Super Smash Bros.

[Rosalinas Spare Wand]

For my controversial Smash dislikes, I dislike the Green Greens (both of them) and Gourmet Race remixes. They sound nothing like the original, in the former's case it takes away the speed of the original case and in the latter it misses the frantic fun of the SNES tune.

I don't know about you but this remix is hilarious for the major difference in style between the original and the cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvjPa4RnSxY

[Nel_Annette]

I dislike what they did with O2's theme. They took one of the greatest final battle themes of all time and added a bunch of awkward "uh"s and "hey"s into the background to give it more of a beat. Wish the original was unlockable.

[Spark Of Spirit]

For my controversial Smash dislikes, I dislike the Green Greens (both of them) and Gourmet Race remixes. They sound nothing like the original, in the former's case it takes away the speed of the original case and in the latter it misses the frantic fun of the SNES tune.

I don't know about you but this remix is hilarious for the major difference in style between the original and the cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvjPa4RnSxY

Yeah, I don't mind listening to it so much. But fighting to it? Never feels right to me.

Same problem I have with a lot of the ballad style themes. Yes Smiles and Tears is a great tune, but fighting to it is so dull.

[Kiddington]

If I were doing a top 30, here's another that would definitely be on my list.

This track is just.....fun as hell to smash to. Especially on U's Gamer stage; it might kinda kill the creepiness factor a bit because it's so upbeat, but I think it works well.

[Spark Of Spirit]

It's my #1 track for the WarioWare stage. It's catchy stuff.

For Gamer, though, I use Stonecarving City. It's a shame it's the only proper Wario Land track in the game. Wario Land has gotten hosed worse than DKC has.

[Spark Of Spirit]

GameXplain had a video about their Top 5 most wanted DLC stages which has a few good choices in there.

Assuming they're going all out with stage DLC, I would like to see some of my favorites come back:

1. Pirate Ship (Brawl)
2. Big Blue (Melee)
3. Magicant (3DS)
4. Peach's Castle (N64)
5. Saffron City (N64)

Though I'm betting the only N64 stages we see are Dream Land and Yoshi's Island N64 since they were in Melee, I would like to see some of the others come back. That game has the most consistent stage design. For instance, I'd much prefer getting Sector Z to getting Corneria again. The size is just much more enjoyable for battling there.

[Spark Of Spirit]

So Lucas, the costumes, and the Miiverse stage are out June 14th . . . right before E3.

Seems a bit suspicious.

[Daxdiv]

Here I thought that Lucas would go live after the Digital presentation. Well, my new prediction is Ryu is announced as the next DLC character for Smash during the E3 event.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Sakurai talks balancing:

When it comes to Smash, every once in a while people will wrongly direct their anger towards me. They accuse me of things such as giving preference or strength to the characters that I've worked on in the past—in other words, the Kirby and Kid Icarus series characters. Oh my.

However, if I had worked on the Mario series, people would say, "You're favoring Mario too much," wouldn't they? The same would hold true for Fire Emblem, Pokémon or Starfox. The truth is, though, I put a lot of work into all the characters. It's a mix of labor, love, and fine tuning.

I mean, what could I possibly get out of only buffing the characters I've worked on? A sense of self-satisfaction? That's simply not the case; after all, I've worked on all of these characters through Smash.

For example, there are two characters I can't seem to get the hang of: Pit and Palutena. I personally feel those two are below average in terms of strength. If I further adjusted the game's balance for myself, I would make them stronger, but that's not what I've done.

And, given that I am still making adjustments little by little, I'd like to take this opportunity to discuss the act of balancing.

Generally speaking, the most important resource for balancing is the report we receive from the playtesting team. While the playtesters don't ever appear in the spotlight, I'm confident they're skilled enough to perform quite well in a tournament.

In addition to the playtesters' daily impressions, the team also considers results from online battles, as well as opinions they find about characters on the Internet. Then, using all of this data, they propose balance adjustments.

Of course, I don't approve all of their proposals right away. There's no point in making the game more balanced if it decreases the fun factor. To give an extreme example, I could make all the characters perform similarly to Mario and achieve perfect balance. However, that probably wouldn't be very fun at all. We work together by making adjustments while trying to preserve the characters' individuality, then testing out the characters again. I consider all the data the playtesters collect on all the characters and eventually finalize the changes.

In other words, although I am the one making the final decisions, we are all trying to remain objective as possible. If I don't agree with the playtesters' opinion, then no adjustments will be made.

The playtesting team is only composed of several people. After all, truly skilled players are hard to come by. Moreover, playtesters have individual playstyles—as well as personal strengths and weaknesses—that will come out during the testing process.

