Is Brawl dead?

[DeKu Skrub]

Guys, i think i might have come across somthing to save brawl. In a special match, have Light and Fast turned on. It's suprisingly competative and fun to play.

 

[EvanBuck]

Yes, Brawl has no future as a competitive game. As long as people still enjoy and play it, it is not "dead" in a technical sense. But in terms of competitive play, Brawl will eventually give way to Melee, which is in its platinum era now, and Sm4sh, which is one the rise.

The fundamental reason why doesn't have to do with the tired arguments people always trot out against Brawl: slower playstyle, the idiotic tripping mechanic, Meta Knight being OP, so many characters being complete garbage tier, lack of wavedashing...etc. The major, fundamental reason has to do with the intention and mindset going into the game's development.

Brawl was Sakurai's middle finger to the competitive community. Nintendo specifically developed Brawl for the casual community, and as a result, gave us a great party game, but a VERY subpar Smash game. Brawl is unquestionably the worst installment in the Smash franchise, but is still a very good game overall. I've enjoyed great memories with it. However, it was not designed to be a competitive game played on a professional level. Melee turned out that way really by accident - and Brawl was Nintendo's way of flipping off the competitive community in favor of catering to the casuals.

We should be grateful for all Brawl has given us on a personal level and that Nintendo is actually (at least somewhat) considering the competitive community now via Smash 4 and its For Glory mode. But Brawl has absolutely no future or hope of a competitive renaissance, except maybe Project M. But we saw where THAT went...

Maybe me and all the other naysayers are completely off base, but from what I have observed in my meager little experience, Sm4sh and Melee have stormed in, and most people have deserted Brawl and never looked back.

 

[thegrovylekid]

Honestly, brawl is dead. I loved the game when I played it [even then, I was pretty good with Peach] but honestly, I won't miss it too much. Melee is more popular than ever, Smash 64 has seen a resurgence, and smash 4 came out. Look at this:

Smash 64: The Basic game
Melee: The Skilled game
Brawl: The defensive game
Smash 4: The Balanced game

Why would you play a game where there's MKs stalling you indefinitely and ICs [RIP, I miss them] can 0-death every character. Brawl's tournament scene is dead.

This is just more personal for me, but there's no characters that were cut that are like "I NEED to play them again!" Snake is an abomination, why is he even in this game, I can't stand snake at all. Wolf is meh, I never liked the space animals in any game. Lucas is in SSB4, Pokémon trainer is hard to play, and while I miss ICs, I'd rather play them in Melee, because then I also get to use Pichu! [Please Sakurai? Please put Pichu in for DLC?]

So yeah, I'm pretty sure brawl is hopeless.

 

[Sudoi]

Coming from a 14 year old. When I used to play brawl, Ike was the best. But when I started realizing combos were what made a fighting game a fighting game, I found meta knight to be the only 'true' 'fighting game' character.

 

[N.T.A.O ChangeOfHeart 死の剣]

This is too pathetic to read that I will just assume it's just Smash-4 players. Now to answer their idiotic question, Canada still has Brawl tournaments; however, tourneys in general are the most boring to watch (with the exception of Melee and 64). Brawl will once more grow new wings but through Wi-Fi competitive entity's for sure (since Net-play is now a Brawl thing) and more people are getting Wimmifii each and everyday. And people like this are always wrong towards this type of stuff, but man their assumption to look in the future is great.

Not to long ago (one day ago) I just got a PM from someone to "add me plz I wanna brawl ya". So Brawl seems to still grab more than enough attraction. But one of you are correct about people won't get far if they "revive" Brawl. That's the thing, I'm satisfied to just upload for my wonderful infatuation towards Brawl (when I have the the time).

But what's great and surprising is some people still believe Brawl is better than Smash-4 (not surprising), Melee (bringing back the Golden Era now) and Smash-64 (the father of Smash the video-game). So a "dead" game is still bringing attraction. Smash-4 could never pull this off btw and the word you are all looking for is *vacation nothing dies. There will always be people playing that certain game or whatsoever it may be. Thanks.

 

[link2702]

yes brawl is dead.

no it stands no chance of revival.

It had its one and only shot of staying alive when the community did actually try to ban metaknight for a time. had the community fully stuck with it, brawl could of survived. Ice climbers would not be an issue, characters that were completely shut down by metaknight alone could stand a chance as they weren't as disadvantaged against the other top tiers as they were metaknight, and while it still would suffer from super slow and campy gameplay, as well as random tripping, It could of survived at least a bit longer.

