Story Mode

[Eight Melodies]

What I would love...? A Melee-style adventure mode with Intro-Outro cutscenes like most fighting games, and probably Rival cutscenes halfway through, c'mon, I wanna see Mario trekking through Planet Wisp or Green Hill. When I say Melee-style adventure, I don't mean the same exact damn thing every time, make each character's adventure mode have different stages in different order.

Pretty much this is what I want. Rival cutscenes especially. That'd be hardcore.

 

[S_B]

Someone didn't watch the cutscenes, apparently. I personally think all post-release resources should go towards creating a big-scale story mode DLC, improving upon the SSE's flaws with even more awesome fanservice.

That way you can have your OMG MULTIPLAYER ONLY SO HARDCORE and the people who actually like to be wowed by videogames can have a decent campaign.

Or people who want a single player experience can go play a single player game instead of SSB4?

Not trying to be a jerk, but there's really nothing wrong with a MULTIPLAYER-centric game being the best MULTIPLAYER game that it can be.

SSB doesn't need a single player mode any more than Team Fortress 2 does.

And don't forget that Brawl literally shipped with game-breaking bugs and imbalances because all of the time that should've gone into playtesting it in multiplayer went into the SSE instead.

 

[Khao]

I had a huge problem with Melee's adventure mode.

It promised me a sidescrolling adventure.

I got a couple of stages thrown around a billion regular matches. And the only one I felt was worthwhile (though pretty darn good) was the Zelda one. The Mario stage was boring and straight forward, and the Metroid and F-Zero stages are just sad.

To me, SSE's only problems were the entirety of The Great Maze (forcing players to repeat stages with little to no differences as last time should be banned from video games forever) and having damage percentage, which works awkwardly on a side-scrolling setting and doesn't really make sense (you kinda only die because the camera locks up when you're hit, that's terribly lame.)

My dream Adventure mode is sort-of Melee-sized, but with a lot more side-scrolling thrown into it, and stages that actually worth playing in a way other than skipping everything until you reach the end. They could have a basic pattern for each stage that goes like, platforming stage -> character fight -> boss fight.

Let's take a Mega Man stage as an example.

It could be generally based on Wily Fortress stages from Mega Man games, start out in an outdoor area, beating up anything you find in the way until you reach the start of the fortress, once inside, some platforming challenges come up, like the classic dissapearing blocks, which would be a pretty darn good and fun challenge to any character that can't just stay floating in one place, and lots of classic Mega Man enemies along the way. Then you reach the typical boss door at the end of the stage, and inside, you have a pure Smash style fight against Mega Man.

Defeat Mega Man, and you move on to fight Dr. Wily, should be a pretty similar fight to the boss battles in Brawl.

And then you do the same thing for every obvious franchise that could have a stage until you have a mode that's long enough to be fun, but not too much so that you're actually encouraged to replay it with different characters without it getting tedious. They could make sure some characters have an easy time in some stages but having more trouble in others. They should try using a similar stage design philosophy from each franchise for the sidescroller parts, throw in a fight against a playable character, then a boss taken straight out of the current stage's franchise. Also, I'd love it if side scrolling sections had Stamina, but character and boss battles had Percentage.

Imagine this with five stages in a row, each one themed as one of the franchises in the game, and then a final stage with original elements from Smash Bros. series, with the Master and Crazy Hands as the final boss.

I'm not expecting anything close to this, but if it happened, I'd get like a heart attack or something, it'd be just crazy.

 

[D-idara]

Or people who want a single player experience can go play a single player game instead of SSB4?

Not trying to be a jerk, but there's really nothing wrong with a MULTIPLAYER-centric game being the best MULTIPLAYER game that it can be.

SSB doesn't need a single player mode any more than Team Fortress 2 does.

And don't forget that Brawl literally shipped with game-breaking bugs and imbalances because all of the time that should've gone into playtesting it in multiplayer went into the SSE instead.

Smash isn't just a multiplayer experience. Look at KI Uprising, it's mainly a single player game, but that doesn't keep the multiplayer from being awesome, complete and engaging, Sakurai pullong a Titanfall would be the worst thing ever. GAMES NEED SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGNS.

 

[NocturnalQuill]

Smash isn't just a multiplayer experience. Look at KI Uprising, it's mainly a single player game, but that doesn't keep the multiplayer from being awesome, complete and engaging, Sakurai pullong a Titanfall would be the worst thing ever. GAMES NEED SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGNS.

Forcing single player campaigns into games where it just doesn't work isn't any better than games that add multiplayer for the sake of having it. Kid Icarus Uprising is a completely different game with different mechanics and a different experience, you can't compare the two at all. Some games lend themselves better to one or another, some to both. I understand completely why Titanfall's devs would want to focus on multiplayer exclusively. I don't play it myself, but I'd imagine it's a better game for it. It's meant to be a multiplayer sci-fi fps, and a campaign just wouldn't really contribute to it.

