This is an essay I jotted up and I wanted to share with everyone. Enjoy!
SSB4: A Tale of Two Games
The announcement to make two Smash Brothers games has caused confusion, uncertainty, concern. We really don't know the direction the next game will take and Nintendo has told us very little. All we really do know is that there are two games and the “central axis” of the game is their connectivity. Besides that, Nintendo has left us in the dark. However, after some mulling it over, I think I can shed some light on where the next Smash Brothers game is going.
In this article, I'm going to focus on two topics. First is why are there two games. How did we get to the point of having two games. After that, I will focus on what the two games will be like. You may wonder how I can do this with such little information. Well, that is the wonder of understanding why they exist.
With all that said, here, I present, the answer to the two game conundrum.
Why Are There Two Games?
One word: density.
Sakurai has been good about making his games packed full of lots of stuff. He goes above and beyond what we see in most games in terms of content. In each game has had made, it goes a little farther and these features find their way into other games. The games get larger (at least Smash does) and they take features from each other. As such, you can look at his games as one continuum. Each game adds a little more and takes from the past games in the continuum. What that said, to understand where the next Smash Brothers is going, we have to start from the beginning and move forward. Only from where we started can we know where we are going. So let's go back to the beginning.
Sakurai's Other Games
We'll start with Kirby Super Star. OK, so this isn't the beginning. I'm starting here because it is the most relevant to our discussion. Not much reason to go into Adventure or Dream Land, although Adventure did build up from Dream Land. What was interesting about this game was that it was not one game. It was actually over 6 games in one. There were the main games modes like Spring Breeze and Meta-Knight's Revenge, but there were also smaller sub-games as well. The reason we aren't going back to Adventure is there is no need to. In many ways, this is the content explosion that starts a chain reaction. Each game is stand alone and while it uses the same mechanics, it introduces a new feature and ways to progress though levels. It also posses unique challenges like Meta-Knight's Revenge timer. This will not be the last time we see this. This game is very important because Sakurai likes to make multiple games in one. We'll see this crop up again.
After Kirby, Sakurai made the first two Smash Brothers titles. The first one was a very small project with a small scale. It was never intended to be a huge success, even though it turned out to be one. Super Smash Brothers Melee took the mold that Super Smash Brothers made and blew it up. Melee was one of the first games to take the explosion of content approach (although we were building up towards it). It even had more characters added than the original game had. It also had more stages, classic stages, trophies and new modes. It added quite a lot. But we'll return to this one later.
After this, Sakurai made Kirby's Air Ride. It was the last game he made with HAL Labs. It took a lot from both Melee and Kirby Super Star. In typical Sakurai fashion, it featured three different game modes that used the same core idea. This game introduced the “Challenge,” system. In it, there were 120 achievements for each mode and many would unlock content. The game featured 17 unique Air Ride Machines that each played different and then some. There modes also featured their own unique content as well. It also mimicked Melee by focusing on multiplayer. This game, like Kirby Superstar, did the “multiple games in one,” thing. Once again, this game has 3 games in one. Air Ride, City Trial, and Top Ride. The games built from the central idea of the game's mechanics and put them into different setting. The core was the same. You boost to drift and only the A and control stick does anything. Once again, we see multiple games in one.
Meteos, which Sakurai did with Q Entertainment was also jam packed. This game was a puzzle game similar to Tetris. Players would try to match blocks and launch them out of the screen. It featured 40 different planets that all acted and played differently. Each planet had different block size, gravity and types of blocks that would appear. On top of that, each planet had distinct music, and there were also items. This game also introduced a system where you could used the launched pieces to unlock new planets, music and items. It also featured a unique menu similar to Air Ride and Melee that would be mimicked in Brawl. This game takes a lot from other games, but it also has a lot of content. 40 planets is a lot and each are unique. Also, like Air Ride, it's focus was on multiplayer.
And then we reach Brawl. Brawl was the biggest game Sakurai made up to this point. It added more characters than Melee added, more stages, a whole catalog of music, new features, including online, and a larger adventure mode. It was much bigger than Melee by a long shot. It is, at the date of writing this, was the largest game he made. It also one of the few games on the Wii that used a dual layered disc. This game was not only the biggest Sakurai made, but one of the largest games to come out ever. It's a lofty assertion, but with the amount of stuff added, it's hard to say otherwise. In comparison, while you'd be lucky to see a fighting game add 8 characters, this game added 15. Most games don't have the music library as big as this one had. The adventure mode, with 30 levels and it's own level up system, could have been it's own game (despite what you think about it being good or not).
