Assist Trophies vs Pokeballs: pointless?

[NitrusVirus]

At the first sight of Assist Trophies everyone thinks theyre the coolest **** ever and gives people hope that some side-characters that have no chance of being playable are at least in the game in some interactive form. Before this, though, we had Pokeballs. Literally the same thing as Assist Trophies, except with pokemon. At one point in Brawls development Pokemon were even meshed WITH Assist Trophies before they decided to make them separate things.

But, why? What's the point? We already had/have Pokeballs which function the exact same way as AT's, so doesnt that make the entire uniqueness and practicality of Pokeballs nonexistent? I understand the hype behind AT's, but why just add another SEPARATE set of random event items in the game? In any case it would make more sense to just get rid of Pokeballs altogether and just add a handful of Pokemon into the AT's roster.

My main point is this; Having AT's makes what Pokeballs do obsolete. Having two item types that do the same thing is just impractical or at least pointless in and of itself *coughhammercough*. But taking away AT's for seemingly no real reason would disappoint a lot of people. Putting them together would, in my opinion, make the most sense and be the most resourceful way to manage the list of items overall.

Thoughts?

 

[SKM_NeoN]

AT trophies are kinda boring overall, but not a bad way to represent a multitude of historical Nintendo characters that aren't feasible as fully fleshed-out, playable characters.

Pokeballs, on the other hand, are an extremely clever and fun item; An excellent throwback to Pokémon in terms of gameplay and visual representation.

Therefore, I think combining the two is a bad idea. Who wants to throw a pokeball only to see Waluigi pop out? Not me. It's fine the way it is, if you don't care for the fan service the ATs provide you can always turn them off and play with some pokeball goodness.

 

[NitrusVirus]

Err, well I meant more along the lines of putting Pokemon in AT's xD;; but yeah thats true.

 

[PlayerXIII]

Another fun function of the Pokeballs are to throw them at opponents and hope a cool pokemon comes out to finish them off. AT's can't do that - they just come out as soon as you grab then. Plus, when I grab a Pokeball, I want a Pokemon. When I grab an AT, I want something NOT a pokemon.

 

[Wegenbarth]

Who wants to throw a pokeball only to see Waluigi pop out?

Kehehehehehe.


I often do fights where either both or none of those two items are ON, but I really wouldn't want both items getting mixed up in one.

 

[Kapus]

I'm perfectly fine with keeping both.

They are slightly redundant, yes, but the Pokemon selection has always been super huge and probably warrants a separate category for "assists". People would probably be disappointed if the selection was reduced so it could share an item slot with assist trophies (I'm assuming it would be reduced in this case so they wouldn't dominate the assist trophy roster).

I'm very happy with the concept of assist trophies because it's a great way to make throwbacks to old Nintendo games and characters that did not make it to the roster. Issac, for example, sadly isn't playable in Brawl, but it's still cool to have him show up every now and then and do some damage. It's another way to have more characters come together in the fray, and works very well for a game such as this that's celebrating Nintendo's history.

It's still a little redundant, but is that really a big deal? Pokeballs still function slightly differently than ATs (You can carry and throw pokeballs, assist trophies make you freeze in place when you open them) so they aren't carbon copies. As someone mentioned above, the way Pokeballs function is a cute little throwback to the Pokemon series itself. It's more fun this way.

 

[Oddyesy]

Who wants to throw a pokeball only to see Waluigi pop out?

I also see no reason to combine them. They are both unique in their own ways.

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

I'm really iffy on Assists: actually I dislike the concept a lot overall.

I still regard Pokeballs as the core summoning item for Smash Bros and sometimes believe that even Assists just fall off from being overally well-received past their concepts: because the execution tends to really suck at times and sometimes makes me cringe when people think it pays well to Nintendo's characters not supposedly feasible to be playables.

First of all, Assists feel like either really broken or just annoying Pokeball knockoffs and overally were there to draw in more audience (and supposedly relocate potential fandom requests to lower role than playable to please them (Not that it made many people happy when they got to see 'em first time).
Mostly this is due 'em having more functions to 'em than PKMN. Thus, they must be given some A.I to work their advanced actions compared to PKMNs.

Now this wouldn't be a problem if MOST of them wouldn't sport dumb A.I because of this, thus not being survive the hazards in the stages (except divinely blessed Gray Fox), whiffing their attacks if camped away from (Saki and Goroh come to mind) and sometimes just annoy me to no end due being useless (Starfy, ironically my fan favourite Nintendo-darkhorse) or just aggravating (Nintendog and Mr.Resetti).

In fact, the Assist most well working tend to be ones with most simplest actions, like Lyndis, Lakitu, Hammer Bro (though he could have still been able to move...), Jeff and so forth. You know what they're going to do and if it's deadly or some way just well-constructed attack, oh boy.
But when you go beyond that, it becomes a mess. Isaac, Goroh, Saki barely hit their targets and And then there's the assists that don't even help you or just seem useless (Wright due his lag, Tingle, and Starfy)
Waluigi gets away with most polished "moveset" and actions here.

And then there's the way you need to use your Assists: you grab the trophy, MUST STAY STATIONARY FOR A WHILE and hope to God that your opponent might not knock you off and steal your trophy (which might in big chance not help you well)

At the end, I just feel that this concept is overally flawed compared to it's strengths and in my opinion, is rather improper way to implement characters from Nintendo's history because when they do it right, they truly are just Pokeball-knockoffs.
It also relocates these characters into a role or portrayal which makes them look sometimes really stupid or just misunderstood (Starfy again, oh boy): which can really offend the minor fanbases of those characters.

I know they don't definitely want to rip off from other fighters and make 'em summons, but seriously, making 'em imbalanced, or even plain useless ripoffs of Pokeballs isn't any different. I hope that they renovate this concept currently in SSB4 in order to make the appearance of these characters feel unique and satisfying enough to not make 'em pointless written out from the playable slot for a scripted mon clones.Let's say, TOO AWESOME to be PLAYABLES.

I'd suggest making them really shake up the scene when they appear, make 'em matter more as than just Pokeball-knockoffs. Lyn and Knuckle Joe reach this level already but now, if they just cranked all that up to eleven, then you'd be never groaning if an Assist appears because if it means eyecandy and very brutal attacks or really crazy means of changing the battle, then all means yes. Just make 'em feel larger-than-life enough to redeem their additions as playables (at least for those who could potentially be playables)

 

[Uffe]

I like both Pokéballs and Assist Trophies. What I'd like even more is if Magikarp came out of one of them and turned into a Gyarados if attacked by either the one who threw it or the opponent.

 

[APC99]

I had an idea a while back that Assists were like "spirit animals", each character had their own assist to match. Dealing enough damage (like filling a bar) would have a shadowy-figure in the player's color rise. It'd form into the character's assist (Sonic has Shadow, Villager has Resetti, Samus has a Metroid, etc.) that helps them in battle until the "bar" is depleted.

 

[Mabataki]

I had an idea a while back that Assists were like "spirit animals", each character had their own assist to match. Dealing enough damage (like filling a bar) would have a shadowy-figure in the player's color rise. It'd form into the character's assist (Sonic has Shadow, Villager has Resetti, Samus has a Metroid, etc.) that helps them in battle until the "bar" is depleted.

This would kind of be neat. They should keep normal assist trophies and add a special kind of assist trophy with a different color and make them character specific