No more unlockable characters?

[C3CC]

Since it's become a trend in modern fighting games, and Sakurai has revealed characters that tend to be unlockable (Luigi, Toon Link, Sonic, Marth), do you think that we'll get the complete roster from the get-go?

I think that would suck, personally. I want to work for my characters, and when I say that, I mean Melee-work for my characters, not that ridiculous thing of fighting 5 brawls and I get Ness, 5 more and I get Marth. Speaking of which, I hope Rosalina is unlockable, as she has been so in all games where she has been playable.

Thoughts?

 

[Trigger123]

I know what you mean, they need to make most newcomers unlockable instead of playable. I understand characters like ness, luigi, marth, and captain falcon being unlockable but people like rosalina, villager, and megaman should also be unlockable. I didn't like how in melee and brawl you started with almost every newcomer.

 

[Problem2]

I find unlocking veterans to be tedious, and I was disappointed in Brawl how most of the new comers were available from the start. Like what the heck?

 

[Stphntoth]

I think they should probably have all the vets unlocked from the start and having the newcomers that were announced before the game's release as starters and the remaining new characters unlockable

 

[TheUltraDeino]

Luigi - They announced him early because it was the Year of Luigi.
Marth - If I remember correctly, Marth was one of the first unlockable characters in Brawl, unlocked right after beating classic mode for the first time. I wouldn't get it passed the team if he was a starter this time around though.
Sonic - He's 3rd-party, which is probably big enough to announce him early. Plus, he was revealed early in Brawl, too.
Toon Link - have me stumped there .-.

As for newcomers, I'm pretty sure Megaman and Rosalina are unlockable.

I'm sure this game will have unlockable characters. And because of the fact that only 4 newcomers have been revealed so far, quite a few of them will be unlockable.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Even when the trailers reveal the characters, this doesn't really change the fact that some of them will be unlockables. Anyway, my take on the situation would be that of all the newcomers that are in the game, only the Villager and Wii Fit Trainer would be starters; the rest of the starters would be the veterans.

 

[nessokman]

I want the D.
Marth was announced because it was sakurai's way of saying F**K LUCINA

 

[Envioux]

I want the D.
Marth was announced because it was sakurai's way of saying F**K LUCINA

there's still the possibility of Ike being replaced.

 

[Tree Gelbman]

Unlocking characters in a game that's not about unlocking things or progression in a story is so old school and there's a reason it's going bye bye in the industry when it comes to fighting games and games that are mostly multi-player driven.

Games are expensive as ****.

Most people pay (60/40 bucks) not for the veterans but those newcomers/new features they know are in. If I pay that much money for something I want the full product at the ready for me. I don't want to have sit and leave my god damn Wii U/3DS on all night to unlock a ****ing character again.

 

[nessokman]

there's still the possibility of Ike being replaced.

No, Chrom is more likely to replace Ike. Lucina is wearing marth's exact clothes, it would make sense for her to be an alternate skin

 

[Ryan.]

I'd like to unlock and work for characters, yeah. I hope most of the newcomers you have to unlock.

 

[PikaJew]

Luigi, Toon Link, Marth Mega Man and Rosalina & Luma will be unlockable.

 

[Hinata]

I agree with CosmicQueen. If I buy this game, I want the newcomers I bought it for to be there from the start. I don't want to have to spend time playing as characters I don't want to get characters that I do.

 

[Hong]

Most of what we see will still be unlockable.

Sure it is nice to experience the magic of unlocking a character yourself, especially if you had not known about them being in the game prior, but Nintendo at grand has a greater agenda:

They rather show the characters on the website to promote products. They know Smash Bros will at least double the Wii U install-base, and more people care about Smash Bros than the Wii U itself. At the very least they can increase product awareness to millions of viewers who will check the website five days a week, yet not so little as glance at the Nintendo pipeline for games past and present.

Nintendo is not always intelligent, but they are not so stupid as to miss this marketing opportunity.

 

[Mysteltainn]

Not that this would be practical in any way, but imagine for a second if Sakurai had everyone locked except Mario, and you had to unlock them all, lol.

My troll idea aside, it does appear to be a bit troubling how much of the newcomers we're probably going to get in the starting roster. I too, was quite disappointed with how Brawl's layout was, where most of the un-lockable characters were just veterans, whilst you started out with Pit, Meta Knight and multiple other characters that seemed much more exciting at the time.

However, I understand that there's a great deal of the community who wants to just cut to the chase when they pop their game in, and immediately snag who they want right off the bat and head online.

 

[Tree Gelbman]

I agree with CosmicQueen. If I buy this game, I want the newcomers I bought it for to be there from the start. I don't want to have to spend time playing as characters I don't want to get characters that I do.