Smash already has plenty of offline content in the form of adventure mode, classic, decent ai, and events (my personal favorite).

 

[zwalk2]

I'm sadly one of those people who currently can't play the online part of games. (I have to pay $50 everytime I run out of my 6GB of internet, which with online gaming, runs out much too quick, and I do not have a grand budget).
With games, I really need a single player experience, that isn't just some short, watered down version of what people with strong internet are experiencing.

While I don't necessarily want a story mode along the lines of Brawl, I do want something that doesn't just feel like a shoehorned mode for those stuck with playing single player. I love Smash Bros, and would feel hurt and rejected if the game primarily focused on online with little to do with single player, like some games seem to be doing nowadays.

 

[Khao]

Forcing single player campaigns into games where it just doesn't work isn't any better than games that add multiplayer for the sake of having it. Kid Icarus Uprising is a completely different game with different mechanics and a different experience, you can't compare the two at all. Some games lend themselves better to one or another, some to both. I understand completely why Titanfall's devs would want to focus on multiplayer exclusively. I don't play it myself, but I'd imagine it's a better game for it. It's meant to be a multiplayer sci-fi fps, and a campaign just wouldn't really contribute to it.

Smash already has plenty of offline content in the form of adventure mode, classic, decent ai, and events (my personal favorite).

I do think that Smash needs a dose of Single-Player content.

Especially now that it's going handheld, there's only so much fun you can get out of fighting the AI in versus mode.

 

[NocturnalQuill]

I do think that Smash needs a dose of Single-Player content.

Especially now that it's going handheld, there's only so much fun you can get out of fighting the AI in versus mode.

I know, I would like to see an expanded event system. I'm just saying that a campaign-style story like SSE doesn't really work from what we've seen, and trying to mash another one in would be foolish. Melee was going in the right direction with its adventure mode. A customized adventure mode for each character is what I'd like to see. Events are really fun too, I hope we get more of those.

 

[slicesabre]

I honestly enjoyed SSE and I'm sadden to see it go because I found Adventure Mode in Melee to be a complete freaking bore.

 

[Makaronileo]

What if, You Unlock Characters Alternetive Costume When Clearing Their Adventure mode On Hard???

 

[S_B]

Smash isn't just a multiplayer experience. Look at KI Uprising, it's mainly a single player game, but that doesn't keep the multiplayer from being awesome, complete and engaging, Sakurai pullong a Titanfall would be the worst thing ever. GAMES NEED SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGNS.

1. Team Fortress 2 and the massive, MASSIVE success that it is pretty much confirms that the opposite is true.

2. If by "campaign", you mean a mode that teaches people how to play the game but didn't take too many development resources to create, then sure.

If Brawl had shipped bug-free and relatively balanced, I wouldn't have any grounds for complaint, but it was anything but balanced and had quite a few GAME-BREAKING bugs that SHOULD have been caught during playtesting.

I reiterate, sometimes a multiplayer game should just be the best multiplayer game that it can be. There are thousands of single player games out there that likewise don't need multiplayer modes.

And yes, SSB is primarily a multiplayer experience. Out of all the time people the world over spend playing SSB, I'm confident that 99.99% of it is being played multiplayer.

 

[D-idara]

1. Team Fortress 2 and the massive, MASSIVE success that it is pretty much confirms that the opposite is true.

2. If by "campaign", you mean a mode that teaches people how to play the game but didn't take too many development resources to create, then sure.

If Brawl had shipped bug-free and relatively balanced, I wouldn't have any grounds for complaint, but it was anything but balanced and had quite a few GAME-BREAKING bugs that SHOULD have been caught during playtesting.

I reiterate, sometimes a multiplayer game should just be the best multiplayer game that it can be. There are thousands of single player games out there that likewise don't need multiplayer modes.

And yes, SSB is primarily a multiplayer experience. Out of all the time people the world over spend playing SSB, I'm confident that 99.99% of it is being played multiplayer.

There are no other games with tons of Nintendo characters, so no.

 

[S_B]

There are no other games with tons of Nintendo characters, so no.

Can you be clear on what exactly it is that you're suggesting, here?

I think I have some idea, but I don't want to build a strawman.

 

[D-idara]

Can you be clear on what exactly it is that you're suggesting, here?

I think I have some idea, but I don't want to build a strawman.

That Smash offers an experience like no other game, why should that experience be limited to multiplayer, if there was a single-player oriented game that featured a Nintendo crossover, then I wouldn't complain.

 

[NocturnalQuill]

There are no other games with tons of Nintendo characters, so no.

The characters have nothing to do with the actual gameplay itself. In fact, Smash 64 was going to have original characters. It wasn't until partway through development that they even decided to make it a Nintendo all stars game.