Once project M gained major popularity, as well as melee gaining popularity again, brawl was already starting to die off. Smash 4 was the final nail in the coffin for it. Smash4 fixed *almost* all the issues that plagued brawl. It's easily the most balanced of the official games, it removed random tripping, it removed hitstun cancelling(or at the very least made it far less severe) it made true chaingrabs impossible(kind of a double edged sword on this one) it made the game "slightly" less campy(still not as aggressive as melee, but not anywhere near the snore fest that is brawl) and ground locks were limited to just 2-3 before the character can escape.

all 3 of the above things happening are what finally killed brawl. and it has no chance of revival.

 

[pagedMov]

nah brawl's dead
r.i.p

 

[LordBac0nUS]

Brawl is not necessarily dead perse. It is not thriving though. Canada still has tournaments, but they are boring to watch. It seems that Sm4sh and Melee are taking the scene now. PM is alright, still fun though. Yeah, brawl is dead, no going back now I had good memories on that game...

 

[N.T.A.O ChangeOfHeart 死の剣]

*Uploads video* 400 views. No keep dreaming.

 

[John Onefifteen]

it was alive to begin with?

 

[N.T.A.O ChangeOfHeart 死の剣]

Seems I'll try a different approach. Because Brawl isn't visible towards tournaments appearance doesn't mean a dam thing. Brawl will continue to thrive towards Wi-Fi guaranteed. Thanks.

 

[Superfiremario]

The only reason I still use my Brawl disc is for Project M.

 

[karatekidaustin]

Brawl is still my favorite video game of all time so I hope not.

 

[Ruff]

Yeah. I think brawl is dead

 

[shadee88]

Yeah. I think brawl is dead

There is Brawl in Super Smash Con.....

Many Smash 4 players sign up for Brawl tourneys when there is a combo event because they "might as well"

so i wont say its dead.......

 

[smokebomb12]

Now brawl is dead sadly.

 

[shadee88]

Now brawl is dead sadly.

i checked. brawl isnt dead.

but itd the minority like ssb64

 

[FairyLip]

If there was a mod that wasn't "total conversion", like Project M is, and was more "update", like Project M was, I could see it happening. Now, the only reason to play Brawl is basically everything but multiplayer Smash.

 

[ShadowKing]

Brawl is not "Dead" because its a good game beginners can buy etc

 

[shadee88]

Brawl is not "Dead" because its a good game beginners can buy etc

That statement literally makes no sense...........

 

[ShadowKing]

That statement literally makes no sense...........

It's a good starter game "logic"

 

[shadee88]

It's a good starter game "logic"

People are using Brawl is dead in a different sense....... People hardly play it.

I'm still seeing sign ups for this game even after Smash 4's release but far less though.

 

[ShadowKing]

People are using Brawl is dead in a different sense....... People hardly play it.

I'm still seeing sign ups for this game even after Smash 4's release but far less though.

That's what everyone is calling today not Dead but a nice slow game for casual gamers and for people who want to start competive smashing (project m)

 

[shadee88]

That's what everyone is calling today not Dead but a nice slow game for casual gamers and for people who want to start competive smashing (project m)

Project M and Brawl are NOT the same game at ll.....

I'm a competitive gamer but I play Brawl....

 

[meticulousboy]

Personally I think that we can't neglect what Sakurai distributed to us in 2008. I know we are in 2015 as of when this was posted, but maybe if players could pretend that the year is 2008 as they play Super Smash Bros. Brawl, then the competitive feeling would come back.

 

[Scurry059]

I think that Brawl is not quite dead just yet. You do have smash 4 and melee and they are competitive games. I think that Project M is keeping brawl alive

 

[shadee88]

I think that Brawl is not quite dead just yet. You do have smash 4 and melee and they are competitive games. I think that Project M is keeping brawl alive

Well its doing pretty lively in Canada, and our TOs in Michigan include Brawl in their Regionals too, so not really.......

As for Project M, there are serious legal issues with this game and there is really nothing u can do about it.....

 

[Scootch]

Brawl seems to be pretty dead right now, which I hate and want to grow it back up. I loved Brawl. Sm4sh is better, but Brawl has a special place in my heart.

