Smash Bros a Button Masher?

[Matt of Steel]

Never have I wanted to scream at a podcast so much as the one I listened to today.

Even more annoying than that IGN podcast with a bunch of guys ripping Brawl a new one because they weren't good enough to deal with someone spamming Pikachu's Down+B.

This was a podcast that focused on Nintendo products and they usually are level headed and logical. They got a "call" from someone saying that while he likes Mario Kart and Mario Golf and other Mario pimpage games, he never understood why Smash Bros is so popular because... "it is just a button masher with videogame characters."

Ok, this irritated me, but hey ... I thought the people running the podcast were going to set him straight. I got ready for them to tell him off and explain how even though Smash is easy to control it is very deep and difficult to master fully.

Only they agreed with him. They said it was a button masher much like Double Dragon and the like.

What bothers me is that this means that there are people out there who actually think this way. They think that because you can do a special move with only a direction and button press that somehow it is not as sophisticated as a "quarter-circle back and punch" move.

If anything I would say that Smash Bros is the opposite of a button masher because any gamer worth anything can deal with a person who spams the same couple of moves over and over.

We all played against those Kirby players who use the Final Cutter over and over and over. What did we do? Shield grab the sucker and then spike them. I mean really. Due to the fact that damage alone doesn't win a match means that a few lucky hits won't win the match like it did for the old Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat games from my youth. Where my little sister would randomly defeat me and my friends with some combo that she could never repeat in a hundred years from just randomly hitting buttons and moving the d-pad.

I'm sure everybody on these boards agrees with me that Smash is the Anti-masher of fighting games. I want to know if you all know anybody who thinks like this, and how the heck do you deal with it?

 

[billywill]

I say we falcon punch all the losers who think the Super Smash Bros. series is a button masher

 

[Tangozilla]

Not that it really needs to be said, but if someone thinks that any game in the SSB series is button-mashing friendly they've clearly never played the games.

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

IGN is the first 3 letters in ignorance

 

[DeuceBlade]

All games are button mashers. You have to mash the buttons to do stuff duh!

 

[GaryCXJk]

Every fighter is in essence a button masher. It's how you dress it up to make it look less like one.

 

[illphil]

IGN is the first 3 letters in ignorance

 

[SimaMatt]

no fighter is a button masher

if you're button mashing, ur doin it wrong

 

[Banjodorf]

IGN is the first 3 letters in ignorance

I second this.

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

Though, smash doesn't have very complicated controls like some fighters that require specific order to press the buttons in order to be successful...

Maybe that's what they could be referring to...I dunno

(Though IGN really has messed a lot of the stuff they reported before bad)

 

[QueTee]

IGN is the first 3 letters in ignorance

^

Total Win.

 

[RWB]

My mom button mashes in smash. Do a single throw or attack to send her off the stage... And she loses a stock.

There is no game that punishes Button Mashing harder than the smash bros. games.

 

[DarkShadowRage]

haha ..the good ol IGN gamefaqs fad...

Can't spell ignorance without IGN

 

[Super Drybones]

Button mash all you want you'll just fly off a cliff.

 

[Evelgest]

Button mashing applies to arcade-style fighters such as SF, SC, Tekken, DoA, VF, and the such, but does NOT apply to Brawl. You can't fall off the stage in arcade-style fighters without being knocked off. You're just asking for a beating if you button mash in Brawl.

 

[PsychoIncarnate]

Button mashing applies to arcade-style fighters such as SF, SC, Tekken, DoA, VF, and the such, but does NOT apply to Brawl. You can't fall off the stage in arcade-style fighters without being knocked off. You're just asking for a beating if you button mash in Brawl.

A button masher is still able to jump and use specials...

...

 

[Dark Sonic]

IGN is the first 3 letters in ignorance

Epic Win.

Spoiler

10 char

 

[Evelgest]

A button masher is still able to jump and use specials...

...

Jumps off stage and air dodges..

 

[super-7]

IGN is the first 3 letters in ignorance

lmao qft!!

 

[phanna]

They obviously have never played Marvel vs Capcom games... which are about as button-mashy as you get, but is still terrifically competitive and skill-based.

