No more Sakurai? Competitive Smash's future discussion

[ccthirteen]

I'll start by saying I've been scouring the forums and could not identify exactly where to post this. I hope this is in the right place. That being said, I read an interview today where Sakurai was asked "Will there be another Smash Bros.?"

He responded by saying that while he couldn't deny that Nintendo could decide to make another Smash installment in the future, he would not be involved. He went into both Melee and Brawl believing that there would be no sequel.

Whether he is approached by Nintendo to develop another Smash in the future or not, it brings up an interesting topic to discuss.

If Sakurai is out the door on the next project, what do you think that will mean for the future of competitive smash? Bear in mind that he didn't just lead the development of SSB 4 and Brawl. He also held the reins on Melee's development.

So on the one hand, you have one of the people responsible for one of the greatest and most immersive fighting games of all time, Melee. On the other hand, you have someone who's gone on record for trying to bring the competitive scene of smash to a more level playing field by purposefully removing advanced techniques from the sequels thereafter.

If someone else took the reins for a future installment, there's really no telling what direction the competitive game could go in, and history shows we will keep playing competitively regardless, but I'm interested to see what the Smash community thinks of this. Where do you think the series could be headed if Sakurai steps down for a future installment?

 

[GeNo-BreaKer]

Maybe we can finally get a game that's better than Melee and brings back advanced techniques like Wavedashing and L Cancelling! (inb4 wavedashing a glitch nonsense) Ah who am I kidding, I doubt anybody in Nintendo can replicate the success of Melee.

 

[Conda]

We really don't need this as a thread. It's great that you got to vent but this isn't a thread topic worth having in the competitive subforum, which focuses on discussion revolving around competitive play.

 

[SN Viper]

Maybe we can finally get a game that's better than Melee and brings back advanced techniques like Wavedashing and L Cancelling! (inb4 wavedashing a glitch nonsense) Ah who am I kidding, I doubt anybody in Nintendo can replicate the success of Melee.

wave dashing yes!
l Cancelling leave that out.

I think that smash is a cash cow and will be remade as long as it still draws big money.

 

[Omegaphoenix]

If someone else took the reins for a future installment, there's really no telling what direction the competitive game could go in.

This is really the only important part. We don't know and it won't affect anything, so there's no point in speculating now. Can we try to work on Smash 4's meta before pondering Smash 5?

 

[Gionni]

We can't really know, Sakurai made every smash game until now and it's not easy to find another developer that can do a smash game because sakurai is the only one, and whoever it will be, he will need a lot of patience. As if it's going to be more meleeish, we can't know that either but Nintendo is caring about us a lot more than in the past and maybe the next smash game will be super-duper competitive if we ask for it, it could be fast as ****, with tons of advanced techniques or a game even worst than brawl(that as a game is pretty good). I also think that is really too soon to think about the next smash, a new one just came out and it will be at least 6 years before another one

 

[BBC7]

I had a dream where Smash 4's special mode offered two physics options. Floaty(Brawl), and Intense(Melee). The Intense mode would change it so that air dodges weren't infinite and could be used to wavedash, and L-Cancel was also in. It would be cool if a future installment had something like this although it's unlikely.

 

[LimitCrown]

I can see why others like Melee a lot, but I personally think that the next games in the series shouldn't be like Melee.

 

[Gionni]

I had a dream where Smash 4's special mode offered two physics options. Floaty(Brawl), and Intense(Melee). The Intense mode would change it so that air dodges weren't infinite and could be used to wavedash, and L-Cancel was also in. It would be cool if a future installment had something like this although it's unlikely.

I personally think that smash 4 physics are just right, if in the next one they re-add l-canceling it would be awesome, about airdodging, why not making that if you airdodge without hitting any direction it would be like brawl and smash 4 but if you hit like left you will airdodge left just like in melee/project m in this way you can have wavedashes at least on paper, without removing the almost no risk airdodge from the last 2 games, but I think that this was pretty off topic

 

[Unknownkid]

People actually want L-Canceling back...? For what reason?

L-Canceling is a bad design. What situation will you not use L-Canceling in competitive play? Never! You will always perform a L-Cancel. How about we remove the execute part of L-Cancel and reduce the lag/recovery in general?

 

[GeNo-BreaKer]

People actually want L-Canceling back...? For what reason?

Because Smash 4 at the moment has ridiculously laggy aerial moves.

 

[TTTTTsd]

Say what you will about techniques or whatnot (I'm indifferent I really don't care if they're in or not, more power if they are I guess? Not my first concern) but with Sakurai gone, 14 years of his Smash games have come to an end. The man had great ideas for characters and from what I can tell, is one of the more creative people in the industry.

Having said that, it does lead me to wonder where this series is going from here on if he doesn't reprise his role, but hey, time will tell. I'll be old by then so whatever.

 

[Unknownkid]

Because Smash 4 at the moment has ridiculously laggy aerial moves.

....
I don't feel like typing this again, so I'm going to quote myself.

L-Canceling is a bad design. What situation will you not use L-Canceling in competitive play? Never! You will always perform a L-Cancel. How about we remove the execute part of L-Cancel and reduce the lag/recovery in general?

 

[Gawain]

Put the game back in HAL Laboratory's hands. Sakurai is a good designer but personally I liked the flavor that HAL brought to the table a whole lot more. Smash 64 and Melee have a completely different vibe to them than Brawl and 4 do. I preferred the whole "they're toys fighting each other" thing to be honest. And I think HAL has a better grasp of what makes a fighting game a fighting game. They seem to understand concepts like oki, etc.

 

[TTTTTsd]

I don't think anything about Melee's competitive aspects was really designed with oki or any of those concepts in mind. I am absolutely positive it was just "wow shields kind of sucked in 64 didn't they" and it just snowballed from there.

I don't think HAL designed competitively on purpose and while I would be totally fine with it again I am pretty sure it's cause the game had to be made relatively quickly and the short amount of time lended itself to...various physics quirks being left in.

 

[Shaya]

There's been a thread or two about this in the general discussions.