Sakurai focuses on one thing...Neglects another?

[PITforREV]

I created this thread to express a fear I have regarding numerous things that have been revealed....

The basis of this thread is this: Is Sakurai wasting development time on things like mini-games, assist trophies, and stickers and thus neglecting the creation of characters or other unique features that could me implemented.

I'll start by saying this...In my opinion, if the trophy game and stickers got in the way of developing even ONE character, I'd be disappointed. Yes, I would prefer to have a single character at the expense of stickers and the trophy game.

Second, assist trophies...With all these models of great characters I asked myself this question....Would I have rather had them not include assist trophies, if that meant a few of those characters could have been playable fighters? Oh hell yea. If not having assist trophies meant having little mac, samuraih goroh, and starfy as playable characters, I wouldn't think twice-Give me three more characters and away with the assist trophies-great idea, but I'll take the characters-Hell, I'd even go as far to say even for JUST little mac and Starfy....

Drop stickers and give me more color choices.....Drop a mini-game give me unique target breaks...

I feel like Sakurai's trying to implement so much, he may be limiting his own playable roster.

 

[TMS]

So... you'd rather have just a huge character roster than all of the extra features we have in Brawl now?

 

[Frogla]

Childish fears, his team is humongous bigger than any other game. He can have his full roster and little things too. Because little things are what makes the game fun. Collecting Stickers will defintley be a task im expecting 500-700 stickers so it will take a while to catch em all.

 

[Superninjabreadman]

Spoiler

The Mindgames are getting to you.

 

[Aninymouse]

You're nuts. That trophy game seriously didn't take a lot of development time to finish, but it was a brilliant addition that added a lot of replay value to an already played-out aspect of Melee (the trophy lottery machine). Seriously, if they tried to slap the old mechanic in there I'm not sure I would even care that much about the trophies, since it would feel so bland. More than the stickers or the assist trophies, though, the trophies are, to me, one of the most interesting aspects to look forward to. There's just so much info... And the occasional "FUTURE RELEASE" is pretty exciting to see!

So stop worrying. Most likely, they worked on the characters and stages FIRST and only tweaked them as they began work on Subspace and the rest.

 

[Igneous42]

The only AT that I cared about at all was Lyn. I thought she would have made the perfect third FE rep. You got Marth, the well known oldie who started it all, Ike, the new Kid who is the first internationally popular Lord and Lyn, the girl who pretty much officially introduced America to Fire Emblem.

As for the actual question I'll be honest, the only 4 characters I really want in right now are Krystal (or Wolf, one or the other Krystal seems more likely), Olimar, Ridley and Dante, well Dante is an obvious out so that leaves 3 characters out of however many characters get in that I'm really concerned about. There others that would be cool to see but I won't care if they aren't in.

So really the only area I'm annoyed at is online, it seems they have a very basic online yet really deep things like Adventure mode, trophy collecting etc... things that will only last for the first few months. The things that made Melee fun enough to still be playing after 6 years isn't the single player modes or event matches it's the multiplayer. While I'm all for a deep fun adventure mode I would have rather had a deep online. But I don't blame Sakurai or the smash team for that, in my honest opinion they gave us the best they could on Nintendo's broken online set up.

 

[pwnzorz]

So... you'd rather have just a huge character roster than all of the extra features we have in Brawl now?

Yes. Yes I would.
Except keep the Wifi and the Taking Pics and Videos and Stage Maker, Keep those, those are add ons that are not pointless.

 

[HarryTheChin]

Sakurai is just trying to make the game to its (supposed) best. That's all.

 

[leprechaunlink727]

I've had this fear as well, but something tells me Sakurai has a trump card planned. Maybe downloadable characters...

That way, nobody has to download new characters they don't want, and some ATs have a hope of being ressurected.

Waluigi and Little Mac were two of my top picks for Brawl. Lyn is a fox. And Samurai Goroh is a fat guy who would have made sense as a F-Zero rep. We Hardly knew ye...

 

[thetoastinator]

I just want one character and one alone and that is Ridley as a playable character.

Anyway, I think Brawl has more things to now than Melee had. SSE, Brawl, Minigames, Trophy collecting, should I go on?

There is so much to do!!!

