Friday, September 16, 2016

Super Smash Bros. for NX?


Earlier this year there have been rumors about Super Smash Bros. as a launch title for Nintendo's next console, the NX. I've recently played a little more of the current Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and put some thoughts into the potential follow-up.

Naturally it would just be an enhanced port of Smash 4, since it's way too early for a new game and Sakurai stated multiple times that he's not interested in making a new Smash Bros. ever or at least any time soon. An enhanced port here is the solution, which does fit the current set of titles quite well. If there's a Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and one for Wii U, why not also have a "Super Smash Bros for. NX"?

And Nintendo really likes to port successful Wii U games at the moment, so no one should be surprised about such an announcement. That being said, the NX version would most likely turn out to be the "ultimate version" of the game with the following features:

  • Enhanced graphics.
  • All DLC included.
  • All Stages from both the Wii U and the 3DS version.
  • A new mode replacing the Smash Run & Tour modes, something more similar to the Subspace Emissary.
  • Custom moves for the current DLC characters.
  • Expanded Stage Editor.

That would solve nearly all problems that I have with the game right now. It all feels like a half-hearted effort, mostly because they had to develop two versions at the same time, where the resources pretty much were divided into half. It would be so much more satisfying, if you had a version with all the stages.

I'm also not a fan of the current DLC offers, because they are ridiculously overpriced. Buying all DLC fighters and stages costs more than the actual game and doesn't even add a quarter of additional content. Compare this to the excellent DLC offerings of Mario Kart 8 or Hyrule Warriors: Legends, where you really get lots of stuff for a fair price.

So far I only bought Bayonetta, because I really like her character, and the two Zelda stages, because I really like Zelda. With that I already paid 12€, which is as much as the entire Mario Kart 8 DLC, which added 16 new racing tracks and more.

The Zelda stages aren't even new content, it's recycled content from the earlier Smash Bros. games. It's the same with some DLC characters like Lucas. So, you have to pay good money to get something back that you've probably already paid for years ago.

And as much as I like the Pirate Ship stage, they haven't even put any effort into it. It looks exactly like in Brawl. Why not at least add some bloom to make it look like in The Wind Waker HD? It's one of the prettiest Wii U games after all. At least the Omega variant of the stage offers something new, where they used one of the lookout towers:


That's a nice feature, but it doesn't really justify the price...

I probably won't buy any additional DLC, but I'll just wait for the likely NX port. Similar to Hyrule Warriors: Legends it probably comes with all the original DLC included, so you can save the money to buy the new version of the game later.

It also wouldn't be surprising, if there were few exclusive character additions, e.g. Wolf and someone new. In the very least the DLC fighters could also get customizable moves, even though I'm not really using this feature anyway.

But one feature that I used a lot in Brawl was the Stage Editor, which significantly got toned down in the Wii U version. You draw free shapes now, but it misses lots of the interesting elements like conveyor belts or ladders. Some more backgrounds, textures and variety would be nice as well. Why not let us use (some of) the backgrounds from all the stages in the game?

Also, I always thought that there should be "Alpha Stages" as well, where every stage has platforms like Battlefield. The Omega Stages are a good feature, but playing on a flat ground all the time gets boring and favors certain characters.

As much as I hate, how Nintendo treats the Wii U library at the moment, in case of Smash 4 it could turn out to be a really good version of the game worthy of my time. So, let's see.

4 comments:

Eduardo Jencarelli said...

Wasn't there only a two year period between the first Smash Bros. and Melée? They were obviously able to create a full-fledged sequel within that time frame.

TourianTourist said...

Yes, and they created Majora's Mask in a year at that time. This doesn't mean that things go as fast these days and Sakurai already stated that he doesn't want to make a new Smash, at least not now.

And if the NX won't be backwards compatible, you can expect many ports. Just look at what's happening on the 3DS right now. Hyrule Warriors Legends, Yoshi's Woolly World 3D, Super Mario Maker 3DS... The Wii U hasn't sold well and its titles are getting ported to more successful systems, which probably will continue on the NX.

Unknown said...

Sakurai really has no say in the matter. He wanted Melee to be the last game in the series, but Nintendo wanted another one so he was forced to create Brawl. Hell, at first he didn't even sign up to help on Sm4sh, he did it after production began because he didn't want them to mess up his brain child.

TourianTourist said...

Still, right now the most profitable thing would be just porting Smash 4 to NX. I wouldn't expect a Smash 5 anytime soon.