Smash Bros 4's art style?

[~ Valkyrie ~]

We all know that each Smash Bros-game had some distinctive art style leading the game's theme:

- SSB64 had a cartoony, comic-book esque visuals in it's cover art, and the game itself reeked off ridiculousness.

- Melee again gained some realism, and mostly replaced all that fun-loving and cartoon tone with "epicness", with even more vibrant colors but still added lots of detail on each character.

- Brawl again became very realistic and had very antique tone for the characters. Though at times it seemed like they just recycled the same trophy art over and over in some parts in the game from the Dojo itself.

So what should be the art style for SSB4? Brawl with HD? Should it just go back to be it's fun-nature comical style again? Do you wish for cel-shaded, detailed graphics reflecting to most of the Nintendo-games?

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

From my personal opinion, I wish to see the art style for Smash 4 being provided by the same artist behind Kid Icarus Uprising's character art.
SSB4 then could have high-quality anime-style art around it. I'd love to see Mario Bros. in this style (With Mario looking badass while Luigi might be messing around comically like usual)

Maybe you could unlock more art by collecting huger pics than stickers which would be more rare. They can be then seen in the separate "Gallery Mode."

The art would depict characters and their abilities, stages, assist trophies (showing some pictures of them in action as well), Pokemon summons and items. There could be also illustrated battle scenes, art depicting story mode's events, who knows if there'd be even artists' personally made scenes which maybe could characters doing else than fighting together, etc.

I think it would be appealing and all the characters would look great. (personally)
Also it wouldn't be so lazily recycled trophy-art like Brawl did with Dojo.

 

[Curious Villager]

lol I will laugh if they take a more cell shading look like Wind Waker and fans start bashing it that Nintendo made the series "kiddy", despite that it has characters such as Kirby and Yoshi as well as stuff such as whacky items and enemies already in the games. I'm not saying the games are childish, but their not very serious either despite the "dark" approach they toke with the Subspace Emmisary. Smash is inbetween.

Oh well I don't really care what art style they choose. So long as they don't make everyone look so darn serious and bleak. Keep them true to their real personality. Especially Mario! I'm usually not this petty about minor details but for Mario... Please give him his smile back, he's just not the same without his smile... =/

 

[Mypantisgone]

You know,we could post pictures of supported characters,but in the art style we support.

My personally wanted Mario character is E.Gadd,and i support Uprising's style.

[COLLAPSE="So"]

Closest i can get![/COLLAPSE]

That's an exemple.

Edit:
[COLLAPSE="Horsetail's support"]

[/COLLAPSE]
What i could get.

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

Mr.NoPants, ya could've left that to me. (-l3l-);

Anyway, about that, it sounds interesting but we we're mostly gonna discuss what the art style could be like for this game along with what art style we'd like to see.

 

[Starphoenix]

We'll probably get something like this:

 

[Mypantisgone]

I left you half of your things lol and i don't force you to take these either

@Star:
It's close to Uprising's,more detailed.

Just a question by,would you guys like it if the/some characters got redesigned like Falcon or Star Fox characters from Melee to Brawl?

 

[Curious Villager]

Just a question by,would you guys like it if the/some characters got redesigned like Falcon or Star Fox characters from Melee to Brawl?

That will most likely definitely happen, the Melee cast had a more updated N64 design whereas the Brawl cast get a design closer to their Gamecube & GBA/DS games. So it's likely this trend will carry further on smash Wii U and 3DS were everyone gets updated to their Wii/Wii U (for Olimar at least) and DS/3DS redesigns (if there were any) Pit will likely look more like he did in Uprising and Fox will probably return to his Starfox 64 design but with a more Starfox 64 3D flavour to it.

Basically whatever their latest games were, they will likely get their looks based on that.

 

[Waver]

If you ask me; I would like to see a simpler style like SSB64, but not as cartoony.

 

[Pseudomaniac]

I'm guessing it'll be somewhat similar to Soul Calibur's art style, which is alright with me.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

There's always the anime-styled artworks, such as some of `SigurdHosenfeld's artwork from DeviantART.

[collapse=Image Example]

[/collapse]

Of course, the Nintendo staff could always look up to Ken Sugimori to do the artworks if need be. He has done quite a good number of official Pokemon artwork for around 15 years now.

