No more unlockable characters?

[Graydient]

The novelty of unlocking characters isn't as welcomed nowadays, thanks to the internet. Considering youtube/etc has dissuaded Sakurai from another SSE (thank goodness), I hope secret characters become a thing of the past.

I think a huge thing to consider is how much Smash 4 is being used as cross promotion, and that leaving major hype reveals for post-release is probably not favorable marketing-wise. If Sakurai goes down the routes of unlockables, I am willing to bet most of the secret characters will be Brawl B-listers like Ike and Lucas, characters that have their fans but don't generate much discussion pre-release.

 

[pitthekit]

Really just make an unlock all characters button in the options! Both sides win.

 

[Trigger123]

I've played every smash, starting off with all characters like in mortal combat, wouldn't be fun to me and wouldn't feel right. I'm not complaining about people that want to start with all characters it's just an opinion. When I play as someone I unlock it just feels better and earned

 

[HammerHappy]

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.

Yo, lemme tell you something about time sinks. Basically, devs want to create mechanics that will make you play their game. These mechanics need to be fun, exiting, or have some sort of allure so it doesn't piss the player off. By making you put time into their game, you're actively getting your monies worth. Think of losing unlockables as the loss of enjoyable play time off the price. This may not be true for you, but it is for a lot of people.

Trophy collected, music collection, unlockable stages and yes- unlockable characters are all time sinks in order to get you to play their game. As a fighting game, Smash Bros has always had a lot of single player options due to being made in a time period where online wasn't available. Adventure Mode, Classic Mode, Event Mode, Stadium Mode, etc. Unlockable characters are another manifestation of something to do when you're playing the game by yourself.

I think you'll find that the first thing the majority people are going to do when they get the game is not hop online and start matches. They're going to spend some time actually learning and getting the feel of the game. Odds are there's probably an option like in Brawl to rapidly unlock most of the characters too.

As someone who grew up with Smash Bros, let me try to appeal to your nostalgia as well. Can you say that you've never enjoyed the feel established by the "Challenger Approaching" screen? When I was young my heart skipped a beat when it heard this in melee: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sX_B1lw-50
I don't think Smash Bros should lose that feeling, especially for its younger players. **** is part of the magic, man.

 

[Graydient]

@ HammerHappy
The time sink factor is true, but I think the idea of alternate costumes would be a far more appealing solution. It's a win-win situation where Nintendo can advertise their roster, consumers don't complain, players still have something to strive for, and having something to show off for their hard work.

This is of course assuming they're even going the route of alternate costumes. It's my honest opinion that, aside from a few characters everyone's clamoring for, costumes by far would generate the most hype and perceived value.

[EDIT] I'm not saying unlockable characters should be done away with entirely, but the requirements/# of secret characters definitely need to scale down. 20 cumulative hours for Melee or going through all of SSE in Brawl is asking quite a lot.

 

[cmbsfm]

I always have found joy unlocking characters, veteran or newcomer.Considering there is no story mode to give me an easy way of unlocking characters, i'm going to have a more of challenge.

 

[Big-Cat]

Well, Injustice did that as well I believe. As did the Mortal Kombat game before that. They still have the DLC up, but there's the complete editions out on disc as well.

The difference though is that Netherrealm released their characters by one and THEN did a bulk release later on. Capcom has done bulk releases with the exception of Jill and Shuma in Marvel and that debacle in SFxTK.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

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

I agree with this.

I do find it weird how people enjoy unlocking characters, despite that many of the unlockable characters tend to be the more lackluster ones.

And who are these "lackluster" characters you are talking talking about? Do elaborate.

 

[FlareHabanero]

And who are these "lackluster" characters you are talking talking about? Do elaborate.

Toon Link, Young Link, Dr. Mario, Pichu, Roy, Ganondorf, Falco, Jigglypuff, Luigi.

HAHA, ZE OPINIONS.

 

[True Blue Warrior]

Toon Link, Young Link, Dr. Mario, Pichu, Roy, Ganondorf, Falco, Jigglypuff, Luigi.

HAHA, ZE OPINIONS.

Alright then. Would you please explain why you personally feel they are lackluster with character-by-character reasonings?

 

[lordvaati]

Toon Link, Young Link, Dr. Mario, Pichu, Roy, Ganondorf, Falco, Jigglypuff, Luigi.

HAHA, ZE OPINIONS.

Way better then vanilla, arguably better then vanilla,better(though I think he was kinda men a character too), agree, Smash original(kinda),would be OK with better move set,one of best in game, one of best in Melee, running gag.

 

[FlareHabanero]

Alright then. Would you please explain why you personally feel they are lackluster with character-by-character reasonings?

...

Are you ****ting me?

Are you actually implying the likes of Dr. Mario and Young Link ARE THE PINNACLE OF QUALITY CHARACTERS?!

 

[True Blue Warrior]

...

Are you ****ting me?

