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Regarding Final Smashes in Brawl

MarioMario

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jan 31, 2008
Messages
3
Location
Cambridge MA
I've been seeing a lot of people saying that final smashes have no place in competitive play and are a random and unfair aspect to the game.

I would like to put forth a counter-point to that argument, as I think that they add a lot of diversity and could make the pro scene much more interesting.

When it comes down to it, no final smash is impossible to dodge, difficult perhaps, but far from impossible. Some push this boundary, especially on smaller levels, such as Bowser's, but you need to keep in mind that Bowser is also a very slow and heavy character that will have quite a tough time ever reaching the high-floating smash balls.

If you think back to games like Street Fighter, when that series introduced super moves that inflicted tremendous damage almost instantaneously, and some characters could combo into them or easily or inflict more damage while others couldn't, you didn't see these features banned from tournament play.

Adapting to random things is what actually makes sport in general interesting. Not random things like exploding barrels, obviously, but the wind, weather, turf condition, humidity--these things all create unpredictable scenarios that the competitor must adapt to.

One could argue that picking Random as your character is unfair because then the other character could be at a disadvantage if his character poorly counters yours. Just because the most fair scenario happens to be two of the same character fighting on a completely empty surface, that doesn't mean that's the direction high-level smash bros should go. I understand this is an extreme example, but it's all in the same light.

Sometimes the smash ball might move out of your reach, but that just means you need to either move away or attack your opponent and knock it loose from him. Sometimes luck will swing in your way, and maybe the types of games played (how many stock or how much time) should be adapted for brawl, but that should happen before a feature like smash balls are removed.

The main issue at hand is balance, and if final smashes drastically skew that, then maybe they're not the best to use in tournament mode, but quite a few of them take skill to use and they all take skill to avoid, so why discount the abilities of pros so much as to say they're "impossible to avoid."

I just think there's a rush to judgment that should be avoided not just until people play the game but until the competitive scene in it truly emerges and we can see just what people can do to utilize and to avoid final smashes (don't forget half of avoiding it is predicting what will happen to the smash ball you see floating around and where you should be)
 

Goopygoo

Smash Ace
Joined
Jun 8, 2007
Messages
774
Location
Looking for our princess in another castle.
Nice first post. Thought you were Flyinfilipino for a second, though.

Anyways, luck and randomness will NEVER be adopted into tourney play, whether you like it or not. This is because nobody wants to lose money because a random item appeared next to their opponent. Smash Balls, however, you make good points on.
 

ReiGun

Smash Cadet
Joined
Jan 2, 2008
Messages
71
Location
Maryland
Really, there are good arguements on both sides regarding the Smash Ball. Personally, I agree with Gimpyfish's idea of some tournaments having them on, and others having them off. It'll certainly make things more interesting, and it gives competetive players some options.
 

Maben

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Oct 5, 2007
Messages
300
Location
Severna Park, Maryland
Would you allow items like Starman to be in tournament play (the invincibility one)? Because that's pretty much what final smashes like Sonic's, Pikachu's, Yoshi's, any many others do...they give you invincibility (or many close to it) in ADDITION to having amazing offensive advantages. This is just completely unbalanced and it won't be allowed in tournament play. Having a situation where one player is helpless save for running away is not a competitive way to play the game.
 

MarioMario

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jan 31, 2008
Messages
3
Location
Cambridge MA
Why isn't running away competitive play. It will be the very rare case where a smash ball will give itself to your opponent easily and you have no chance at getting it, or stopping him. Maybe you should stay closer to your opponent for just that reason of Smash Ball control and never letting him completely out of your reach.

Things like this still need to be looked into and played out, but I like the idea that maybe Smash Balls could be in some tournaments but not others (though that can create logistical issues and complaints). Brawl isn't the same as Melee at all and its strategies and gameplay shouldn't be thought of as such. Look at Smash 64 compared to Melee. The two differed in so many ways and the gameplay completely changed after all the additions of Melee. I think Brawl has made an even bigger step and many changes in the way we play Smash are coming around the corner.
 
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