 

[Kooichi]

Wouldnt we have to wait longer for all that character developing then? And besides, character aren't everything. I'd be happy even if the roster was just the 23 characters we know now. (Adding Falco will make me even more happy! :D) I'm glad we have all these features. Makes the game more unique ^_^

 

[lavamage]

honestly, the stickers, being 2d, probably only took 10 minutes each at the most to porgram, and that incldeds what the sticker is/was/will be, and what it will look like, and how you will get it.

As for ATs, I think the game would feel incomplete with a limited number of them, so I personally would prefer 20 extra ATs of characters I knew wouldn't make but I like instead of 1 character who I would never play.

 

[DeuceBlade]

How is Sakurai wasting Time, he basically controlled the time he wanted for the game.. (alot of time)

 

[shadowyoshi2345]

the more characters the better, because we all know if they released a new version of melee with 5 more characters and 5 more stages, we would've probably all bought it, and does anyone know exactly how many people are working on the game, because if there is a lot then i'm not worried, but if its a small group, then maybe PitforRev could be right

 

[Igneous42]

the more characters the better, because we all know if they released a new version of melee with 5 more characters and 5 more stages, we would've probably all bought it, and does anyone know exactly how many people are working on the game, because if there is a lot then i'm not worried, but if its a small group, then maybe PitforRev could be right

I disagree, quality> quantity, i'd rather have less, but deeper more well known characters than just a huge roster. I mean I would hate it if it just had a lame single player but included favorite generic enemies such as gommba, koopa, space pirate, Stalfos and more

 

[lookatthatbaconsizzle]

Trust me, this game will not disappoint.

 

[Crispy4001]

Because little things are what makes the game fun.

The gameplay is the primary source of fun with Smash. If cutting back on the extras a bit means more characters to play with or new techniques to use, then of course I'd rather have it that way.

The little stuff is not bad, just shouldn't be high priority.

 

[PITforREV]

Are some of you not realizing that samuraih goroh, starfy, lyn, and little mac are all assist trophies!!!!!!!!.....Believe me when I say if assist trophies weren't included at least two of those would proabbly have made the roster. ANd yes, Ill take two characters over assist trophies....Read point two

The gameplay is the primary source of fun with Smash. If cutting back on the extras a bit means more characters to play with or new techniques to use, then of course I'd rather have it that way.

The little stuff is not bad, just shouldn't be high priority.

Agreed, Crispy, This is my point.

 

[shadowyoshi2345]

I disagree, quality> quantity, i'd rather have less, but deeper more well known characters than just a huge roster. I mean I would hate it if it just had a lame single player but included favorite generic enemies such as gommba, koopa, space pirate, Stalfos and more

i never said anything bout taking away the quality of the game, i'm just saying that if there isnt at least 40 characters, i'm going to be pissed

 

[Chepe]

You forget something about Assist Trophies... Theyre meant for characters that WOULD NOT have been playable. He implies this in the first AT update. So it is likely that characters like Little Mac and Saki were on low priority and without Assist Trophies they would not have made it in in any form...

 

[The Noob Legend]

The character's have been created...
They just haven't been revealed yet... or never will until release.

Have you ever heard of "save the best for last"?

 

[AsbestosBlatant]

Maybe if Sakurai was working alone, it'd be wasting time, but people seem to forget the idea that he has an enormous staff working on this thing. Your fears will be for naught.

 

[Fearthesmash]

Personally I feel we could do without the coin launcher or stickers; hell even without trophies. However the in depth single player and AT's I feel are good additions as unlocking characters should not be a grind, but an enjoyable experience. Also some characters do have the potential to be a character but realisticly are out-prioritized(sp?) by others and such are given assist trophy status allowing sakurai and team to give life to as many characters wanted by the fans as possible.

However, if creating the coin launcher and stickers cost us one or even two playable characters, I would have rather gone without them. BUT if it did take them as long to create these parts as to create a single character. I would be sadly disapointed without the nintendo programmers as these are SIMPLE functions compared to creating a character.

 

[Rash]

Since Sora is probably split into different teams working on different things, I honestly don't know what the problem is. By acting as if the same people who are responsible for making playable characters are also responsible for making stickers and the coin launcher, you just show that you don't know anything about the structure of a development team. It's also just another way of questioning Sakurai.

