, the pictures of the day, not to mention so far the newcomers for Smash 4 are much more exciting than the Brawl newcomers (Ike, Zamus and Pit were cool, but the others...).

 

[Kaye Cruiser]

Brawl's pre-release era for me consisted solely of waiting to see if Sonic was going to be announced or not since otherwise, I wasn't particularly interested in the game from how it looked.

For Smash 4, I'm always looking forward to learning more about everyone. Even characters who I never seriously played as before. There's so much that just looks immensely more impressive and appealing in this game that returns the distinct charm that 64 and Melee had that Brawl honestly kinda lacked due to how shallow it was.

There were quite a number of dry spells for this era when it came to info and characters, sure, but when we DID get them, ooooh BOY! The hype was real and it never failed to deliver and impress.

I rate Smash 4's pre-release era above Brawl's.

 

[Renji64]

Brawl was very hype for me the music post on the dojo the amount of info that you got from that site keept people waiting for the next post i love reading about the stages and characters. Smash 4's hype is pretty low since i know what to expect this time.

 

[ferioku]

Brawl had more hype, Smash 4 has to many haters ^

 

[Renji64]

Brawl had more hype, Smash 4 has to many haters ^

Smash 4 doesn't have that much hate. Just alot of people want it to be good.

 

[dezeray112]

Its difficult to say as I do feel that both Brawl and Smash 4 have equally good amount of pre-release stuff shown.

 

[D-idara]

Brawl's was better because there wasn't a billion people hating on it before release. Although I love the Smash4 Hype Train and Megaman, Rosalina, Little Mac, Robin and Lucina have been amazing newcomers, I don't think we'll ever beat big shots like Meta Knight, Dedede, Wario, Diddy, Snake, Sonic the ****ING Hedgehog, Pokemon Trainer...etc.

 

[Malcolm Belmont]

I enjoyed Brawl's the most. It was basically a full-on hype train from start to finish, almost everyone had sky high expectations because we got just about every popular character with the few exceptions in Geno, Ridley, Mega Man and Krystal. It is probably worth mentioning that it completely crashed and burned at the end because the fanbase didn't literally get everything it wanted, and of course there was a lot of controversy about the gameplay. But still, the lead-up was so much better, we were constantly getting meaningful updates with only a few bad eggs like You Must Recover and with newcomers it was okay to have high expectations because we were actually getting bigshots like Wario, Diddy Kong, Dedede, Olimar, Meta Knight, and even Sonic. It was an extremely entertaining ride to be on, I've never been as hyped for just about anything as I was for Brawl, and the game itself holds a very special place for me because of this.

With Smash 4 I've been more involved directly with the community, I've made friends and I recognize most people around here, but there have been so much negativity and such tight "rules" for expectations, not to mention the newcomers and updates have been very lackluster in comparison imo, it hasn't been nearly as fun. Mind you I myself have been part of the negativity, I'm not pointing fingers at anyone here, Brawl probably spoiled me a lot on getting content I want, so I'm just really dissapointed I don't have a single newcomer I'm just dying to play as. Overall I just haven't been hyped as much as I was for Brawl, I'm excited to play the games of course, but it's not like I'm counting the seconds to its release, didn't care too much about not getting the summer release for the 3DS while the insides of me melted when Brawl was delayed. But just to not sound like a total downer I have actually had fun, otherwise I wouldn't stick around of course, but I'm more than ready to have the speculation period end at this point.

Yeah pretty much. I was much younger in the Brawl days so i don't remember too much but while i do like the Smash 4 Hype the negativity has bogged it down

 

[warionumbah2]

Brawl got everyone hype since Melee was such a huge success, seeing characters people wanted(Such as Sonic who was nothing but an April fools joke back in Melee days) added onto the hype. It was our faults during that time for getting so hype and raising the expectations too high only to feel the backlash after the release.

I think now everyone has learn to not raise their expectations blindly, the hype isn't as high since a lot players(competitive) weren't pleased with Brawl. Overall Brawls hype is greater, my expectations aren't high for this game so it gives Sakurai a window of opportunity to wow me when i play it myself in October(i think that's the release date for Wii U not sure).

 

[Pazzo.]

This is my first speculation period... so I'd say Smash 4, if only for inexperience.