Are you actually implying the likes of Dr. Mario and Young Link ARE THE PINNACLE OF QUALITY CHARACTERS?!

Personally, I was actually more interested in why you felt Falco, Luigi and Jiggs were lackluster. As for Dr. Mario? Eh, I can take or leave him and Y. Link is pretty redundant with T. Link anyways.

 

[PWN3]

Unlockable characters are a subject that I'd normally feel indifferent or "ehhhh" about, but after thinking about it for a while, I realized how empty the experience would be when playing for the first few times. Part of the magic is knowing that what's given to you from the moment you turn the game on isn't even everything the game has to offer; there's still going to be characters, stages, additional modes, additional options for battles, trophies, songs... Smash 64 even made you work for the item select screen. Having every character playable from the start would detract so much away from going over every nook and cranny of the game to find new things.

That's not to say that having every character unlocked from the start wouldn't be without good things, of course. Being able to identify mains and personal favourite characters right from the beginning would be helpful, which is something I can't argue against.

 

[Curious Villager]

Eh I'm cool with unlockable characters. Just so long as they aren't tedious or take a long time to unlock. Especially not when it comes to my favourite characters........

 

[DakotaBonez]

Start with the original 8. Make players unlock the rest.
Add a cheat code menu so I can put in a code to unlock all the character's from the start.
Everybody Wins.

 

[soviet prince]

people act like the day it will take them to unlock everything will set them back so much really

 

[D-idara]

We already lack SSE...and you want to take even more single-player enjoyment from the game!? Seriously, people, Smash IS NOT exclusively multiplayer!

 

[Hong]

Compromise:
3DS version starts you off with only Mario, and you unlock them through the adventure mode.
Wii U comes with a starter pool or all available.

The 3DS version will never stack up to the Wii U for multiplayer and it's on a personal platform, so it would make more sense.

 

[C3CC]

We already lack SSE...and you want to take even more single-player enjoyment from the game!? Seriously, people, Smash IS NOT exclusively multiplayer!

THIS. I want to be "forced" to play all the game modes. For example, in Melee, if it weren't because I HAD to play 15-Minute Melee (or whatever its name was) to unlock Falco, I would have never even touched that mode. Hell, I never touched the Fighting Alloy game mode in Brawl!

 

[D-idara]

THIS. I want to be "forced" to play all the game modes. For example, in Melee, if it weren't because I HAD to play 15-Minute Melee (or whatever its name was) to unlock Falco, I would have never even touched that mode. Hell, I never touched the Fighting Alloy game mode in Brawl!

You can find some pretty fun things when you're 'forced' to play things, for example, I really enjoyed Multi-Man Brawl.

 

[PikaJew]

Never really knew how anti-unlockable people are on this forum.

 

[SmasherP83]

What do you speak of no unlockable characters? It's traditional to Smash Bros. WHAT WOULD I DO FOR FUN IF I COULDN'T DO TARGET SMASH TO UNLOCK ??????. Stahp

 

[majorasmaskfan]

while i prefer all character to be unlocked from the start no matter what i am still going to get it

 

[Sonicguy726]

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.

but thats the fun of it, It feels rewarding when you finally do it

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

So where sonic and snake in brawl yet they were unlockable

 

[Wanderer from Roseyard]

I'd be fine with all the fighters being available from the start.

Sure, unlocking characters was fun and had a magic feeling—in Melee, when I was 12. In Brawl, it was a more tedious process and was less rewarding because the only "hidden" characters I didn't already know about were R.O.B. and Wolf. For either game, it didn't add much replay value. In Melee, I had all the characters in about a week's time, and I continued to play that same save file for years and years. Unlocking characters constituted such a small percentage of my total play time, it's hard to defend it as adding replayability.

There can still be a ton of things to unlock apart from hidden characters. If you take a look at Brawl's Challenges menu, there are 128 items and none of them are even playable characters.

(Post-script: it's a real downer to play Smash at a friend's house and have your preferred fighter locked behind 1,000 versus matches.)

 

[D-idara]

Never really knew how anti-unlockable people are on this forum.

Remember, most of the people on this forum would rather go to practice mode and try to glitch the game and then call it an "advanced technique" than actually enjoying the game's single-player content.

 

[Fuqua]

Remember, most of the people on this forum would rather go to practice mode and try to glitch the game and then call it an "advanced technique" than actually enjoying the game's single-player content.

every time i see you post you **** on competitive smash, is it really necessary?

 

[Tree Gelbman]

Remember, most of the people on this forum would rather go to practice mode and try to glitch the game and then call it an "advanced technique" than actually enjoying the game's single-player content.

Yo ho ho.

I don't like the idea of locked characters as a form of locked content.

I don't give one toot about playing Smash competitively.

I play with items and casually with my friends.

Where is your god now?

 

[mimgrim]

Yo ho ho.

And a bottle of rum.

 

[D-idara]

Yo ho ho.

I don't like the idea of locked characters as a form of locked content.

I don't give one toot about playing Smash competitively.

