TheMisterManGuy
Smash Apprentice
- Joined
- Feb 21, 2015
- Messages
- 138
Well, the wait is almost over. After 9 months of hype from its March 8th reveal to now, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will finally be unleashed upon the world. Many players who have early copies are already posting some impressive stuff, and Pro players have praised all the mechanical improvements over Smash 4. It really does feel like Smash 4, except faster, more polished, and more balanced. Which brings me to the point, that Smash 4 mechanically and content wise, feels like an unfocused, half-hearted game.
I mentioned before how I think it's in danger of being the most forgotten Smash game, but I think a bigger problem with 4 is that it simply feels like the un-happy middle child between Brawl and Ultimate, and never really had a lot of time to grow. I don't blame Sakurai or the developers too much since I don't think it could've been helped. The game released far too late in the Wii U's life to make an impact, and by the time the meta started getting somewhere, Nintendo was ready to drop the system like a brick. I also think the need to make a 3DS version held it back quite a bit as well.
First, mechanically speaking, Smash 4 played like a mix of Brawl and Melee, more towards Brawl. Sakurai said that he wanted to strike a balance between the two. That said, plenty of players still found Smash 4 to be a bit too slow for their liking. This was mainly because the game still needed to be slow enough, so that the game would be easy to follow on the 3DS screen, and because Sakurai wanted identical parity between the two versions, it meant whatever physics the 3DS version could run, was what the Wii U game got stuck with. Smash 4 also still needed to be playable on a single Wii-mote, which lacks analog input, so some of the more advanced tactics had to be compromised.
This isn't me speculating, Sakurai admitted this himself in an interview. You know Ultimate's weird new balloon knock-back and reduced landing lag? Yeah, those were originally meant for Smash 4, but the 3DS' screen size and limited processing meant we had to settle for a marginally improved version of Brawl's floaty launch physics. That's generally the problem a lot of players have with the game, it's unfocused. It wants to be an eSports fighter, there's even things in it that were made with the community in mind, but it never feels like it goes all the way. Combos are present, but a lot of them feel linear and samey, the game can be fast, but can also drag on as due to limited movement and approach options, Offensive play is strong, but defensive play is even stronger, You have For Glory and For Fun, but these online modes feel like stereotypes casual and competitive Smash respectively. Even the new Omega forms, which turn every stage into a flat surface ala Final Destination, feels like a half-step at appeasing the competitive scene. Brawl at least knew what it wanted to be, a silly, low-stakes party game that's meant to be good fun. Smash 4 just feels confused a lot of times, and the gameplay suffers because of it.
Then there's the features and modes. This is where Smash 4 really shows its age. First, the lack of a single player mode really hurts the memorability of the game, but that's honestly the least of this games problems. The stage selection is honestly a mess. The 3DS stages are very creative and some of the best in the series. The Wii U on the other hand, has a ton of gimmick stages, that really get in the way of things. And because there's no hazard toggle, that meant that only the Animal Crossing stages, and Battlefield/Omega forms were competitively viable. Further emphasizing Smash 4's problem of being an awkward middle ground of a campy party game and edgy eSports title, not fully committing to either side.
Also the 3DS just has better modes than the Wii U version. Smash Run was a lot of fun, and a mode that I really want to return in Ultimate someday, and Classic mode was a nice evolution of the past games, while keeping the arcade-like structure. Wii U on the other hand has Smash Tour, which is an absolute mess, and Classic Mode, which was completely butchered beyond recognition (Seriously, how to **** up what is basically an Arcade Mode?). Trophies and stages also suffer the problem of being split between two games. While the 3DS and Wii U versions share some stages and trophies, the vast majority of them are exclusive to either version. So if you only one version of the game, you're essentially getting half the Smash 4 experience.
Finally, the elephant in the room, customs. Customizable stats in fighting games is a concept nobody is really able to get right. Street Fighter X Tekken's Gem system was a bust, and the Budakai games are hit or miss. Smash 4 had an interesting idea for customs, giving you the ability to transfer custom moves and equipment between the 3DS and Wii U versions. But much like everything else in the game, it feels like a half-measure.
First off, just unlocking these customizations is a pain in the ***, as sometimes you'll end up with something you don't want. Second, some custom moves made some characters really broken. And since characters like Palutena and Mii Fighter relied on them, that means those characters were either straight up banned, or low-tier. There was a brief attempt to implement them into competitive play, but after the game's first year at EVO, this concept was dropped. Making customs more of a novelty than a legit mechanic.
Smash 4 is a good game, great game even. But as Ultimate gets into more people's hands, the more its flaws become apparent. TBH, I think Ultimate is what Smash 4 would've eventually ended up becoming had it been given more time and not had a 3DS version to worry about. In a lot of ways, Smash 4 feels unfinished, the potential was there, but it never went as far as it should've gone.
