So, this year at E3, Nintendo has decided to focus on a single game for the third year in a row. In 2016 it was Zelda, last year Mario, and this year it's Smash... but people seem to be a lot more upset at that focus than they were the last two years, as I'm seeing a lot of criticism of Nintendo's lack of games this E3. That criticism is accurate, as they have very little to show other than Smash, and there may be even fewer games shown than there were the last couple of years -- they aren't mentioning the 3DS at all for example, sadly, unlike 2017 (this is really unfortunate! The 3DS needs more games...) -- but it doesn't seem THAT different.
That said though, I've never loved this focus-all-on-one-game thing, so yes, I wish that they were showing more. In particular, what's going on with Retro? It now has been five years since they last released a game, and still we heard nothing about whatever it is they're making. They must be having development problems, five years of nothing is not normal. And not hearing anything about Metroid Prime 4 is also a disappointment, they should have had something to show of that here.
Nintendo does have a few non-Smash games to show, including a DLC addon for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, a new Mario Party game they just announced (and are showing on the Treehouse stream right now, as it's taking a break from its heavy Smash focus for the moment), some mech game called Daemon x Machina, and details on the upcoming Switch Fire Emblem game (which has been delayed to 2019 and looks like Fire Emblem), but there isn't a lot. And again so far there hasn't even been any 3DS on the Treehouse stream, which, again, I do think is a mistake. Oh well.
As for Smash though, it looks pretty good. It seems that they're building it on the core gameplay of the last one, Smash 4 (Wii U / 3DS), but with a lot of changes. The last game's good, if not quite on par with Melee, so that's fine. It'll have every single character from all past Smash games, plus a few more, and every character has had some changes to their looks, moves, and such. The E3 Direct mentions some of the major changes for just about every character, and some sound good. Link now is the Breath of the Wild Link, for example, and bombs can be remotely detonated. I don't like the new Zelda design, however; they went with the Link to the Past Zelda this time, and I think it's the least good Zelda design yet in a Smash game. Going from the fantastic TP Zelda design from Smash 4 to this is a huge downgrade... ah well.
Visually, on that note, this game has a very cartoony style, more than I remember past Smash games looking. It looks nice, but different from before. The gameplay is mostly the same however, though there are some balance changes, such as to dashing. I am, of course, not the biggest Smash fan -- they're good games, but I've never loved them enough to play huge amounts of the games, Melee sort of excepted -- but the game does look good and I'm sure I'll get it eventually. Smash is very popular and should be enough for a good holiday season this year, but it'd have been better to have a bit more than they seem to have... though Microsoft doesn't seem to have much either, almost everything major they showed was for next year. It's kind of a weird year, it seems.
Personally I think 4 is better than melee, but melee has been around so long and it's little exploits so embraced by its community that going to a game without them that's a little slower really hurts for them. It has a pretty strong community though.
I really don't like how they're reducing all final smashes to cinematics, but otherwise it seems a solid entry. I expect any original characters are going to be DLC after the fact. If it's "All Characters", Ivysaur & Squirtle are back, and Ice Climbers too!
So yeah, ALL characters return, even Snake. I wasn't expecting that one, really. As for new characters though, Sakurai said in the Direct that there won't be many new ones (at least included with the game), but they did announce one, Ridley. It sounds like an enhanced, graphically altered, game built on the last games' core design, so whether it's a full sequel or enhanced port kind of depends on how you look at it. It's obviously a lot more than a port, given that the graphics have been totally replaced and the game mechanics aren't identical, but seems to be less than a full sequel. "Ultimate" fits as a subtitle then, I guess.
Quote: Personally I think 4 is better than melee, but melee has been around so long and it's little exploits so embraced by its community that going to a game without them that's a little slower really hurts for them. It has a pretty strong community though.
It's true that Smash 4 is less exploitable than Melee, but somehow I find it a little bit less fun even though I'm certainly not one to be doing the exploits people can in Melee... but even so, it's a solid base to build this game on.
