straydoggywog
Smash Cadet
This may be heresy to say this, but lets theory craft a way in which Smash 4 could be designed in such a way that for competitions sake, on the ground, no platform fighting.
This is not new in fighting games, in fact, it's the standard. Many great fighting games are designed in a 2D environment, no platforms. The difference is that those games run on a health meter. Smash is unique in that the the ring out is the goal, not the diminishing of health. But you already know this.
There is something to be said about how not having platforms is a step backward for smash, concepts of stage control, platform canceling are in this way completely lost. and for this discussion, lets refrain from lamenting those loses because I still think it can be fun and have so much depth. To have each and every character designed to function on a no platform stage can offer itself to a pretty good meta and would put itself more inline more with traditional fighting games, such as Street Fighter and Marvel X Capcom. And that's not a bad thing at all.
There are Two character types that come to mind immediately that would flourish in this and is represented by two new characters in our roster. The Little Mac Style(A Cami style you could say if you want a Street Fighter correlation), and the Mega Man Style, a projectile zoning game.
Little Mac is all about closing in, and pressure. Getting in your face for big combos, big damage, and quick kills. Ways to deal with this are shield grabbing, and out spacing with either disjointed hit boxes(like Marth's sword) Or Projectiles(Like links combs and such), so as to not let him come close and be able to set up those combos. Megaman is rife with projectiles. He's the only character I know of who has projectile as neutrals. So it's very obvious that his goal would be to Lame it out as they say. Get the damage lead, space correctly, create openings with projectiles, and don't let them get close to you. BUT my concern is that in a flat stage with no platforms Little Macs strategy will become the more rewarding strategy while Mega Mans will be less so, and that's because of the lack of platforms.
So, this is where I think we can theory craft some. How can we make the two play styles (and all those in between) Equally viable, on flat stages with Smash Bros mechanics.
A couple ideas:
Different size FD's: We've already seen that most of the FD stages have different sizes, so counter picking can still be a thing and I think it's obvious that, for example, Link is much versatile on a Flat Stage that's bigger, than a Flat Stage that's smaller. So while not as diverse options or advantages, counter picking could still be a thing.
More Counters: I can already see this but quite a few characters have counters already. Marth, Little Mac, Greninja, Villager. Having more counters can give certain characters more options to deal with approaches than just shielding and rolling and sidestepping.
Thoughts from anyone? Like I said before, lets try to avoid the "But with stages so many more things are possible." Yes I agree, but at the same time, I think having a very focused center of battle can lend itself it's own type of depth and play. And it's the formula that other fighting games have employed, and I'd like to see that explored by this community.
Discuss.
This is not new in fighting games, in fact, it's the standard. Many great fighting games are designed in a 2D environment, no platforms. The difference is that those games run on a health meter. Smash is unique in that the the ring out is the goal, not the diminishing of health. But you already know this.
There is something to be said about how not having platforms is a step backward for smash, concepts of stage control, platform canceling are in this way completely lost. and for this discussion, lets refrain from lamenting those loses because I still think it can be fun and have so much depth. To have each and every character designed to function on a no platform stage can offer itself to a pretty good meta and would put itself more inline more with traditional fighting games, such as Street Fighter and Marvel X Capcom. And that's not a bad thing at all.
There are Two character types that come to mind immediately that would flourish in this and is represented by two new characters in our roster. The Little Mac Style(A Cami style you could say if you want a Street Fighter correlation), and the Mega Man Style, a projectile zoning game.
Little Mac is all about closing in, and pressure. Getting in your face for big combos, big damage, and quick kills. Ways to deal with this are shield grabbing, and out spacing with either disjointed hit boxes(like Marth's sword) Or Projectiles(Like links combs and such), so as to not let him come close and be able to set up those combos. Megaman is rife with projectiles. He's the only character I know of who has projectile as neutrals. So it's very obvious that his goal would be to Lame it out as they say. Get the damage lead, space correctly, create openings with projectiles, and don't let them get close to you. BUT my concern is that in a flat stage with no platforms Little Macs strategy will become the more rewarding strategy while Mega Mans will be less so, and that's because of the lack of platforms.
So, this is where I think we can theory craft some. How can we make the two play styles (and all those in between) Equally viable, on flat stages with Smash Bros mechanics.
A couple ideas:
Different size FD's: We've already seen that most of the FD stages have different sizes, so counter picking can still be a thing and I think it's obvious that, for example, Link is much versatile on a Flat Stage that's bigger, than a Flat Stage that's smaller. So while not as diverse options or advantages, counter picking could still be a thing.
More Counters: I can already see this but quite a few characters have counters already. Marth, Little Mac, Greninja, Villager. Having more counters can give certain characters more options to deal with approaches than just shielding and rolling and sidestepping.
Thoughts from anyone? Like I said before, lets try to avoid the "But with stages so many more things are possible." Yes I agree, but at the same time, I think having a very focused center of battle can lend itself it's own type of depth and play. And it's the formula that other fighting games have employed, and I'd like to see that explored by this community.
Discuss.
![[TSON]](/data/avatars/l/114/114196.jpg?1360761019){kind=avatar}
