Why Smash is holding back the Platform Fighting genre

[GothicSlenderman]

In recent years we've been seeing a lot more Platform Fighters lately. Rivals of Aether, Brawlhalla, Indie Pogo, NASB and Multiversus. Each with their own varying success but seeing so many of these games get dropped so quickly despite all being good games in their own right. Especially hearing Mutlviersus player base go down by 99% made me wonder why this is happening.

All of these games are good in their own way but why do they fall off so quickly? But after studying for some time I have discovered a possible reason they all share. And it's one that's not even their own fault. It's one they have no control over. It's Smash Bros.

When it comes to Platform Fighters Smash Bros. is the main game you think of, right? It's been going on since 1999 with virtually no true rival or competition. Multiversus was the closest, especially during it's peak in 2022. It did win Fighting Game of the Year at the Game Awards after all.

But that right there is the problem. Smash Bros. has been sitting comfortably in its thrown for over 20 years that it's presence becomes a challenge for new PF titles. When new Platform Fighters come around they are instantly compared to Smash. You see people shout terms like "Smash Clone" or "Smash Killer." The fact that both terms exist really just shows the grip Smash has over this genre. Neither of these terms really help either as while some claim that "Clone" can be complimentary to the game in question as it can be used to compare similarities. Most of the time when people see the term "Clone" they often assume "inferior version" or "ripoff/copy" and tend to avoid it. "Smash Killer" does not help either as it presents itself as threat or an attempt to replace rather than as an accompanying acquaintance. Why both terms are more used by Smash fans or social media users I think they still are a result of Smash's grip on the genre.

People seem to think that if a new platform fighter comes to be that it needs to go against Smash in some way. That it can only be successful if it has more players, if it sells more copies, if it's talked about more, if it's trending 24/7. If not then it "flops" when that mindset is basically to equivalent of comparing a new Cartoon Network original in 2023 to Mickey Mouse. Both are able to be successful but it shouldn't be seen as a competition to validate either. I think this mindset and both terms come from this repressed fear of Smash or what we grew up with being "replaced" which is why I think some arguments present themselves in such a prideful manner. They want to ensure or remind others that their game will be on top. when it should never be seen as this. It just creates a hostile environment that rejects more rather than invites.

But still I think a lot of this boils down to the fact that Smash didn't have another game say "hey I can do this too!" during its early years. Thus setting itself up as the standard or the "only true option". We had games like PlayStation AllStars Battle Royale, Cartoon Network Punch time Explosion and NewGrounds Rumble but none were able to popularize Platform Fighters as a genre rather than just one series.

You never hear anyone call the Platformer genre as the "Mario Clones" or RPGs as "Final Fantasy clones" and that's because you had other titles tell people very early that they weren't the only great option. Mario had Kirby, Donkey Kong Country, Megaman, Ducktales and especially his rival Sonic the Hedgehog telling people very early that this is indeed a genre. And even later with Earthworm Jim, Rayman, Shovel Knight, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro and more.

Traditional fighters went through the same thing Smash did when it first started with everything either being a "Street Fighter Clone" or a "Mortal Kombat Clone" but it only took a few years for that genre to escape that said mentality and now we have King of Fighters, Guilty Gear, Skullgirls, BlazBlue and more.

Unfortunately the Platform Fighting genre isn't the only one to deal with this problem. Monster Catching games also have to deal with being called "Pokemon Clones" due to the same exact grip that Smash holds. With the only one being able to stand on its own being Digimon.

Maybe times are changing. In recent years the term Platform Fighter has become more popular, even being used by Warner Bros to define Multiversus. You also get a lot more people criticizing others for describing these games as "Smash Clones" the term has become frowned upon. And even if Multiversus isn't doing too well it's peak still shows that change is possible.

