What's Left? Not Much!

[kirbykid]

So I made a list of all the things I predict will be in Brawl. Months ago, I would have been called a hopeless “Nintendo Fanboy” dreamer for creating such a list. Back then, people thought Brawl wouldn’t even be online let alone have “extraneous” features like Replay Saves and a Stage Builder. Needless to say, times have changed. Now, I, the radical dreamer, is looking quite down to earth. When some asked me how I predict Brawl so accurately, I told them that all the announced features are pretty obvious when you realize that…
<ol>
<li>Smash Melee is the Gamecube’s biggest game</li>
<li>Brawl is supposed to be the flagship title for a Wii online service</li>
<li>Nintendo has supplied the smash development team with lots of time, money, and extra staff from their top development teams.</li>
<li>Sakurai tried to do so much with Melee, but he simply ran out of time.</li>
</ol>
So now that we have so many features confirmed for Brawl, what’s left to predict? Even from my point of view, I’m running out of features and options to predict. But this only excites me. I wonder what Sakurai will include that will blow my mind.

In the spirit of running out of (significant) predictions, I’ll share the end of my list. First, the Stage Builder needs these things to be complete in my opinion….


<ol>
<li><strong>Collect more pieces </strong>(floors, structures, features)</li>
<li><strong>Collect more backgrounds </strong></li>
<li><strong>The ability to set specific items to spawn on the levels. </strong>This is pretty self explanatory. I want to be able to build a stage with two latters that climb to a platform with a Cracker launcher resting on top of each. I want to be able to make a stage with weapons lining the sides so players are free to grab a weapon and enter the battle.</li>
<li><strong>Gameplay buttons</strong>: ie. Break the Targets, Board the Platforms, Switches that can change the level (maybe drop specific items into the match), Capture the Flag, King of the Hill. These specific types of games can only be created if the necessary items are available to us.</li>
<li><strong>Set Defaults/Rules</strong> (bonus, coins/stamina/stock/characters): If I make a challenge stage that’s designed for a specific character, I want to be able to set the stage to default to that character.</li>
</ol>
The scroll bar and the palette switch function in the screenshot give me hope for these features.
<p align="center"> <img src="http://smashboards.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/various10_071029c-l1.jpg" /></p>
Now for the rest of the list. In no particular order….
<ol>
<li><a href="http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=114808"><strong>Equipable items</strong></a></li>
<li><strong><a href="http://smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=119649">Classic Smash</a></strong></li>
<li><strong>Mii that uses WiiSports motion controls and pointer functions. </strong>I know Brawl is controller friendly, but I would like at least one character that uses the wiimotes motion and pointing features. What better character than Mii… KirbyKid to support my own wish.</li>
<li><strong>Tag Teams 3v3:</strong> This would be an interesting dynamic to teams play where the extra player can be tagged into the match to dynamically switch up strategies.</li>
<li><strong>Voice Chat:</strong> Though the Wii doesn’t have any kind of mic support, I think it would be pretty easy for the Wii to connect to the DS to use its microphone. If it lags out online play, then they can make voice chat only available before and after each match like Metroid Prime Hunters.</li>
<li><strong><a href="http://www.guitarhero.com/accounts/206806">Website:</a> </strong>I have to compliment the GuitarHero website. Not only does it provide unique functions that the consoles couldn’t feature (ie. cross console leader boards), but it also has features that enrich the GuitarHero community. The site has googlemap player locater, a tournament organizer, clan/crew support, and forums all built in. But one of the my favorite features is the ability to encounter any player in the game, and search them out on the site. After you find them, you can check their stats and even request to become their friend and the site will sync the data with the game automatically. If you don’t quite understand, this feature practically eliminates friend codes. If more games do this on the Wii, then no one would have anything left to attack about it’s online capabilities.</li>
<li><strong>Content Packs/Updates.</strong> Sakurai said it best himself … “With a feature like that, won’t I be able to play this game forever?!” Basically, we have nearly everything we could ever want from Brawl feature-wise. However, if the game could be tweaked after its release, then broken characters/moves and glitches can be things of the past. Also, adding new modes/rules to the game would be an extremely small file. The Wii’s small memory wouldn’t be a problem. With such a feature, Brawl would start detracting sales from Brawl2 that would release on the Nintendo Uss years from now.</li>
</ol>
And that’s it. That’s all I got. (Unless I think of something of course)

 

[AniMaL 214]

i agree with basically everything except there should be event matches again

 

[Banana_Dragon]

"Should be" ?

