This is a little piece I wrote. It was finished before I knew Samurai Goroh would only be an assist trophy.
http://www.heretic-gamer.com/content/view/30/52/
From the Article:
http://www.heretic-gamer.com/content/view/30/52/
From the Article:
It is rather lengthy. That tends to happen when I start writing. Anyway, your thouhts?One of the many great pastimes of Nintendo fans is concocting loose blue prints for sequels to their favorite games. That is, to play the role of game designer. I myself have indulged in this hobby on numerous occasions (see: Wii Can Dream). On one level, these pipe dreams are fruitless at best and frustrating at worst. We’re not game designers, we don’t work for Nintendo, our ideas have no impact on the actual product, and the inevitable failure of the real developers to realize our dreams leads us down the road of disappointment. Nevertheless, to abandon the enjoyment of devising theoretical masterpieces to enhance the value of reality's pedestrian experiences is not worthy trade to me.
Creating lineups for Super Smash Brothers is among the favorite undertakings of wannabe game designers (at least of the Nintendo breed). Super Smash Brothers is an immensely open ended franchise that is rife with possibilities and tremendous appeal. Forming lists of characters is simple, easy, and fun. Here is where I must briefly be an *******: I find the vast majority of fan-made character lineups to be unsavory--if not hideous. While it is my hope that this antagonistic stance does not immediately turn you against my list, concealing this sentiment was futile. It is therefore my obligation to explain why so many fan made lineups leave so much to be desired.
This rather infamous Photoshop job easily conveys several issues of many fan lineups. First, the inclusion of non-Nintendo characters was at one time a particularly aggravating offense. Fans less acclimated with the video game industry were unable to distinguish Nintendo mascots from third party or even competing companies. However, with the advent of third party mascots in Brawl, this is no longer of great concern.
Yet, there are other factors that render a majority of fan lineups undesirable. For example, the fallacy that “the more the merrier” is clearly demonstrated in the picture above. Even if we generously assume that every single one of those characters was given enough attention by the developers to make them worthwhile and fun to play (they wouldn’t be), the sheer quantity is overkill. Unless one devoted the totality of his free time to the game, they would never be able to become acquainted with a reasonable fraction of the characters, much less master them.
Some may argue that a massive amount of content in and of itself is nothing to bemoan. Perhaps there is truth to this. But to fall back on this argument in defending the lineup above would be to ignore that many of the characters that compose it are complete ****, regardless of how well they might play. Luke, Darth Vadar, Spider Man, Bond, the Hulk, and Batman may have appeared in video games, but they’re not associated with video games by the general public. Characters like ReDeads, Poes, Goombas, Jinjos, Gorons, Zoras, and Dekus, are obscure secondary characters recognizable only to those who play their games. It must be emphasized that being of “secondary” importance is a far more severe drawback than being obscure; Ness and Mr. Game & Watch were indeed obscure, but they were the primary stars of their respective series. If there did in fact exist concrete boundaries between primary, secondary, and tertiary characters in given video games, a ReDead would be no higher than of quaternary importance. Honestly, what would make a ReDead any better of an addition than a Peahat or a Cucco?
The relationship between a ReDead and a Peahat helps illustrate another logical flaw of many fan lists—one that is potentially harder to grasp. With that said, this specific example is far from the best one and I will therefore not use it. Instead, consider the game Metroid Prime Hunters. One might initially conjecture that the hunters from the game would make ideal candidates for characters in Brawl. Yet, unless you were to include all six, I vehemently disagree. All of the characters are basically equal. To include one and not the others would be not only arbitrary, but imply that they are fundamentally superior somehow. Thus, taken individually, they are very poor candidates indeed; to include one would be illogical and inconsistent, to include all would be just as absurd. The Golden Sun franchise would run into a similar road block, but the way the nature of the characters allows for a sensible solution. As the unquestioned leaders of thier parties, Isaac and Felix are both noticeably more vital than the other adepts. The addition of Isaac in particular is fully logical because of his relative clout. The addition of say, Sheba, on the other hand, would be entirely random and fail to make sense in the least.
There are at least two other pitfalls that fan lists often fall into (note the use of the phrase “at least,” for there are probably others). First, people often seem to disregard the character balance of the game as a whole. That is, they are not cognizant of series representation. They might be really dedicated followers of a specific series such as Mario or Zelda, which will certainly lead them to include a disproportionate amount of characters from one series while neglecting others. My position is that this would be very bad for the game. Smash Brothers is a clash between Nintendo characters—not Zelda characters. Like the United States House of Representatives, it can be tolerated that the bigger states (franchises) have more representation in government (the character lineup), but only to a certain degree. To have ten characters from Mario and only one two or three from every other game would be lame. Instead, there should be a nice, fairly even distribution of characters from several franchises, and I was sure to take this into account in my final list—even if it meant knocking off a few superfluous characters that I might have found neat.