Brawl most likely has the highest production value of any Nintendo game ever. Why keep worrying about "what could be" or "what could have been?" Sakurai is not a fool, he wants the game to be the best it can be. And, in order to do that, he can't just take the longest-lasting aspect from Melee and make a whole game based on that alone; he has to take everything from previous Smash games and just improve it. So far, that looks like what he's done. More and better items (including ATs), better single-player Adventure Mode, co-op capable events and stadium games, etc.

People aren't always around to play Smash Brothers with. That's why there's an improved focus on single-player this time around. Sakurai doesn't want to exclude any audience that he doesn't have to, and by directing his team to make single-player modes and features more robust, he's both making unlocking characters/features more enjoyable and making the game as enjoyable alone as with friends.

In my mind, to completely eliminate all ATs and minigames (coin launcher for example) in order to fit one or two more playable characters in is silly anyway. By doing such a thing Sakurai and his team really would just be making Melee 2.0, which is what most honest Smash fans don't really want after having played Melee for six or more years. I also don't see as much potential for good press in a Brawl that doesn't try hard enough to differentiate itself from its predecessor, and we all know that press is important towards this game getting the recognition it deserves.

 

[Darkurai]

They've been working on this game since 2005. It's 2008. They don't need extra development time for Characters.

 

[Jumpinjahosafa]

People who think characters are everything really shouldn't be playing this type of game.

 

[MR333]

i highly doubt that sakurai would hinder the characters and stages just to add mini games. he has a huge development team working to make this the best smash game yet, and it will be.

 

[Triple_Factorial]

Have you ever heard of "save the best for last"?

That was shown on October 10th b/c Sonic was the ONLY possible update that could even HOPE to offset the delay (of course, it failed miserably).

 

[lumberheartwood]

In my personal belief, a game with added features makes it better than playing a huge roster of characters. Characters are great but bonus stuff to do keeps us interested. After a while, I know multi-playing can get a little tedious so its nice to have an outlet known as Event Matches or the Subspace Emissary Mode to play.

Without the little stuff, this game would just be Tekkan with Nintendo characters. Tekkan is great with customizations, but it only supplies one main mode to play in and that's really a bore. I love battling others but sometimes, I want a little time for myself to make sure I can improve on techniques and have a little fun with added features.

Stickers aren't necessary in my opinion, but they emphasize that this game is the motherload collection when dealing with Nintendo's history. The trophies are what I'm looking forward to too since I actually like seeing what they say about each single piece of Nintendo's past/present/future. The coin launcher brings me back to my days playing in an arcade. I'm glad Sakurai incorporated these small things inside Brawl so we know this game isn't just a game where we use characters for the sole purpose of using them to release our whims.

In my view, assists are cool in that it reminds me of Capcom vs. Marvel. I rather have more characters show up in a game, even if its for a brief instance instead of controlling them. No one can deny that characters need foundation to stay in the front lines, and thats what assists do. They make our main playable roster stand out. Although some of these choices, I personally would rather see playable, if Sakurai and his team are using their possible roster spaces for even more awesome characters, then thats fine with me. I want to play with the elite of Nintendo's Warriors, Amazons, Heroes, and Champions.

 

[bballstar23]

The thing about Assist Trophies is that they weren't planned on being playable characters. Why does everyone seem to see them as a bad thing?

 

[Gaplka]

I'm not worried about ATs, or characters at all. The thing I worried about is ruining the simplicity. I mean, what's with the Final Smash?? That's an item I'm turning off. Same with the Dragoon thing, where you need to collect three pieces and then you can fire away. That's also really gay.

I'm okay with the characters they've announced so far, I'm also okay with all the assist trophies and mini-games. But Little Battle extras like toadstool jumps and Final Smashes are stupid. That's what I worried about.

 

[Triple_Factorial]

The thing about Assist Trophies is that they weren't planned on being playable characters. Why does everyone seem to see them as a bad thing?

For 90% of the online Smash community, it's "All or Nothing" for their characters.

 

[shadenexus18]

So... you'd rather have just a huge character roster than all of the extra features we have in Brawl now?

Actually....um....is it too much to ask to have them both? I'm a greedy glutton!

 

[Jumpinjahosafa]

In my personal belief, a game with added features makes it better than playing a huge roster of characters. Characters are great but bonus stuff to do keeps us interested. After a while, I know multi-playing can get a little tedious so its nice to have an outlet known as Event Matches or the Subspace Emissary Mode to play.

