theONEjanitor
Smash Champion
EXCEPT TRIPPING, WTF THAT **** IS GAY
So i've spent the last 24 hours playing the **** out of Brawl.
A lot of people are saying it won't be "competitively as good as Melee". But I disagree from what I've played. It's just a different game. its cliche to say by now, but People wanted a Melee part two, they expected lag canceling and wavedashing, they expected dash dancing to work the same, they
expected the same discrepancy in the falling speeds of the characters. Brawl overhauled the whole system, so people are saying it won't be as good as Melee. But I think most of the changes benefit the game. People act like they just took out L-Cancelling, and thats it. No, they took out l-canceling, and completely overhauled the way lag from aerial moves work. A good bit of the attacks on the game has minimal lag such that it looks as if its been L-cancelled. its going to be the discovery of the implementation of these moves that will be at the forefront of the metagame, I think. I think in this game, we will have to think more and choose attacks wiser. You can't lead in with Link's D-air or Ganon's Fair, anymore. Those are supposed to be kill moves reserved for special moments. using our wit and mindgames to pull those strong moves off, I think thats whats going to define a good player.
The movement issue is somewhat of a non factor, people say the game is "slower" than Melee, but that's only if you play the game like Melee. The game is much floatier than Melee, and perhaps that makes the game seem slow, but discovering movement techniques is part of the fun of the developing metagame. its not like you spend half the game helplessly floating, anyway, since the game is so floaty, the aerial game will be a lot deeper, you'll have time to recover from hitstun and counter attack someone trying to finish their combo. So the attacker will have to find a strategy to continue his onslaught while his opponent is airborne, yet still ready to attack. Or the attacker will have to learn his character specific techniques that allow him to perform combos. This chess match is part of why I think the game is deeper. On Melee, you get knocked up, and were pretty much guaranteed at least one free hit after that. That's not "depth". Not putting Melee down, just showing why I think Brawl's system could work better. also, not only are characters floatier, they also move WAYYY quicker in the air. Like everyone can move in the air as fast as Jiggs could on Melee. Jiggs was almost entiely aerial on Melee. And no one complained that Jiggs was "boring" or "non competitive". Movement on the ground, is just about as fast as Melee, the only differences being is that dash dancing is way different in Brawl and there is no wavedashing. Many people think dash dancing is out of the game, but its still in, you just have to be either really really fast with it, or somewhat slow with it. The thing is dash dancing in this way is still somewhat useful with many characters. Thing back to smash 64, you couldnt dash dance so fast on that game with most characters. its about the same speed as that with many characters. And also, doing it fast seems to lead to tripping alot of the time. But people will discover ways to move around the stage, thats part of what it means to learn how to play the game well. There already a bunch of things we can do anyway. Dash pivoting, and Cancelling the dash with shield is probably going to be huge in terms of movement, something relatable to that will probably be the basis of most movement strategies. you can feint a dash and then turn around and immediately forward smash or grab (and probably forward tilt). Shield cancel grabs of course replaced jump canceled grabs. but you can shield cancel ANYTHING. this replaces the method of dash canceling with crouch. And there are plenty of character specific strategies (I think character specific is going to be the theme of Brawl) Diddy can move across the screen with his unpredictable side-b, GaWes has shown examples of how Luigi can manuever the stage and up and down platforms and even edgeguard with his down+B. just for an example, stuff like that. Using our BRAINS to implement these moves are whats going to make the game deep.. Also In Brawl, it seems like the characters are just being made more intuitively. Take Ike for example. He is suuuuuuuper slow. but he's amazingly strong and of course with a sword has great range and priority. As in he has no weak attacks, all of his attacks are KO moves. This is what Bowser was supposed to be in Melee, a slow yet strong character. But they screwed up and gave him ****ty range, less than desirable priority, and no aerial mobility, making him literally useless without l-canceling and other techs. Brawl's version of Bowser has more speed, With increased aerial mobility, and i' haven't played him enough to be sure if they increased his range, but i doubt it, but basically they at least attempted to make the character viable on his own design, and not just cuz we can cancel his lag. and not just a "slow version" of every other character, like Melee. Melee was like every character works the same (with a few weird exceptions like ICs or Peach for example). Nair was a sex kick, or a multi-hit attack. Bair was a back slash/kick/punch/etc., dair was a spike/dril/downkick. et cetera. it was all the same. Brawl's just mixed it up more, just a little bit, not too much. the characters are more unique, especially the new characters.
Its basically going to be race of who can adapt the best in a match using his characters strengths, not a race to who can master the techs first, or can learn the all-purpose, works everytime on every character combos first. its going to be more comparable to the metagame of other fighting games, where you won with your brain and not your fingers. I think people want a game where you win with your fingers (Melee 2.0), and thats probably why folks don't think its as good as Melee.
Beyond that, the stages are a whole lot better imo. Melee had like 5 good stages, most of the stages you got hurt/killed by the **** stage more than your opponent. Either that, or there was nowhere to fricken move. I haven't had the problem very much with Brawl even with stages that are sure to be banned in tournaments.. and even a couple of the 'neutral' stages were kind of ******** in their own way on Melee.
I don't think theres anything wrong with Melee, its one of the greatest games of all time. I just think Brawl is better lol. Its different, and will be more suited to both casual and competitive play in my opinion.
The only thing I am worried about is this:
Brawl seems right now to be extremely conducive to individuality and many different playstyles, and honestly Melee was like that too. But with the extreme surge in popularity of the Melee scene due to things like MLG and Youtube, everyone started copying their favorite smashers and everyone started playing the same. I have hope that maybe this can be avoided in Brawl. But i suppose if it doesnt, it wouldn't matter that much.