 

[shadee88]

Brawl seems to be pretty dead right now, which I hate and want to grow it back up. I loved Brawl. Sm4sh is better, but Brawl has a special place in my heart.

if ur in Maryland, it died there a year before Sm4sh release.

 

[EthanRG]

I think that despite all of the uncertainties with brawl (tripping), it still takes a lot of skill and talent. It would be very sad if it just faded from existence. Please someone do something. Please.

 

[F. Stein]

I was never aware that competitive brawl existed. I was pretty novice at melee around the time that Brawl came out and wanted to jump on the "new game" bandwagon as fast as possible. But I never encountered any kind of thriving communities or scenes. It's like the smash competitive community didn't know what to do with it and the game never reached any state of full development. I mean there are lots of obstacles to overcome but... it would have been nice to see it actually be "alive" because there seems to be zero hype around it as a competitive game and nothing being done to develop any sort of meta in it. From everything I've seen it has fallen into the category that Sakurai intended... a well constructed party game with a great 1 player/co-op mode to enjoy with occasional free for all matches that involve a ton of tripping.

 

[Grizzmeister]

I don't think Brawl is dead since it's probably the least expensive Smash game to buy and play. I say that because Brawl is still available new in U.S. stores for around 30 bucks. Also, backwards compatible Wii consoles are probably comparable in price with N64's and GameCubes if you know where to look.

 

[meticulousboy]

I think that despite all of the uncertainties with brawl (tripping), it still takes a lot of skill and talent. It would be very sad if it just faded from existence. Please someone do something. Please.

I hope someone does do something. All I can say is host more Brawl tournaments. I have two suggestions. For one, (though it sounds a little silly) why not do fixed camera mode? For another, why not ban everyone but Fox, Falco, Marth, Peach, and other top tiers across the Smash franchise?

Just some thoughts.

 

[F. Stein]

lol why would you ban non-top tier characters? That seems utterly insane. How about you just play final destination, only metaknight dittos while you are at it.

 

[1TheBlueFox]

Hey!
I'm still playing brawl!
The only thing that is gone is the WFC Connection. Brawl was the game with the best tier characters,
but it's not dead -- I saw 10 stores yet which still sold Brawl in 2016. Actually the Wii Is dead since WFC was replaced by the Wii U Console,also let's keep in mind that Brawl is now a training game before going on For Glory matches in the Wii U/3DS Version.

 

[Respect38]

What is the perceived benefit of using fixed camera mode? If there's a good reason to do it, then I think it might be valid to allow someone to CP to the fixed camera mode version of some stages, but otherwise I'd think that the benefits would have to be quite large to justify making it the default.

 

[meticulousboy]

What is the perceived benefit of using fixed camera mode? If there's a good reason to do it, then I think it might be valid to allow someone to CP to the fixed camera mode version of some stages, but otherwise I'd think that the benefits would have to be quite large to justify making it the default.

A different aesthetic. Most of the time, we are always playing Smash with the camera following the players. Why not do something out of the ordinary and mix it up, which you are supposed to do when fighting in Smash anyway?

 

[meticulousboy]

lol why would you ban non-top tier characters? That seems utterly insane. How about you just play final destination, only metaknight dittos while you are at it.

I know. Maybe those avid Melee fans would then appeal to Brawl if we did that. Of course, that's why Project M came into existence. But still, it was just an idea.

Tell you what, I will keep on thinking about how Brawl can be revived. This was an awesome game. Granted all things expire (sorry to say that, but it is the case) but Brawl should not have died the moment Smash 4 was released in 2014.

 

[Respect38]

I could see a tournament potentially doing that if enough people requested it to be thrown in there.

Other than that, I think the only use to it is that it might make Pirate Ship more viable as a legal stage for the fact that you're more able to track the cannonballs as they fly toward the ship.

 

[meticulousboy]

I could see a tournament potentially doing that if enough people requested it to be thrown in there.

Other than that, I think the only use to it is that it might make Pirate Ship more viable as a legal stage for the fact that you're more able to track the cannonballs as they fly toward the ship.

Yeah. I can also see another benefit to the fixed camera not just IN Brawl, but in all Smash games (not sure if the 64 had it). An opponent has a good view of the sides of the stage. So should a player wonder, "If I sweetspot this Mario Forward Smash, will it KO all the way across this stage," the fixed camera can help. If it were not fixed, the player would just have to wait and see.