What is this? Enlightenment?

[Ojanya]

When I woke up this morning, I never thought I would be typing a post fourteen hours later defending Brawl. But now, with a glass of strawberry milk as pink as a pigs posterior in my hand, I'm going to do just that.

Ever since I first heard of Brawl, I was psyched. The first trailer, you know the one, epic music, epic fighting, epic graphics, epic everything! I was pumped! I didn't even consider it could be a downgrade...

Around January this year, I couldn't control myself. I was so happy that I would be playing Brawl later that Month. Just a few more days is what I would always think; Brawl will be amazing. Of course, there was the delay. I thought it was for the best, and I sucked it up.

Then came the Japan release. All of the sudden people start complaining about how Brawl sucks. I was with everyone else, "Give Brawl time, it's hardly ever been out!." The other excuses, keep thinking to myself, Brawl will be amazing.

When I got Brawl. I was horrified. Combos didn't exist, it was slow, and of course, I finally understood tripping's huge impact.

I then proceeded to talk **** about Brawl as much as I could. I would go around saying how much of a downgrade it was, how much Melee pwned it, and why it's terrible for competitive play. The worst part was, for me, no combos. How can I play such a game? A fighting game with no combos? Worse yet, a SMASH game with no combos? What was this nightmare?

I've been roaming the boards a lot recently. I've been watching debates mainly between Yuna and AlphaZealot. I've been watching it very closely, and trying to find an answer for myself. What I had come up with, was that Brawl was terrible, and it will never be good.
I decided I would go down and mess around on Melee some, when I saw the Brawl disc just...laying there.

For some reason, I just decided to put the disc in, and play. Then it happened. Bam, just like that, something clicked. I thought, possibly, I was wrong about Brawl being terrible. It wasn't because I found some amazing combo, it wasn't because I didn't trip, and it wasn't because the game sped up. It was because of my opinion of it. This is what I just thought of:

Could I have been turned into such a deep steriotyping person that I didn't think of this? Maybe, fighting games don't need amazing combos, maybe they don't need speed. Spacing takes incredible skill in Brawl, as much as the amazing tech skill in Melee? Probably not. However, it does require skill. There are things in Brawl that are SO COMPLETELY different, that I never could get past...until now. There is no universal combo...just you.

Mainly, I'm trying to figure out what just happened to me. I guess I still like Melee more at the moment, but suddenly Brawl makes so much more sense, and I tend to practice a bit with it until I understand more. I'm not trying to upset anyone, or convert anyone, I would like it very much if both Brawl and Melee thrived. I'm simply posting all of this to figure out what was going on. Ignorance, to denial, to ignorance, to enlightenment? What happened?

 

[Tables]

Aw, thats so sweet.

 

[Twin Dreams]

OH NO!!! Where did our combos go?! Now the game sucks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCFRSqpb8uc

 

[MrOtter]

Most people started running around like headless chickens when they heard about tripping.

Add in the "NO COMBOS IN BRAWL" and people began to **** themselves. Of course combo's exist in Brawl, they're just spacing, tech chase and DI dependant (so not true combos if you're being a Mr Pickypants).

People are starting to come round to Brawl I think. Camping isn't as huge a problem as everybody made it. It was made out to be this huge demon, but it just turned out to be a folk devil. (Yes, I have played against campers).

Defence is much more important in this game, so what? I'm having fun. :3

 

[Yuna]

This is because most of your original opinions of the game were misguided.

"It doesn't require skill because the tech skill is gone" - Not a big deal. The big deal is that there is nothing to replace the options we lost with said techs.
"It's slow" - Not too big a deal unless you consider that this game already doesn't have High-Mid-Low mixups. In the past, we could use speed to mixup aerials into jabs/dash away to bait a whiffed shieldgrab/grab/smash. Now we can't because pretty much everything is unsafe.
"Combos don't exist" - Big deal in a game without mixupping, pressuring, approach, etc.

 

[Calixto]

Twas only a matter of time till Yuna decided to extinguish any manner of hope or happiness from this thread.

 

[Ojanya]

Most people started running around like headless chickens when they heard about tripping.

Add in the "NO COMBOS IN BRAWL" and people began to **** themselves. Of course combo's exist in Brawl, they're just spacing, tech chase and DI dependant (so not true combos if you're being a Mr Pickypants).

People are starting to come round to Brawl I think. Camping isn't as huge a problem as everybody made it. It was made out to be this huge demon, but it just turned out to be a folk devil. (Yes, I have played against campers).

Defence is much more important in this game, so what? I'm having fun. :3

I still have more fun in Melee though. I loved the speed...

Melee > Brawl, still imo.