Ultimate literally does everything better. Fixing every mechanical complaint Smash 4 had thanks to proper development time and better hardware to work with. You get a ridiculously fun party game, and a slickly polished tournament fighter in one. You have a massive single-player campaign, a lot of cool new gimmicks and features, much better aesthetics, even an evolved version of Customs with Spirits. Smash 4 could've been so much more, but as it stands, the game we got will be remembered as kind of an unfocused mess.
I mentioned before how I think it's in danger of being the most forgotten Smash game, but I think a bigger problem with 4 is that it simply feels like the un-happy middle child between Brawl and Ultimate, and never really had a lot of time to grow. I don't blame Sakurai or the developers too much since I don't think it could've been helped. The game released far too late in the Wii U's life to make an impact, and by the time the meta started getting somewhere, Nintendo was ready to drop the system like a brick. I also think the need to make a 3DS version held it back quite a bit as well.
First, mechanically speaking, Smash 4 played like a mix of Brawl and Melee, more towards Brawl. Sakurai said that he wanted to strike a balance between the two. That said, plenty of players still found Smash 4 to be a bit too slow for their liking. This was mainly because the game still needed to be slow enough, so that the game would be easy to follow on the 3DS screen, and because Sakurai wanted identical parity between the two versions, it meant whatever physics the 3DS version could run, was what the Wii U game got stuck with. Smash 4 also still needed to be playable on a single Wii-mote, which lacks analog input, so some of the more advanced tactics had to be compromised.
This isn't me speculating, Sakurai admitted this himself in an interview. You know Ultimate's weird new balloon knock-back and reduced landing lag? Yeah, those were originally meant for Smash 4, but the 3DS' screen size and limited processing meant we had to settle for a marginally improved version of Brawl's floaty launch physics. That's generally the problem a lot of players have with the game, it's unfocused. It wants to be an eSports fighter, there's even things in it that were made with the community in mind, but it never feels like it goes all the way. Combos are present, but a lot of them feel linear and samey, the game can be fast, but can also drag on as due to limited movement and approach options, Offensive play is strong, but defensive play is even stronger, You have For Glory and For Fun, but these online modes feel like stereotypes casual and competitive Smash respectively. Even the new Omega forms, which turn every stage into a flat surface ala Final Destination, feels like a half-step at appeasing the competitive scene. Brawl at least knew what it wanted to be, a silly, low-stakes party game that's meant to be good fun. Smash 4 just feels confused a lot of times, and the gameplay suffers because of it.
Then there's the features and modes. This is where Smash 4 really shows its age. First, the lack of a single player mode really hurts the memorability of the game, but that's honestly the least of this games problems. The stage selection is honestly a mess. The 3DS stages are very creative and some of the best in the series. The Wii U on the other hand, has a ton of gimmick stages, that really get in the way of things. And because there's no hazard toggle, that meant that only the Animal Crossing stages, and Battlefield/Omega forms were competitively viable. Further emphasizing Smash 4's problem of being an awkward middle ground of a campy party game and edgy eSports title, not fully committing to either side.
Also the 3DS just has better modes than the Wii U version. Smash Run was a lot of fun, and a mode that I really want to return in Ultimate someday, and Classic mode was a nice evolution of the past games, while keeping the arcade-like structure. Wii U on the other hand has Smash Tour, which is an absolute mess, and Classic Mode, which was completely butchered beyond recognition (Seriously, how to **** up what is basically an Arcade Mode?). Trophies and stages also suffer the problem of being split between two games. While the 3DS and Wii U versions share some stages and trophies, the vast majority of them are exclusive to either version. So if you only one version of the game, you're essentially getting half the Smash 4 experience.
Finally, the elephant in the room, customs. Customizable stats in fighting games is a concept nobody is really able to get right. Street Fighter X Tekken's Gem system was a bust, and the Budakai games are hit or miss. Smash 4 had an interesting idea for customs, giving you the ability to transfer custom moves and equipment between the 3DS and Wii U versions. But much like everything else in the game, it feels like a half-measure.
First off, just unlocking these customizations is a pain in the ***, as sometimes you'll end up with something you don't want. Second, some custom moves made some characters really broken. And since characters like Palutena and Mii Fighter relied on them, that means those characters were either straight up banned, or low-tier. There was a brief attempt to implement them into competitive play, but after the game's first year at EVO, this concept was dropped. Making customs more of a novelty than a legit mechanic.
Smash 4 is a good game, great game even. But as Ultimate gets into more people's hands, the more its flaws become apparent. TBH, I think Ultimate is what Smash 4 would've eventually ended up becoming had it been given more time and not had a 3DS version to worry about. In a lot of ways, Smash 4 feels unfinished, the potential was there, but it never went as far as it should've gone.
Ultimate literally does everything better. Fixing every mechanical complaint Smash 4 had thanks to proper development time and better hardware to work with. You get a ridiculously fun party game, and a slickly polished tournament fighter in one. You have a massive single-player campaign, a lot of cool new gimmicks and features, much better aesthetics, even an evolved version of Customs with Spirits. Smash 4 could've been so much more, but as it stands, the game we got will be remembered as kind of an unfocused mess.
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