Super Smash Bros.: A Retrospective Part IV: Fourgive me 4 this bad pun

So by the time 2010 or so rolled around, everyone got tired of Brawl and despite the hype, bells and whistles used for the pre-release period, it turns out that the success of Brawl was short-lived. It made its money, it got people excited, it did what it was supposed to do...at the time.

Looking back and I feel the same way, it was a mistake. The gritty look really didn't do any favors. The de-saturated and washed out colors haven't aged well. In fact, I'd say overall games around that time period haven't aged well, tantamount to realistic-looking games on 5th gen hardware. I don't know what was up with games around 2005 to around 2010, but every series was trying to go for a realistic look. Even fucking Pac-Man got hit with that with Pac-Man World 3, a game while I liked fails to hold up compared to its predecessor. Sonic 2006 is also another culprit, even on superior hardware compared to the Wii. Yeah, it looked okay but Dr. Eggman in that game by far is the creepiest take on the character. The massive logs he calls legs are unsettling.

Looks worse in-game.

It was an...interesting period to say the least. Not all series went the gritty realistic route though, but for the industry and for consumers like myself, it was a growing pain that some of us would prefer not to look back on.

But back to Smash. Brawl had overstayed its welcome, was tarnished for the tripping and removal of certain techniques Melee was acclaimed for and was slowly being modded into Brawl- and more the more known Project M. But back in 2011 after Nintendo's E3 showing, they announced the game
despite Sakurai working on Uprising. a year later, this was posted on Sakurai's twitter feed.

 

 

Some claimed that the overall cheery look of the drawing signified a change in the look of the game. Plus it let us know off top who we could expect. Sadly, I didn't pay attention to it, but Wario would be stuck in his WarioWare fare once more. A month after Brawl dropped I was already making rosters for Smash Four. Hell, even now I'm thinking of what Sakurai could have added in instead of what he did. Seems starting with Brawl, the final roster never satisfies me. There's always a character or two that I think could get added or may show up and they don't.

1. Brawl: Mega Man, Bomberman, Dixie Kong, King K. Rool, Lip
2. Smash Four: Dixie Kong, King K. Rool, Lip, Stafy, Wolf when he didn't return
3. Ultimate: Isaac, Lip, Dixie Kong, Blood Falcon, Hilda

Just a taste of my taste. Everyone knew by E3 of 2013, we'd see the game at long last. And I believe that same E3 started things off with Smash.

We had two games: Super Smash Bros. For 3DS and Super Smash Bros. For Wii U. 

 A return to the vibrancy that Smash 64 and Melee had. First we see the 3DS footage and then a transition to the Wii U game. Finally, we got two newcomers: Villager from Animal Crossing and the Blue Bomber, Mega Man from the franchise of the same name, in his in-game rendition based off the NES titles. I was really excited to see Mega Man, after Brawl's disappointment, I was on board for Smash For (Heh). And then came another surprise...

 

At this point, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was revealed ahead of time and I correct myself on my earlier statement. Seeing Dixie Kong return to the spotlight made me just as excited as Mega Man, but this inclusion dampered my Smash hype back to the levels they were after Brawl. Another surprise character that no one asks for and another character that "People didn't know they wanted until now.". The latter statement irks me because it only shows how much of a fanboy you can be. I made direct critiques on Wii Fit Trainer and got the fanboys butthurt and angry over it. Fun fact: The few images of Rule 34 of Wii Fit feature the male trainer as equally to the female trainer and the male images were of better quality. Really. So, I was cautious of the future reveals. From then on, there were regular updates on the Super Smash Bros. Miiverse. Items, characters and so on. A lot of characters I felt could be playable were regulated to Assists once more while nonsense like Wii Fit Trainer got in.

And then, December rolled in.

Fucking Rosalina. Everything I worried about came to pass; this game was going to do surprise characters and unexpected choices over popular characters. Not that Rosalina wasn't popular, but prior to this trailer, would you seriously suggest her for Smash? But the biggest red flag that flew in my face: On the bottom of her page, you can see a nice little advert for Super Mario 3D World, which was shown with her as a secret character right before this trailer popped up.