 

[Tofu Beast]

well

Another pointless thread...

Isn't this the same argument as the past 5 threads about it today?

 

[Ojanya]

well

Another pointless thread...

Isn't this the same argument as the past 5 threads about it today?

This isn't an argument. Maybe if you would read my post more carefully, (though i'll admit, it is challenging to work through) you would understand that I'm simply saying that I want some discussion to what everyone's thoughts are that this just suddenly came to me.

 

[RomeDogg]

All this did was made me remember how much i looked forward to the game until i realized it sucked after playing it for a couple days......

 

[boom-man97]

ok i think the real reason everyone is so fired up is that they expected melee 2.0
and as someone stated a while ago" brawl is not melee 2.0"
the game is Brawl
i dont see why you cant just stop griping and find something that you like a Brawl thats an IMPROVMENT over melee.

 

[shatoga]

I just like the game in general.Why do people say it sucks so much?

 

[crosser43]

sigh...its gud stuff and all but comon, repetitive threads
also, plain white skim 2% milk is better than ur strawberry milk

 

[Yuna]

ok i think the real reason everyone is so fired up is that they expected melee 2.0
and as someone stated a while ago" brawl is not melee 2.0"
the game is Brawl
i dont see why you cant just stop griping and find something that you like a Brawl thats an IMPROVMENT over melee.

Battlefield.

 

[KernelColonel]

I think the initial shock phase is over for most Brawlers. Now we can get on with our lives and play Brawl to no end, competetively or for fun. People will still complain, there will be people that like Melee way better, but now that the game's been out for over a month (in NA), the dust has settled. Most have adapted to the new physics by now.

I'm just glad the hate is *almost* over.

That said, congratulations on your revelation.

 

[Meta Ryu]

he merely realized how kick *** Brawl is. All this flaming makes people forget that. Brawl is not a bad game, on the contrary it's excellence is amazingly high. It's just this whole flame war thats been going thats taking the casualties of our love for smash.

 

[House M.D.]

ok, here's what i think happened to beab. he hated brawl at first for all the reasons we have enumerated. but whenever he played it, he loved it, and he tried to think of an explanation. this has happened to me; despite all of yuna's reasons for disliking brawl/not thinking it's tournament viable (which i understand and accept), i still have fun trying to get good at the game. and that can't be argued against (unless i'm an aberration...but i still have fun :D)

hopefully after XESTICLE this weekend, i will still think that high-level play is fun. we'll see!

 

[SunriseW12]

Whenever I browse these forums, I always get a sick feeling in my stomach and an unjustified hatred for brawl.

 

[Corigames]

I'm all for diversity in gaming. I loved Katamari Damasy (spelling?). Okami was fantastic. Wind Waker was a nice change-up from the "norm" of Zelda games. Portal, need I say more? However, not every deviation from the "norm" turns out great.

Brawl for instance. Most fighters depend on knowing a certain repetition of motions in order to pull off a combo. Smash was different. You were given a bunch of moves and told to use them in repetition to one another. No quarter circles, no 5 button hits to use your special. That's it. That's what made it great. It was more of a platformer than a fighter. One of the best platformer/fighters. So then Brawl comes along and fudges everything up. It becomes a platformer/party game. It's nothing like its predecessors and, in general, the past users don't like it. They should have just started a different franchise, IMHO.

At least, that's my feelings.

 

[Yuna]

ok, here's what i think happened to beab. he hated brawl at first for all the reasons we have enumerated. but whenever he played it, he loved it, and he tried to think of an explanation. this has happened to me; despite all of yuna's reasons for disliking brawl/not thinking it's tournament viable (which i understand and accept), i still have fun trying to get good at the game. and that can't be argued against (unless i'm an aberration...but i still have fun :D)

hopefully after XESTICLE this weekend, i will still think that high-level play is fun. we'll see!

I still play it and find it fun enough. In fact, I won a local tournament this past weekend. I still wouldn't travel for just Brawl or put down money to play in a Brawl tournament (unless I was reaaaally sure to win).

 

[Jennifer Stogner]

I kind of did that too.
When I first played brawl, I hated how everything was slower
How it never seemed to zoom in enough on the characters at first
How you trip
The smash ball
But then...it's all new, and exciting. It's more realistic.
Of course you can't realistically roll backwards off a ledge and not actually fall...but still...

 

[Meta Ryu]

So I got bored and read the rules again after searching unsuccesfuly for how many posts are needed for next rank up from smash child. And read some more rules that asit seemed to me made my writing a lil bit iffy. So I just erased it and heres what it boils down to.


Love teh smash, of all boxes and colors.