How to work around the 3DS's small screen issuse for Sm4sh?

[Wario Bros.]

Watching the Super Smash Bros. Brawl trailer on the Nintendo 3DS's eShop made me want to ask this. When watching it, the game looked great when the characters were zoomed up and were in high quality. But then the trailer shown footage of regular 4 player matches, a lot of details were cut and the battles got a little confusing/hard to see (especially watching the Multi-Man Brawl part). Even though it's been confirmed that the 3DS version will be more of a personal experience, chances are there will still be some 4 player battles (whether it be multiplayer or vs. Computers). So are you worried that the 3DS's small screen (top screen is 3.53 inches wide, 4.88 inches wide for XL version) will hinder the overall quality of the game? Is so, how should it be improved?

3DS XL owners might not need to worry but those who have the regular 3DS (like me) could be in trouble.

Since this will be the first ever Smash Bros. handheld, there aren't many true examples of existing handheld games that could be compared with Smash. But there is one game for the 3DS that is basically plagiarizing almost the whole SSB experiences (and a game that I still haven't regretted buying, especially being my very first 3DS to own): Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion.

How CN PTE handled the small screen issue was made the camera zoom in on Player 1 (you) a little closer than what other Super Smash Bros game did. This made it extra clear on what was going around when playing a 4 player match. As you could guess, one flaw was that the camera wouldn't zoom out so all characters will show up on the screen so a lot the opponents will appear in a magnifying glass during the match. Thankfully all the HUD was on the bottom screen. However, it would only show the HUD's of your character and whoever you hit last (so if you hit a person not in the HUD, it'll switch to that). But I'm pretty sure Sakurai could fit all character HUD's on the 3DS bottom screen.

Well, since PlayStation All-Stars's gameplay can be related to Smash (to a degree), I have to ask those how does the game do on the PlayStation Vita version since it too has you focusing on a small screen?

So does anyone else have something to contribute on how Smash 3D will work with its small screen?

 

[Curious Villager]

I'm pretty sure they will figure something out for the small screen issue. Perhaps smash 3DS will have more smaller stages (like Battlefield or Final Destination size) in order to make sure all the characters stay close together? :/

 

[Kink-Link5]

Can we please stop using the phrase Sm4sh as a community?

 

[Sol_Vent]

Why? What's wrong with Smu-foursh?

 

[Big-Cat]

I'm pretty sure they will figure something out for the small screen issue. Perhaps smash 3DS will have more smaller stages (like Battlefield or Final Destination size) in order to make sure all the characters stay close together? :/

Then you might as well make that on the console version as well.

 

[Banjodorf]

Can we please stop using the phrase Sm4sh as a community?

I dunno, it's kind of grown on me to be honest. However, rest assured that it's use will stop come E3.

 

[final lap]

Being on a handheld has an advantage despite the low res. The game only really needs to focus on the player's character. So there will be less zooming.

That aside, the game might focus on 1v1 play more than it does 4-player. (though people will groan about it for years to come)
Or maybe it will use traditional health bars instead of SSB system. (probably a dumb idea)

Another solution is to make the game more focused on single player levels rather than fights. So it would be more like a platformer rather than a fighting game. This idea perhaps makes some sense since it gives players incentive to own both versions. Play traditional SSB experience on the WiiU, then play challenge stages / adventure / story mode on the go to gain new stats/unlocks/stickers/trophies or w/e.

I played both the Vita and PS3 PS All-Stars demos at the store. The Vita version looks good, but the PS3 just looks plain good in comparion. 3DS's screen is much lower res than the Vita. So it is a good point.

And maybe the 3DS version will have much smaller stages.
This would mean different stages for the WIiU and 3DS version. (good incentive to buy both)

edit: Oh, almost forgot. The game must use Melee or 64 style graphics for simplicity. I'm willing to bet that the Brawl trailer looked bad on 3DS partly because Brawl has needlessly elaborate graphics that will probably look fuzzy on low res screen. That and the fact it's a trailer meaning it was 20-30 fps.

 

[Curious Villager]

Then you might as well make that on the console version as well.

I honestly don't think people will be angered too much if the 3DS and Wii U versions had a few stage exclusives that take advantage of the system their on unlike exclusive characters of course. Such as a few small stages with 3D features for the 3DS version and a few larger stages with prettier looking environments for the Wii U version. Perhaps... :/ I don't know, maybe people do get pissed over it but likely nowhere near as much as character exclusives.

 

[final lap]

Ideally any exclusive content/features would be things that wouldn't be possible on the other system.

Invariably though this would result in 3DS being the gimped version. And although I have nothing against that, I wouldn't put it past Nintendo to try and sugarcoat the 3DS version in some way by stripping things out from the WiiU version.

 

[Curious Villager]

Well they did say that the 3DS version would be a more personal experience if I recall correctly. Perhaps we will get a few more single player mode features the Wii U version will lack.

As long as the multiplayer mode is decent for the 3DS version it's okay with me if it doesn't get all the fancy multiplayer features the Wii U version will get. (I'm going to get both versions eventually anyway once I get my hands on a Wii U.)

 

[Big-Cat]

I honestly don't think people will be angered too much if the 3DS and Wii U versions had a few stage exclusives that take advantage of the system their on unlike exclusive characters of course. Such as a few small stages with 3D features for the 3DS version and a few larger stages with prettier looking environments for the Wii U version. Perhaps... :/ I don't know, maybe people do get pissed over it but likely nowhere near as much as character exclusives.

This might be a blessing in disguise. One arguable problem with Brawl in particular is that a good number of the stages are too big for anything but FFA matches. Perhaps this could be an opportunity to balance stage sizes.

 

[Dark Phazon]

Ideally any exclusive content/features would be things that wouldn't be possible on the other system.

Invariably though this would result in 3DS being the gimped version. And although I have nothing against that, I wouldn't put it past Nintendo to try and sugarcoat the 3DS version in some way by stripping things out from the WiiU version.

This was my biggest concern when they announced 2 Smash games that will link together...please dont mess it up Ninty..i will never forgive you otherwise..Smash doesnt role around often...

 

[BluePikmin11]

Maybe it could be like PTE's Camera, and the stage map could be on the touch screen with all players shown.

 

[Blazeth]

Well, I hate for Nintendo to look at Sony for ideas, but PS All-stars on the Vita wasn't too bad looking. All though, I have never played it, so maybe I'm wrong.