Super Smash Bros. has been known as both an incredibly fun and easy to get into party fighting game of sorts – but it has also garnered quite a dedicated following of super hardcore players, many of which host tournaments locally or battle themselves in said tourneys.
Coming from this, finding the balance in between pure fun and deep, rewarding gameplay and fighting mechanics is a tough job. In an interview with this month’s issue of Edge magazine, we’ve gotten a bit more insight from series creator and director Masahiro Sakurai.
When asked to discuss the differences between Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl, he cut right to the chase:
“I think the popularity of Melee rested fundamentally on the game’s speed. The dazzling exchange of skills was the game’s most exhilarating aspect and the rough edges in terms of the game’s balance went mostly unnoticed. Even though the dynamic range of the characters was limited, the game somehow made its mark, even with hardcore fans of the genre. “
Sakurai went on to point out that Melee’s controls were pretty convoluted, and that complicated controls in the game are one of his biggest regrets with the finished game experience. He said that Melee ended up as a “Smash Bros. game for hardcore fighting fans”, and that isn’t the goal of Super Smash Bros.
He was clear in saying that avoiding overtly complicated button inputs and controls are part of his goals with the future of Super Smash Bros:
“Companies that release products that target a very vocal, visible group of gamers tend to receive good reactions and they may feel good about it, but I think that we have to pay special attention to the less vocal, not so visible group of players, or else games will just fade away.”
Sakurai muses that Smash Bros. is meant to be an “opponent-based action game” where lots of wacky and completely unexpected things can happen. He even mentioned a tactic that many professional Smash Bros. player employ with matches in that items and Smash Balls are frequently turned off:
“The most important thing is that the game have breadth and depth, since we would like them to be popular with both novices and hardcore gamers. We think that people who aren’t so good at turning the tables and coming back from behind can still get enjoyment out of the [new] game, even if they turn off items and Smash Balls.”
Lastly, he made a note of the pacing in the latest Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS, claiming that the overall speed and progression of mechanics had to be lowered (in comparison to Melee) to compensate for the balancing in the game:
“Although the pace of the game had to be lowered compared to Melee in order to achieve this balance, we have managed to keep the dynamism because we didn’t have to gear towards novice players like we did with Brawl. In fact, we recreated all characters almost from scratch. Also, I feel on a personal level that this game is more interesting than the three previous games in the series.”
So there you have it – the new Super Smash Bros., as many of you already probably know, is not trying to be another Melee. Hopefully Sakurai and crew somehow manage to strike a balance between accessibility, and that hardcore level of complexity that professional players are seemingly dying for.