 

[Tatsujinken]

Sorry, but you'd get ***** if you tried to button mash in Smash.

Edit: Man one time my friend was button-mashing while trying to recover back to the stage and I was like "What are you doing??"

 

[Scicky]

Know what I do with my friends who button-mash?

I 4 stock the **** out of them...

and they go

WTF YOU WOULDN'T LET ME HIT THE GROUND

and I laugh at how terrible them friends are at smash...



Then I try to get them into competitive so they blow less ._.

The moral of the story is: if you button mash, prepare to have your *** ridden by 10 horses
an elephant, one gopher, 17 gnats, 12 warthogs, and five thousand turkeys...

 

[Mambo]

My fianccee loves button mashing fighters like Soul Caliber because she can win some of the time. Seeing as she's my resident button masher and she can't win at Smash Bros at all means that these games are not button mashers.

 

[Juicy]

i think the correct term for this game would be c-stick mashing, lol

 

[Mel Rains]

Button mashing applies to arcade-style fighters such as SF, SC, Tekken, DoA, VF, and the such, but does NOT apply to Brawl. You can't fall off the stage in arcade-style fighters without being knocked off. You're just asking for a beating if you button mash in Brawl.

You can't button mash in Virtua Fighter.

 

[Wiseguy]

The gaming press is not the ideal source of info for Smash Bros vets. As much as I respect the opinions of Matt and Bozon on most games, the fact of the matter is that most of us have forgotten more about Smash Bros than they will ever know. That's not to sound snobbish, its just a fact. 1up.com is the same way. (They don't even consider Brawl to be a "real" fighting game.)

 

[Darkslash]

Hey Didn't i make up You can't spell Ignorance with out IGN or start using it extensively?? Hmm a Quote from IGN

Three words: Bring him back. Mewtwo was in the last game, and most of us here at IGN felt that he should have stayed around for this next one. Hell, if Brawl can make room for three fraking Foxes, why not make way for this guy?

LOL fraking

 

[No-Really-I-Suck]

They obviously have never played Marvel vs Capcom games... which are about as button-mashy as you get, but is still terrifically competitive and skill-based.

QFT

it's really hard to believe that one of the top video game sites in the world is not aware that there is a huge competitive community with smash bros.


I say we spam there mail boxes with hate mail

 

[TheMagicalKuja]

Too bad Mewtwo sucked. Better hope that DLC content is true lawl

 

[Tristan_win]

Believe it or not I once saw a button masher play melee, about 20 seconds in the match he jump of a cliff to his death.

 

[S2]

I fail to see how Smash is any more a button masher than any other fighting game. In any fighter, button mashing will get heavily punished by someone who knows how to play at high level.

The problem is that nearly no game editor at any publication is a competitive gamer (in the sense of, being a pro at a very specific game). Smash does seem like a button masher if you don't know what your doing. Further, there are no real good Smash players at virtually any publication.

Smash's design philosophy is that you can customize how its played. You get game editors and writers who only play FFA with items on high, which want to discredit the game's legitimacy because they play it like a party game.

That'll always be Smash's greatest strength and weakness. The fact that it can be played as a wacky party game brings in a ton of new fans initially, but leaves many passing casuals with the impression that its not a "real fighter".

Many anti-Smash gamers want to cite it as not being a fighting game because it plays a little different than fighters which stemmed from SF2.. But in reality, most of the mechanics Smash uses that these critics cite for it not being a fighter, have been tried in what they would call "real" fighters before. Smash just refocuses which mechanics are considered most important. Ring outs, items, more than 1v1, etc.

I don't get why the same critics who say Smash isn't a fighter can look at other genre's such as RPGs, and justify how games in those genre's can be so radically different from each other in nearly all facets of design.

 

[RizardoLawless]

Thats a **** shame

 

[luminoth]

The problem is that nearly no game editor at any publication is a competitive gamer (in the sense of, being a pro at a very specific game). Smash does seem like a button masher if you don't know what your doing. Further, there are no real good Smash players at virtually any publication.

