Snakeyes
Smash Journeyman
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2008
- Messages
- 398
Or rather, how this staple of exciting high-level play could appear in SSB4! It would be awesome if we eventually came up with a couple of ideas everyone agrees on and that could then (hopefully) be relayed to the development team.
I'll start this off with a bold statement: L-canceling in its current form is an unnecessary barrier of entry and one of the most unintuitive and tedious requirements for pulling off combos in a fighting game.
Since there are no situations where you would not want to L-cancel, it would be a no-brainer to simply cut the aerial landing lag in half across the board and allow follow-ups without the need for an extra button press. Hardcore Smashers are able to combo properly again and casual players will have one less thing to learn while transitioning to competitive play. The only downside here would be the constant shield pressure, as shielding an aerial changes its landing window and allows the defending player to punish the attacker's mistimed L-cancel. But this doesn't necessarily mean that L-canceling as we know it is the only way to have both combos and a decent balance between offensive and defensive options.
What needs to change a bit is the shield and its effect on blocked aerials. What if shielding an attack while aiming the bubble forward pushed the opponent away to a safer distance, kinda like Marvel's Advancing Guard? Or if shielding an attack at the right time added a few extra frames of recovery to the attacker's aerial to punish him for being predictable while giving the defender a small window to escape or counterattack?
While this sounds good to me, I'm sure some of you might be able to spot a few holes or potential exploits in this new shielding mechanic or maybe some even better ideas on how L-canceling could be implemented in the game.
And remember that for Nintendo, Smash is, at its core, a party fighter that should be easy to get into. If we ever hope for our suggestions to be taken semi-seriously, there has to be something in there that has a small benefit for the casual player.
I'll start this off with a bold statement: L-canceling in its current form is an unnecessary barrier of entry and one of the most unintuitive and tedious requirements for pulling off combos in a fighting game.
Since there are no situations where you would not want to L-cancel, it would be a no-brainer to simply cut the aerial landing lag in half across the board and allow follow-ups without the need for an extra button press. Hardcore Smashers are able to combo properly again and casual players will have one less thing to learn while transitioning to competitive play. The only downside here would be the constant shield pressure, as shielding an aerial changes its landing window and allows the defending player to punish the attacker's mistimed L-cancel. But this doesn't necessarily mean that L-canceling as we know it is the only way to have both combos and a decent balance between offensive and defensive options.
What needs to change a bit is the shield and its effect on blocked aerials. What if shielding an attack while aiming the bubble forward pushed the opponent away to a safer distance, kinda like Marvel's Advancing Guard? Or if shielding an attack at the right time added a few extra frames of recovery to the attacker's aerial to punish him for being predictable while giving the defender a small window to escape or counterattack?
While this sounds good to me, I'm sure some of you might be able to spot a few holes or potential exploits in this new shielding mechanic or maybe some even better ideas on how L-canceling could be implemented in the game.
And remember that for Nintendo, Smash is, at its core, a party fighter that should be easy to get into. If we ever hope for our suggestions to be taken semi-seriously, there has to be something in there that has a small benefit for the casual player.