Discussion: The Process of Unlocking Characters and Other Content

[Pupp135]

Your post gives me an idea. What if the next Smash Bros. enabled you to select a starter character that you want right from the beginning, that way you are not pulling your hair waiting.

Another thing I believe would make the unlock process all the more exciting. Each character has a different requirement for unlocking them. For example, perhaps Bowser can be unlocked by K.O. of an opponent who fell to the lower blast zone without being meteor smashed, or Zelda can be unlocked by defeating Ganondorf with a final smash from Link. The idea is a challenge based approach to unlocking characters.

The first idea sounds interesting, but I would understand if the developers would focus on a specific cast that everyone starts with and leave the rest as a surprise/reward for some players.

I definitely agree with the second thing. I liked the detail of starting with only the original 8 and understand that making 61 unique unlock criteria would be difficult, but I missed some of the unique unlock criteria that could be used instead of vs and adventure (Brawl and Ultimate) from the first 3 games (I played very little For Wii U and never played For 3DS, and technically SSB only had one unlock criterion for each fighter). For the next game, I hope that we start with about 60% of the roster, allowing unlocks to have more unique criteria. While I’d still keep some classic mode unlocks (eg. unlocking one character for the first classic clear, another by clearing classic with a specific character like Mario, and another by clearing classic with 10 fighters), I would also incorporate mob smash and spirits into unlocks (eg. one character unlocked by clearing century smash and another from collecting 100 spirits).

 

[Doc Monocle]

The first idea sounds interesting, but I would understand if the developers would focus on a specific cast that everyone starts with and leave the rest as a surprise/reward for some players.

I definitely agree with the second thing. I liked the detail of starting with only the original 8 and understand that making 61 unique unlock criteria would be difficult, but I missed some of the unique unlock criteria that could be used instead of vs and adventure (Brawl and Ultimate) from the first 3 games (I played very little For Wii U and never played For 3DS, and technically SSB only had one unlock criterion for each fighter). For the next game, I hope that we start with about 60% of the roster, allowing unlocks to have more unique criteria. While I’d still keep some classic mode unlocks (eg. unlocking one character for the first classic clear, another by clearing classic with a specific character like Mario, and another by clearing classic with 10 fighters), I would also incorporate mob smash and spirits into unlocks (eg. one character unlocked by clearing century smash and another from collecting 100 spirits).

Forgive me, but some of the terminology, like mob smash, are unfamiliar to me. I am a Brawl veteran, and have not played a Smash Bros. game in a long time. However, I think the the most fun would be in designing an unlock requirement. Any suggestions?

 

[Dan]

Honestly, I'm at the point where I think unlocking characters is sort of an outdated model: everyone has internet now... in 64, Melee and even Brawl it was good cause you couldn't play with other people unless you had them over (well Brawl had poor online); it was a good method of entertainment since you weren't always able to play against humans. Heck, I've probably said it in this thread that unlocking everything in Melee is like a game within itself.

Another thing I believe would make the unlock process all the more exciting. Each character has a different requirement for unlocking them. For example, perhaps Bowser can be unlocked by K.O. of an opponent who fell to the lower blast zone without being meteor smashed, or Zelda can be unlocked by defeating Ganondorf with a final smash from Link. The idea is a challenge based approach to unlocking characters.

That's how it was back in the day: when I was a kid (64 thru Brawl) I just unlocked the characters based on their unique requirements; the spamming of matches for Sm4sh and Ultimate was just not on my radar back then. For these last two games I just did 1-stock matches and ran off the side.

 

[Pupp135]

Forgive me, but some of the terminology, like mob smash, are unfamiliar to me. I am a Brawl veteran, and have not played a Smash Bros. game in a long time. However, I think the the most fun would be in designing an unlock requirement. Any suggestions?

Mob Smash is the new name for Multi-Man Smash. In terms of making unlock requirements, I did like your vs mode ideas (they remind me of Ness’s in Brawls with reflecting projectiles), and I’m unsure how player made requirements would work, assuming that’s what you mean with the last part.

 

[Doc Monocle]

Mob Smash is the new name for Multi-Man Smash. In terms of making unlock requirements, I did like your vs mode ideas (they remind me of Ness’s in Brawls with reflecting projectiles), and I’m unsure how player made requirements would work, assuming that’s what you mean with the last part.

That is not what I meant. Your interpretation of what I said would be novelty, but I am afraid it would not make sense or be worth it for developers to incorporate due to its probable complexity and the likely abuse of it by players to unlock a character easily. Besides, unlocking is a one-time event, so that would be a lot of work for a reward that may not be so enthralling for players anyway. By the way, thank you for the meaning of mob smash.

 

[scoobymcsnack]

Your post gives me an idea. What if the next Smash Bros. enabled you to select a starter character that you want right from the beginning, that way you are not pulling your hair waiting.

Another thing I believe would make the unlock process all the more exciting. Each character has a different requirement for unlocking them. For example, perhaps Bowser can be unlocked by K.O. of an opponent who fell to the lower blast zone without being meteor smashed, or Zelda can be unlocked by defeating Ganondorf with a final smash from Link. The idea is a challenge based approach to unlocking characters.

I really like the idea of more unique unlock conditions for characters. I can see why some people might find it annoying, but I think it would make the process a lot more fun than fighting a bunch of matches or something.