Yokta
That's Yoktastic!
DISCLAIMER: Smash Run Plus is not a real game mode, but a rough concept designed by a casual Smash Bros fan with no interest in being competitive. The author of this post wishes only to learn the opinions of experienced players with deeper knowledge of the core mechanics of Smash Bros, in hopes of making Smash Run Plus a more appealing concept for players of all skill levels.
What do you get when you mix Smash Run with Smash Tour, season it with Battle Royale and adjust the recipe to serve at Thanksgiving dinner? You get a crafty concoction of collection, combat and competition I call Smash Run Plus!This epic mode for 16 players combines the exploration and frantic improv of Smash Run with the tactical team gathering of Smash Tour. As you scramble across a gigantic map, collecting pickups and cards to boost your odds, you'll confront skill-testing challenges, fearsome monsters and merciless rivals. Your goal is to survive fifteen minutes of non-stop danger, reach the Top 4 and prove how strong your ordeal has made you in one final winner-takes-all battle!
But even if you fall, you still have the power to change everything! Eliminated players can watch the match from afar, track any player and leave words of encouragement, win prizes for keenly observing the battlefield, and vote with other spectators on matters that can make or break the game.
Who will be left standing after the battle royale, and who will win the final test?
This... is
Smash Run Plus
SetupThis... is
Smash Run Plus
Each player has four slots to fill with different fighters. They pick a character to control at the start, and three additional characters to serve as backups. They are then matched into a lobby.
While waiting for enough players to join, their fighter is sent to a waiting stage where they can beat up a sandbag, sample randomly spawning items, send messages to the other players in the lobby and even switch to a different fighter from their group of 4. Up to four players can occupy the same waiting stage, but they will not be able to attack one another.
If there are 2 to 8 players in a lobby and nobody joins in three minutes, eight AI players will join and the match will begin. All participants present at the end will be rewarded if none of these AI win. If there are 9 to 15 players in a lobby and nobody joins in two minutes, the match will begin. If there are 16 players in the lobby, the match begins immediately.
The Map
The course from Smash Run on 3DS returns for this mode. The graphics are better, the landscape makes subtle references to the fighters' franchises, and the layout is tweaked slightly to make better use of the space, but otherwise the map is very familiar to Smash fans.
The map is cleanly divided into four corners and a center, for multiple purposes.
Starting the Match
All sixteen players spawn in at the centre of the map, invisible to their opponents and incapable of attacking. They have thirty seconds to find a place to start before the stat boosts spawn in and they become visible to other players. At this point, the match is truly on. The fighters regain their full moveset and the timer counts down from 15 minutes.
Powering Up
Stat boosts are static icons that are very common in the map. They come in multiple sizes, with bigger icons granting larger boosts, and there are six types of boost:
- Attack - improves moves using the Attack button
- Special - improves moves using the Special button
- Defence - improves knockback and damage resistance, shield durability
- Arms - improves grabs, pummels, throws, item effectiveness
- Agility - improves aerial mobility, attack and pivot endlag, roll distance
- Speed - improves land speed, dodge endlag and roll speed
User Interface
Fighters have an icon above their heads that indicate the damage they have taken, in terms of percentage. Below this percentage is the player's total power, represented by the sum of their six stats. The player's spare stocks are represented by miniature trophies trailing behind the active fighter, on respawn platforms coloured blue, yellow, red or flashing maroon depending on their damage.
The player can see a full breakdown of their six stats on the left side of the screen. They can't see this breakdown for other players while they are playing. Above this breakdown is the KO feed. When a player's fighter is KO'd, all players see who killed who, with whom and with what.
To the right of the player's stats is a space for six cards: two of each colour except for Gold. Cards are this mode's special items, and they will be explained in detail soon.
The upper right corner shows a map of the nearby terrain, displaying an area three times wider than the screen. Below that is the current count of stocks in play, and the number of players in play. The player's current ranking will be displayed below the map after the first elimination. Ranking is determined in the following order: length of time survived, most stocks, highest Power, lowest damage.
