Nitpick about Brawl

[godofPH]

You know you have them, little complaints you have about how Brawl turned out. I'm not talking about major disappointments (ie No Ridley/Geno), but the littlest of the little quips you have.

For me, the first I can think of off the top of my head relate to alternate colors, specifically for Red and Sonic. Charizard has no "Shiny" color scheme (Black body, red wings), yet Squirtle (the Green shell scheme) and Ivysaur (the Orange-Red bulb scheme) do. On Sonic, I really think he could have had a black and red scheme (Shadow), plus a White one (Silver).

Alternate costumes should have been available for more than just Wario. Link should have, perhaps, his OoT clothes availible for use. Mario of course could have a Dr. Mario outfit. Etc etc etc.

On the Assist Trophies, I already stated above that Shadow should be an alternate color scheme for Sonic. In his place, I suggest two Sonic universe ATs: Tails and Knuckles. Would anyone really argue against those two as ATs over Shadow?

The Subspace Emissary was pretty good as it was, and while I have no big qualms about the story's structure, I wish there could have been more integration of the worlds of the characters. I want locales ripped directly from the games the characters hail from, like Adventure Mode did in Melee. Have supporting characters from those games make appearences. Also, just plain more bosses from the games. Hell, stick in at least one villain from each franchise (Eggman from Sonic, maybe the Black Knight from FE, etc.). Yes, this would make it even more of a KH ripoff, but as I happen to like KH, this wouldn't bother me so much.

On the items, there's too damn many bomb items. The Smart Bomb, the Bob-Omb, The Motion Sensor Bomb, the Gooey Bomb. Too...much....

On the Pokeballs, there are too many Legendary Pokemon. Nearly half of the Pokeball Pokemon that appear are Legends. This wouldn't be a problem if Legendary pokeballs weren't so rare, but as they are, it makes it seem like there is less of a variety of Pokemon appearing. Could Legends be cut back on and add more common Pokemans?

[Burkion]

This thread will also be known as "The Things That Will Most Likely Be In The Sequal, Noted To Be Smash Bros God if it's true"

[Seer235]

One thing sticks out--this mainly goes with stuff I want for the next game--event match editor. Basically, allow the people to make custom matches like in event matches. Choose which pokemon come one, one giant character, etc.

[PyrasTerran]

My 3 greatest nitpicks

3) No alternate costumes for other characters which could obviously have them

2) unable to play custom stages online

1) tripping

[Seer235]

Ah yes, the tripping. I know there must have been a reason for including it, but it always seems to come up at the worst possible times in a fight.

Also, the lack of Second Gen pokemon. Just Chikorita and Legendaries. Come to think of it, a lot of the mid level pokemon were taken out. Where's the equivalent to Blastoise, Charizard, Scizor/Hitmonlee? It feels like the pokemon are either rather weak or legendary in this.

[MirrenDono]

Nope, no reason for the tripping. Sakurai just threw that in there to make the game a bit more random.

Dumbass.

The tripping and no custom stages online have already been mentioned, so I'll put in another one of Sakurai's blunders; no online leaderboards.

His reason for it? He didn't want people to be depressed if they saw they were ranked somewhere in the high thousands.

Again- dumbass.

[PyrasTerran]

He isn't a dumbass, without Sakurai, Iwata wasn't even going to readily make a sequel(in an interview, Iwata admitted that if Sakurai was not on board for Smash Bros. 3, they may have just re-released Melee with balanced gameplay and online). If there is anyone you should blame, it's President Iwata for giving Sakurai so much control and putting 150% faith in his abilities to read what people want.

Sakurai is an extremely non-competitive game designer, it's part of why so many of his games are single-player outtings, and sometimes with some coop(look no further than Kirby Superstar, the spirited gameplay precursor to Subspace Emissary). As aggravating as these random elements are, they are entertaining when you are looking at the entire gaming population, which is what Sakurai is doing. He is doing this game as much for the fans as he is for new fans.

Sakurai is trying to unify as many demographics of gamers as possible with Brawl. Tripping is especially annoying to advanced players, but sometimes a godsend to the less-skilled. Tripping is ultimately Sakurai's most powerful weapon against the meta-game; You can turn off items, you can choose your stages, but at the end of the day there is nothing that you can do about tripping.

The tripping mechanic also makes the advanced technique 'dash-dancing' null, which was a technique used by competitive players to keep their speed high and ready for quick movement as well as to confuse the opponent.

At any rate, the online scene with the Wii has better offerings, such as Super Mario Strikers Charged, which does have a leaderboard. But in the end the fault of the online quality is both Nintendo's inexperience with online as well as the problem with free online for an inexpensive console: You get what you pay for.

Fortunately, though, Nintendo is getting help from Square-Enix with understanding how an online-accessible game is SUPPOSED to be; in Japan, a Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles game was recently released for the Wii's new Wiiware program, essentially similar to Xbox Live Arcade in that it offers original games that you buy and download to your Wii. What is surprising and unprecedented is that this Crystal Chronicles game has downloadable content, and new characters and accessories are already available for purchasing on the Wiiware.

Downloadable content was something that some originally though impractical because of the Wii's limited memory space and lack of a true harddrive, but Square-Enix is paving the road for new opportunities for games in the future.

Of course we can never expect downloadable content for Brawl because the game's already locked in place in it's CD. But future Nintendo games could learn from Square-Enix's example...

[GMK12]

My only nitpick is the tripping... and yes, those who have played me can probably positively ID me as a former dash dancer... Especially with Fox heh...