In cases like this it just takes time for change. the change should've come years ago but better late than never. Perhaps it'll take Rivals of Aether 2 or that rumored Nick All-Star sequel or PlayStation All-Star sequel (assuming either are real)

 

[Wario Wario Wario]

I said this a while back, but I feel Smash has simultaniously set the bar way too high and way too low for platform fighters. On one hand, casual fans expect each new game to have 40+ characters at least; a fully fleshed out story mode; and Pixar-quality animated trailers, but on the other, people will be excited just to find out a game has functional netcode; detailed balance patches; and really basic movement tech.

 

[GothicSlenderman]

I said this a while back, but I feel Smash has simultaniously set the bar way too high and way too low for platform fighters. On one hand, casual fans expect each new game to have 40+ characters at least; a fully fleshed out story mode; and Pixar-quality animated trailers, but on the other, people will be excited just to find out a game has functional netcode; detailed balance patches; and really basic movement tech.

Agreed. That's another point I didn't think of. Smash Ultimate has 89 characters and over 110 stages at this point. It's like trying to make a new MOBA when League of Legends has 162 champions. How can any new game compete with that? Unless a studio was willing to make a huge risk they may have to settle with a smaller roster. NASB has 25, PSASBR has 24, Multiversus so far has 22 and the definitive edition of Rivals of Aether has 18. If we mixed the rosters of all 4 that would only just match up with SSBU.

NASB + PSASBR + RoA + Multiversus = 89
SSBU (including Echos) + Fighters Pass 1 & 2 = 89

 

[RileyXY1]

I said this a while back, but I feel Smash has simultaniously set the bar way too high and way too low for platform fighters. On one hand, casual fans expect each new game to have 40+ characters at least; a fully fleshed out story mode; and Pixar-quality animated trailers, but on the other, people will be excited just to find out a game has functional netcode; detailed balance patches; and really basic movement tech.

Yeah. And that's what caused NASB's failure. The game was massively overhyped pre-release and people expected a Smash ultimate-tier game from a small indie dev studio on an extremely low budget. When it was released and players realized that it was far from what they had imagined, they all jumped ship and only the most dedicated players remained. Smash does have an impact over the platform fighter genre, and as long as any new ones are held up to Smash they will keep failing. Multiversus at least tried to escape this by adopting a live service model as well was focusing more on 2v2 combat, but look what's happening to it now.

 

[PinkFlare]

All of these games are good in their own way but why do they fall off so quickly?

Lack of support from it's developers and lackluster content.

It's situational between each particular game but honestly, when it comes down to it, it has nothing to do with Smash. For each of the games you listed in particular:

Rivals of Aether - Actually still going very strong with a large community, between the original game and the workshop, and the sequel is coming up soon. Honestly not sure why it's on this list

Brawlhalla - Truth be told this game never picked up in popularity to begin with. It's a fun time but nothing about it is particular deep or intensely engaging like you would find in other platform fighters that came before and after this; Might also have to do with the fact that it's an original cast and can't take advantage off of IP recognition. It's still going, but as before, it was never a top contender.

Indie Pogo - I'm not really too much into the Indie scene so I'm not that well versed when it comes to this game. But it isn't really the end-all be-all of Indie crossovers and we can see that with the upcoming Fraymakers, so.

NASB - I feel like everything that can be said about this game has already been said, but the overall gist is that Nickolodeon never gave the devs the tools they needed to make a finished, polished package, and once the hype died down the fans turned on the game, which lead to it dying out.

I do feel like this game gets too much flack; It's actually fairly solid, but a lot of the criticisms from players had some solid points; basic features had to be added overtime, such as costumes and voice acting, a lot things lacked proper polish and the backlash eventually lead to the plug being pulled after the first DLC package, unless there's something I'm not aware of. You could blame this on expectations being set too high from Smash, but I'd say that that's completely wrong, because this game was held back by the company that commissioned it and forced the developers into a tight spot where they had to work with what they had. They delivered extremely well in my opinion but these cracks eventually showed; It's a similar case to Playstation All-Stars, actually, and a similar lesson in that if you (the company) are not going to put the amount of care and attention needed to do more than just the bare minimum, then it will fail. This goes for any game in any genre.