Switching Fighters
In the Map, a player can switch fighters at will by simply pressing + or - to open the menu and selecting them from a list of their stocks. Each fighter has their own health, and stocked fighters heal a third of their damage after a battle or challenge.
Cards
In the Map, fighters may stumble across special Cards which they can use to surprise their foes with advantages. Cards drop in packs of five, and a player can choose only one card per group, unless there are four or fewer active players in the game. The sooner you find a pack, the more options you have, but you're vulnerable to a surprise attack while sifting through Cards, and packs don't get absorbed by the battle portal. Each pack is themed around a single colour of card.
Green Cards have effects in the Map screen. They can help you travel great distances, replenish health, hinder opponents, discover secrets and avoid dangerous battles. Traps are placed by pressing in the stick or crouching in place for one second. All other green cards activate automatically when certain conditions are met.
Blue Cards grant benefits to their players during battles. Red Cards inflict penalties on their opponents. Up to two of these Cards can be activated manually during the loading phase of a battle or challenge.
Gold Cards are powerful boosts, far superior to the regular cards. They're extremely rare: random drops only contain one card, and packs are only dropped by the first four eliminations. They can function like a card of any other colour.
Random Gold Cards could add a fighter to a player's roster (from the pool of fighters that have been KO'd during the game), summon a boss to fight for them in their next battle, boost all six stats, freeze every opponent in place for a short period, or fully heal the most damaged fighter, among other potential benefits.
Gold Packs are different to normal Packs. Only one of its four cards can be used before the pack disappears, and a player cannot pick the same card more than once per game. All Gold Packs have the same devastating options:
- Add the eliminated player's last two fighters to your stock count (even if you already have that fighter)
- Max out the stat of your choice
- Fully heal every fighter in your stock or
- Force the current Top 4 to battle at your location, and steal half the battle rewards
All players are warned in advance when and where a Gold Card or Pack will spawn, as well as who uses one and what it did for them.
Max Fighters
It is impossible for a player to have more than eight fighters in their team. If a player earns a ninth fighter, they will have to pick a fighter to give up. That fighter will reappear as a Gold Card somewhere else in the level.
Battles
Each fighter will be able to explore the map with all their moves. In order to deliver a stable online experience, however, fights between players will not occur in the map itself.
Attacking another fighter at close proximity in the Map will open a portal that transports both fighters to a battle. The portal also absorbs every stat boost on screen, slowly amplifying them over time. The portal stays open for ten seconds, giving no indication of the fighters or battle type it contains, during which up to two additional fighters can enter the portal by attacking it. After ten seconds, or a fourth player entering, the portal dissipates without a trace.
It should take about ten seconds for a battle to load. The loading screen contains an image of the battle stage and a brief description of the battle conditions. Every player can see the fighters their opponents will use, except for the attacked player. The attacking player has the unique privilege of being able to change their character during the loading screen.
All battles have a one-minute time limit independent of lag. A player who scores a KO immediately scores a stat boost proportional to the stats of the KO'd player, except in rare cases where they are KO'd before the player they scored against. Players who are KO'd are respawned into the Map immediately, and the fighter that was KO'd is removed from their line-up.
Once there is only one player left, they are declared the winner and they receive the bounty that the portal absorbed and multiplied. They respawn where the portal used to be. The losers respawn in a random location.
If there is more than one player left when the time limit expires, the match is a draw. Surviving players respawn in a random location with no prizes or penalties. The portal's bounty is stored in a Gold Card and will eventually drop at the portal's original location.
Respawning
After returning from a battle or challenge, players who weren't KO'd return the fighter they used to their stock. Controlling the next fighter in line, players are invisible and intangible to enemies for a period of five seconds. They can collect stat boosts in this state, and use all their abilities, but they cannot collect cards, enter challenges or deal damage. Once the intangibility is over, all attack animations are cancelled and momentum is preserved.
The Haze
Every three minutes, the spectators vote on which of the four corner quadrants to fill with a poisonous Haze. All players are notified of this Haze, and have fifteen seconds to escape the quadrant before the Haze slowly fills it from the corner outwards.