Actually you don't have to be anywhere near pro level to beat button mashers and to live the depth of smash. I don't use any of the advanced techniques (maybe one or 2 of the very basic and easy to do ones), never played tourneys and always managed an extremely easy win against any button masher that crossed my way. I even played lightly against such people so that they could taste the controls and don't just desperately try to make a move in a game they don't understand. If an editor says such sh*t then he is not only a bad player but he's also bad at his job to evaluate games. He should quit right now for the utmost demonstration of idiocy.

 

[Yuna]

This is why IGN is a bad source of information if you want deep and educated reviews of games.

Smash is not and has never been a button masher. If you mash buttons, you will get punished by anyone who's ever played the game. Even n00bs know this (if they've played the game).

 

[luminoth]

The problem is that nearly no game editor at any publication is a competitive gamer (in the sense of, being a pro at a very specific game). Smash does seem like a button masher if you don't know what your doing. Further, there are no real good Smash players at virtually any publication.

Actually you don't have to be anywhere near pro level to beat button mashers and to live the depth of smash. I don't use any of the advanced techniques (maybe one or 2 of the very basic and easy to do ones), never played tourneys and always managed an extremely easy win against any button masher that crossed my way. I even played lightly against such people so that they could taste the controls and don't just desperately try to make a move in a game they don't understand. If an editor says such sh*t then he is not only a bad player but he's also bad at his job to evaluate games. He should quit right now for the utmost demonstration of idiocy.

 

[hippochinfat!!]

IGN was just teasing that guy about how all he does is use Pikachu's down B. They never say "OMG I hate him he always uses the down b so cheap guy"

 

[hippochinfat!!]

This is why IGN is a bad source of information if you want deep and educated reviews of games.

Smash is not and has never been a button masher. If you mash buttons, you will get punished by anyone who's ever played the game. Even n00bs know this (if they've played the game).

Jeez it wasn't IGN who said that it's a button masher. IGN is an excellent source for info and game reviews. They aren't pros at smash but that doesn't make their reviews bad.

 

[Ekul]

Actually you don't have to be anywhere near pro level to beat button mashers and to live the depth of smash. I don't use any of the advanced techniques (maybe one or 2 of the very basic and easy to do ones), never played tourneys and always managed an extremely easy win against any button masher that crossed my way. I even played lightly against such people so that they could taste the controls and don't just desperately try to make a move in a game they don't understand. If an editor says such sh*t then he is not only a bad player but he's also bad at his job to evaluate games. He should quit right now for the utmost demonstration of idiocy.

QFT. Anybody who A button/c stick mashes gets projectile spammed. Anybody who projectile spammed can easily be attacked from above or rollgrabbed by even the most elementary smashers. Whenever I've played Soul Calibur, I get owned trying to be technical and win by button mashing. That never works in smash unless two button mashers get into a match.

 

[Yuna]

Jeez it wasn't IGN who said that it's a button masher. IGN is an excellent source for info and game reviews. They aren't pros at smash but that doesn't make their reviews bad.

They aren't pros at anything. Most of their reviews are only skin deep. I mean, even 1 Player shooters have hidden depth but they never find it because their reviewers aren't qualified to look for it.

Just take a look at their summary for Brawl:
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a brawling, battling, action-packed video game that features a varied roster of characters for four-player simultaneous melees! Use your Wii Remote and Nunchuck controls to deal serious damage to your opponents and win the game! This Wii entry in the popular series features a number of new additions, including an Adventure Mode (with co-op play), a wealth of new characters and stages, and online combat for multiple players to face off against each other from anywhere!

In just that one short paragraph, they managed to get two things wrong:
* Smash cannot be won by dealing "serious damage" alone as their summary seems to indicate. They can just invoke "We forgot to write that in" here, though. However...
* The "new addition" they're talking about is the Subspace Emissary. In Melee, we actually had a mode called, gasp, Adventure Mode, so an Adventure Mode is in no way new.

 

[OrlanduEX]

IGN is the first 3 letters in ignorance

This quote is f***ing epic. This is going in my sig for sure.