Frankly, Kirby Air Ride 2 would have been a better reveal.

I know, I'm being negative. And that's a good thing. But let's talk some positive things about Smash Four, because it's gonna get even nastier from here on. First, the visuals. I loved them. Loved them to death. Somehow, the detail from Brawl to this game was even more of a leap.

You have to click that second image to see how big of an improvement it was from Brawl. The shoes looked amazing and a nice high-res render made the game look better. Going back to the DOJO!!, the screenshots were very low-resolution. The Wii U game at least had big enough screens to look at. And on the note of detail:

I really liked this shot for Donkey Kong. Don't know why, but I did. But the fur in Tropical Freeze looked better. Mega Man's render impressed me the most.

I don't like that he's stoic in Smash, but the general look is very unique in terms of the various renditions of the character. It's here where Sakurai mentioned he wanted to keep an iconic look and that he wasn't going to let just anyone in Smash Bros. when he revealed him during another video segment showing off the game at E3 2013. Yet for me, he was literally doing just that for this game.
As with the last games, let's run down Smash For's newcomers.

• Villager. I was neutral to it, but it grew on me eventually. It also showed that Sakurai was opening up to new ways to expand on Smash based on a previous statement about the Villager not being suited for battle, yet the moveset I feel fits Smash better than Snake. Again, the late 2000's were...a time. 

• Mega Man, as I stated was a want in Brawl. I felt he should have been alongside Sonic and not Solid Snake. But nonetheless, he's here. People wondered if Mega Man was going to have a moveset similar to the one used in Marvel vs. Capcom. Here, he has moves from all over his games from the classic series, his custom moves included (More on that soon)

• Wii Fit Trainer, the first sign of what this game was going to present. I never used it. Not once. I give Sakurai credit for thinking outside the box but at the time, I was livid.

• Rosalina and Luma. Another character I wasn't wild about. Never touched either. But I do like that she's tall. Something's endearing about her size compared to the usual female characters in Smash.

• Little Mac. Until the game released, I didn't realize at the time, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze released in the same month. The perfect character for this would have been Dixie Kong, and it's that overlook if you can call it that, that made me outright hate this game, but we'll get to that later. Mac isn't the issue here, a solid choice from the usual Fire Emblem fare in hindsight.

• I even forgot that Charizard survived the chopping board at times. Its Down-B is Rock Smash and it gained Flare Blitz as a Side-B with it's Final Smash as Mega Charizard X. Honestly, it should have stayed alone in Ultimate alongside the other two starters.

• Greninja. Shown in the April Direct, many thought it was Mewtwo making its return until another shot showed the webs on its hands when it used Water Shuriken. I was happy because Gen I gained enough pandering and it was nice to see a new Pokemon get the spotlight for once. I never really used it sadly.

• Miis, one of three characters shown at E3 2014. Or in this case, five. The Mii Brawler, The Mii Swordfighter and the Mii Gunner. Three characters in one. What bothered me was due to custom moves, it was more or less developing nine characters. And what's worse, you can't use custom moves online. Pretty redundant, no?

• Palutena, fourth character shown. An image showing Palutena and Mario on the Battlefield kept circulating online. I don't know if it was the same model used in For, but her inclusion isn't surprising. Another character with custom moves that I never used. At the end of her trailer, Dark Pit shows up. Thought to be a harmless cameo, it was really a soft confirmation of the doppelganger himself.

• Pac-Man, Pac-Man, Pac-Man. THE sole reason I brought Smash For Wii U. I was fighting for his inclusion while people were suggesting Lloyd Irving from the Tales games on the grounds of being 'cooler' or Klonoa from the series of the same name due to their lack of knowledge on Pac-Man and the games he could represent. Sakurai even mentioned his in-game design as being redundant, unaware of his classic illustration with limbs. Needless to say, that was the best confirmation since Sonic and another character who I'll mention in the future. What gets me is that he was shown behind doors and not at the Smash Invitational where the fans were a plenty. For in general had some shitty choices.