Especially when I'm most likely going to have to do it twice on two separate systems this time. No thank you.

 

[FalKoopa]

I believe we will probably get the whole roster shown before release, but there will still be unlockables.

Luig and Toon Link scream unlockable. And the 3rd party characters will likely have to be unlocked too.

 

[Niko Mar]

Unlocking characters in a game that's not about unlocking things or progression in a story is so old school and there's a reason it's going bye bye in the industry when it comes to fighting games and games that are mostly multi-player driven.

Games are expensive as ****.

Most people pay (60/40 bucks) not for the veterans but those newcomers/new features they know are in. If I pay that much money for something I want the full product at the ready for me. I don't want to have sit and leave my god damn Wii U/3DS on all night to unlock a ****ing character again.

Leaving your Gamecube on overnight to unlock Mewtwo was the best part .

I like unlocking characters: it gives incentive to play others before the ones you want are unlocked, allows some characters to remain secret until the game comes out, and makes you want to try out newly unlocked characters (even if they're veterans, just to see the changes). When I picked up a game like Injustice, everyone being unlocked felt awkward. I knew who I wanted to play right away, and that led me to ignore everyone else. I personally can't wait to unlock everyone on both the Wii U and 3ds versions .

If anything, there could be an option hidden in the data menu that unlocks all the characters at the start. It could be like a "tournament mode," so as long as the console stays on, all of those characters will remain. Or they could let you keep the unlocks, but having the option as such makes people who legitimately unlocked everyone feel accomplished.

 

[Hinata]

Leaving your Gamecube on overnight to unlock Mewtwo was the best part .

I like unlocking characters: it gives incentive to play others before the ones you want are unlocked, allows some characters to remain secret until the game comes out, and makes you want to try out newly unlocked characters (even if they're veterans, just to see the changes). When I picked up a game like Injustice, everyone being unlocked felt awkward. I knew who I wanted to play right away, and that led me to ignore everyone else. I personally can't wait to unlock everyone on both the Wii U and 3ds versions .

If anything, there could be an option hidden in the data menu that unlocks all the characters at the start. It could be like a "tournament mode," so as long as the console stays on, all of those characters will remain. Or they could let you keep the unlocks, but having the option as such makes people who legitimately unlocked everyone feel accomplished.

If there was an option to have them all unlocked from the start, then I wouldn't really care who was and wasn't unlockable.

 

[pitthekit]

I liked unlocking characters in the past but now I don't really care I would prefer to have them all available to me......

I will miss that feeling when you get the challenger approaching screen and have a fan girl scream once you see the black outline of mewtwo.

 

[SKM_NeoN]

Unlocking characters in a game that's not about unlocking things or progression in a story is so old school and there's a reason it's going bye bye in the industry when it comes to fighting games and games that are mostly multi-player driven.

Pretty much this. The age of the internet has rendered the novelty of unlocking characters to be utterly pointless. Not that there's no room for other types of unlockables, such as costumes, icons, and titles; This form of locked content can similarly give a sense of accomplishment, while simultaneously giving the player a way to display their dedication as a form of expression. Characters, on the other hand, largely determine the way you play the game. Every playstyle option should be laid bare before you. Such is the mindset of most modern competitive games.

 

[fitzawesome]

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I used to love that feeling of performing certain conditions and then dueling the character to unlock them. However I felt Brawl ruined this with "unlock them by playing story mode" so this is kinda just the next step after that.

I think a nice middle ground would be to have all characters unlocked from the start but have any alternate outfits (Wii Fit Man, AC Villager Girl, Dr Luigi, etc) only be unlocked through the old way. Fulfill certain conditions and then duel them.

 

[The Drilling Juggernaut]

I posted this in a thread awhile ago and it was kind of off topic, so I'll post it again here.

"I can't stand the "everything available at the start" fighting game model. Yes, I know you lose an edge competitively when your main is locked, but unlockable characters gives the game a huge boost in replay value. Just when you think you've done everything a new character shows up and changes everything. Now you want to play as that character against everyone else and fight that character as everyone else. Just when you're about to get tired of it another character is unlocked and the cycle begins anew.

And yes, I know that losing the edge competitively is a big deal, but the amount is ever so slight. At the end of the day wouldn't it be a good thing that you're character is hidden away? You're going to have to work harder (AKA play the game more) to be good at him."

Someone commented that "I was playing the game wrong" and I should play the game for the multiplayer and not for the unlockables. I wanted to add to my comment: unlockable content adds to the multiplayer. Me and my friends would play together to unlock characters. A game with such a strong emphasis on multiplayer should be able to stand on it's own without having secret players to encourage you to unlock content, but having it adds more incentive to keep playing, which is never a bad thing. Have to play 500 vs matches to unlock Mewtwo? You bet we're going to play that many together to unlock him. Have to play on the Pyosphere stage 100 times to unlock Ridley? We're gonna be rocking on Pyrosphere until he's ours.