 

[D-idara]

The characters have nothing to do with the actual gameplay itself. In fact, Smash 64 was going to have original characters. It wasn't until partway through development that they even decided to make it a Nintendo all stars game.

Yet the characters are the most important part of the game, because Smash is a Nintendo crossover first, and then a fighting game.

 

[S_B]

That Smash offers an experience like no other game, why should that experience be limited to multiplayer, if there was a single-player oriented game that featured a Nintendo crossover, then I wouldn't complain.

I can see where you're coming from, but that being the case, Nintendo would do better than to create "SSB RPG".

As we've already seen THOROUGHLY demonstrated for us by the SSE, SSB makes for a PISS-poor setting for a good crossover single-player experience.

Half of these characters don't even talk, and again, we've all seen how crappy of a platformer SSB makes.

Better to give it the RPG treatment, I'd say.

Yet the characters are the most important part of the game, because Smash is a Nintendo crossover first, and then a fighting game.

But again, that's no excuse for shipping a buggy, unbalanced mess like Brawl. And no, the single player is NOT as important as the multiplayer because most people played through the SSE once and then never again while they went on to play literally MONTHS worth of multiplayer.

And before the argument of "it sold more than melee!" gets raised, the attach rate for melee was 33% while Brawl's was 12%.

To put it another way, 14 million people could've bought melee but didn't. 88 million people could've bought Brawl but didn't.

But that's all I'm going to say on that subject, lest the mods declare this a "melee vs. brawl" thread and close it.

 

[D-idara]

I can see where you're coming from, but that being the case, Nintendo would do better than to create "SSB RPG".

As we've already seen THOROUGHLY demonstrated for us by the SSE, SSB makes for a PISS-poor setting for a good crossover single-player experience.

Half of these characters don't even talk, and again, we've all seen how crappy of a platformer SSB makes.

Better to give it the RPG treatment, I'd say.

I disagree with the 'characters don't talk' thing because the story was engaging without any dialogue, thanks to the charm of the characters and how they communicate themselves without a lot of words. And I kinda disagree with the PISS-poor setting thing, maybe it could've been done better, but the platformer gameplay might work with enough effort and tweaks to the standard formula.

 

[S_B]

I disagree with the 'characters don't talk' thing because the story was engaging without any dialogue, thanks to the charm of the characters and how they communicate themselves without a lot of words. And I kinda disagree with the PISS-poor setting thing, maybe it could've been done better, but the platformer gameplay might work with enough effort and tweaks to the standard formula.

Last I checked, the majority of people were confused as all hell regarding the SSE's "story" and what the hell was supposed to be going on. In fact, Sakurai even posted a special segment on the Brawl website that explained the story after the fact.

And the SSE's gameplay wasn't well-received, at all, but it's mostly irrelevant: the SSE could've been the best single player experience in the history of all video games and it still would've seen only .001% of Brawl's overall playtime.

I understand that you want a good Nintendo crossover single player experience, but SSB is not and never will be that game.

Let me reiterate that I play SSB for the characters as well (primarily for Bowser), but if the SSE wasn't the single player experience we were hoping for and it had tons of development time and resources dumped into it, the odds of us getting a better one are basically nonexistent.

 

[NocturnalQuill]

Yet the characters are the most important part of the game, because Smash is a Nintendo crossover first, and then a fighting game.

That's the philosophy that gave us SSE, considered by a fair few to be the worst aspect of Brawl (controversial physics notwithstanding). If they really want a complete single player experience, they should make a standalone game. As cool as the idea of an all-stars single player experience is, shoving one into smash bros for the sake of having it isn't the way to do it. Unfortunately, I'm skeptical as to whether it'll actually happen considering how the SSE was received.

 

[Beatness]

In my opinion, a single player story mode is fun for people who enjoy single-player, and ignored by those who don't. So basically you can't go wrong with having a story mode. I loved SSE, the cutscenes were fun and platforming was actually a nice break from fighting. Basically, if you don't like it, don't play it. No harm done.

 

[NocturnalQuill]

In my opinion, a single player story mode is fun for people who enjoy single-player, and ignored by those who don't. So basically you can't go wrong with having a story mode. I loved SSE, the cutscenes were fun and platforming was actually a nice break from fighting. Basically, if you don't like it, don't play it. No harm done.

The reason a lot of people were upset by (myself included) is because it took a long time to make, and ate up a pretty good chunk of development time. As a result, it used time that could have been spent on other things.

 

[Darkfur]

If they had a separate team work on the Story mode, then no time is lost because that team can work alongside everyone else.

Now, I personally loved SSE and am slightly disappointed that a similar story will not be in this game. Only slightly though. I also loved Melee's adventure mode and am looking forward to a longer one this time due to the massively increased roster since Melee.