As a matter of fact, each character should be given an image gallery, consisting of concept artworks, 2D artworks (identical to the Kid Icarus: Uprising artworks), and 3D artworks (identical to Brawl's artworks).

 

[splat]

I would love it if they'd built on the style they used for Brawl. Somewhat realistic, but still quite cartoon-like.
th
I'd say they could even make it a bit more painting-like, perhaps in the style Diablo III uses for it's landscapes:

I really like the way the Blizzard artist created those leaves and trees - I'd say they'd fit in Smash pretty flawlessly (though a little outline would probably be better). On top of that, they are crafted in 2,5D, as explained in this presentation (warning: long view, but worth it!).

 

[Onyx Oblivian]

I LOVED brawl's art style, tbh.

It made all of the Characters feel like they belonged with each other; something Sakurai cares about more than anything.

I hope they do that, and at the same time take advantage of the HD glory :D

I would love it if they'd built on the style they used for Brawl. Somewhat realistic, but still quite cartoon-like.

I'd say they could even make it a bit more painting-like, perhaps in the style Diablo III uses for it's landscapes:

and that Diablo 3 art style is killer.

 

[FlareHabanero]

What if there wasn't one style, but actually many styles. You see, in the options menu you could change the general style of the game with Smash Themes. The themes would usually be based on other Nintendo franchises, and each one mimics the general style of the franchise. Depending on the theme you pick, the cosmetics of menus, images, and font would be changed to reflect that from sounds to visuals.

As for official illustrations, it would take on a more painting-like style for a more artistic flair.

 

[~ Valkyrie ~]

As a matter of fact, each character should be given an image gallery, consisting of concept artworks, 2D artworks (identical to the Kid Icarus: Uprising artworks), and 3D artworks (identical to Brawl's artworks).

I'd really like to see this one made. Who knows how much it would bring out from each character and how they'd be depicted by the artists! OnyxOblivian made a good point though and that is to make sure every character look like belonging to the game and the cast without looking too much out of place.

Habanero: I dunno, it'd be too much of a hassle and I dunno would people much care about different art styles anyway.

 

[Big-Cat]

I LOVED brawl's art style, tbh.

It made all of the Characters feel like they belonged with each other; something Sakurai cares about more than anything.

Unifying or not, I found it to be very bland. I'd rather see a more flexible art style that allows the diversity of the characters to be highlighted while being unifying. MvC3's comic book artstyle is a good example of this. Heck, even Shinkiro's artwork for that game is an even greater example.
[COLLAPSE="Big Picture"]

[/COLLAPSE]
I think Sm4sh's art style should be willing to go out of the comfort zone of the character's artstyles. Considering most are cartoony/anime anyway, they'd be rather flexible in design while still being recognizable. At least get rid of Fox's Mickey Mouse shoes.

 

[JavaCroc]

We all know that each Smash Bros-game had some distinctive art style leading the game's theme:

- SSB64 had a cartoony, comic-book esque visuals in it's cover art, and the game itself reeked off ridiculousness.

- Melee again gained some realism, and mostly replaced all that fun-loving and cartoon tone with "epicness", with even more vibrant colors but still added lots of detail on each character.

Brawl again became very realistic and had very antique tone for the characters. Though at times it seemed like they just recycled the same trophy art over and over in some parts in the game from the Dojo itself.

So what should be the art style for SSB4? Brawl with HD? Should it just go back to be it's fun-nature comical style again? Do you wish for cel-shaded, detailed graphics reflecting to most of the Nintendo-games?

IMO, Brawl's art-style depended on if you were in gameplay or in the menus. In gameplay, the look was as you described it, but in menus, it was an awkward modern, Wii Menu-like feel with brighter colors and more peppy, simple artwork. It conflicted with the art style of the characters and stages and gameplay.

For a better art style for the next game, the menus should better match the art style of the actual gameplay. Melee and SSB64 did better in this department, since their menus were more in relation to the rest of the game's art.

You know,we could post pictures of supported characters,but in the art style we support.

My personally wanted Mario character is E.Gadd,and i support Uprising's style.

[COLLAPSE="So"]

Closest i can get![/COLLAPSE]
That's an exemple.

Edit:
[COLLAPSE="Horsetail's support"]

[/COLLAPSE]
What i could get.

I'm not really into the anime look personally. The style of Star's image isn't really what I want for Smash either. Splat's image could work better, but I can't see it working as well for a character like Mewtwo, for example.