Without the little stuff, this game would just be Tekkan with Nintendo characters. Tekkan is great with customizations, but it only supplies one main mode to play in and that's really a bore. I love battling others but sometimes, I want a little time for myself to make sure I can improve on techniques and have a little fun with added features.

Stickers aren't necessary in my opinion, but they emphasize that this game is the motherload collection when dealing with Nintendo's history. The trophies are what I'm looking forward to too since I actually like seeing what they say about each single piece of Nintendo's past/present/future. The coin launcher brings me back to my days playing in an arcade. I'm glad Sakurai incorporated these small things inside Brawl so we know this game isn't just a game where we use characters for the sole purpose of using them to release our whims.

In my view, assists are cool in that it reminds me of Capcom vs. Marvel. I rather have more characters show up in a game, even if its for a brief instance instead of controlling them. No one can deny that characters need foundation to stay in the front lines, and thats what assists do. They make our main playable roster stand out. Although some of these choices, I personally would rather see playable, if Sakurai and his team are using their possible roster spaces for even more awesome characters, then thats fine with me. I want to play with the elite of Nintendo's Warriors, Amazons, Heroes, and Champions.

I couldnt agree more.

 

[NDUDE]

The development team is bigger than Melee, and they're taking almost 3 times as long to develop SSBB (Melee took 10 months, SSBB I think will finish at about 27). I'm sure they've put in whatever characters they wanted, THEN moved on to extra features...

 

[gigasteve]

Chill out. Melee had nearly 300 trophies and many pokemon- yet the amount of characters satisfied me.

 

[lumberheartwood]

The thing about Assist Trophies is that they weren't planned on being playable characters. Why does everyone seem to see them as a bad thing?

I don't see them, personally, as bad things, but an awesome addition to how we can have fun.

The thing about the Forums is that everyone has a character they love and are hoping to see in Brawl as one they can control. When they see them as assists, they are disappointed because some see potential in them to be playable. Unfortunately, when they see them as assists, they know that their character is a bust (or miss) in a lottery of "shoot or miss." If their character is deconfirmed, they feel that character won't be seen as playable in the future too. Many people are ignorant about the fact Sakurai could have made them playable if he wanted to but he chose not to and that's what upsets them. They don't realize that their characters, compared to others, are as big welcome additions to the playable roster. I hope this made sense to all of you.

 

[Superninjabreadman]

I'm not worried about ATs, or characters at all. The thing I worried about is ruining the simplicity. I mean, what's with the Final Smash?? That's an item I'm turning off. Same with the Dragoon thing, where you need to collect three pieces and then you can fire away. That's also really gay.

I'm okay with the characters they've announced so far, I'm also okay with all the assist trophies and mini-games. But Little Battle extras like toadstool jumps and Final Smashes are stupid. That's what I worried about.

you think Final Smashes are a waste of time?


Hey, Sakurai isnt making you use the Item (unless its got an event match like the warpstar)

You dont have to do every part of the game. Im absolutely sure you can get all the trophies by playing SSE untill its boring.

 

[PITforREV]

I don't understand why the majority of you seem to think that time wasn't an issue in having any of those top assist trophies as characters. Why CANT we have starfy as a character??? Why, what's teh explanation? Because Sakurai felt they weren't important enough?...bull****, neither was pichu, why can't we try to implement as many character's as we can...this is my problem. If we had all this time in the world, I feel like at least one of thsoe majr assist trophies should ahve been characters adn I think EVRYONE can agree on that.

 

[The Noob Legend]

They've been working on this game since 2005. It's 2008. They don't need extra development time for Characters.

I live by that statement.

I don't understand why the majority of you seem to think that time wasn't an issue in having any of those top assist trophies as characters. Why CANT we have starfy as a character??? Why, what's teh explanation? Because Sakurai felt they weren't important enough?...bull****, neither was pichu, why can't we try to implement as many character's as we can...this is my problem. If we had all this time in the world, I feel like at least one of thsoe majr assist trophies should ahve been characters adn I think EVRYONE can agree on that.

Nobody wants to fight as Stafy. Nobody.

The assist trophies were possible characters, but did not live up to the PC credentials. Not everybody can make the cut, geez.