What is interesting to note is that Melee and Brawl set the stage for games that followed. After Melee, Sakurai's games took a lot of notes from these games. Kirby's Air Ride and Meteos mimicked how the games were made. The games all have a huge emphasis on multiplayer. They only added on to the formula that Melee started, usually adding new features to be seen. For instance, the challenges from Kibry's Air Ride would appear in Brawl. Needless to say, Kid Icarus Uprising took a lot from Brawl.
Kid Icarus: Uprising took Brawl's approach on how the game was structured in terms of it's main game modes It featured a multiplayer and single player that built up from the same fundamentals much like Brawl (and maybe Kirby's Air Ride). Unlike Brawl, they were not large enough to be separate, but there was a lot of content. The game featured 9 weapons classes. In total, there were 108 weapons. That's quite a lot. The single players had 25 levels and a larger range of difficulties (from 0 to 9.0). There was also a large catalog of music. Like Brawl, the game had a larger focus on it's singleplayer component, but the multiplayer was not neglected. It had a fusion element as well as challenges like Kirby's Air Ride. It even used the Meteos style menus.
Between the Smash Brothers games, there was a large explosion of content. The other games he made were not as big, but Smash Brothers can shed some light on that. 64 was a small game in part because it's success was questioned. No one really knew how well it would do. But it ended up being a smash hit, which allowed Sakurai more resources for Smash and his other games too. It's success also influenced how he made games.
As for Smash's content, each game outdid the last. While some will always question the game mechanics, the content expansion from each game has gotten bigger and bigger. 64 only had 12 characters and 9 stages. It's single player was just Classic, the Target Test and Board the Platforms. Melee took it to the next level. It added 13 characters and put the stages count in the upper 20s. It added Adventure and All-Stars (the latter being based off of Kirby Superstar). It added more and better quality music. It added trophies and new items. While Melee was hard to top, Brawl did it. It added a catalog of music, with each stage having multiple tunes. It added 10 classic stages. It added 15 new characters vs Melee's 13. It added online. And it added the Subspace Emissary.
So it seems strange. Brawl has set the bar pretty high. How can one game top what Brawl added? Maybe one wont. Staring to catch on? Don't worry, I'm not done driving the point home; I have more to say. One last thing to leave on. Each Smash Brothers title sets the stage for the next games Sakurai makes, and every other title has features and ideas that find their way into Smash or other games.
SSB4: A Tale of Two Games
The announcement to make two Smash Brothers games has caused confusion, uncertainty, concern. We really don't know the direction the next game will take and Nintendo has told us very little. All we really do know is that there are two games and the “central axis” of the game is their connectivity. Besides that, Nintendo has left us in the dark. However, after some mulling it over, I think I can shed some light on where the next Smash Brothers game is going.
In this article, I'm going to focus on two topics. First is why are there two games. How did we get to the point of having two games. After that, I will focus on what the two games will be like. You may wonder how I can do this with such little information. Well, that is the wonder of understanding why they exist.
With all that said, here, I present, the answer to the two game conundrum.
Why Are There Two Games?
One word: density.
Sakurai has been good about making his games packed full of lots of stuff. He goes above and beyond what we see in most games in terms of content. In each game has had made, it goes a little farther and these features find their way into other games. The games get larger (at least Smash does) and they take features from each other. As such, you can look at his games as one continuum. Each game adds a little more and takes from the past games in the continuum. What that said, to understand where the next Smash Brothers is going, we have to start from the beginning and move forward. Only from where we started can we know where we are going. So let's go back to the beginning.
Sakurai's Other Games
We'll start with Kirby Super Star. OK, so this isn't the beginning. I'm starting here because it is the most relevant to our discussion. Not much reason to go into Adventure or Dream Land, although Adventure did build up from Dream Land. What was interesting about this game was that it was not one game. It was actually over 6 games in one. There were the main games modes like Spring Breeze and Meta-Knight's Revenge, but there were also smaller sub-games as well. The reason we aren't going back to Adventure is there is no need to. In many ways, this is the content explosion that starts a chain reaction. Each game is stand alone and while it uses the same mechanics, it introduces a new feature and ways to progress though levels. It also posses unique challenges like Meta-Knight's Revenge timer. This will not be the last time we see this. This game is very important because Sakurai likes to make multiple games in one. We'll see this crop up again.
After Kirby, Sakurai made the first two Smash Brothers titles. The first one was a very small project with a small scale. It was never intended to be a huge success, even though it turned out to be one. Super Smash Brothers Melee took the mold that Super Smash Brothers made and blew it up. Melee was one of the first games to take the explosion of content approach (although we were building up towards it). It even had more characters added than the original game had. It also had more stages, classic stages, trophies and new modes. It added quite a lot. But we'll return to this one later.