Unifying or not, I found it to be very bland. I'd rather see a more flexible art style that allows the diversity of the characters to be highlighted while being unifying. MvC3's comic book artstyle is a good example of this. Heck, even Shinkiro's artwork for that game is an even greater example.
[COLLAPSE="Big Picture"]

[/COLLAPSE]
I think Sm4sh's art style should be willing to go out of the comfort zone of the character's artstyles. Considering most are cartoony/anime anyway, they'd be rather flexible in design while still being recognizable. At least get rid of Fox's Mickey Mouse shoes.

Flexibility in the art style is definitely a good idea; characters should represent the art styles of their series as much as they represent the gameplay of their series in their designs.



Anyways, the art style I'd like to see used more, especially for character artwork, is more of this kind of feel:

[COLLAPSE="Image"]

[/COLLAPSE]

Although I'd tone down the "inky" aspect, the image has an aesthetic that could draw back to the original SSB64's comic style if done right, but it also feels flexible enough that it could still produce grittier or more detailed images for characters like Snake. The expressions of the characters in the image I think helps express the flexibility in the style.

 

[Octorox]

I like Brawls hyper-detailed art style. I feel they could inject a little more color into it, but not too much, it looks good. I think the HD and additional graphics power will really benefit this art style and keep in from looking "bland" as some people felt it did. I do think some characters need makeovers though (Fox anyone?)

I like the idea of hand painted character art as opposed to renders for promotional stuff though. I like that Epic Mickey image.

 

[Big-Cat]

Yeah, everyone was using those renders way too much. They're practically stock photos now.

 

[asia_catdog_blue]

IMO, Brawl's art-style depended on if you were in gameplay or in the menus. In gameplay, the look was as you described it, but in menus, it was an awkward modern, Wii Menu-like feel with brighter colors and more peppy, simple artwork. It conflicted with the art style of the characters and stages and gameplay.

For a better art style for the next game, the menus should better match the art style of the actual gameplay. Melee and SSB64 did better in this department, since their menus were more in relation to the rest of the game's art.


I'm not really into the anime look personally. The style of Star's image isn't really what I want for Smash either. Splat's image could work better, but I can't see it working as well for a character like Mewtwo, for example.


Flexibility in the art style is definitely a good idea; characters should represent the art styles of their series as much as they represent the gameplay of their series in their designs.



Anyways, the art style I'd like to see used more, especially for character artwork, is more of this kind of feel:

[COLLAPSE="Image"]

[/COLLAPSE]

Although I'd tone down the "inky" aspect to it a bit, the image has an aesthetic that could draw back to the original SSB64's comic style if done right, but it also feels flexible enough that it could still produce grittier or more detailed images for characters like Snake. The expressions of the characters in the image I think helps express the flexibility in the style.

Where did you find that "Epic Mickey" artwork? Because it looks familiar.

 

[Frostwraith]

honestly, I wouldn't mind if the used the same artstyle from Kid Icarus Uprising. it would fit the characters of the game.

 

[Opelucid]

Someone over at Gamefaqs brought up the idea of the game being cell shaded.. I'm not much of a fan of that idea but I just thought I'd share this.
http://i.imgur.com/EkfA9.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IyODO.jpg

 

[Bowserlick]

Brawl seemed to have muted colors a bit. I want bright colors and more contrast.

I wonder if the style will be highly detailed and geared to a warrior-feel like in Mario Strikers.

 

[Big-Cat]

I just want something that will age well. That's one reason I was never the biggest fan of realistic graphics. Come next gen, they look bad.

 

[Bowserlick]

I just want something that will age well. That's one reason I was never the biggest fan of realistic graphics. Come next gen, they look bad.

Does any of the Smash installments have an art style that you think will age or has aged well?

 

[Big-Cat]

Does any of the Smash installments have an art style that you think will age or has aged well?

64 has aged well considering it was low budget game and had cartoony elements to it. Melee has aged fairly well, but the animations have not aged well - namely the hair animations.

Brawl is a tough call as the graphics weren't that great in the first place - namely a lot of jaggies on NPCs and Pikmin. I think Brawl's problem is that it's on the Wii which, like the Dreamcast,uses what I'd like to call mid-gen graphics which is an odd period where graphics don't always age well. Of course, it depends on the game.