I know I said it already, but seriously... so for the second half of the year, Nintendo's first-party lineup is a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 DLC addon, Mario Party, Smash, and a sort-of-spinoff Pokemon game? How uninspiring. I mean, Smash is fun, but they need more games than that! At least I only got a Switch recently so I still have stuff from last year to get like, well, Xenoblade Chronicles 2... and Mario Tennis Aces, which just released, looks fun. The story mode sounds disappointing, but I tried it in the online test a week or two ago and quite liked that, so I'll have to get it eventually mostly for the online play I assume. But still, it's a thin lineup, I agree with the online consensus on that point.
However, it would not be at all surprising to see Nintendo to make some surprise Switch announcement of a (not really major) game that releases this year, and I hope they do...
Of course the other recent release is Sushi Striker, but that's better on 3DS and that's where I bought the game, 3DS. I hope they announce a few more 3DS games, there are rumors that more 3DS games are coming and I hope it's true. The 3DS is again the console I'm using the most at the moment, and it's still a really great system...
While I believe that Waluigi has real fans, seriously... why? He's a somewhat annoying character who's never been in anything other than compilations, and I at least am okay with that. There are characters who should be in Smash but aren't, but Waluigi isn't one of them...
It's really more of a running gag, no one's actually serious about it. That said, Waaaaa! (Ok, it seems some idiots who weren't in on the joke actually ARE serious about it to the point of sending death threats to Nintendo. What the hell?)
Anyway, here's something to consider. Nintendo doesn't care about winning E3, because they sidestepped it entirely. They announce things regularly in their own online streams, so why bother taking e3 that seriously? It's a relic at this point.
New Smash game, same old story: once again Sakurai is saying that he doesn't want to make a Smash game that competitive players would love, eg a new Melee, because that'd alienate casual audiences. Melee's too hard! Sigh... and this is why Melee will stay alive in the competitive scene, because Sakurai is openly hostile to making a fighting game the way you should make one. I'm not saying that a new Smash game needs to be exactly like Melee, but his whole attitude towards competitive gaming has always been way off the mark! He's making fighting games, you need to consider what the fighting game community wants. Ot herwise, well, once again nwe'll be in a situation where Melee continues to be in lots of tournaments.
You see the difference between Sakurai and any other fighting game creator when you look at the kinds of games playing in major tourneys -- it's almost all modern games... and Melee. Great classics like SF2 or 3, SF Alpha 3, any classic SNK game, what have you, none of those are main-list Evo games. Melee is, and it's like over a decade older than anything else. Part of that is just because of how dedicated Melee's fanbase is, but I do think that if Nintendo was more responsive to what the games' most dedicated fans want, Melee wouldn't need to be in Evo anymore. I am far from a big competitive-gaming fan and rarely watch any of that stuff, but still, this stuff does matter no matter how much Sakurai wishes it didn't...
Quote:“I think the philosophy behind them doesn’t go in line with Nintendo’s philosophy in that some of these players are playing for the prize money. It comes to a point where they’re playing the game for the money, and I feel that kind of direction doesn’t coincide with Nintendo’s view of what games should be.”
While this clearly is Nintendo's philosophy, how is it a good one? They could be doing all the same things they are to attract mass audiences, and also trying more to keep the attention of important parts of their core base! And with the popularity of competitive gaming now, this attitude is getting more and more dated...
I agree with Sakurai, and I think you misunderstand. Melee actually isn't a very well balanced game at all, hence why modders came along to retool the whole game.
He means way more than just that, though. Sure, it shouldn't be exactly the same as Melee. But I do think that his open hostility to working with any sort of competitive gamer in mind harms the game and makes Melee last longer in the competitive scene in a way that it wouldn't had it been made by any other fighting game studio. That's good for Melee and its enduring popularity and, by now, legend perhaps even, but not great for Nintendo really...
In other news, it appears they have made a HUGE number of concessions aimed at the competitive scene. They've allowed one to "charge" a super meter instead of final smashes being an item. Stamina mode has graduated to a full fledged main mode. Battlefield is another Omega feature, and stage hazards can be turned off, allowing ever more granularity in controlling the arena. A number of popular "bits and bobs" in terms of controls (like directional air dodging) have returned. Frankly, for someone saying he's not "targeting" the competitive scene, they sure are catering to it big this time. Their actions speak for themselves, this IS aimed at that scene.