But from what I've read, people seem to have gotten their hopes too high for Brawl, and now we're much more moderate.

 

[Novaka]

I didn't follow Brawl as closely as I have Sm4sh but I feel like I preferred Brawls hype, if only because of how ignorant and childish certain (Not all) sections of the fan base are acting about this game, and who gets in. I feel like Brawl was a little more lenient in that regard.

That said, lets just hope the crybabies don't pick the game apart and wreck it for everyone with incessant whining if they don't get the Ridleys or K Rools or Mewtwos.

 

[Gameboi834]

I remember being super excited every morning to check the PotD's for Brawl and vaguely remember writing an e-mail to Nintendo on suggestions for the next game.

So clearly the child-like wonder in me is biased towards Brawl's hype. Sure I'm just about as excited as I can be for PotDs and I'm still blown away from all the new characters (I've played at least one of every newcomer's game besides Punch Out!! and Mega Man, so they all get me excited), but nothing can beat the heart of a child, you know? That being said I think I'm more excited to get my hands on the game this time around than with Brawl, I feel like the delays had something to do with that.

 

[Bassoonist]

Well, it all kind of goes together for me... I loved Melee so much, and when I first heard about Brawl I couldn't have been more excited, and then I discovered the daily updates sometime in the summer of 2007. I then ended up returning here and posting a lot over that time.

There is a great amount of factors that would have to make me say that Brawl's pre-release was better - It was my first time getting to do that (Melee's pre-release was an entirely different matter. I was too young to join internet forums at the time, so I'm not even aware what it was like. lol), it was a much better time in my life, and lastly, it was coming off of Melee. I thought Melee was like the best thing ever, and at that point I thought that I couldn't be disappointed with Brawl. That, of course, would be the downfall for me. lol.. There also was the fact that daily updates could include newcomers, alongside veterans. SSB4's updates have been so much more formulaic. You literally couldn't predict when you'd see a character of either kind back in the Brawl days. Every update was something to look so much forward to. SSB4's picture of the day is so much tamer. We don't get newcomers, and veterans are always end of the week updates... It's predictable to some extent, and not really as exciting.

Regardless, I hope SSB4's post release is the better one. I hope I actually play SSB4 for an extended amount of time. I will say that not a single character introduced in SSB4 ever made me as excited as Lucina, or even the Villager. Because looking back on it, not a single character I wanted made it into Brawl. The closest would have been maybe King Dedede. So, technically, SSB4 has one-upped Brawl in the pre-release for me. However, as for my involvement, and the amount of fun I had with pre-releases, Brawl can not be beat. I have been nowhere near as active this time around. Different life, different time. Also, the Gematsu leak just kind of killed my hype altogether for a long time. Leaks should never be that early!

 

[Souless_shadow]

I'm gonna have to say Smash 4's was better. Smash 4 is the reason that I found Smashboards and it's the reason I've made so many new friends that love to smash just as much as I do.

 

[FalKoopa]

I wasn't a part of Brawl speculation, so I'll have to say Smash 4...

I've really enjoyed my time here. I've made a lot of friends, seen a lot of ups and downs, both love and hate, joy and tears, and this has been an experience unlike any other.

 

[KingBroly]

Brawl since it was a constant hype train. Smash 4 is like stop and go traffic.

 

[sunshinesan]

A lot more effort is put into pre-Smash 4 than was put into pre-Brawl. This makes a difference for me. The quality of the trailers and the invitational just gives me so much more hype than the dojo updates. Quality over quantity.

 

[Rich Homie Quan]

Brawls hype was insane. I was in eighth grade at the time. I remember almost everyone I sat with on the bus talking about the game. This era doesn't quite match that.

But all in all, this hype era is still amazing. I haven't been this excited for a game in a really, really long time.

 

[Yakko93]

While both are good, Brawl's was a little better. I saw more people talking about it in real life, all those flash videos like "Brawl Taunts" and the YTPS were made. There were Brawl Memes, it added to the excitement. But, this hype era is still outstanding, with Pac-Man and Mega Man's reveals, and the GCN adapter, and the POTD.

 

[The Slayer]

Clearly Brawl. Since it was a lot of hype going through it, characters that people really wanted in there (Midna for me) and people expect it to be extremely grand than Melee in the competitive scene, everybody expect to be the next big thing. Also, Sonic.