 

[lordvaati]

I would give 3 internets if it looked like this.

 

[Retroend]

Someone over at Gamefaqs brought up the idea of the game being cell shaded.. I'm not much of a fan of that idea but I just thought I'd share this.
http://i.imgur.com/EkfA9.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IyODO.jpg

kinda reminds me of okami's graphics in a sense.

 

[Curious Villager]

Yeah I agree, an art style that can age pretty nicely would be nice. When I rewatched the cutscenes from the Subspace Emmisary again after so long I now started to notice the environment being pretty much 2D and flat and all. the Assist Trophies and Pokemon also really look very blocky too. Maybe they should go for a simpler style this time around?

 

[Big-Cat]

Define simpler.

 

[Curious Villager]

Something along the lines of Melee I'd say, Where the characters don't look too realistic or cartoony. Bright, but not too dark. But honestly like I said before. In the end, I don't really care. If they want to bring it a step further from brawl then go ahead. These cutscenes and models don't really bother me that much to the point that it effects my enjoyment or anything. :/

 

[gothrax]

The main problem i have with brawls visuals is the FACT that the mario characters dont look like MARIO characters, this goes for all the cute non realistic chars in brawl.

Cuz the zelda characters look great!!! But thats because there suppose to look realistic, BUT take bowser he looks like a pale freaky abomination..... THATS A BAD THING BTW. Bowser is should be colorful in contrast and personality and not be a frigin hunchback!! And thats the BIGGEST reason i didnt main him in brawl.....

i mean really wouldn't you rather play as the character you remember.

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

The main problem i have with brawls visuals is the FACT that the mario characters dont look like MARIO characters, this goes for all the cute non realistic chars in brawl.

Cuz the zelda characters look great!!! But thats because there suppose to look realistic, BUT take bowser he looks like a pale freaky abomination..... THATS A BAD THING BTW. Bowser is should be colorful in contrast and personality and not be a frigin hunchback!! And thats the BIGGEST reason i didnt main him in brawl.....

i mean really wouldn't you rather play as the character you remember.

The ironic part about this statement is that Princess Peach actually looks better in Brawl than in the Super Mario games and spin-offs.

 

[Curious Villager]

I don't think the Mario cast look all that bad really. I like what they did with Mario's overalls. The only thing I don't like about him is how serious he looks all the time. But that's just a personal nitpick.

I do agree with Mario_and_Sonic_Guy. Peach does look better and better every smash game. I do hope they keep it up on making her look great. I love Peach's brawl design.

 

[Eternal phoenix Fire]

More realistic. Basically, just improve upon what they already have and just make it more defined. Sakurai is doing a great job of doing that by stylizing each character properly even though they each come from different franchises with different art styles. Just look at Toonlink dude looks sick.

Not only that they should work on the particle effects. In Dead or Alive 5 the characters get dirt on their clothing after fighting for so long. That could be a nice simple feature.

 

[MelMoe]

I would rather smash go back to the cartoony look. Brawl looked a bit washed out in some places, I prefer more vibrant colors.

They may implement a "dirt" system in SSB4. Afterall cracking effects like MetaKnight's mask & Ike sword were previously envisioned.

 

[Kink-Link5]

The entire stage should be coated in a layer of dust so when the characters dash dance they start coughing.

 

[Johnknight1]

I just want something that will age well. That's one reason I was never the biggest fan of realistic graphics. Come next gen, they look bad.

Eh, the graphics this generation (late in this generation, on the PC, PS3, and 360) aren't gonna be way outdone by next generation. The graphical gap will be minimal between systems this generation, and between games from next generation and this generation of gaming now.

However, I do agree that art style should be the focus. Brawl looked so dull-colored. There needs to be more light, more color and lighting variations, and less clunky-looking textures, which was probably a result of the severe limitations of the Wii.

 

[gothrax]

The ironic part about this statement is that Princess Peach actually looks better in Brawl than in the Super Mario games and spin-offs.

I'll admit peach and yoshi are by far the best looking mario chars(infact i personally think that yoshi is the best looking character in comparison to his previous melee form.)

But you cant deny that bowser has NEVER looked like he did in brawl... and in my opinion if you make someone look NOTHING like you remember they looked, then that someone can no longer be called what you remember. Just a spinnoff version.

 

[Jhonnykiller45]

I think that in Smash 4, each character series should have their own character designs to them.