Anyway, K.Rool and Simon! Those are two of the biggest asks, for me personally even, and they're here! Not only that, there are "more to come". That one blurred out part of the main menu? I'm guessing a return of story mode.
Everyone's making a big deal about Luigi being reaped by Death, but it's ok, he's got a 1up mushroom!
Quote: In other news, it appears they have made a HUGE number of concessions aimed at the competitive scene. They've allowed one to "charge" a super meter instead of final smashes being an item. Stamina mode has graduated to a full fledged main mode. Battlefield is another Omega feature, and stage hazards can be turned off, allowing ever more granularity in controlling the arena. A number of popular "bits and bobs" in terms of controls (like directional air dodging) have returned. Frankly, for someone saying he's not "targeting" the competitive scene, they sure are catering to it big this time. Their actions speak for themselves, this IS aimed at that scene.
Yeah, it is interesting that they're doing so much for tournament players, after Sakurai has been so vocal for so long about not wanting to do anything of the sort... someone working there under him clearly must care a lot more about it, and convinced people to include all that stuff. I like the 'every stage has Battlefield and Final Destination versions' option though, it'll add a lot more visual variety when watching Smash tournaments. Having a meter for your super instead of the random item give people a super is probably also a positive, the advantage in reducing frustration outweighs any negative of the way someone getting one could turn around a match.
As for Stamina mode, has that existed in Smash games before? I don't remember it... I presume it's a health-bars system, more like a classic fighting game?
Quote: Anyway, K.Rool and Simon! Those are two of the biggest asks, for me personally even, and they're here! Not only that, there are "more to come". That one blurred out part of the main menu? I'm guessing a return of story mode.
Yeah, they're both pretty good character additions, K.Rool particularly. It's good to see him again after so long. Simon's a good inclusion too, though I'm much less enthused by Richter. They needed someone very similar to Simon, though, so it's an understandable choice I guess.
A Black Falcon Wrote:Yeah, it is interesting that they're doing so much for tournament players, after Sakurai has been so vocal for so long about not wanting to do anything of the sort... someone working there under him clearly must care a lot more about it, and convinced people to include all that stuff. I like the 'every stage has Battlefield and Final Destination versions' option though, it'll add a lot more visual variety when watching Smash tournaments. Having a meter for your super instead of the random item give people a super is probably also a positive, the advantage in reducing frustration outweighs any negative of the way someone getting one could turn around a match.
As for Stamina mode, has that existed in Smash games before? I don't remember it... I presume it's a health-bars system, more like a classic fighting game?
Yeah, they're both pretty good character additions, K.Rool particularly. It's good to see him again after so long. Simon's a good inclusion too, though I'm much less enthused by Richter. They needed someone very similar to Simon, though, so it's an understandable choice I guess.
I wonder who the last few characters will be...
I think Nintendo wants to be in a position where if the competitive scene complains the game doesn't do enough to cater to them, they can just refer back to their quotes about it not being a focus, and if it is accepted there, hey nice! Its win win for them.
Anyway, stamina was first introduced in melee, but it was in the "special modes", like with metal mode and speed mode. Even back then I was hoping the next one would "graduate" it to a full-fledged mode, and it looks like that finally happened.
Richter is an echo, that's all, and that's fine. Echoes take a lot less work to develop so I don't see it as all that bad. Chrom though, that one's more frustrating. The vast majority of Fire Emblem characters are all clones of Marth. Roy, Ike, Lucina, and now Chrom are all clones. Now here's the odd thing. Not all copies are echoes. Slightly different stats is a true "echo", but if one character has moves that another lacks, they are considered a distinct character. That's why, at this point, Ganondorf is definitly not an echo of Captain Falcon. He's differentiated the most of all the clones. I'm totally willing to accept Ganondorf as distinct, but the others, well, it's a bit of a stretch, and I for one would rather any future Fire Emblem characters be pulled from supporting cast. No more Lords.