When Smash 4 started the hype, most people from the hardcore side are trying to keep a calm thought process to the game and wonder if it'll be competitively interesting or Brawl 2.0. A good chunk of everyone below that spectrum. (especially on this forum) are being critical thanks to their own disappointment of Brawl (myself included but not as critical). And the rest just follow a calmer hype train to Brawl in general. Even though there was big names coming in (Mega Man and Pac-Man), it's not as big as Sonic since he was literally the primary rival of the red plumber and it just bigger than both put together.

But when you think about it now, seem like Smash 4 is doing well on the pre-releasing events. Letting people get to play both versions nearing the games' official releases, hosting not one but two tournaments, putting out well detailed "New Challenger Approaching" trailers, and other things yet to come. I think Brawl only had like one tournament and few demos here and there and music/video trailers. Nothing too crazy, but other info was a little hard to get than now.

Though as someone said, I'm more worried about the post-release era. Nearly the end of March, I started to detaste the game as the days go by. And it was slowly the same for others as the years went by. Hopefully, I won't do the same for Smash 4.

 

[Deleted member]

While both are good, Brawl's was a little better. I saw more people talking about it in real life, all those flash videos like "Brawl Taunts" and the YTPS were made. There were Brawl Memes, it added to the excitement. But, this hype era is still outstanding, with Pac-Man and Mega Man's reveals, and the GCN adapter, and the POTD.

Same man. This pretty much describes my thoughts. Brawl was like a hype train, with the Dojo information, the newcomers, and all. While it's not the same as before, I'm still excited for SSB 3DS / Wii U. As for the current hype, it's great.

 

[PlayerOneTyler]

I personally enjoy the Smash 4 era more. I was around for the Brawl era, but I was on IGN. The people there were less than ideal to talk to so I mostly stayed in the shadows and lurked the site. I feel more involved with this community (even though I'm not even around as much as others), and I enjoy the company and speculation around these parts.

I like the Brawl Dojo more than the current one, though.

 

[Tristan_win]

I feel overall that smash4 has been hyped up a lot better then Brawl but with that said I'm not as hype as I was back then. It's unfortunate that I'm saying this but before Brawl came out we were all expecting greatness, something greater then Melee. Yes we knew things like wavedashing was out but the demo looked promising so we push down our fears and when the game did finally come out it sent shock waves though the community.... Now instead of expecting a game that will outdone one of the greatest games ever made we are now hoping NOT expecting a game to be at least better then Brawl. The whole level of hype is different

 

[ChikoLad]

After careful thought - both periods had their own merits for me, neither was better than the other, overall, but they were better/worse than each other in certain aspects.

Brawl was actually what got me into Smash. I first discovered it when I saw the E3 2006 trailer in a computer store (they used to always play trailers for games on the laptops, to show off their displays). At the time, I was only sort of getting into Nintendo games as I had only really had Playstation systems up to that point, besides the Game Boy Colour, though I had just started with the Nintendo DS. So when I saw this trailer with Mario, Link, Pikachu, and Kirby (all characters I had played games of on my GBC), I was highly intrigued. As I watched it, I didn't know who anyone was besides the four I already mentioned, until Wario showed up, who I found funny. Then Snake and Roy Campbell showed up. I thought it was a different trailer for a different game, but since I had already played and loved MGS2, I continued watching, since a new MGS game would also excite me...then it's revealed that Snake will be able to fight Mario and co in some game I just heard about, so I lost my **** and from then on, I did all I could to research this series, and even emulated Smash 64 on my old computer to prepare for Brawl.

I pretty much obsessively absorbed information about the game from that point onward. I would buy magazines, I would try to play more Mario and Zelda games since I had access to those, I would listen to fan speculation on YouTube and see a lot of fake leaks and such. I eventually discovered the Dojo, and how it updated daily. Since I could only have access to a broadband internet connection while in my dad's house, which was every fortnight, I would spend a lot of time up there on the computer, keeping up on the Brawl scoop. Eventually, I started using the 3G connection on my phone every morning before class in school. I had made a friend who was on the Brawl hype train, so catching up on things together was great. When the US version released, he actually bought one of those things that bypass the Wii's region lock, along with an NTSC copy of Brawl, so needless to say, I was INCREDIBLY anxious for the last few months leading up the EU release.

