Oh, stop groaning, I’ll make it work, I promise.
The timing is actually meaningful. Ever since Brawl, I’ve been struck with two thoughts, that this idea or
feature is the best idea ever in gaming, and that this idea and feature beside
it ruins the experience completely. I’ve
been tweaking Smash Brothers mentally for a while now, and now that Kid Icarus Uprising has launched, I
expect to see many of those ideas tested, challenged, and ultimately
discarded.
We’re not going to know that until we play it though, and
with the game mocking me, calling to me, on the coffee table across from me, it
is time to put some of these ideas on record so I can see where I was right,
and where I was dead wrong. This brings
us to the question, what should Smash Bros.
do differently? I’m going to start with what
should stay, or is on the right path.
First – Keep Masahiro Sakurai as director.
This is the right man for the job, and his vision remains as
entertaining, as satisfying, as all around fun, as ever. Everything here following is just
suggestions, tweaks, and game balance modifications.
Second – Keep the Subspace Emissary
Smash brothers is a solid fighting game, but Subspace
Emissary makes it mean something. Sure, the
story is told with little to no voice acting, and no text, and that hurts
it. The emphasis on cut scenes does a
lot to help, but ultimately Subspace Emissary restores most of the heroic
aspects to Nintendo’s cast. And really,
how many fighting games offer a full side scrolling beat’em up version as part
of their game, with two dozen completely original non-playable monsters to
fight?
Third – Keep the game Nintendo based
Every child on a forum has his favorites for the next new
character inclusion. I do too, and Hey! Look at that!
Some of them are from 3rd parties. That’s cool right? Well, no it isn’t. Notwithstanding a crossover like the Vs. Capcom series (please, please, oh
please), Smash Bros should be about
the Smash Bros, focusing most heavily on the Nintendo series headliners. If Square agrees to a Dissidia vs. Smash Bros, awesome, all of you Cloud fanboys are
golden. If Sonic alone crosses the gap,
cool. But Nintendo should not give this
series up to 3rd parties just to sate the fans of other games. Or if Nintendo is sating fans, satisfy us
first, who’ve been there for just about every Mario, Metroid, Zelda, and Pokémon
launch and enjoy these games, most times much more, than what third parties can
deliver. Okay, fan boys, let the hating
begin.
First Change – More Story Please
It’s an odd choice for a fighting game right? Well not
really. Super Smash Bros 64 had one idea, to mix up Nintendo’s most beloved
mascots and let them beat each other up.
It’s something of an interactive commercial, and it has been exploited
as such: heck, it’s pretty much made Fire
Emblem a fan base here in the American Territory. That was then, but Smash has greater
potential that is yet to be exploited.
The story, mostly surrounding Master Hand and his rebellious dolls, is
cryptic and rapidly changing, Melee and Brawl turning the heroes into trophies
when they lose. There’s still no good
reason why all of these Nintendo strong-arms are gathered in Smashworld, or who
thought up the dumb name Smashworld, or why more allies and enemies keep
entering the world. All of these are
fundamental questions begging for a true RPG treatment, and indeed, Nintendo
has more than enough experience in role playing games, from Golden Sun to Fire
Emblem, to Mario RPG/Paper Mario/Mario and Luigi style storytelling to make it
enjoyable and fun.
This is not merely a wish, it evades a looming crunch. With 37 playable fighters, Brawl is as large
a cast as most other fighting games (Street Fighter IV has 35 at start!). With such a crowded lineup, it becomes
increasingly difficult to give adequate story weight to each. Kirby is the hero of Brawl, Mario and Link
are jealous protectors of their princesses, and Captain Olimar is just along
for the ride. Changing the base from
fighting game to role playing game, or better, strategy game in the vein of
Fire Emblem, gives new weight and meaning to each character. Captain Olimar might get no video time, but
he and his 100 Pikmin army just made the mountains impassable!
Second Change – Street Fighter conjures to mind the next
request. Downloadable characters. A logistics nightmare I’m sure, but there
should be way to do it. The AR cards
included in Kid Icarus Uprising strike a few new ideas, including content
hosted in online and the picture of the card (from the 3DS camera) enabling a
download. This would make not only Kid
Icarus AR cards, but in fact all of them, very valuable. I wonder if it is possible to simply puppet
the AR image that is presented over the AR card…
Anyway, that’s all I can think of right now. Reports of two new Smash Bros. titles being
developed whet my appetite, and I cannot wait for E3 and some new details, even
if only screenshots or developer interview leaks. Comments, anyone?
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