Multiversus - This game is honestly not as good as people hype it up to be, but it is dying specifically because of the format it chose to be: Games as a service. And as of right now there hasn't been an larger update since Marvin, and with a GaaS model, popularity dies out when promised support ceases to flow in. The developers picked their poison and this is the result, nothing more and nothing less.
I think it should also be noted that this game is not actually out, and is still in beta. Honestly a lot of this game reeks of rushed monetization for a product that isn't actually finished and now that there's no new content to distract players, this is beginning to show.

---

In any case, between all of these games, I have to say that Smash really has no effect in them whatsoever. I've never seen an instance where a game died because it didn't have the 80+ character roster Smash had or wasn't some grandiose crossover, and, as was the point of going over all this, all of these games shortcomings (or lack thereof) are sourced from the games themselves and not any type of outside variable. In most cases these games couldn't really hold their own in their own niché, so it's entirely regardless of Smash that they tend to die out.

I think this is also glossing over the obvious fact that Smash dies out too, and right now Smash is somewhat dead; Or atleast not as active as it was a year and a half ago. And yes, it is entirely because content has stopped being added; It's not really new or housing anything new, so it's falling out of relevance; It happened with Smash 4 when it wrapped up, and given Ultimate finished it's roster a while ago, it's popularity has also died out. I've seen many walk away from Smash in favor of these other games, primarily because they're new; Smash was never immune to irrelevance and it's on equal footing to these listed games when it comes to it.

Of course this isn't a bad thing: Smash can't (and shouldn't) last forever, but that goes for every other game in existence, and while it may have a legacy it won't have permanence. These new games simply all have their shortcomings and thus never lay down a proper legacy, but it isn't by fault of Smash and it simply can't be, because Smash isn't as important right now as some people may think.

Anyway that's my take. Baba Booey.

 

[Master Hero Sock-on-Rye]

Speaking merely as someone who likes the speculation game as much as the actual platform fighters, I do agree with the consensus that Smash Bros. should have had a legit competitor in its genre to make the terms "Smash Clone" and "Smash Killer" nonexistent.

To that end, I wonder what could have happened if NASB and MultiVersus began in the early 2000s after Melee got good word of mouth, just to provide examples of good competition. That, I believe could possibly help dissuade the notion that Smash is the only proper game of its genre.

Heck, since we're talking early 2000s video games, using the Smash ideology for licensed crossover games would have been as big as the Mario Party or Mario Kart inspirations of that era. And yes, I'm not calling the likes of "Lights, Camera, Pants" or "Crash Tag Team Racing" by the same derogatory terms we're poking holes in right now.

 

[Oracle Link]

to be fair a lot of plattform fighters failed to innovate to the point were they seemingly steal popular moves from Smash!
Also when it comes to NASB and Multiversus in Particular they both have their own Issues NASB Was kneecapped by Nickelodeon at release while Multiversus might have failed because of it being free to play (Ergo Expensive)
The reason why i for example didnt picvk up NASB or Multiversus is because im not as big of a fan of those than i am with Nintendo
I do have an idea how they might get sucsesfull!
NASB: Should release a SEquel with some Easy To Make Modes with some New Characters with some of them maybe even being Clones
Multiversus: Should give the vplayer the option of either getting the life service or a new full price version
Keep in mind both NASB and MV Sold really well! So they are Not DEAD Like i hate this definition of Dead!

 

[Quillion]

I really think a retool of PSAS is the best bet to breaking out of the monopoly Smash has on its own genre. And not just a sequel at that, Sony needs to leave the abortive "super-based platform fighter" as dead as it is and overhaul the core gameplay.

That said, while I acknowledge that making a full-on knockback-based platform fighter is the best bet, I really hope such a retool will go the more distinctive route and do a health-based platform fighter instead.

 

[Perkilator]

To anyone interested, I made a thread discussing notes Smash could take from what other platfighters do right.