The final pitfall of this analysis is also the most ridiculous (and thus the easiest to grasp). That is, blatant stupidity resulting from a failure to consider the character’s merit beyond a surface level. Arguably the most dubious example from the proposal above is the moon from Majora’s Mask. Now how the **** would that work? How would it move about the screen? How would it attack? How would it be knocked out? Wouldn’t it cover the entire arena and then some? Sure, it might make a decent stage, but come on! No other character from the screenshot can match the absurdity of the moon, but several come fairly close: Navi, Goomba, Dampe, Saria, the Animal Crossing character, et cetera. It is readily apparent that these characters suck not only for the reasons expressed above, but more importantly, because, for various reasons, they wouldn’t work. Navi is too small, a Goomba lacks appendages, Saria is a pacifist, and Dampe would be limited to hitting foes with his shovel.
The bottom line is that this list of characters, while amusing, is fundamentally lacking for too many reasons to bother mentioning and offers no practical indication of where Brawl may be headed. All we can hope is that its author was being humorous. But, though it offers no pragmatic value, I do think it is valuable in showing why so many other proposals go awry, albeit in an exaggerated fashion.
With that, my list (* denotes a character that could work with a proper move set, + denotes a totally revamped move set for a veteran):
Mario Series:
Mario; Luigi; Bowser; Peach; Wario; Baby Bowser; Yoshi; Paper Mario; Birdo*
Zelda Series:
Link; Zelda/Sheik; Ganondorf; Toon shaded Young Link; Zant*; Midna*; Tingle*
Donkey Kong Series:
Donkey Kong; Diddy Kong; King or Captain Krool; Dixie*
F-Zero Series:
Captain Falcon; Samurai Goroh; Black Shadow*
Star Fox Series:
Fox; Falco; Krystal; Wolf* or General Scales*
Kirby Series:
Kirby; Meta Knight; King Dede
Metroid Series
Samus; Zero Suit Samus; Fusion Suit Samus*; Dark Samus*; Ridley*; Significant Hunter from Corruption*
Pokemon Series:
Pikachu; Mewtwo; New Pokemon*, New Pokemon*
Nintendo Traditional RPG Characters:
Ike (Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance); Eirika (Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones); Isaac (Golden Sun); Felix (Golden Sun); possibly an applicable character from Advance Wars.
“Miscellaneous/Gimmick” Characters:
Ness; Pit; Ice Climbers: Captain Olimar*; Little Mac*
Third Party Characters:
Snake (Konami); Sonic (Sega); Mega Man or Viewtiful Joe (Capcom); Cloud or Sora (Square Enix)
Subtractions:
Dr. Mario; Pichu; Mr. Game and Watch; Young Link; Marth; Roy; Jigglypuff
Now for some explanations!
Pending the addition of Birdo (which I do not feel strongly about either way, though I’m leaning towards a no), the Mario series will be represented by eight or nine characters—most in the game. Considering the high quality, highly versatile nature of the series’ mascots, not to mention the fact that it is (in theory) Nintendo’s flagship series, this is okay. I purposely omitted Waluigi because I felt he was a boring character with little potential and noticeably subservient to Wario anyway. I’m also not fond of Luigi, but to omit him would be offensive to some. I would like the developers to revamp his move set to further differentiate him from Mario (cloned characters were all too common in Melee), but this might be difficult. They are brothers with similar abilities and anatomy, so it is understandable if they remain clones (at the very least, equipping him with the poltergeist 3000—useful for collecting items quickly—might be cool). The substitution of Paper Mario for Dr. Mario is a beneficial one; Paper Mario will not merely function as another clone. He will transform into a paper airplane to return to the stage and use his hammer and other unique abilities in combat. The other addition is Baby Bowser. I think he is significant enough to include and offers a number of move possibilities. He should boast his handkerchief and paint brush from Mario Sunshine and his “final Smash” could be to summon a giant Bowser in the background that would pummel the stage with projectiles (ala Yoshi’s Island).
The Zelda series will be the recipient of a makeover as well. Ganondorf, as Link, will be portrayed in his Twilight Princess model. More importantly, he will no longer be a shameless clone of Captain Falcon. He will not only wield a badass blade, but be able to send out balls of energy as in Ocarina of Time (though he should maintain his Warlock punch as it fits his character well). Young Link will be portrayed in his toon shaded Wind Waker model. A speed character, his movement will be fluid and quick—a very fun character to play. He will use the Deku Leaf as his recovery move, and his bombs would explode with cel-shaded wonder!
