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As the Smash ballot has ended and the final DLC has been announced, I know there are many happy people with the results, but I also know that there has been some disappointment. Most of the disappointment revolves around certain characters not getting into the game (occasionally that certain characters did make it in), and the fact of the matter is: there are far too many characters and fans of them for everyone to be completely satisfied! The game can only feasibly have so many characters, stages, and combinations of abilities. Or can it?
One of the biggest new features of Smash 4 was customization of fighters, and I was so excited for the prospects of this. However, it has been heinously underutilized, and basically discontinued. Which is a shame, because I believe it could have solved so many problems and satisfied so many players.
The main problem with customization in Smash 4 is that you can't always do it. It's banned online except for with friends or in tournaments, and can't be used in some offline modes. So...that severely limits the opportunities for people to use customized fighters in most cases. And if players can't use a feature, it won't stick. Not only that, but the new DLC fighters don't have any custom moves, basically sending the message that "Yeah, we aren't supporting custom moves anymore." Each fighter was supposed to have 4 variants of each special move and this was reduced to 3. Why has DLC not added any more custom moves? Or costumes? Or stage creation elements? Fighters and stages and Mii outfits are nice, but they're not the only things I think people would buy.
The other problem is that custom moves sometimes had care and thought put into them, and sometimes not. Palutena and Mega Man are great examples of what custome moves should look like. Especially with the former, it allows a player to keep using the same character but in drastically new and varied ways. It really shakes things up and keeps things fresh. Unfortunately, like I said above, you can't always do that and so most people are just used to Palutena's standard special moves.
Where are Samus's Ice Missiles or Wave Beam, or Toon Link's Deku Leaf? Why couldn't Ganondorf actually get a full-fledged magic/sword getup with custom special moves, including a projectile? Why couldn't there have been Wario Land-inspired moves for Wario as custom specials? No Rock Pikmin as custom specials? Etc. etc. Most of the special moves just aren't compelling enough for people to want to use them consistently, and again, even if they did, they can't always do so.
Mii fighters are conceptually a great idea, as it allows for extended customization of a fighter and can basically fulfill the desires of many fans for certain characters to appear in the game without actually being their own fighter on the CSS. Again, they can't always be used however, which really kills the excitement. And apart from that, they're still pretty limited. Why do we even need classes? I think there should have been templates to start from as a base, but that you could alter any special or standard move to make your mii fighter truly unique and fitting to your playstyle. Why can't a Mii fighter throw a shuriken, perform a head-pound into the ground, and launch a missile? Why NOT??
Also, Mii fighter hats of characters' faces should not be hats. I don't want to wear Fox's skinned face as a hat. A K. Rool Mii costume could have been so much more compelling if the "hat" were more like a "helmet" and granted the appearance that I was actually playing as K. Rool. Wouldn't that have been so much better? Additionally, if the heads of Mii fighters (and maybe body proportions too) could have been scaled according to taste, players could have created custom fighters that aren't all chibi, meaning that a custom fighter with a Chrom costume might actually blend in with the rest of the fighters and the character could have kinda legitimately been added to the game. But instead we must have chibi Chrom, if you want him at all.
Eventually, Smash Bros. can't just keep adding in more and more characters until the end of time. I believe the answer to this is giving players the tools to create any fighter they wish, along with the recurring cast of full-fledged characters of course. Smash 4 kinda dipped its toes in this idea but then backed out. And that's a shame, because fully embracing customizable fighters in a fighting game that demands ever more characters to be added really seems like the only way to go.
But that's just a theory--a GAME THEORY! Thanks for reading.
One of the biggest new features of Smash 4 was customization of fighters, and I was so excited for the prospects of this. However, it has been heinously underutilized, and basically discontinued. Which is a shame, because I believe it could have solved so many problems and satisfied so many players.
The main problem with customization in Smash 4 is that you can't always do it. It's banned online except for with friends or in tournaments, and can't be used in some offline modes. So...that severely limits the opportunities for people to use customized fighters in most cases. And if players can't use a feature, it won't stick. Not only that, but the new DLC fighters don't have any custom moves, basically sending the message that "Yeah, we aren't supporting custom moves anymore." Each fighter was supposed to have 4 variants of each special move and this was reduced to 3. Why has DLC not added any more custom moves? Or costumes? Or stage creation elements? Fighters and stages and Mii outfits are nice, but they're not the only things I think people would buy.
The other problem is that custom moves sometimes had care and thought put into them, and sometimes not. Palutena and Mega Man are great examples of what custome moves should look like. Especially with the former, it allows a player to keep using the same character but in drastically new and varied ways. It really shakes things up and keeps things fresh. Unfortunately, like I said above, you can't always do that and so most people are just used to Palutena's standard special moves.
Where are Samus's Ice Missiles or Wave Beam, or Toon Link's Deku Leaf? Why couldn't Ganondorf actually get a full-fledged magic/sword getup with custom special moves, including a projectile? Why couldn't there have been Wario Land-inspired moves for Wario as custom specials? No Rock Pikmin as custom specials? Etc. etc. Most of the special moves just aren't compelling enough for people to want to use them consistently, and again, even if they did, they can't always do so.
Mii fighters are conceptually a great idea, as it allows for extended customization of a fighter and can basically fulfill the desires of many fans for certain characters to appear in the game without actually being their own fighter on the CSS. Again, they can't always be used however, which really kills the excitement. And apart from that, they're still pretty limited. Why do we even need classes? I think there should have been templates to start from as a base, but that you could alter any special or standard move to make your mii fighter truly unique and fitting to your playstyle. Why can't a Mii fighter throw a shuriken, perform a head-pound into the ground, and launch a missile? Why NOT??
Also, Mii fighter hats of characters' faces should not be hats. I don't want to wear Fox's skinned face as a hat. A K. Rool Mii costume could have been so much more compelling if the "hat" were more like a "helmet" and granted the appearance that I was actually playing as K. Rool. Wouldn't that have been so much better? Additionally, if the heads of Mii fighters (and maybe body proportions too) could have been scaled according to taste, players could have created custom fighters that aren't all chibi, meaning that a custom fighter with a Chrom costume might actually blend in with the rest of the fighters and the character could have kinda legitimately been added to the game. But instead we must have chibi Chrom, if you want him at all.
Eventually, Smash Bros. can't just keep adding in more and more characters until the end of time. I believe the answer to this is giving players the tools to create any fighter they wish, along with the recurring cast of full-fledged characters of course. Smash 4 kinda dipped its toes in this idea but then backed out. And that's a shame, because fully embracing customizable fighters in a fighting game that demands ever more characters to be added really seems like the only way to go.
But that's just a theory--a GAME THEORY! Thanks for reading.