So i've spent the last 24 hours playing the **** out of Brawl.
A lot of people are saying it won't be "competitively as good as Melee". But I disagree from what I've played. It's just a different game. its cliche to say by now, but People wanted a Melee part two, they expected lag canceling and wavedashing, they expected dash dancing to work the same, they
expected the same discrepancy in the falling speeds of the characters. Brawl overhauled the whole system, so people are saying it won't be as good as Melee. But I think most of the changes benefit the game. People act like they just took out L-Cancelling, and thats it. No, they took out l-canceling, and completely overhauled the way lag from aerial moves work. A good bit of the attacks on the game has minimal lag such that it looks as if its been L-cancelled. its going to be the discovery of the implementation of these moves that will be at the forefront of the metagame, I think. I think in this game, we will have to think more and choose attacks wiser. You can't lead in with Link's D-air or Ganon's Fair, anymore. Those are supposed to be kill moves reserved for special moments. using our wit and mindgames to pull those strong moves off, I think thats whats going to define a good player.
The movement issue is somewhat of a non factor, people say the game is "slower" than Melee, but that's only if you play the game like Melee. The game is much floatier than Melee, and perhaps that makes the game seem slow, but discovering movement techniques is part of the fun of the developing metagame. its not like you spend half the game helplessly floating, anyway, since the game is so floaty, the aerial game will be a lot deeper, you'll have time to recover from hitstun and counter attack someone trying to finish their combo. So the attacker will have to find a strategy to continue his onslaught while his opponent is airborne, yet still ready to attack. Or the attacker will have to learn his character specific techniques that allow him to perform combos. This chess match is part of why I think the game is deeper. On Melee, you get knocked up, and were pretty much guaranteed at least one free hit after that. That's not "depth". Not putting Melee down, just showing why I think Brawl's system could work better. also, not only are characters floatier, they also move WAYYY quicker in the air. Like everyone can move in the air as fast as Jiggs could on Melee. Jiggs was almost entiely aerial on Melee. And no one complained that Jiggs was "boring" or "non competitive". Movement on the ground, is just about as fast as Melee, the only differences being is that dash dancing is way different in Brawl and there is no wavedashing. Many people think dash dancing is out of the game, but its still in, you just have to be either really really fast with it, or somewhat slow with it. The thing is dash dancing in this way is still somewhat useful with many characters. Thing back to smash 64, you couldnt dash dance so fast on that game with most characters. its about the same speed as that with many characters. And also, doing it fast seems to lead to tripping alot of the time. But people will discover ways to move around the stage, thats part of what it means to learn how to play the game well. There already a bunch of things we can do anyway. Dash pivoting, and Cancelling the dash with shield is probably going to be huge in terms of movement, something relatable to that will probably be the basis of most movement strategies. you can feint a dash and then turn around and immediately forward smash or grab (and probably forward tilt). Shield cancel grabs of course replaced jump canceled grabs. but you can shield cancel ANYTHING. this replaces the method of dash canceling with crouch. And there are plenty of character specific strategies (I think character specific is going to be the theme of Brawl) Diddy can move across the screen with his unpredictable side-b, GaWes has shown examples of how Luigi can manuever the stage and up and down platforms and even edgeguard with his down+B. just for an example, stuff like that. Using our BRAINS to implement these moves are whats going to make the game deep.. Also In Brawl, it seems like the characters are just being made more intuitively. Take Ike for example. He is suuuuuuuper slow. but he's amazingly strong and of course with a sword has great range and priority. As in he has no weak attacks, all of his attacks are KO moves. This is what Bowser was supposed to be in Melee, a slow yet strong character. But they screwed up and gave him ****ty range, less than desirable priority, and no aerial mobility, making him literally useless without l-canceling and other techs. Brawl's version of Bowser has more speed, With increased aerial mobility, and i' haven't played him enough to be sure if they increased his range, but i doubt it, but basically they at least attempted to make the character viable on his own design, and not just cuz we can cancel his lag. and not just a "slow version" of every other character, like Melee. Melee was like every character works the same (with a few weird exceptions like ICs or Peach for example). Nair was a sex kick, or a multi-hit attack. Bair was a back slash/kick/punch/etc., dair was a spike/dril/downkick. et cetera. it was all the same. Brawl's just mixed it up more, just a little bit, not too much. the characters are more unique, especially the new characters.
Its basically going to be race of who can adapt the best in a match using his characters strengths, not a race to who can master the techs first, or can learn the all-purpose, works everytime on every character combos first. its going to be more comparable to the metagame of other fighting games, where you won with your brain and not your fingers. I think people want a game where you win with your fingers (Melee 2.0), and thats probably why folks don't think its as good as Melee.
Beyond that, the stages are a whole lot better imo. Melee had like 5 good stages, most of the stages you got hurt/killed by the **** stage more than your opponent. Either that, or there was nowhere to fricken move. I haven't had the problem very much with Brawl even with stages that are sure to be banned in tournaments.. and even a couple of the 'neutral' stages were kind of ******** in their own way on Melee.
I don't think theres anything wrong with Melee, its one of the greatest games of all time. I just think Brawl is better lol. Its different, and will be more suited to both casual and competitive play in my opinion.
The only thing I am worried about is this:
Brawl seems right now to be extremely conducive to individuality and many different playstyles, and honestly Melee was like that too. But with the extreme surge in popularity of the Melee scene due to things like MLG and Youtube, everyone started copying their favorite smashers and everyone started playing the same. I have hope that maybe this can be avoided in Brawl. But i suppose if it doesnt, it wouldn't matter that much.
. Speed is an issue because if you do not have a way to approach someone fast enough to punish them for spamming, they can simply evade and get the spacing they need to continue spamming.
