Tips for getting back into Smash 4?

[Ocarina Stealer]

I haven't played Smash 4 since about the time when Bayonetta was released. At one point I was going along very well and my ability was pretty good but now I'm playing badly. Does anyone have any tips on how to get back into the game and getting up to scratch?

 

[Chief Hotsuin]

Well, l'd say figure out why you've been doing badly. Has something in your personal life been bugging you? Is there some L you have yet to drop that makes you feel like you can't play? Too busy obsessing over other games (lol me)? First off, l think you'd want to figure that out.

 

[LucinaNab1]

I'm in this same position. Didn't play FG for like 6 months and now that I come back, I can hardly beat anyone. I do the best I can, try to read and adapt, but I can never be fast enough. Doesn't help that I use a somewhat slow character...

It feels like cod all over again and I ended up quitting that.

 

[Mordecai Hazard]

Training mode. I haven't played it for 4 months and I could barely win against anyone. It's been 2 weeks and I've back to my old pro self. How I did this was basically play against lvl 9 cpu's for hours until I adapted, then I started playing online again to adapt to good players.

 

[LucinaNab1]

I'm in some barren wasteland where I can destroy level 9 cpus but humans are too much for me. The good ones anyway.

COD turned out the same way. Played for four years, didn't get much better (went from 0.50 to 1.13 kd) so I quit.

I'm really starting to think that playing games with only one eye is a huge disadvantage. Perhaps competitive gaming isn't my thing. I get too angry to have much fun, in any case. I have more fun screwing around with the cpu in levels I download or create.

 

[Chief Hotsuin]

I'm in some barren wasteland where I can destroy level 9 cpus but humans are too much for me. The good ones anyway

lt's good to see that you're willing to say it's not for you. lf that's the issue, then there's really not much we can do,

If it's because you're spending all of your time with CPUs or FG, then that could be something too. l've gone through time periods (and still am) where all the smash l've played was 3DS bots and PM with some friends and as soon as l go online, everything kinda falls apart. (lt didn't help that Falcons learned how to dash dance, finally) lt gets to a point where you know how these things you fight over and over again move and act because of how much exposure you've had to them and it'll seem difficult to fight anything else. l think a useful thing to help is to pick up a new character, someone fundamental and simple, but not necessarily boring. Mario and lke sorta did it for me in these kinda situations.

Maybe that's the kinda problem Ocarina Stealer has?

 

[LucinaNab1]

I try to work on my bad habits. The problem is I just don't have the reaction speed most people have. I only have one good eye... so I have to focus on one character or the other. People have all these split second inputs and reactions, I just don't have the patience for all that.

I watched a video one time that said humans can't react quicker than 8 frames... well my reaction must take around 16 frames, then. By the time I've tried to react to the move, it's too late. Even worse is I've been gaming for 25 years, I should be all on top of this by now.

I've considered getting a sparring partner, but do I really want to lose 50 million times in a row?

 

[HYP3R]

I've considered getting a sparring partner, but do I really want to lose 50 million times in a row?

I see this question come up a lot with struggling players, and I've had to deal with it quite a few times myself.

"What's the point of playing this game when I lose all the time?"

The truth is, there's no point in playing when you win all the time either. If you won every match, it would get boring, and you'd find something else to challenge yourself. Sure, there are Smash tournaments where you make a lot of money for winning, but majority of us aren't a pro player yet.

I think the best way to play Smash is to play to learn, rather than play to win. Learn more about your character, learn more about other people's characters. Try new characters. Figure out what your mistakes are and fix them. Nobody likes losing, I sure don't. But you have to accept the fact that you have to lose in order to improve yourself, and eventually, win.

Of course this doesn't work with everyone, but I recommend you at least give playing to learn a try before you put Smash down for good.

If you ever need a sparring partner feel free to PM me, we've played before anyway.

 

[LucinaNab1]

The issue with me is, I grew up being the teacher, not the learner. I used to draw out my own little instruction books and what not, sometimes even color them. I was very creative as a kid. I liked doing that, I like teaching people.

And if I won all the time, I'd feel like I'm teaching other people how to be better. What if I don't want a challenge? What if I only game to kick back and relax, and not stress myself over difficulty? If I wanted a challenge I'd still be playing COD or Battlefield. I quit both because I don't have what it takes to keep up with all these 13 year olds with two good eyes.

I play Mario Kart and other Mario games better. I just destroyed someone last night in Ultra Smash. 7-0, and I felt pretty good about it. I can win more races in Mario Kart.

I have a blast screwing around with the mods now. My avatar is proof of that.

If I play, I play. If I don't, I don't, and most of the time I play it's against the CPU or when my bro and sis come over. We all have a blast!

 

[Dig Dug]

Same here. I only started playing again after about a year long break. What I've been doing to get back into it is beating cpus in training with a focus on taking as little damage as possible while also practicing on movement/some tech here and there: rar bairs, b reversing, etc... Not everything at once, just whatever I feel like working on at the moment. I also always set the cpu to level 7 as I find 9s to be a little too unnatural to fight against what with their reaction times and all. I haven't played much online yet, but I can already tell I'm playing a lot better than when I picked up the game again a few weeks ago.

What if I don't want a challenge? What if I only game to kick back and relax, and not stress myself over difficulty?

Play smash however it suits you, then. Tbh, I think people tend to stress too much on the competitive side of things anyways. The game's a lot more than 1v1s, and when you focus on only that I feel you end up missing a big part of the game. I've had a lot fun playing serious 1v1s, sure, but I've also had a blast playing 2v2s and FFAs, items or no items, or doing stupid stuff in the offline modes. Heck, if there was a bigger interest for it (and if for fun wasn't trash 90% of the time...), FFAs with items would probably be my preferred choice. No worries over winning or losing, and some of the silliest things can only happen in that mode. There's a lot of ways to play smash is what I'm saying, and that's what I love about it.

 

[LucinaNab1]

I agree with all this logic, however, the competitive side of me wants to make everyone else lose too cause I want to be the best! lol