I play with items and casually with my friends.

Where is your god now?

My god's still where he was, being a competitive player or not, you still fail to grasp that the single-playet experience is a very important part of Smash.

And yeah, it's locked content whithin the game that you unlock by playing the game, getting new characters is exciting.

I'll say it again, Smash isn't all about multiplayer like you think it is.

Oh, and Fuqua, I do it because competitive Melee etilists are a creeping poison, wanting to expand their wavedashing and L-cancelling all over Smash because they don't want people to get good at the game without locking themselves in a basement, practicing a single motion that's even harder to pull off in the heat of battle. This isn't Street Fighter, this is Smash, a game that doesn't need boring, hard, overcomplicated inputs to be fun.

 

[TheMagicalKuja]

And once again, I don't feel like characters should be locked up within the confines of the game--there's plenty of other things to lock and discover, and Brawl did that in spades.

 

[Ravio_Yo]

I'll say it again, Smash isn't all about multiplayer like you think it is.

Oh, and Fuqua, I do it because competitive Melee etilists are a creeping poison, wanting to expand their wavedashing and L-cancelling all over Smash because they don't want people to get good at the game without locking themselves in a basement, practicing a single motion that's even harder to pull off in the heat of battle. This isn't Street Fighter, this is Smash, a game that doesn't need boring, hard, overcomplicated inputs to be fun.

1. If pressing the L button before landing is overcomplicated...

2. Smash isn't all about multiplayer, true. But multiplayer is, however, the single most important aspect of the game. Multiplayer trumps single player every time.

3. Do you really need arbitrary limitations to force you to explore the games vast amount of singleplayer options?

4. Play multiplayer then. Play online. Problem solved.

 

[PikaJew]

Why is this still going on?

Of course there will be unlockable characters, and there needs to be.

How can people seriously want everything available from the start? Wheres the fun in that?

Are you seriously that lazy that you cannot even be bothered to complete single player mode one to unlock a character?

It's never been tedious to unlock characters, maybe for Melee when the god damn memory card kept getting corrupted, but other than that it's a rewarding task.

It forces you to play every inch of the game with characters you wouldn't normally play with.
And you get rewarded for it with not meaningless trophy for collecting purposes, but an actual character.

I think this would be an absolutely stupid idea and take away from the rewarding factor of the game.
Nothing compares to when I unlocked Ness and Mewtwo for the first time.
Brawl spoiled that in a way for how easy it was, but the way they introduced each one gave a whole new memorable experience.

I want characters to be unlockable.
I want to work for them.
I don't want to have everything available for me at the start because another fighting game did it.
I want to master the available characters and gradually build my way up to unlocking and learning more.
I want to play the **** out of Mega Man and Rosalina & Luma, but I don't want to do so at the very start.



I don't know where this lazy mentality is coming from, but they are definitely not getting rid of a feature they have had for every instalment because you can't be bothered to play classic mode.


Are you guys planning to have a launch day tournament or something?
Why do you need everything available to you at the get to?

 

[Deleted member]

I would assume he's just revealing them flat-out so there's no spoiler fiasco.

If not, that would suck. Unlocking things is one of the fun parts of video games.

 

[popsofctown]

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.

This is a really sweet suggestion.

Ideally it would be an invisible option, punch in a konami code sort of thing in a certain place.

They could print it in the text of the trophy you get after legitimately collecting every trophy, so that it doesn't leak early enough to bother/unhype the launch season.

 

[majorasmaskfan]

Just because something is a nostalgic novelty, does not mean it is a good idea in 2014, and to those that say its good because it extends game hours, well the medal collecting in sonic unleash extended that games play time and no one liked it, it was filler.

 

[Morbi]

Just because something is a nostalgic novelty, does not mean it is a good idea in 2014, and to those that say its good because it extends game hours, well the medal collecting in sonic unleash extended that games play time and no one liked it, it was filler.

That is obviously subjective, I think it is a good idea in 2014 for a plethora of reasons. One of them is actually because I don't want Smash to conform to the generic fighting game methodology. Another is because it actually incites me to play the game for extended periods of time. I also enjoy the notion as it makes newcomers more special, if you have to actually earn the character, it is that much more rewarding. Obviously extending the game hours is another reason it is a decent idea, I don't necessarily agree with that sentiment though. It is more about maintaining tradition and having fun. It is mostly preference based.

In any event, having unlocks optional is certainly the way to go. There is literally nothing to lose from going that route.

 

[J1NG]

I am a-OK with having unlockable characters, but I would also like there to be some way to have all the competitive elements available from the start. Maybe a secret code? I don't know.

 

[Ravio_Yo]

This is a really sweet suggestion.

Ideally it would be an invisible option, punch in a konami code sort of thing in a certain place.

They could print it in the text of the trophy you get after legitimately collecting every trophy, so that it doesn't leak early enough to bother/unhype the launch season.

So... it's completely useless once you learn it? GENIUS!