Zant and Midna, the stars of Twilight Princess, are both appealing characters that would grant the developers a fair amount of freedom. Being magical sorcerers in and of itself makes them potentially versatile additions—the developers would not necessarily be restricted by the game they’re from. However, there are a few decisions that must be made. First, would Midna ride Wolf Link or be her own character? Determining this will go a long way in shaping her move set. Secondly, I feel it would be awkward to include one and not the other; therefore, I believe the developers ought to either include both OR Tingle. My bet is that most fans would prefer the former. Including all three would give legendary franchise seven characters and a huge boost from the previous outing. This could help the game seem less “Mario-centric” or it could further reduce the impact of other series.
The Donkey Kong series was obviously in need of greater representation. The most obvious remedy is the addition of Diddy Kong. I envision him equipped with his Peanut Pop Guns, orange grenades, and jetpack from Donkey Kong 64. His tail would be his primary close range weapon. KRool is also an attractive addition—a character from the DK series that is not a primate. The rest of the gang from DK64—Lanky, Tiny, Chunky—are all basically equal, so it makes no sense to include one with the others, and I sure as hell wouldn’t want all of them! Dixie makes slightly more sense, but she is a long shot character. Imagining her return to the stage with her hair twirl is very appealing to me, but this alone does not warrant her entry to the brawl.
F-Zero is undoubtedly a lesser Nintendo franchise, so perhaps to include both Samurai Goroh and Black Shadow would be exorbitant and unbefitting of the franchise’s actual weight. At the very least, I believe Goroh deserves entry. He is a cool looking big character in a game that is short of cool looking big characters. I could see him as a formidable close range fighter, possibly sharing a few moves with Captain Falcon (which is obviously far more logical than Falcon sharing moves with Ganondorf). He could also wield a blade.
Krystal is a common sense addition from another underrepresented franchise. I like her because she has good move potential due to her staff. She could use it to ground-pound; to shoot fireballs; to spray ice; in melee; and to burst herself upward in recovery. Wolf and General Scales are other remote possibilities that could work assuming they had decent move sets. Because it is likely that Fox and Falco will remain relative clones, Wolf should not be added unless he provides a sufficiently original frame. General Scales, on the other hand, is a completely open ended character since we never saw him in actual combat in Star Fox Adventures (which was bull**** by the way).
It is already confirmed that Kirby will be getting a much deserved boost from Meta Knight. You would think that Hal (the studio that develops Smash Bros and Kirby) would want a better showing from their own series! Meta Knight looks to be an awesome character and perhaps my favorite confirmed newcomer. King Dede, as probably the second most recognizable Kirby mascot, is another common sense addition. He will lend some physical strength to team Kirby, though there might be concerns regarding his move set.
The Metroid series is the biggest question mark of all and pondering its place in Brawl has frustrated me on many occasions. On one hand, ignoring sales, Metroid is likely the third most adored Nintendo franchise behind Mario and Zelda (Pokemon caters to a different crowd). On the other, it is a series that is mostly devoid of personalities and characters and thus very challenging to represent accordingly in Super Smash Brothers. There are a number of different approaches to improve Metroid’s standing, but none of them seem quite satisfactory to me. Zero Suit Samus is a start, but in some ways, I’d almost prefer to have her be a second form of power suit Samus much the way that Sheik is a second form of Zelda. It is decidedly awkward to have two of the same character (even if they’re in different forms). But, if we accept that there will be two, is it much greater of a stretch for there to be three or four? Fusion Suit Samus could be a quicker, less powerful version of Power Suit Samus, but also wield superior “diffusion” missiles. Or, might there be an important hunter from Corruption that would be an attractive candidate? What about Ridley? Combing through the entire Metroid series that dates back all the way to 1986, Samus’s long time adversary is possibly the only adequate character besides Samus herself! The other long time adversaries—Kraid and Motherbrain—are simply too large to be feasible, Dark Samus and the SA-X are merely redundant forms of the Samus model, and I’ve already addressed why I feel looking to the hunters from Metroid Prime Hunters for fresh blood is a huge mistake. Ridley is the best option, but I’m continually stumped in devising a good move set for him. First, the question must be asked, what of his wings? He can fly. This poses a serious problem. Secondly, his physical size would need to be trimmed down substantially to make him fit plausibly in with the other characters—this, however, is doable. To be truthful, I’m interested to see what the developers come up with.
