Super Smash Bros. Discussion

[Kong Wen]

They definitely had to re-balance Meta Knight if they wanted to bring him back in this game.

This makes me wonder how much attention they've been paying to bugs and balancing in general. I'll also be curious to see what kind of patching & updating policy they will have, if any. The upcoming update to Mario Kart 8 should be somewhat heartening, but Nintendo doesn't really have a history of this, so I'm hoping they'll come around and impress us with this generation.

[Claytone]

They definitely had to re-balance Meta Knight if they wanted to bring him back in this game.

This makes me wonder how much attention they've been paying to bugs and balancing in general. I'll also be curious to see what kind of patching & updating policy they will have, if any. The upcoming update to Mario Kart 8 should be somewhat heartening, but Nintendo doesn't really have a history of this, so I'm hoping they'll come around and impress us with this generation.

Patching a fighting game is a precarious notion. As much as I don't like paying $40 for largely the same game, I really prefer the Capcom strategy of releasing each fighting game in a few iterations. I feel that this is very unlikely to happen with Smash, but it is preferable. These release strategies ensure that balance patches are comprehensive and well thought out, and they also provide the opportunity to introduce a couple new characters, which Smash fans always love.

Sakurai himself has stated that he is interested in balance patches but hasn't said much more than that.

Of course, I'm personally much more interested in the game being competitive than balanced. It's incredibly difficult to balance a fighting game in such a way that more than maybe 10-12 characters are tournament viable, but even admitting that, it's not nearly as hard to make a game whose mechanics are conducive to exciting, competitive play. I hope that's what we see with Smash 4. And as much as I would like it to also be as fast as Melee was, I'm most concerned with the action being exciting and offensively rewarding rather than campy. In that regard, I am excited about patch possibilities, because if the competitive community has a big enough problem with some mechanics of Smash 4, perhaps they could have the sway to influence tweaking decisions in patches down the road. It has become clear through Nintendo's pandering to the competitive community (see: E3 Smash Invitational featuring pro Melee players and casters, as well as their sponsorship of Evo) that they may have an interest in developing an "eSport" of their own, so appeasing that community seems wise.

[Kong Wen]

Patching a fighting game is a precarious notion. As much as I don't like paying $40 for largely the same game, I really prefer the Capcom strategy of releasing each fighting game in a few iterations. [...] Sakurai himself has stated that he is interested in balance patches but hasn't said much more than that.

The recent Capcom fighting games (let's say specifically the Street Fighter IV series, since that's their latest-gen tournament mainstay) are pretty extensively patched in addition to the larger iterative updates. That said, perhaps Capcom to Nintendo isn't a fair comparison in terms of fighting game balancing, considering Capcom has been making this kind of game for eons and this is pretty much Nintendo's first kick at the can.

Still, everyone starts somewhere, and this generation really has been about catching up and embracing modern conventions for Nintendo, so I do think Nintendo is going to want to be more aware of their balancing once the game is "in the wild" and the fighting game community starts really test-driving their roster hard. It's definitely be a better idea than putting it out there and then letting it stagnate, bugs and all. Infinite combo & cancel glitches, and a wildly out of whack character tiering contributed just as much as game speed to why Brawl couldn't shake Melee's position as the go-to Smash game for competitive play.

[The Shoemaker]

So this came out recently

There's a decent amount of inconsistancies in the image (Wario has no pupil, no names under characters, lines are off) but over all the art work looks pretty authentic, especially the Duck Hunt (I don't believe they would name the dog that) character. I think I would be okay if this was the final roster, but I'm on the "leak is fake" side of the fence right now.

It also mentions that Wolf, Snake, Ice Climbers, Lucas and Chorus Men are DLC characters.

[kitroplious]

Yesterday, we have heard there were leaks of Super Smash Bros. (3DS version; final build version) footage on YouTube. They were taken down, after a claim by Nintendo of America Inc. It turns out the uploader was someone from the company, and reportedly was fired and is being sued for the leaks. The person was sending materials to the local software rating board. He still has the game, and the system for such use [of rating material purposes, for the latter].

[Claytone]

Yesterday, we have heard there were leaks of Super Smash Bros. (3DS version; final build version) footage on YouTube. They were taken down, after a claim by Nintendo of America Inc. It turns out the uploader was someone from the company, and reportedly was fired and is being sued for the leaks. The person was sending materials to the local software rating board. He still has the game, and the system for such use [of rating material purposes, for the latter].

Indeed. I managed to see the leaks before they were removed. They corroborate the images leaked in Shoe's post two above mine, or at least they confirmed that Bowser Jr. and Shulk are in the game.

Interesting stuff.

[The Shoemaker]

It's exciting news to see all of these new characters, but I think we can all agree it would have been better if the leak never came out and we found out about the characters either through an official video, or when the game came out. If the NOA thing is true, I think the guy deserved to lose his job honestly.

I watched the videos before they were taken down as well, Baby Bowser looked pretty neat actually. If anything I'm happy the leak was true because I liked the roster it showed. If you add in Mii characters (3 slots) and a space for random, that leaves one character spot open.

[The Shoemaker]

I'm loving all the colours



All but the green are based on actual suits Samus aquires in her games. Dark Samus is pretty sweet.

Looks like there will be lots of different outfits in general:

[Claytone]

Over the course of the past several hours, folks in Japan have gotten early copies of the game and have begun streaming.

http://www.twitch.tv/hamayama

and

http://www.twitch.tv/yushako

Are currently streaming. In doing so, they have confirmed a lot of information about the game. Avoid if you don't want to be spoiled, but these streams are a lot of fun!

[Kong Wen]

In doing so, they have confirmed a lot of information about the game. Avoid if you don't want to be spoiled, but these streams are a lot of fun!

That'll be me! I didn't mind seeing the leaked roster, but I'll be avoiding any coverage and videos of this game now for hype-maintenance.