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Masahiro Sakurai, creator of the Super Smash Bros., has announced changes to the edge-grabbing mechanic in the upcoming 3DS and Wii U installments of the series.
While grabbing on to the edge of a stage will still provide a brief period of invincibility and a reprieve from death, it will not work in the same way as has previously been the case.
In a Miiverse post, Sakurai said the following:
Other changes will allegedly include the determination of the invincibility period by air time and accumulated damage. The controls for grabbing will also no longer be based on a character’s damage being above or below 100%.
Source: Miiverse
One excellent way for Nintendo to push some real Wii-U units is to make the next Smash super competitive.
The fighting-game circuit is still playing Melee, thanks to its incredible technical mastery, and for the fact that Brawl had those random character slips.
Personally, I enjoyed Brawl more than Melee, but really my favourite Smash is still the original. That being said, with the constant addition of more game-play mechanics (I’m looking at you here, Super Smashes), the importance of past game-play elements got realigned. I really dig pulling an incredible combo out of nowhere, ten seconds left on the clock, and get a KO to send the game into over-time by just a hair. That feels a lot more accomplished than hitting a button and watching Mario launch a screen-wide ray of death that automatically rings anyone caught in it a couple points poorer.
I have no doubt there is going to be a lot of awesome stuff in Smash – but sometimes, I wish they made these games . . . simpler? Like, Street Fighter II is still one of the best fighting games ever (which the original Smash was heavily based off of). There is a purity of concept – and an ability to do an incredible amount with a very limited arsenal (which the original Smash perfected to a tee).
It’s not that I don’t think the new edge-grab mechanics will be awesome. I just don’t know how much they’re going to matter in the series increasing attempts to “up the ante” in terms of spectacle – especially when that spectacle increasingly includes doing massive damage with little effort.
I remember juggling three of my friends with Fox in the original Smash – putting together unreal combos – retaining a ninja-like zen of all objects – keeping them all air-born – both as a defence mechanism – and as a secondary projectile series. It was great the feeling of mastering that game brought.
With the series increasing incentive towards more, more, more (characters, stages, trophies, whatever) – I get worried about the balance all of those elements will be able to achieve. Perhaps I’m just a tad old-school though. Preferring to achieve a lot with a little, rather than achieving a lot with a lot.