Fighters within the Haze take 10% damage every second. This damage does not inflict flinching unless the fighter has over 100% damage. If a fighter has over 200% damage, the Haze will KO them. The player will then respawn outside the Haze.
Minions
Sparsely populating the Map is a selection of low to mid level minions from Smash Bros franchises. Most minions are trivial to eliminate, but occasionally one might appear with an advanced tactic that players will have difficulty defeating.
Defeating a minion will make it drop stat boosts, and the harder minions will occasionally drop Green, Red or Blue Card Packs.
A minion is able to damage players up to 300% damage and knock them back accordingly, but low level minions cannot KO a fighter.
Challenges
Every thirty seconds or so, a door will appear somewhere in the world. All fighters within range will be notified of where this door appeared, and they have twenty seconds to find and enter it before it disappears. Battles cannot be initiated when a challenge door is on screen.
Doors are sealed off by barriers when they appear. These will have to be attacked in order to break them. Barriers deflect projectiles, so melee attacks are the only option. Every challenge has a difficulty rating of 1 to 5, with harder challenges being more likely the less time is remaining in the game. The harder the challenge, the more damage is needed to break a barrier.
Challenges begin five seconds after the door disappears and always last 30 seconds.
There are 5 main types of challenge, with countless variations of each, as depicted by the icon on the door:
- Break the Targets: Floating targets appear on a special stage. Whoever breaks the most wins.
- Destroy the Crystals: Players chip away at a line of crystal pillars with hard-to-reach weak spots. Whoever breaks the most crystal wins.
- Fight the Minions: Dense armies of minions assault the players. Whoever eliminates the most wins.
- Ascend the Tower: Players platform their way up a column of platforms filled with hazards and boosts. Whoever climbs highest wins.
- Endure the Gauntlet: Players are assaulted by a bevy of dangerous hazards. Whoever takes the least damage wins.
During a challenge, fighters can collect Stat Boosts faster than in the Map. Any number of fighters can participate in a challenge, but they each have their own instance. Progress in the challenge is tracked on the right side of the screen, showing the ranking of the top 4 players. The winner at the end gets the Challenge's ultimate bounty: one extra fighter from a choice of four, plus a huge stat boost which gets bigger the more fighters were competing. If only one player took on the challenge, they must reach a certain score in order to win.
After the challenge ends, players respawn as they would after a battle.
Bosses
Bosses are extremely strong, very large enemies with lots of health who appear in open spaces in the Map. Players learn of their arrival twenty seconds in advance. A fighter can jump in and attack the boss as long as it's alive.
When a boss appears, it will attack all players in its vicinity, with the attacks getting harder to avoid as the boss's health depletes. If a boss's attack knocks back a fighter at a high enough speed, that fighter will be KO'd. If a boss is still alive after a minute, it will run away and reappear elsewhere on the map ten seconds later.
When a player attacks a boss, it drops stat boosts proportional to the damage it takes. The attacking player is likely, but not guaranteed, to pick up these boosts. Players are still able to damage each other when a boss is present, but this won't trigger a battle instance if the boss is close enough.
If the boss KO's five fighters or runs away three times, the boss wins, triggering an event that negatively impacts every single fighter. If the fighters are able to deplete the boss's health, the boss loses. Everyone who dealt damage to a defeated boss gains a stat boost, but the player who dealt the most damage and the player who landed the finishing blow each get a much bigger stat boost.
Events
Events are randomly occurring gameplay alterations that happen roughly ten times a match, not counting the events that are triggered manually by secrets or bosses. Sometimes they're negative and sometimes they're positive, but every fighter on the Map is affected by them, even if they respawn in during the event itself. Events can last anywhere between ten and thirty seconds, depending on the effect.
Eliminations
If a player is reduced to zero fighters, they are eliminated from the game. They are then ranked based on how many players they outlasted. They can quit the game there and immediately claim their rewards for playing, or continue to play as a spectator for extra fun and prizes.