You make it sound as if it's uncertain that they will return.
Trust me, they will and there will be more of them and even better ones.

 

[evilflame101]

i think they could easily make a usb mic packaged with it and allow you to chat at least before and after the match, that would own!

btw nice predictions

 

[Galt]

I'd like to see your Tag 3v3 idea expanded into a whole mode. I want Brawl to include a mode which plays a bit like MvC: one player can switch characters in real-time during a match. Or, you could play true tag-team style, so you can tag in your human-controlled partner. I don't need you to be able to perform team supers, but switching characters would make a very interesting dynamic and would also force people to learn more than one character (assuming your team didn't share one percent, which might be tolerable either way).

 

[METROID MAN]

I have a beef with online play that i hope they DONT include. In Worms 2 for DS, Online i kinda hard because, first you pick: Random, Friend, Rival or Ranked match.
If you pick random, then you pick what TYPE of game, deatmatch, race.... after that you need to pick if you want to find 2,3, or 4 players. This is stupid because its hard to find someone to play against afterentering ALL THOSE STATS.
so what im saying is, for brawl online, if you search for a random match, you should be able to pick and vote for all that stuff LATER, once the players have been gathered.

 

[LaraCroftBoy]

I think for the level creator, if you have internet on your wii, maybe we can go find like a download site that nintendo has made for the wii to be able to download... and we can download more textures for the level?

 

[Homelessvagrant]

I'm happy for you Kirbykid, the articles have been great as always. I've always supported your ideas and will continue in this trend. But anyways Kirbykid off topic:

What do you think of team attacks. Remember when Sakurai said

"There’s a method for powering yourself up as needed to do battle with the Subspace Army—a method that has not been seen before.

I’ll explain this in great detail another time."

It was in the coop update soo...

I have an entire article on the possibility here if you want to see it.

 

[greenblob]

And of course, there are the "these things have a 0% chance of being included" features.

1. Crew battle mode
2. Enhanced tournament mode (includes 2 out of 3, 3 out of 5, etc., double elim, ability to switch characters, 2v2 mode, etc.)

I also have to disagree with Metroid Man. I'll probably play tournament style matches almost exclusively (I already do that on Kaillera with Smash 64 online--in fact, I usually leave the gameroom if the host says that it's not going to be 1v1). If the players vote afterwards, I'll probably be doing a lot of quitting and rejoining.

 

[kirbykid]

And of course, there are the "these things have a 0% chance of being included" features.

1. Crew battle mode
2. Enhanced tournament mode (includes 2 out of 3, 3 out of 5, etc., double elim, ability to switch characters, 2v2 mode, etc.)

You don't think that the tournament mode will include such features? Do you think Sakurai has buried himself in a hole for the past 6 years? I'm sure he's VERY aware of the tournament scene in Japan and around the world. He certainly knows about double elim. Do you really think he's not going all out with Brawl's tournament mode after everything we've seen so far?

I have a beef with online play that i hope they DONT include. In Worms 2 for DS, Online i kinda hard because, first you pick: Random, Friend, Rival or Ranked match.
If you pick random, then you pick what TYPE of game, deatmatch, race.... after that you need to pick if you want to find 2,3, or 4 players. This is stupid because its hard to find someone to play against afterentering ALL THOSE STATS.
so what im saying is, for brawl online, if you search for a random match, you should be able to pick and vote for all that stuff LATER, once the players have been gathered.

You have a point, and I know what you're talking about. But, you mustn't forget Brawl is going to be the biggest online game on the wii Period. This means that there will be thousands even Millions of players to play with at any given time. So even if you had all those options, they'll probably be filled up.

But, otherwise, Smash3 (Brawl) should mimic a system like Halo3 or Guitar Hero 3. (There's just something unique about the 3). Halo has all sorts of lobbies for ranked and unranked. Guitar hero 3 has many different filters along with a general "just get me in a match" function that helps all those people who are setting up very specific types of games.

 

[kirbykid]

I'm happy for you Kirbykid, the articles have been great as always. I've always supported your ideas and will continue in this trend. But anyways Kirbykid off topic:

What do you think of team attacks. Remember when Sakurai said

"There’s a method for powering yourself up as needed to do battle with the Subspace Army—a method that has not been seen before.

I’ll explain this in great detail another time."

It was in the coop update soo...