I must confess that I am no longer familiar with the Pokemon franchise. I am totally ignorant of all Pokemon released after Gold and Silver. Yet, though I have a strong distaste with the lackluster designs of many of the newer generations of Pokemon, I acknowledge the need to update characters to better represent the modern games. What I mean to say is that, whatever new Pokemon those still acquainted with the series deem “best” or “most popular” (probably either the legendary Pokemon or cutesy easily recognized Pokemon—ideally one each) should be added to replace the defunct Pichu and less than useful Jigglypuff. I personally enjoy Mewtwo’s move set and physics, but am not entirely against ditching him to implement a more symmetric distribution of Pokemon throughout its history. That is, a single Pokmon to represent each of the four generations of new releases—it is obviously mandatory that Pikachu represent the first generation. Togepi or Celebii might be good options for the second. After that, I am at a loss. Finally, to lessen the blow of Jigglypuff’s omission (which might anger those who have taken a liking to her clumsy but devastating “rest” attack) one of the new Pokemon must be endowed with a similar ability. Again, Togepii might be a good bet.
Nintendo’s anime stars will also be given a shot in the arm with the entry of Golden Sun characters. I am a huge advocate of the Golden Sun series. I liked the chance of Isaac and Felix making an appearance even before third party characters were announced, and now, I’d like to think that at least one of them is a certainty. They will naturally play similar not only to one another, but their Fire Emblem counterparts (along with being able to use Djinns and earth based psynergy). The Fire Emblem characters, which in effect are to replace Marth and Roy, were simply extracted from the more recent Fire Emblem games. These are all very elegant characters. Less elegant, and frankly, less of a possibility, though certainly not an impossibility, would be the surprise appearance of a character from the Advance Wars series. Yet again, I must confess that I have never played an Advanced Wars game, but it is still a reasonably successful Nintendo series and probably deserves more attention than it has gotten. It there is an applicable character, I’d like to see them.
Then we come to the little known characters who hail from obscure franchises. Ness is in need of a tune up. He is a fun to play and it is not hard to see what Hal had in mind for him, but the execution was not their. He needs to be made more competitive. Pit, who is confirmed and whom I called on even before he was revealed, looks to be coming along fine—he’ll be one of the first characters I try out. Captain Olimar, in all honesty, will be difficult to figure into the equation. I love the Pikmin franchise and happen to be a huge proponent of its expansion and shoehorning Olimar in might give it a stimulus. Unfortunately, it is quite hard indeed to envision a pragmatic move set for him. I predict him ending up either too weak or too strong, ultimately throwing off the balance of the game as a whole. Still, I remain optimistic that Hal will find a way to incorporate him in an effective manner. Finally, summed up, Little Mac (or any number of other forgotten NES characters) could be Brawl’s Mr. Game and Watch—more of a novelty than anything else.
And what about the advent of third party characters? Initially, I was upset about it, but have sense opened up to the idea. Nevertheless, my position, and presumably the position of a majority of Nintendo fans, is that they should nowhere near equal the Nintendo mascots in number. A small handful will suffice. Ideally, to continue with my theme of symmetry, I’d like to see exactly one mascot from between four and six companies. Snake, Konami’s most famous mascot, is confirmed. Sonic is the only sane choice from Sega. I have never been an avid fan of Square Enix, but I know others are crazy about them. I threw out a few suggestions, but almost any major character from any Final Fantasy will do the trick for me. Sora from Kingdom Hearts is another interesting option. Capcom poses a problem; there are two excellent and relevant candidates from them—Mega Man and Viewtiful Joe. This is a dilemma. Do we limit ourselves to just one or the other, or do we include both at the expense of appealing symmetry? (not to mention showing favoritism) Other reasonable candidates are Ubi Soft’s Rayman and Namco’s Pacman.
If every single character under my plan were to be included, the total would come to 57, which would an over twofold increase over Melee (though barely a half of the ridiculous proposal from earlier). This grand total would not only put tremendous strain on the developers, but overwhelm players as well. However, when we take into account that I assigned disclaimers on many of the above characters, we arrive at a more realistic figure of hovering around the mid forties. This is still a massive leap from Melee. The fact that I call for fewer clones only sharpens the disparity. While I do concede I doubt they’ll reach this number in reality, I will still contend that they could and in fact should. Brawl is a massive undertaking. Numerous developers are on board. It is the game, more than any other, that can perpetuate Wii’s success for a generation. At the same time, it is largely based on a gameplay system that was made famous almost a decade ago. If the system is undergoing mere tweaks (as it seems to be), what better aspect for the developers to focus on then delivering an unprecedented amount of content—characters included—to fully realize a brawl to end all others?
Anyway, the third one would have to be something different than a swordsman or even a mage. We seem to be getting a lot of those, now, too.