What's this game's scope compared to Brawl and Melee?

[Guybrush20X6]

Thinking about it, does this game have a bigger or lesser scope than Brawl and Melee?

Here's some of what I'm talking about.

Melee
25(26) characters
2 Wireframes
29 stages
Short Adventure mode
Stages have remixed themes, sometimes two
3D models made for trophies of characters never before in 3d
3 Boss characters
25 character unique target stages
Home Run Contest, Multi Man Melee
Chance based Coin game
51 Events
CGI Opening
Few Cutscenes, all ran in engine
All characters revealed at once. (Minus Zelda)

Brawl
35(39) characters
41 Stages
4 Fighting Polygons
Full Blown Adventure Mode with many unique stages.
Multiple themes for every stage (though some aren't remixed)
All trophy models are either in game or ripped from Gamecube games (exceptions are 2D only non-rep series characters like Elite Beat Agents)
Stickers made of game artwork
10 Bosses
5 target stages
Home Run Contest, Multi Man Brawl, Boss Rush
Masterpieces, Chronicle
ShEmUp Coin game
41 Events, 21 Co-Op events.
Stage Builder
Clip Show opening
Many Cutscenes, all pre-rendered
Daily Blog info

Brawl was very ambitious and has several things Melee didn't but some of the things brought from Melee had less time dedicated to them like Target Practice, Trophy Models especially the opening.

What we know of Smash 4 thus far

Basically two games
17 Characters (More to come)
Different Stages in each Version (8 in 3DS, 10 in WiiU)
No Stage Builder
No Story Cutscenes, Used on Newcomers instead
Character balance work being done by Namco
Photo on Weekdays

Without the Stage Builder and Pre rendered cutscenes it seems that some resources are freed up but what do you think?

 

[Frostwraith]

Theory: I think that the stage builder will return and be exclusively on the 3DS version.

First off, Sakurai stated that the 3DS version will be focused on single player experience and stage building fits that bill perfectly.
Sakurai stated that both versions would interact. Transferring stages from one version to another is definitely a possible feature.

 

[Arteen]

No stage builder in Smash 4? When was that confirmed?

 

[greenluigiman2]

No stage builder in Smash 4? When was that confirmed?

 

[JV5Chris]

I'm not going to speculate on what the final scope will be, but I can shed a little light on this question:

Without the Stage Builder and Pre rendered cutscenes it seems that some resources are freed up but what do you think?

If that ends up being true, in an absolutely best case scenario, perhaps. It's never that clear cut though. Even if those resources still exist, there is no gaurentee they can be successfully re-allocated to focus on the type of content fans typically deem high priority (additional characters, stages, features, items, etc).

To be more specific, lets take cutscenes for example. Nintendo in all likelyhood has a company wide team or contract studio in charge of this specialized job. While I imagine they are working closely with Sakuari, they serve quite a different purpose and are not necessarily an integrated part of the game dev team.

Then of course there's the 8 ton gorilla in the room, the 3DS version. Separate stages only begin to scratch the surface of the work required to downport to the handheld. Just to give a comparison here, Sony and Superbot found it necessary to contract Bluepoint Games for the Vita port of Playstation Allstars. Even on a platform far closer to the console specs, PSABR Vita required "crazy problem solving for each character, environment and effect".

So no, I don't believe cutting back in a few ways would free them up for much beyond the 3DS port.

 

[Guybrush20X6]

At least the two versions don't have to release on the same day so there's that. And I should also have mentioned the disk space. Brawl had so many cutscenes it needed a second layer and that lead to longer loading times and in the process nerfed Zelda/Sheik.

That said, I have no clue how big a WiiU disk is or how much data, say, Megaman's animation takes up.

 

[DakotaBonez]

73 Characters
24 Fighting Pixels
46 Bosses
134 Stages
3001 Trophies
8054 Sprites
Metroidvania adventure with 787 locations
399 Songs
Stage Builder With 266 Parts, and the 876 assets used in adventure mode
Replays and Replay Editor
Lobby to share replays and Stages online
Brawl style hit the targets with online leaderboard
Race to the finish for each character

 

[DakotaBonez]

AAAAAaannnd an accidental double post to top it off.

 

[Rocket Raccoon]

I need my Stage Builder back, think of all of the new possibilities!

 

[JV5Chris]

At least the two versions don't have to release on the same day so there's that.

Given the tittles are being developed concurrently, a slight delay of the 3DS version may buy the team more time to optimize and polish that release candidate. As far as new content goes however, that's usually locked down a month to two prior to release so it wouldn't make much of a difference there.

 

[Souless_shadow]

73 Characters
24 Fighting Pixels
46 Bosses
134 Stages
3001 Trophies
8054 Sprites
Metroidvania adventure with 787 locations
399 Songs
Stage Builder With 266 Parts, and the 876 assets used in adventure mode
Replays and Replay Editor
Lobby to share replays and Stages online
Brawl style hit the targets with online leaderboard
Race to the finish for each character

This

 

[Z1GMA]

Character balance work being done by Namco

One thing concerns me, though:
"Donkey Kong in the current build is Super Strong... but we'll be looking at the battle records when balancing out the characters, so nobody knows how he will turn out in the end."