I have an entire article on the possibility here if you want to see it.

Very interesting idea. We'll see what happens.

 

[EricaO_O]

The lv editor is going to be THE BEST! BTw your kirby picture is sooo cute

 

[Lag]

In total agreement with you, nice predictions.

 

[quithas]

Sweet

I have a link where you guys can test your stage buliding skills for brawl. I didnt know how to send it so Im posting it here. I hope one of the main guys who writes this stuff for use sees it and posts it. http://mntorankusu.googlepages.com/brawlstageeditor.html

 

[zKillah]

Good list. A lot of points match my own predictions from before Brawl was even announced. I want interchangeable moves. They could be attached to costumes, but I want to play Samus equipped with an ice beam, or her PED suit. I wanted a completely FLUDD-based Mario set with the spray, rocket, hover and burst nozzles.

It would open worlds for character options, while they could keep the roster from growing ludicrously large.

 

[quithas]

??

Do you guys and gals think Sakurai will stop updating the dojo after december 3rd?? Im hoping he will continue to update till the 10th of Febuary.

 

[Someone1]

I just thought of a possible idea on how Miis might come into the game. Remember Multi- Man Melee in Melee (And the Polygon Team in 64) Well imagine fighting Miis from your Wii console. Or of course the previous idea of having a Mii as a playable fighter which you select a specific Mii somehow.

 

[overthere]

I totally agree it'd be great to have even more pieces and themes for stage builder, and triggers. But as the possibilities are endless anyways, I don't find them necesary. I think item spawns are a good idea, seeing as we're going to have to set up player spawns anyway. As for CtF and KotH, this isn't Halo! But they'd still be gool. Those fall under the, "If you're going to make it better, you might as well..." category.

As for your other ideas:

1. Choose your items at the start of the match and bring them out later? Interesting concept, but it needs all the kinks worked out.
2. Meh. I like Smash Bros because its not like traditional fighting games.
3. I'd like to see a mode that involves Wiimotion, but not a character. It wouldn't fit right. Miis don't necesarily make sense as a character, though I'd like to see them involved in other ways.
4. There's already a Wii game that allows up to 8 players on one console. I'd love to see fights involving more than four players.
5. Actually, they're coming out with a Wii microphone.
6. Community features for the website are indeed a must. But it seems like this site seems to serve that purpose.
7. I'd love to see new characters, stages, and music available every several months. Or, if costumes are indeed a feature, new costumes. And especially patches.

 

[Mike87]

That was a good article, I doubt there will be an option to choose what items appear in the custom levels.

 

[kirbykid]

I totally agree it'd be great to have even more pieces and themes for stage builder, and triggers. But as the possibilities are endless anyways, I don't find them necesary. I think item spawns are a good idea, seeing as we're going to have to set up player spawns anyway. As for CtF and KotH, this isn't Halo! But they'd still be gool. Those fall under the, "If you're going to make it better, you might as well..." category.

As for your other ideas:

1. Choose your items at the start of the match and bring them out later? Interesting concept, but it needs all the kinks worked out.
2. Meh. I like Smash Bros because its not like traditional fighting games.
3. I'd like to see a mode that involves Wiimotion, but not a character. It wouldn't fit right. Miis don't necesarily make sense as a character, though I'd like to see them involved in other ways.
4. There's already a Wii game that allows up to 8 players on one console. I'd love to see fights involving more than four players.
5. Actually, they're coming out with a Wii microphone.
6. Community features for the website are indeed a must. But it seems like this site seems to serve that purpose.
7. I'd love to see new characters, stages, and music available every several months. Or, if costumes are indeed a feature, new costumes. And especially patches.

Just like you said getting equpiable items to work requires getting the "kinks" out, making a Mii character with motion controls requires the same attention. The reason you don't think it fits now is because it's never been done before. Before you found out about Pokemon Trainer, did you actually think such a character would "fit"? Did you think that designing PT would be easy?

Mii's ARE characters technically.

They're coming out with a Wii microphone? When/where did you hear this?

Character data is too big. All those sound bites. All the animations. All the additional 3D modeling. Stages... maybe. Costumes.... probable. Music.... (if it's MIDI like) sure. Patches.... of course.

That was a good article, I doubt there will be an option to choose what items appear in the custom levels.

Check out the pictures from today's update (The Summit). Do you think that the eggplant and the pumpkin are part of the level? ie. items you can pick up and throw. If so, wouldn't that be an example of items set to the level. I remember Melee had items like this. Besides the eggs on Yoshi's Story, Green Green's used to have fire flowers growing out of the stage. They changed this of course.