 

[SKM_NeoN]

Casually playing yes, what you describe is a great incentive to keep you playing the game. From a more competitive player's point of view, simply improving and learning new ways to play the game is incentive enough. In my opinion, adding a variety of unlockables whilst leaving every playing option available at the start is a good way to please both crowds.

 

[C3CC]

I guess I understand the point of those who say everything should be unlocked from the start, but I think that would be really, really boring, to be honest. The most exciting part of a game has always been getting to try a new character (at least to me). I remember that feeling when I FINALLY unlocked Mewtwo (I didn't even know he was in the game, so imagine my surprise and excitement) and I want to feel that again. With the internet, of course, it's nearly impossible to not know the whole roster before the game gets released, but still. I want to be rewarded for working hard with something as exciting as playing as someone new.

That being said, I insist: MAKE US WORK ON IT. Don't just baby-feed us like you did in Brawl. The criteria of unlocking in that game was bull****. 5 fights to get a character?! Come ON. I don't pretend you make us beat Boss Battles in Intense in less than 30 seconds with every single character, but hey, at least give us a challenge. Unlocking everyone via Subspace Emissary made it even worse.

And yes, Megaman should be unlockable along with Rosalina.

 

[Kaye Cruiser]

I find unlocking characters to be nothing but false replay value or padding. It's tedious and pointless.

I'll take all of my characters unlocked from the start, thank you.

 

[Aurora Jenny]

Wow, I just LOVE the cynicism oozing from the commenters in here. THere's no way to keep a secret nowadays, but back then, it was so much fun to try and discover everything on your own. Nowadays I feel like I've lost my edge thanks to how easy it is to get answers or follow a guide. Too much temptation to bypass the challenge or spoil myself. Honestly, keep the unlockables. Have the bait dangling in front of you since you know they're there, you just have to use characters you normally wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole to get to them, get your full money's worth out of it.

 

[Tree Gelbman]

What your definition of getting my full money's worth is could be different than mine, buddy, old friend, old pal.

And if you need the incentive of having to unlock favorites or newbies to touch characters that you paid half of a hundred bucks for? (And in some cases 350ish considering this game will be the reason lots of peeps buy a Wii U) Then I don't know what to tell you. If I paid 60 dollars for something? Yeah, that's more than enough for me to go? ''Oh, I didn't enjoy playing Yoshi last time, but I think I'll try him out this time."

And a lot of that also comes from I just genuinely enjoy a lot of Nintendo characters. I don't care for how Yoshi plays, but he's Yoshi. So I'll give him a go everytime just to see how he's changed.

 

[Sarki Soliloquy]

The only real way I would see the task of unlocking characters to be tedious is when you reset data.

Anyways, if any of the previous 3 entries tell us, unlockables, including playable characters, will be in Smash 4. There's a sense of accomplishment, replay value, and challenge in filling the roster. Melee especially made the methods mandatory. I had everything spoiled for me via a very memorable issue of Game Informer (how I found out about Smash) and it didn't ruin the task. Enduring a 15 Minute Multi-Man Melee by spamming Donkey Kong's Down B just to get Falco. Or beating Classic with every character in roster order to get the elusive Mr. Game & Watch. While Brawl took away much of the value in unlocking characters away via Subspace Emissary, having more than one method made it more accessible.

The reveal method the site for SSB4 is using seems to compliment how Sakurai thinks having cutscenes ruins pacing modes such as Subspace Emissary. Solid Snake and Sonic, much to our surprise, were unlockable and they were revealed early on the Brawl Dojo. Perhaps why we get to see these veterans (and newcomers) initially is to get people excited of their playable presence and motivate them to get them from within the game. This is how I believe SSB4's roster will go down:

Starters: Mario, Peach, Bowser, Link, Zelda, Sheik, Donkey Kong, Ice Climbers, Kirby, King Dedede, Pikachu, Fox, Samus/Zero Suit Samus, Marth, Pit, Pikmin & Olimar, Yoshi, Lucas, Villager, Wii Fit Trainer
Unlockables: Luigi, Rosalina & Luma, Toon Link, Ganondorf, Diddy Kong, Wario, Meta Knight, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, Lucario, Falco, Wolf, Captain Falcon, Ness, Mr. Gama & Watch, Sonic, Mega Man

 

[Hinata]

I don't think Mega Man will be an unlockable character. He's kinda one of the main selling points of this game.

