I'm a Smash 4 baby.

[cCluck]

Backstory: Speedrunning introduced me to the smash scene, from a spectator standpoint. I've always been into competitive gaming, but the... general elation, for lack of a better term, that streamers like Cosmo and Trihex have when they talked about smash was different than the way anyone talks about other competitive games, which peaked my interest; along with loving smash when they came out. Thus, I found you guys, and have had a blast over the past year watching old tournies, smash at Evo when it happened, Vgbootcamp streams, etc.

But, I don't play.

I live in the deepest part of BFE. There's no one in a 150 mile radius of me who plays smash, so friendly games are impossible. Any nintendo gamers I know are ripping mk8 online, because, you know, it's online, and thats how you play games in 2014 unless you're you guys.

Smash 4 is my opportunity to play. Online play will allow me to smash whenever I want, with whoever I want, at any time. I don't have ten years of LAN melee experience to compare it to, so in my eyes, smash 4 is already the better game, because I can actually play it.

So, the question: I don't want to go into this game completely blind to the art of smash in general. How do I learn and practice? Melee vs matches vs computers, practicing combos I pick up from videos? Dolphin online? PM or Brawl or something? With local friendlies unavailable, how do Iearn how to play smash as a series?


So why such a long post for a **** question?

I'm sure you're aware, but here's going to be a lot of us. I'm an online gamer, and smash 4 will be my "first" smash game. The availability to play online will bring players like me into the community. I come from a world of toxic communities, and we're only getting worse. All that to say, we're not all bad. Some of us just want to play nintendo with you guys, one of the most impressive communities gaming has ever seen.

 

[lordvaati]

you not alone,for some other Smash 4 will be their first major jump in, including the likes of Maximillian.

As for training, I suggest Melee offline and/or with Dolphin, (Maybe) 64 with Kaliera, Project M, and any offline Brawl you can find(specifically offline is best for Brawl.Online no bueno.)

hope you have fun, mate.

 

[Rythven]

I dunno about everyone but I genuinely get excited when someone wants to get into Smash. Let me give some practical tips. From my experience having only seriously delved into the game recently, I found playing ProjectM online was about the best entry-level experience next to actually playing with friends. You need a decent PC, along with a couple of things.

I got my controller here (if you don't have one or want a fresh/lightly used one):
http://www.lukiegames.com/Used-Silver-Nintendo-Gamecube-Controller.html

This is the adapter most people use for PC:
http://www.amazon.com/GC-Controller-Adapter-PC/dp/B0089NVTDM

This is the best guide I found for getting it set up correctly:
http://smashboards.com/threads/proj...netplay-full-setup-optimization-guide.346700/

I regularly enjoy playing online, so feel free to ask any questions about it. Let's play when you get it set up.

 

[cCluck]

That sounds cool, thanks for the info guys.

 

[hotdogturtle]

With local friendlies unavailable, how do Iearn how to play smash as a series?

By playing it.

 

[D-idara]

I wouldn't recommend practicing with Melee, and although it seems a little more useful for Smash 4, I also don't really recommend practicing with Brawl, I think Project M without doing any of the weird ATs seems like the best bet.

 

[Light-Kratos]

Melee and PM have senseless but mandatory mechanisms such as L-cancel that I really do not recommend learning. I'll try to get okay at Brawl, if I were you. PM would be fine if you played without air dodges but... those are really important.

The game's gonna be completely new for everyone but I think Brawl players will be better than Melee players at it for the first few months. See how Zero (who's the best at brawl) and HBox (who's pretty decent at Brawl) dominated (even though it was FFA and stuff, I feel like they played better than the Melee vets).

 

[Saito]

I'm sure you're aware, but here's going to be a lot of us. I'm an online gamer, and smash 4 will be my "first" smash game. The availability to play online will bring players like me into the community. I come from a world of toxic communities, and we're only getting worse. All that to say, we're not all bad. Some of us just want to play nintendo with you guys, one of the most impressive communities gaming has ever seen.

I get a certain feeling from you.

>This kind if you catch my drift.

We're glad to have you on board and the treehouse was great.
;_;7

 

[ChillySundance]

I'd recommend studying Melee comp to understand WHY people hold it so highly as a smash bros title. That knowledge is good and will help you understand the more competitive aspects of Smash that carry over into other games. It would also help to keep an open mind about the bad aspects of Melee too (there are some)

That said, Smash 4 is looking to be a lot more like Brawl, so if you want to get practicing, I'd say give Brawl a shot.

 

[nessokman]

Practice with brawl. It's closer to ssb4.

 

[Rythven]

I doubt you'll find competition/interest in Brawl to warrant practicing it. Wifi isn't exactly great for online play either. Best to play ProjectM since people regularly enjoy it and you can follow weekly tournaments like S@X. For a beginner, it would be more enjoyable, more social(through netplay/streams), and more hype which would result in more motivation to practice(emulate cool stuff) and get better. I play Brawl with friends on LAN and it's fun, but for someone who's mostly isolated I don't see how he could get better by playing Brawl.

 

[cCluck]

Really appreciate the advice guys. PM looks like tons of fun and exactly what I've been looking for. Once I find a character or two to settle into look for me online!

(sidenote: I googled PM tier list which led to some pretty funny ****. I love M2K.)

 

[LancerStaff]

The big problem is that there's really no good way to get good at SSB4 without SSB4. I'm in a similar situation, and I chose to go with Brawl. Honestly, the only things you can learn are the basics and intermediate things, and it really won't matter what game you pick. If you have a way of playing other players, do so, because I played the laggy Wi-Fi the past two years and it's helped tremendously.

 

[hotdogturtle]

(sidenote: I googled PM tier list which led to some pretty funny ****.

What I posted in my previous post was step 1. Step 2 is don't do this.

 

[ChillySundance]

Well look at it this way.

If you learn Project M, you're going to be disappointed with Smash 4's comparatively simplistic systems. It'll feel like a step down.

If you learn Melee, you're going to feel weird with Smash 4 because it's slower.

Right now Smash 4 looks like it'll be better than Brawl in every way. If you learn Brawl, you're not going to be disappointed by Smash 4. So for that reason I'd still recommend Brawl over Project M.