• Robin was shown next month along with Lucina. Captain Falcon was confirmed as well fighting Lucina and almost punching her when he was shown. A mage user and one of the better picks from Fire Emblem.

• Lucina, the useless swordsman who was saved by Robin is a straight-up clone of Marth with the sweetspot throughout her sword. Dumbed down version, you do the same amount of damage with slashes regardless of where you are while with Marth, you do less damage if you're too far from your enemy and more if you're closer. Confused me the first time too. One of three dessert options from For.

• Shulk was shown during the infamous ESRB leak but revealed September. Having played Xenoblade, I could really feel his inclusion (rimshot). Sakurai mentioned he's not a character that would normally get into Smash and I have to agree based on the choices made for Ultimate, but even then I'm still skeptical.

• Dark Pit, along with Shulk and the rest of the roster was shown in the leak as well. People didn't believe it, but he was added, totaling Kid Icarus to three characters. He too, is a dessert option (We'll get to that later).

• Dr. Mario, the last dessert of For. Think of him as a return of Melee Mario. He keeps his slouch and power, making him viable where Mario fell short. This is how dessert should have been handled.

• Duck Hunt, the last character for For and the overall retro representation. Some say the dog and duck are the WTF character, but that goes to WFT, for the sole inclusion that they weren't requested. No problems here.

Overall, there were a huge amount of newcomers, but sad to say a chunk of them didn't appeal to me. Lastly, Wolf, Lucas, Ice Climbers, Snake and Pokemon Trainer were cut. Snake was okay, but Lucas was the oddball out after the great reception he got when Ness was alongside him and Wolf I really didn't appreciate until he was gone. Ice Climbers hurt the most as we got confirmation they were okay on the Wii U game but the 3DS game kept them out the game and eventually cut from the roster.

This is also why I skipped the 3DS version despite having the better mode. Smash Tour was straight up shit. I was excited for the Wii U version which also featured predominately in the November 50-fact extravaganza. Smash Tour is more or less Mario Party, but without any fun that Mario Party could generate. What I was really hoping for was that the Wii U version would have more characters that you could obtain in the 3DS game by connecting the 3DS game to the Wii U console with the game at hand. Sad to say, it never came to pass. I remember a fake leak mentioning a mode called Tower of Smash.

This is why I feel both versions of Smash For suffered by being similar. If the 3DS version complimented the Wii U game, that would give you an incentive to buy both and have a different experience overall. the 3DS game didn't even need to be a fighter, you could have had an RPG or another genre for it and have the rewards and elements of that game transferred to the Wii U game for more stuff. Plus, Tower of Smash sounded more fun than what we got.

But alas. I really didn't care for any of the newcomers once more. And at the end of that 50-Fact direct, Mewtwo was coming back so...hooray? But if you wanted it free, you had to buy both the 3DS version and the Wii U version. That wasn't happening. So out of loyalty for Pac-Man and to keep an obligation to my word, I brought the Wii U game but played a little of Brawl to readjust. It wasn't pretty. And I swear, a lot of my attacks had no range despite being face-to-face with my opponent. For lacked tripping but it was still an 'eh' title. Someone also mentioned a big reason why Brawl and For felt off and I didn't realize it until it was pointed out.

In a game like Super Mario Bros., one of the key elements to the game was your speed and trajectory. When you run, you get a better range in your jumps. This is essential to keep the game fast, engaging and entertaining. A 'slow' platformer isn't fun at all. This was in 1985. Another game I played with this feature was Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land, on the Gameboy of all things in 1993. Sonic is literally built around momentum, trajectory and speed.

Short version: Any platformer worth its spit has that as a mechanic. A platformer that doesn't have that that's still engaging to an extent is Kirby. No surprise there, Kirby games aren't supposed to be challenging, though the recent titles have delivered this in spades and makes up for it in other areas. But for Smash, where your movements are based around a platforming structure, jump momentum is key to having good movement. One thing I hated about the Subspace Emissary was that it gauged itself as a 'robust side-scrolling action game' but the actual action was flawed: Smash doesn't lend itself to platforming too well when played like a platformer. Removing jump momentum is by far the most dangerous thing you can do with any platforming game. Smash isn't a platformer, but given the way the game plays, it should follow the fundamentals of platforming. I myself was shocked that a game in 2014 couldn't hold up to games made in the 80's or even on a primitive platform like the Gameboy of all things. If this doesn't tell you how much gaming has regressed, I don't know what will.