[MirrenDono]

Originally posted by PyrasTerran
Sakurai is an extremely non-competitive game designer, it's part of why so many of his games are single-player outtings, and sometimes with some coop(look no further than Kirby Superstar, the spirited gameplay precursor to Subspace Emissary). As aggravating as these random elements are, they are entertaining when you are looking at the entire gaming population, which is what Sakurai is doing. He is doing this game as much for the fans as he is for new fans.

Sakurai is trying to unify as many demographics of gamers as possible with Brawl. Tripping is especially annoying to advanced players, but sometimes a godsend to the less-skilled. Tripping is ultimately Sakurai's most powerful weapon against the meta-game; You can turn off items, you can choose your stages, but at the end of the day there is nothing that you can do about tripping.

Yeah, and he's still a dumbass for putting the mechanic in. I more than appreciate what he did with the game; it's absolutely fantastic, but the random tripping simply is not a good feature. All it does lessen the meaning of skill with the game a bit more. It isn't a breakthrough aspect which will allow casual gamers to be able to excel at the game, either. There's no decent point to it.

At any rate, the online scene with the Wii has better offerings, such as Super Mario Strikers Charged, which does have a leaderboard. But in the end the fault of the online quality is both Nintendo's inexperience with online as well as the problem with free online for an inexpensive console: You get what you pay for.

I don't have much of a problem at all with the Friend Battles (randoms still blow), but when several other games like Geometry Wars, Trauma Center, Strikers, NiGHTs all have online leaderboards, there's no reason why the most competitive game in Nintendo's history shouldn't.

Everyone by now realizes that Nintendo Wi-Fi will never be Xbox Live or even the Playstation Network, but Brawl is fairly underwhelming in the online department. Especially when Mario Kart Wii is looking to have a pretty robust system. Good stuff can be done with Wi-Fi, it's just that few developers take the time to do it.

[godofPH]

I love tripping, and I also love anything that makes players who are whores for combos and techniques ***** incessantly.

[Seer235]

I think I'll hate tripping a lot less when I get used to it, because what bothers me the most isn't the tripping, but the seconds spent motionless before you realized that just happened. That's the killer.

[Zearatul]

I play as Bowser and Snake, Tripping doesn't Hurt you if your
1) Attacking
2) Jumping
3) Holding still


So tripping actually helps offensive players.

[PyrasTerran]

To avoid tripping you have to never walk/run, and that is a crutch to offensive playing, not a helper.

To only rely on aerial attacks would severely weaken those attacks as the match goes on.

[TitanGojira]

Off the top of my head...

1) In the character select screen, you can choose between Zelda and Sheik, and you can choose between Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard, but you can't choose between Samus and Zero-Suit Samus. What's up with that?

2) I hate that ALL of Snake's taunts are the same thing - hiding under the box. I would've loved a "!" taunt.

3) I would've liked it if, in the Subspace Emissary, Sonic actually had something to do with anything instead of simply "HI GUYS I BROKE THIS GUY'S WINGS CAN I PLAY?"

4) As for Fox, Falco and Wolf's Final Smashes... no, not that they're all the same thing. What I want to know is, why is the Final Smash for outer space, ship-flying characters... a tank? Why doesn't STAR FOX use his STARFIGHTER? I would've much preferred they used Arwings to attack instead of Landmasters. Especially considering Falco's line, "Personally, I prefer the air!"

5) Back to the Subspace Emissary, I'm glad they decided to cut out the part of the story that explained the PLOT, but left in the part where we basically have to do the whole SSE over again. Awesome. Really.

[godofPH]

Originally Posted by TitanGojira

Off the top of my head...

1) In the character select screen, you can choose between Zelda and Sheik, and you can choose between Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard, but you can't choose between Samus and Zero-Suit Samus. What's up with that?

Hold down the shield button as the match starts to play as Zamus.

3) I would've liked it if, in the Subspace Emissary, Sonic actually had something to do with anything instead of simply "HI GUYS I BROKE THIS GUY'S WINGS CAN I PLAY?"

The reason for this is that Sonic himself was added into the game quite later in its development period.

[TitanGojira]

Originally Posted by godofPH

Hold down the shield button as the match starts to play as Zamus.

I know, but it's not the same method as Zelda/Sheik and Squirtle/Ivysaur/Charizard. The fact that you can choose between them in the character select but not between Samus/Zero-Suit Samus is weird.

Originally Posted by godofPH

The reason for this is that Sonic himself was added into the game quite later in its development period.

It's still lame, though. They might as well have made Sonic one of the bonus characters like Wolf, Toon Link and Jigglypuff.

[Zardac the Great]

Tripping is highly annoying. I play almost exclusively as Sonic.

I remember one game I played where I tried four times in a row to start my usual running attack, and tripped.

I believe I lost that game. So sad.

I like the idea for Knuckles and Tails to be assist trophies, but what would Tails do? (Knuckles is rather obvious)

[TitanGojira]

Oh, one nitpick I forgot about:

I was rather disappointed there was no permanent/continuous Final Smash option in Special Brawl.

[Zardac the Great]

That would make for...interesting games.

Super Sonic vs. Giga-Bowser.

Giga Bowser can take damage, but can't be knocked off the map.

Super Sonic can leave the map and not die, and takes no damage.

Basically, nobody can win unless Giga Bowser suicides.

[TitanGojira]

Not quite like that. I don't mean that their Final Smashes would permanently be in use, just that each character would always have access to them, without having to hit a Smash Ball. They'd have those colorful, pre-FS fires around them throughout the entire match (during which they could fight normally) and could use their Final Smash at will.