After this, Sakurai made Kirby's Air Ride. It was the last game he made with HAL Labs. It took a lot from both Melee and Kirby Super Star. In typical Sakurai fashion, it featured three different game modes that used the same core idea. This game introduced the “Challenge,” system. In it, there were 120 achievements for each mode and many would unlock content. The game featured 17 unique Air Ride Machines that each played different and then some. There modes also featured their own unique content as well. It also mimicked Melee by focusing on multiplayer. This game, like Kirby Superstar, did the “multiple games in one,” thing. Once again, this game has 3 games in one. Air Ride, City Trial, and Top Ride. The games built from the central idea of the game's mechanics and put them into different setting. The core was the same. You boost to drift and only the A and control stick does anything. Once again, we see multiple games in one.
Meteos, which Sakurai did with Q Entertainment was also jam packed. This game was a puzzle game similar to Tetris. Players would try to match blocks and launch them out of the screen. It featured 40 different planets that all acted and played differently. Each planet had different block size, gravity and types of blocks that would appear. On top of that, each planet had distinct music, and there were also items. This game also introduced a system where you could used the launched pieces to unlock new planets, music and items. It also featured a unique menu similar to Air Ride and Melee that would be mimicked in Brawl. This game takes a lot from other games, but it also has a lot of content. 40 planets is a lot and each are unique. Also, like Air Ride, it's focus was on multiplayer.
And then we reach Brawl. Brawl was the biggest game Sakurai made up to this point. It added more characters than Melee added, more stages, a whole catalog of music, new features, including online, and a larger adventure mode. It was much bigger than Melee by a long shot. It is, at the date of writing this, was the largest game he made. It also one of the few games on the Wii that used a dual layered disc. This game was not only the biggest Sakurai made, but one of the largest games to come out ever. It's a lofty assertion, but with the amount of stuff added, it's hard to say otherwise. In comparison, while you'd be lucky to see a fighting game add 8 characters, this game added 15. Most games don't have the music library as big as this one had. The adventure mode, with 30 levels and it's own level up system, could have been it's own game (despite what you think about it being good or not).
What is interesting to note is that Melee and Brawl set the stage for games that followed. After Melee, Sakurai's games took a lot of notes from these games. Kirby's Air Ride and Meteos mimicked how the games were made. The games all have a huge emphasis on multiplayer. They only added on to the formula that Melee started, usually adding new features to be seen. For instance, the challenges from Kibry's Air Ride would appear in Brawl. Needless to say, Kid Icarus Uprising took a lot from Brawl.
Kid Icarus: Uprising took Brawl's approach on how the game was structured in terms of it's main game modes It featured a multiplayer and single player that built up from the same fundamentals much like Brawl (and maybe Kirby's Air Ride). Unlike Brawl, they were not large enough to be separate, but there was a lot of content. The game featured 9 weapons classes. In total, there were 108 weapons. That's quite a lot. The single players had 25 levels and a larger range of difficulties (from 0 to 9.0). There was also a large catalog of music. Like Brawl, the game had a larger focus on it's singleplayer component, but the multiplayer was not neglected. It had a fusion element as well as challenges like Kirby's Air Ride. It even used the Meteos style menus.
Between the Smash Brothers games, there was a large explosion of content. The other games he made were not as big, but Smash Brothers can shed some light on that. 64 was a small game in part because it's success was questioned. No one really knew how well it would do. But it ended up being a smash hit, which allowed Sakurai more resources for Smash and his other games too. It's success also influenced how he made games.
As for Smash's content, each game outdid the last. While some will always question the game mechanics, the content expansion from each game has gotten bigger and bigger. 64 only had 12 characters and 9 stages. It's single player was just Classic, the Target Test and Board the Platforms. Melee took it to the next level. It added 13 characters and put the stages count in the upper 20s. It added Adventure and All-Stars (the latter being based off of Kirby Superstar). It added more and better quality music. It added trophies and new items. While Melee was hard to top, Brawl did it. It added a catalog of music, with each stage having multiple tunes. It added 10 classic stages. It added 15 new characters vs Melee's 13. It added online. And it added the Subspace Emissary.
So it seems strange. Brawl has set the bar pretty high. How can one game top what Brawl added? Maybe one wont. Staring to catch on? Don't worry, I'm not done driving the point home; I have more to say. One last thing to leave on. Each Smash Brothers title sets the stage for the next games Sakurai makes, and every other title has features and ideas that find their way into Smash or other games.