Another problem we have to consider is that battles can take on many formats in Smash. There are moves that are completely useless in a 1v1 battle, but in a four-player free-for-all those moves might prove quite useful. Therefore, if I played only one kind of battle, the game would feel very slanted towards a particular style of play.

Furthermore, if I went with what is fair according to advanced players, the beginners wouldn't be able to keep up. For example, Kirby's Stone attack probably won't hit a player above intermediate skill level, but if I made it more powerful, it would destroy beginners.

At the end of the day, I'm aiming for intermediately-skilled players to be able to properly enjoy the game. Fundamentally, my goal with Smash has been to create an "enjoyable party game". If you want to enjoy thrilling tactical gameplay, you might be better suited for other 2D fighting games.

Recently, there was a tournament featuring the top Japanese and American players. In 1v1s, the natural tendency is to use low risk moves to gradually deal damage to the opponent. Smash attacks rarely came out, and the matches were prone to becoming long, drawn out affairs. When considering the variety of ways Smash can be played I think this is a waste, but the winner was certainly decided by skill.

Just as surely, people who play the game this way enjoy it from the bottom of their hearts, and make many friends playing this way. Because the game accommodates a wide variety of playstyles, it's only natural that it captivates so many people in a variety of ways.

As a Kirby main since 64, I have to laugh at anyone who says Sakurai tilts the scales to his favorites. If he did, Kirby would still be as off the charts as he is in Smash 64 and wouldn't have been squashed to a puddle in Melee. Not to mention Palutena probably wouldn't arguably be the worst character in Smash 4 next to the Mii Swordfighter. If a Kid Icarus or Kirby character ends up unbalanced, Sakurai tends to deal with it ASAP. Just ask Metaknight fans.

At the end of the day, there really isn't a fighting game like Smash out there. Balancing has got to be a really tough job.

[Nel_Annette]

Kirby's fantastic for cheesing the unlockable character fights. Find the highest point in the stage and spam the down-B. 

[gunswordfist]

http://www.siliconera.com/?p=487866

[Dr. Insomniac]

[Kiddington]

Wow, Roy actually looks.....really fun.

I'm excited!

At the end of the day, there really isn't a fighting game like Smash out there. Balancing has got to be a really tough job.

At the end of the day, the majority of Smash fans are also notoriously hard to please.....and quite frankly, annoying as hell.

Sakurai's in a tough spot; this fanbase directs a lot of vitriol his way. You know for me personally, I'm still a bit upset at the whole Ice Climbers thing (and the fact that they haven't been announced at this point, I'm truly starting to believe they're not coming back.....which I'm sorry, but that is a total load), but the fact of the matter is, I don't know how people can be *that* upset at the job he's done. Smash U is literally leagues better than anything in the series that's come before it, and it stands as one of the most unique and well crafted fighting games ever. Like, quit your bitching already and just enjoy what we have.

[gunswordfist]

People are actually bitching over Ryu being in the game instead of a Monster Hunter character.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Impressions:

Lucas - He's back from Brawl and is pretty much exactly the same! Only Rope Snake is now a great tether recovery and his down throw can set up into combos. I'm still sticking with Ness, but it's nice to know I can use Lucas as a fallback to the style if need be.

Roy - Who would have though Roy would be the best Fire Emblem character in the game? Because so far it seems like it. He's stronger than Marth and faster than Ike, and is devastating up close unlike Robin. I'm still not too good with swordwielders in Smash outside of Toon Link, but since my friend mained him in Melee I'm going to give him a go every now and then.

Ryu - A fighting game character in Smash is so weird. He plays just like Street Fighter II except in Smash style. Hard to get used to, but an excellent addition to the roster.

Dream Land 64 - Oh yeah, the classic is back. That new remix of Ice Cream Island as the alternate track is awesome, as well. So glad this stage is back, you just don't know.

Suzaku Castle - No, not from YYH-- from Street Fighter! This is a great balanced stage that could have cone straight out Smash 64. This one also rocks for having that killer Ryu Stage remix (Ken remix sucks, though) as well as bring so faithful to Street Fighter II. My only qualm is that I think they shouldn't have bothered with the walk-off on the right side. It's too easy to KO on that side because of it.

MiiVerse - I really like the gimmick, but I'm glad it was free. There's really not enough here that would justify paying for it. That said, it's a good price for this good stage.

Oh yeah and

Spoiler

HYRULE CASTLE 64 AND PEACH'S CASTLE 64 ARE COMING AS DLC! YEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!

[close]

As you can tell, that was my favorite bit of news out of this whole direct.