Don't you miss the platforming challenges?

[TheRobotDevil]

Don't get me wrong, Brawl is a great game and the Emissary is awesome and fun to play...

But it doesn't seem much of a platformer... It seems more like a hack and slash game. Sure there are some small platforming challenges but they hardly compare to any of the previous' games.

Let's take 64. SSB64 had a customized platform challenge for every character. The platform challenge required quite some mastering of the character and their abilities (well, some of them anyway), like the Link's Hit the Targets that required you to spin to damage a target through walls, or Samus' Board the Platforms which required mastering the character. I'm not talking only about Land the Platforms, but also Hit the Targets.

Melee kept up with this tradition and took it a little further. They added challenges for every character in the game. Hit the Target were bonus levels specially designed for every character. Aside from that they added extra levels in the Adventure Mode which were quite tricky to navigate.

However, this tradition seems to have disappeared in Brawl. Stages are more about battling enemies than navigating complex puzzles. Sure there are some average platform puzzles, but the focus is mainly on defeating enemies (and bosses who's arenas are rather flat and easy to navigate, and hardly have any platforms at all).

I would really like some more advanced levels on the Adventure Mode on SSB4, Brawl feels like a constant battle; like a fighting game. There would be nice to have platform challenges like for example in Megaman and Mario. Some battles should happen on these stages, whereas other puzzles could be between stages. Some harder puzzles should only be accessible on harder difficulties (making playing on Hard Mode worth it). Also I think some bosses could be 'platform challenges', for example there could be a huge boss who can only be damaged by striking a thing on top of him, and after he takes some damage, all platforms hide. I liked the Porky level, but it wasn't enough, the boss wasn't firing any projectiles and it felt more like a hazard (not to mention it had no weakness). Maybe if it shot some projectiles the player can deflect at him... And the bosses could make use of the Zoom camera; the player should fight a boss on a large level, the camera should zoom in, and the player should have to avoid the obstacles until the boss reveals his weak point.

I'd really like that Nintendo would make use of their amazing platforming skills to make a good adventure mode. Sure it's fun to battle endless waves of enemies, but you could do that in the Classic mode as well. What do you say?

 

[Guybrush20X6]

If you're meaning the break the targets then yes, I miss the individualised ones for each character. In Brawl the easy ones were insultingly easy and the hard ones were near impossible with certain characters. The little touches like Mario''s one being based off of Donkey Kong are also greatly missed.

 

[Neanderthal]

Don't get me wrong, Brawl is a great game and the Emissary is boring and tedious to play...

Fixed*


Yes I couldn't agree more with the post. The next adventure mode needs to vary it up big time.
They need to work into the story things like Puzzles, mazes and time challenges.

i.e. bring back break the targets, but you're breaking something that is relevant to the story that needs to be broken. And if you fail to break them in a certain time period, something story related happens that kills you.
Could also have a classic Metroid style time challenge of escaping from an exploding ship.

And like you implied, boss fights should be more reminiscent of games like Zelda instead of being hack n' slash. For example battling an invisible King Boo in a dark room and only being able to hit him back if you find smart ways of shinning light on him from outside or with a torch.

 

[Ziodyne]

Amazing post. The fact that smash has platforming elements lends itself to far more interesting singleplayer gameplay and level design than what has been done with the series so far.

 

[DakotaBonez]

The individualized break the targets from melee provided a perfect setting to learn how your character could move AND how their attacks work.
Especially young link's break the target. I would have never learned about wall jumping if it weren't for that.

Really I don't see a need for board the platforms when break the target can give ya the same platforming challenge along with everything else ya need to know about the character's playstyle.

 

[Pazzo.]

The individualized break the targets from melee provided a perfect setting to learn how your character could move AND how their attacks work.
Especially young link's break the target. I would have never learned about wall jumping if it weren't for that.

Really I don't see a need for board the platforms when break the target can give ya the same platforming challenge along with everything else ya need to know about the character's playstyle.

I didn't spend a awful amount of time of Brawl's (And still don't) break the targets. The individualized stages made you TRAIN with your choice of character.

 

[Strevo]

I sure hope they bring the individual break the targets back, who knows maybe they'll also bring board the platforms back but I have my doubts. As Neanderthal mentioned, if it wasn't for Young Link's Break the Targets Stage I probably would've found out about walljumping MUCH later.

In short: Individual Break the Targets is a must, board the platforms would be a nice extra.

 

[DakotaBonez]

I'm not against brawl's break the targets. They were more like puzzles and because the fastest completion times were posted on the smash bros dojo it gave people a reason to play em. Sadly I missed out on this because I only recently obtained wifi.

Maybe the next smash bros will have a challenge or something with new break the target courses added weekly and a leaderboard.

Brawl's break the targets incorporated items making for much more complicated courses. Figuring out that you can break targets by riding a crate while shooting at targets, or that the beam sword can hit targets through walls were challenging puzzles that required precise timing.

Point is, there's big potential for fun online challenges here. Probably best if brawl styled break the targets was exclusive to online though with melee styled break the targets added to the training menu so you can learn how a character works.
Also can we get a command list? It's kinda dumb but I'd like to know what each character's move is called.

Mandatory Boarding of certain platforms while breaking targets would make you master your character all at once. Offline challenges/stamps/achievments could be added for completing these quickly.

 

[Kink-Link5]

Board the Targets

 

[DakotaBonez]

Break the Platforms

 

[Kink-Link5]

Melee Marth already beat you to it.