However, back peddling a little - Sonic's reveal was amazing. At the time, he was my single favourite video game character (he is still one of my most favoured, but I love many other characters as much as him now...like Rosalina, for example). I saw the fake leaks that made me sad because I was sure he wouldn't be in the game. However, I one day bought a magazine, and while I was flicking through it, BOOM! - official in-game screenshots of him were there, and they blew my mind! The very first official screen of Sonic that I saw was this one:

AND I WAS SO GOBSMACKED IT WAS INDESCRIBABLE I COULD LITERALLY HAVE HAD A HEART ATTACK.

And when I eventually saw the trailer, OH MAN, I watched that **** like 20 times in a row! I couldn't be more giddy. Heck, I'm getting giddy just reminiscing about it!

The Subspace Emissary was also something that helped the hype a lot, as I love that sort of thing in fighting games, and crossover games in general. It was so mysterious and foreboding in how it was discussed on the Dojo, but also exciting.

However, two key things prevent this era from being the better one:

-Besides Sonic and Snake, none of the newcomers were ones that got me particularly excited. I thought they were cool, but due to me being a Nintendo newbie at the time, I didn't know much about these characters, and didn't have that sentimental attachment to them that would make me hyped. And they didn't have their own trailers to get me hyped.

-Despite having two IRL friends who were looking forward to the game a lot, I honestly didn't get to discuss the game much since we were younger and wouldn't have as much to say on the subject, and because I wasn't on any forum or anything. Rosalina was someone I really wanted for Brawl but I never spoke of her, which is tied to me not speaking of my love for the character until recent times.

I'll get to the Smash 4 segment afterwards.

 

[Tshockz]

Going to have to go with smash 4 main reason is I never really kept up with any info on brawl before release. I am honestly extremely hyped for smash 4 this is going to be a painful few months for me thats just how hyped I am.

 

[Hitzel]

Brawl did, because people didn't call Brawl anything as abrasive as "Sm4sh."

 

[Senario]

Brawl had the better reception than smash 4. Mainly because up to that point we had never been given a reason to doubt that the new game would be amazing in all regards including competitive due to 64 and melee. What we got was a major disappointment on the competitive end. Now it leaves many people skeptical of smash 4. Also, more than half of the pic of the day photos I care nothing for and don't see the point in.

 

[GunGunW]

The newcomer trailers make this better for me at least, although I was young when Brawl came out and I was more excited about it overall.

 

[Terotrous]

Brawl's pre-release was way better, largely because we got a whole article every day rather than just a screenshot, and they often revealed big things with no warning.

However, Brawl was probably TOO hyped, leading to eventual disappointment with the final product. This approach is a little bit more sane.

 

[Platsy]

I didn't really follow Brawl other than the release dates, but I was still pretty hyped about it. I never really knew Smash had a large community/competitive scene until early 2010. I like it more now because I get to see other people's reactions, from a personal perspective.

 

[pickle962]

I'll admit I was addicted to the Brawl dojo back in the day. However, one con I can think of that Brawl had going against it besides its atrociously bad competitive gameplay was that by the time most of us got our hands on the game, there wasn't really much if anything that we did not already know about Brawl. That said, I'm really digging 4's pre release hypetrain as Sakurai is not only actually giving a damn about the competitive community with some help from Namco Bandai this time around, but I also like how even with the Japanese version of the Smash 4 on the 3DS being not too far from release, there's still things we don't know about the game such as what type of exclusive mode the Wii U version has (which I imagine will be covered in the next direct seeing as how Sakurai seems to like to save important info about 4 exclusively for directs)

 

[Scourge The Hedgehog]

Brawl had its moments of hype but overall I like the way Smash 4's pre release is. The fact that there are four major gaming icons was enough to win me on that fact.

 

[DraginHikari]

I still stand by the idea that the Brawl-Era dojo was far more overrated and to be honest I prefer the more simple and striaght forward PoTD and honestly I think the newcomer videos help the excitement involved with them. To be frank the newcomer reveals were exciting during Brawl in their own way... but I can't help but feel other then the 3rd party characters. They were just kind of shown one day with really nothing else to make it exciting.