Another thing I hated about For Wii U was the classic mode. The boardgame layout was a chore and you had a rival that if you beat, you got better rewards but the challenges got harder, I think. I forgot really. I also can't stand the main theme for For. And the Master Core nonsense seems out of place, almost like the Subspace Emissary's original creations. I don't know why Sakurai insists on implementing this stuff in Smash. Master Hand made sense from the first game's setting and Crazy Hand to represent the creator's left hand. Even Giga Bowser was endearing and a cool twist on an established villain. After that? Good glory.


And with Ultimate's Bonus Game, I hate it. The lack of freedom with your movements makes it a chore and Sakurai intends to keep it that way. I wonder if he even plays his own games, because that alone should tell him how hard it is to get through that. The Smash gameplay isn't good with bosses either. This works with Kirby given the titular character's abilities but this isn't a Kirby game and not everyone plays as Kirby. It's small things like this that make me hate Smash and yearn for a day where Sakurai either caves in and gives the people what they want or pass the torch to someone else. And I don't play competitively. But I get why the segregation from Melee and other Smash games exists and it's not the Melee fanbase that caused it.

On another note about the Emissary:

"It’s storyline isn’t overwrought—it’s hastened along by a bunch of quick movies."

Ohohohohoho, the irony in this statement.

But I'm shitting too much on Four. Here's another plus about it or the Wii U game at least and arguably the only reason I took to the Wii U game: Eight-Player Smash. With the increasing roster, it'd be a waste to not showcase it correctly, right? Multi-Man Melee had six slots in total when you played that mode. Here, you can finally have that as a mode outside normal Smash. It's fun to see all the characters fight one another and it was the sole reason I kept playing For Wii U. But the one thing that gradually caused me to stop playing?

The roster. While it was a big roster, I couldn't help but notice that compared to some IP's, others were a little neglected.

Four/Five games in and this is all Donkey Kong has to show for it? I really thought at best we'd get 
Dixie for Tropical Freeze, only to realize that Little Mac was shown the month that Tropical Freeze came out. A near perfect opportunity and he pisses it away for a character who really has no future, going by his guidelines for this game (and all future Smash titles it seems). Everyone was banking on King K. Rool for whatever reason when even I knew that wasn't happening if the last two Donkey Kong Country titles by Retro were anything to go by, the Kremlings in Smash Run be damned. Let me show you my issue with For's roster:

This was one of many of the images leaked for For 3DS and no one could believe it. Only two DK characters yet Kid Icarus got three (One being a dessert, Sakurai's own words) and Fire Emblem up to four. On that note, Wolf, Squirtle, Ivysaur, Ice Climbers, Snake and Lucas were all cut too and someone even mentioned they may all come back as DLC. On the note of 'dessert', the three options were Dr. Mario, returning from Melee and Dark Pit and Lucina. But it's not that they were the extras, it's that they were the only extras. You couldn't squeeze Dixie Kong in that list? Look at Dr. Mario and the amount of differences he has with Mario. He's literally a different character, Melee Mario more or less. I'd wager Blood Falcon could be an effortless dessert to give F-Zero another rep and to maybe play with Falcon's kit in a different manner. Poor Alph from Pikmin 3 remains a skin but Dark Pit using the sacred treasures from Uprising wouldn't make sense. Never mind the disproportionate amount of Uprising assets reused in For. The Ore Club was the first sign of that game's stuff creeping in. And to anyone who missed the codecs from Snake's stage, you got Palutena's Guidance in the Kid Icarus stage, chock full of jokes, references and all the other kit and caboodle that game had, alongside continuity from that game seeping into Smash.

It takes work to be this conceited, and I have to give Sakurai a tip of the hat for being so disconnected from the critique.

But the Smash For ride was still in progress...and things got bumpy...