A player can also be eliminated if they manually forfeit in the + / - menu or get disconnected from the match. In either case, the player's fighters are transformed into gold cards and randomly scattered across the Map for the remaining fighters to collect.
Players in the Top 4 are unlikely to be eliminated before time runs out, but if they are, they still have to participate in the final round. If they quit the game or are disconnected, they will be replaced with AI and forfeit all their rewards from the game.
Spectating
If an eliminated player chooses to spectate, they are taken to a lobby showing a full map of the game in progress. If they were in the bottom six, they can select a spot on the map to spawn their Gold Pack, so long as it isn't in a quadrant with Haze or on top of a boss.
Spectators can decide whether to follow a fighter or focus on a specific area of the Map, extend the minimap view to full size and bring up a detailed list of every fighter's health, stats and location. On the minimap, they can see the location of every active fighter, as well as every card pack and the location of current and incoming challenges and Bosses.
Spectators can earn coins by participating in multiple choice questions. These can be quizzes on the state of the game so far or votes to influence what happens in the game. Spectators can send preset messages to each other or place them directly onto the Map for the fighters to see.
It's possible to spectate a game of Smash Run Plus without having to participate in it by selecting Spectate from the Smash Run Plus menu. However, non-participants will earn fewer rewards for spectating, their votes will be less powerful (or even pointless if the match is prerecorded) and they can't put messages on the map.
The Final Battle - Setup
The exploration phase ends after fifteen minutes, or once all but one player have been KO'd. In the latter case, the lone survivor receives a major bonus reward of coins, trophies and other goods, as well as a colossal stat boost.
After that, the top four players are chosen for the final battle. The players' unused cards are converted to stat boosts, and bonus fighters and stats are awarded based on randomly selected criteria.
Before the final battle begins, each player has to choose three fighters out of their lineup. If a player has less than three fighters, the empty slots are filled with random characters.
Meanwhile, the spectators vote on the stage for the final battle. Nine stages are available to choose from, and a vote can be placed for or against a stage. Higher-ranking spectators get more votes, and are able to split them and stack them in amy combination, but not cancel them out.
Voting closes around the same time the top four choose their three fighters, and the final battle loads.
The Final Battle
The top four players compete in a free-for-all, scoring 1 point per KO and losing 1 point per self-destruct. Players don't lose points for being KO'd. Instead, the fighter returns to the back of the player's line-up and a new fighter tags in.
The final battle involves items, but the spectators control what, when and where they spawn.
Here's how it works: The spectators ranked 9th through 16th are given a group of three random items and pick one of these three to give to the spectators ranked 5th through 8th. The stronger the item they pick, the longer they have to wait to make their next selection.
5th through 8th, in order of rank, then choose an item given to them and take turns placing their items on the field. If a spectator places an extremely powerful item, they will have to skip at least one turn.
Four items can be controlled by the spectator who placed it: the Assist Trophy, the Pokeball, the Smash Ball, and a new item: the Breidablik from Fire Emblem Heroes, which summons fighters from the Smash roster to temporarily assist the user.
The Assist Trophy, Pokeball and Breidablik are used similarly for the spectator: pick one of four characters to control once the item is used, and wait for a fighter to claim you. The Assist Trophy contains Assist characters, the Pokeball contains Pokemon, and the Breidablik contains the characters the spectator chose at the start of the game.
The spectator who controls the Smash Ball does so directly. It moves roughly in the direction that the spectator commands, but is repelled when close to fighters.
The Final Battle lasts for three minutes, after which a final winner is declared. In the event of a tie, Overtime is declared: the match keeps going until only one fighter has first place.
Everyone still present at the end of a Smash Run Plus game receives their rewards for their rank and returns to the Smash Run menu.
Offline Play
With one Switch, Smash Run Plus can be played alone with AI or with a friend in two-player splitscreen. Up to eight Nintendo Switches can connect with local wireless for Smash Run Plus, allowing 16-player games with two players to a Switch.
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