 

[MasterOfKnees]

Honestly, Luigi and Marth makes sense as starters. Luigi, well duh, if anything I always found it odd that he was unlockable. Marth is the face of Fire Emblem, might as well make him the starter. I personally see Rosalina fit as a starting character too, I don't see why she shouldn't be available from the start, just because Mario Kart and 3D World did it doesn't mean Smash should do it too. Toon Link is still very iffy though, but the only reason people don't expect to see him on the starting roster is because he's a clone, a point that Luigi likely already destroyed.

Patterns are being broken folks, just like how Brawl broke patterns (like Jiggs not being the unlocked through first run in classic) this game will also do so. We can't keep thinking as if Melee or Brawl is being revealed all over again, of course there'll be changes. I'm personally anticipating more whacko starters like Jigglypuff and maybe Mewtwo, and in turn also some whacko unlockables like Meta Knight and maybe even Pokémon Trainer. Heck, for all we know Mega Man and Sonic might aswell be starters too.

As for the question of the thread, I'm fairly certain they'll still exist. I wouldn't be bothered too much personally, it's fun to unlock characters sure, but it takes a day or two max (unless you're trying to unlock Mewtwo in Melee) so it wouldn't really mean much in general.

 

[soviet prince]

I am all for unlockables it extends the games life and is very fun to do

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

I don't think Mega Man will be an unlockable character. He's kinda one of the main selling points of this game.

And yet Sonic and Solid Snake were unlockables in Brawl, despite being advertised on the game's box art.

Anyway, I find it more rewarding if you have to work to unlock the characters that you wish to use. I mean, things can turn very boring when everything is available to you right off the bat, and it basically destroys the purpose of having a single player mode as well.

 

[Hinata]

And yet Sonic and Solid Snake were unlockables in Brawl, despite being advertised on the game's box art.

Anyway, I find it more rewarding if you have to work to unlock the characters that you wish to use. I mean, things can turn very boring when everything is available to you right off the bat, and it basically destroys the purpose of having a single player mode as well.

Oh, yeah. I forgot about that...

Anyway, I'm not sayin' this would be the case with other games or whatever, but I don't think things would be boring if all the characters in Smash 4 were available from the second you start it up. If anything, it'd make it more exciting, because you'd be able to try out every character from the get go, and find out which one suits you best. If some of them are unlockable, you might spend time learning some other character, and then once you unlock someone else, you find out they suit you better, and then you gotta waste more time learning them.

 

[Ravio_Yo]

There should be an option to transfer your unlocks to the other version. I don't want to unlock play 700 matches for Mewtwo in the first place, much less 1,400.

 

[LunchPolice]

Kind of on the fence here. On one hand, unlocking characters is satisfying and it's great to see the game expand the more you play it. On the other hand, it's incredibly tedious to have your main locked behind hours upon hours of gameplay. As somebody else said, learning a characters strengths and your opponent's weaknesses is its own reward. The draw of a fighting game is growing more skilled while your friends do too and understanding not only character matchups but player matchups; what works on one friend may not work on another. That is where the true replay value lies and that's why I've continued to come back to Brawl for the last six years (holy crap, six years). When my brother and I finally get our hands on Smash U, it's going to be pretty unfortunate if my favourite character is unlocked from the start and by the time we unlock his, I'm already far more practiced with my own.

When I play Smash, sure I dabble in other characters - but my mains I feel comfortable with. I know what I can do with them and how they fare against my brother's. When you get good at playing your character is no longer some guy flailing around with a vague idea of what his B moves do, he's an extension of yourself. A good game of Smash is a TRUE CLASH OF WIT, TENACITY AND COMPOSURE. And uh... yeah. That's why I'm sort of for all the characters being avaliable at the start.

Make stages, costumes, trophies, songs and modes unlockable - not your basic methods of playing the game to the best of your ability. These games have more than enough content to keep you smashing!

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

@ Hinata : There's a reason why we have the Training game mode though. While I can understand your personal opinions, other games still have unlockables, regardless of whether or not they've been advertised; you still had to unlock Rosalina before you could use her in 3D World.

 

[LunchPolice]

EDIT: Nevermind. I was confused, disregard this post.

 

[Hinata]

@ Hinata : There's a reason why we have the Training game mode though. While I can understand your personal opinions, other games still have unlockables, regardless of whether or not they've been advertised; you still had to unlock Rosalina before you could use her in 3D World.

Yeah, true enough, I suppose. I just don't wanna waste time usin' Mario when I could be spending that time learning the person I currently plan to main, Rosalina.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Yeah, true enough, I suppose. I just don't wanna waste time usin' Mario when I could be spending that time learning the person I currently plan to main, Rosalina.

I can wait for it, as Rosalina would be much more rewarding to play as if you have to unlock her first. Besides, Rosalina is never a starter in any of the Mario titles that she's playable in.