But to which extend this "simplified controls" takes out the depth out of the game?
Im on the "we need tech skill in Brawl" crew... but we need to understand important aspects of Melee. We all know that this game was kind of rushed. The devs didnt has the time to see what was good or bad, what was overpowered and what not. There is no better proof than the unbalanced Melee's roster, where an onminous little being named Fox coexist with poorly created characters like bowser and mewtwo. Yes this is our beloved melee, a game rushed, full of things that were not meant to be that way and that we loved to exploit/master.
Even when some of this "mistakes" ended being interesting and filled the game with options, at the same time , since they were not planned properly, damaged the game as a whole. Im talking about the techs used in Melee.
There were techs like L canceling and short hop, which were meant to be there,...but most of the things we used were not meant to work that way. The WD and B canceled moves were not meant to work that way. For example, is it rational for falco to cut "magically" his movement by slamming himself to the floor?. I know is a game but things like this are not "polished" for the developers. The WD that we all love and use, was a weird move also. Even when it cannot be called a bug, because it was done with actual game physcis, it was a move not meant to work that way and that was exploited by us. Even this is still not excuse to remove this movement, but the fact that it didnt worked the same way for every character, and was indeed very difficult to "officialize" is more than enuff to take it out. (for it to be fair all the chars needed the same traction and this would just be dumb).
Now letss see whats happening in Brawl. The dev team simplifies most of the techniques to be done easier by everyone. They exclude WD and slow down the pace of the game to an extend. My main concern here is the pace of the game being "tuned down"but this sole reason is not enuff to say the game lost depth. Most of the fights we saw on the demo were fought by casual players who are not accustomed to play at fast speed. Some of the smashboards pros that fought where not accustomed to the Controller and everyone was not accostumed to this new feel of the game. This means that we were not able to see Brawl at his full speed and potential in the hands of a pro player trained in the game. So speed is not a real issue here. Most of the players were moving at almost the same speed in melee but with overall improved floatiness in the air.
The roster balance is not a real issue, is a plus. Yes, i know some characters were nerfed like peach and fox, but we all know this nerfs were coming, and they did it in a good way, tuning them down but at the same time improving other aspects of their game. Players Like Bowser and Pikachu received boosts, closing the gap between characters even more, which was IMO the real failure of Melee.
We all know that almost the whole offensive game of Melee was based around SHFFL, and the tech is still in Brawl, in different fashion but still there. Maybe it took out some of our old options but we still dont know what new improvements this change can offer.
The easier edgehogging is not a curse, is an advantage for pro and casual players. You will say that it takes out depth of the game... well in part it takes out the learning curve of this move and overall time used to learn this, but is almost the same for us. I wanna know how many pro players here had problems doing an edgehog?. The bright side is that this is one less concern for us. Not so experienced players can now used this option easier to cope with pro players, closing the gap. The new speed at that this move can be performed can also bring new mindgames to Brawl.
In Melee, even when it was a very technical game, not all the characeters relied on pure tech skills to win. The most affected players with the overall slowiness of the game are Falco, fox and C falcon, which relied on speed and a lot of tech skill, and in the case of Falco and Fox, which relied on Broken moves all over the place PLUS an overwhelming speed unable to be handled by most characters. All the others characters, even when they were technical, are not hurt to an extend to simply downgrade the whole exprience of Brawl.
In summary, even when is very clear that Brawl was planned to be"more user friendly", i really doubt this will take out the competitiveness of the game completely. I dont have any problems with pressing some less buttons and losing a little of "complexity", if this opens the door to a whole new experience and possibilities, then so be it. The only things that can definitely bring down the game are exploits, broken characters , broken moves and an unbalanced physics. If all this issues are fixed and the overall mechanics of the game are fair for everyone, I really think this game can have a big chance of being as competitive, if not very near to how Melee was, but this time in the way how it should be. We all love Melee, but sadly the game was far from perfect , even with all its competitiveness. Also, They as developers cannot work on a new game based in the exploits and crazy ****s of the previous.
I want a game to be fair for everyone, not a game which is just fun for 6 or 7 characters, you get my point?. If i need to sacrifice some of the technicality of Melee, to play a game much funnier and balanced than it, ill accept the deal more than happy.
In the end , We are basing our discussion in something that we in fact do not understand and dont know. We cannot guess how much potential Brawl will have with 4 days of playing. Even when there are alarms everywhere, we cannot assure that things will go in one way or another.
Peace.
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