 

[Sneaky 2.0]

What do you mean by "equipable" items?

 

[kirbykid]

What do you mean by "equipable" items?

You can Click the link on the words "equipable items".

But, I'll just tell you anyway.

Equitable items is the idea that players can carry items with them into battle that they can pull out and use at will. From this simple idea there are all kinds of ways to balance it.

1) You can only carry a limited amount of items (let's say 4)
2) Maybe you can only summon the items by taunting. Each of the 4 taunt could represent an item.
3) Point values can be assigned to each item based on how powerful/effective they are. Summoning a golden hammer would probably cost all of your points.
4) Merge this idea with coin mode and stock mode. You still lose the game if you lose all of your stock, BUT you collect coins to purchase the items so you can use them. The harder you fight, the more items you can summon.

 

[Aeramis]

I like your ideas about the stage builder and mainly numbers 4-7 on your list.

 

[Hallowed Storm]

Ever since the release date was moved to February 10th, the updates have been more pointless than usual. Oooo... "character entry!"
I think we'll have a good update every once and a while, but for now, the updates have to be a little bit more random and not as ground-breaking.
For instance, the stage creator was one of the good ones. The Classic Mode update was one of the bad ones (it barely told us anything we didn't already know).

 

[LevesqueIsKing]

equipable items have been confirmed. Someone stated that you could wear a bunny hood and use a beam sword at the same time.

 

[PRINCESS PEACH 777]

i think it's normal to do that it's faster

 

[peach-man]

Just like you said getting equpiable items to work requires getting the "kinks" out, making a Mii character with motion controls requires the same attention. The reason you don't think it fits now is because it's never been done before. Before you found out about Pokemon Trainer, did you actually think such a character would "fit"? Did you think that designing PT would be easy?

Mii's ARE characters technically.

They're coming out with a Wii microphone? When/where did you hear this?

Character data is too big. All those sound bites. All the animations. All the additional 3D modeling. Stages... maybe. Costumes.... probable. Music.... (if it's MIDI like) sure. Patches.... of course.



Check out the pictures from today's update (The Summit). Do you think that the eggplant and the pumpkin are part of the level? ie. items you can pick up and throw. If so, wouldn't that be an example of items set to the level. I remember Melee had items like this. Besides the eggs on Yoshi's Story, Green Green's used to have fire flowers growing out of the stage. They changed this of course.

yeah, but now, green greens' tree occasionally drops apples

anyway, the MII character possibility is still akward... I don't see anyone play brawl with motion controls, because there's simply to much to do at the same time.
Combo's would just be to hard to make.

 

[Mike87]

equipable items have been confirmed. Someone stated that you could wear a bunny hood and use a beam sword at the same time.

You could do that in Melee as well.

 

[LevesqueIsKing]

^Lol, I forgot about that.

What did he mean by equipable items, then? Just that there were more of them?

 

[limitbreak]

Do you guys and gals think Sakurai will stop updating the dojo after december 3rd?? Im hoping he will continue to update till the 10th of Febuary.

No. He wont leave us hanging.

 

[sliverike]

what you said was good but they should three on three etc link kirby mario vs snake pit wario

 

[XCWarrior]

I'd like to see most of the stuff in the game as well, except for the downloadable updates. Just leave the game as is when it comes out. Doesn't seem right for it not to all be there when you buy the game. I hate XBLA for introducing this idea...

Anyways, as other people have stated, the updates have been pretty bad lately. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say there are only a few big updates we are going to get until Feb. 10, because Sakurai only had his planned out until Dec. 3 and now he is kind of scrambling for what to do to kill time now.

Here are the remaining big updates in my mind:

Dec. 3 - As another "I'm sorry not today guys" update
Dec. 25 - It is Xmas after all

And that might be it. So I hope Show Me Your News can stay creative, because you aren't going to get a lot to work with for awhile.

I really expect 0 or maybe 1 more character update the rest of the way. The rest are hidden. Unless it is Gannon, Luigi and C. Falcon because they are all like, "well no shocker there."

 

[G-Bis]

sounds cool all the things u said and i hope there true.

 

[PRINCESS PEACH777]

yes i agree i hope there true too

 

[RegalBuster]

Well after the game comes out in Japan unlockable characters, etc come into play as updates.