Name: With previous titles Melee and Brawl, Super Smash Brothers is big on fight-centric adjectives. Unfortunately, there aren’t many other words that could get the job done. Squabble? Donnybrook? Brouhaha? For a while, I thought they may ditch the convention for something beginning with U, like the rumored Super Smash Brothers Universe from a while back. That would work, but even then there’s not much possibility: Universe, Unlimited… and that’s it. Not a lot of breathing room. However, I’ve come up with a name that leans more toward the fight-centric theme of games past, though could expand to a more general meaning:
Super Smash Brothers Bash.
There’s a lot of bashing going on in Super Smash Brothers, so it fits. “Bash” is another word for “party,” and how many of us have had Smash parties before? The only caveat is that Bash makes for a second SSBB acronym…but SSBB2 should fix that up, right? Super Smash Brothers Bash. I can hear Reggie saying that name at E3 2013 already.
Game Modes: The game can be named whatever, but names don’t matter much without ways to play, right?
I’ve broken this up into three parts: Single Player, Local Multiplayer, and Online Multiplayer.
Single Player: Most of the things we’ve grown to love will make a comeback: Classic, All-Star, Events, the Stadium mini-games, and Training mode. They’ve all become Smash standards, so it’s only natural that they would remain.
Adventure Mode, however, is a whole different ballgame. In Melee, Adventure Mode was a series of tasks, with no real connection, culminating with Giga Bowser at the end. Brawl expanded the mode in a big way, turning it into a full-fledged story called The Subspace Emissary. I would want another big advancement for the next game, but how can that happen?
Simple: take the members of the Tales team from Namco Bandai that are already on the project, and task them with creating an open-world RPG where the “random battles” are Smash matches. It doesn’t have to be a full 100-hour RPG in the vein of Skyrim or Fallout 3; it only need be a fun, unique approach to the Smash formula. There’s opportunity for customization, a party system, and whatever else the Tales team could cook up. If Sakurai and the team want to expand on the story of Subspace Emissary by bringing back Tabuu and his Primid horde, that’d be fine too. It may be a bit too ambitious, but I feel like the RPG direction would give Adventure Mode a fresh new feel.
Local Multiplayer: The bread-and-butter of Smash since its inception, local multiplayer needs to be a huge part of the Smash experience. I would expect that Free-for-All, Team Battles, Tournament Mode, Rotation, and Special Rules matches all make a return, but with a new twist.
Considering the Wii U will allow for Wii Remotes AND Wii U GamePads AND Wii U Pro Controllers, not to mention 3DS functionality, I expect the limit of combatants in any given match to rise from FOUR to SIX. Six-man Free-for-Alls, 3-on-3 Team Battles, 5-on-1 Bunny Hood Stamina matches, whatever the players can think up. Configurations can be any mix of the compatible controllers: four Wiimotes and two GamePads? Three Wiimotes, a GamePad, a Pro Controller, and the 3DS? It’s up to the players’ specific situation, but I feel like adding two more slots is a natural progression.
I’ve also imagined two new game modes that would fit into the craziness of Super Smash Brothers while also showcasing the technology of the newest Nintendo systems.
AR Mode: A mode where the match takes place in the living room. Under the bed. On top of the cat. Wherever the camera is pointing is where the Smashing goes down. Because of the Wii U GamePad’s lack of a back-facing camera, it would have to be facing whatever the player wants to use as the arena, limiting its use, which makes me think this would be better suited as a 3DS-exclusive mode. Hey, might as well give the player a reason to buy both versions, right? Of course, an AR mode also means Smash Brothers AR cards. These could contain trophies, stickers, music, even stage and character unlocks. They could be bought at a store, given as promo items at conventions… the possibilities are endless. AR Mode may be better suited for the 3DS version of Smash, which means Wii U would need an exclusive mode, too. I have just the thing.
Smash Master Mode: Four players are fighting on the TV screen, all using Wiimotes or Wii U Pro Controllers. A fifth player, using the Wii U GamePad, is acting like a Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master, modifying the match on the fly to suit his desire. He can choose a character and immediately inflict an ailment on them. He can choose items from a list and drop them wherever he wishes. He can even modify the stage itself, creating or erasing platforms separate from the actual stage layout. How much mayhem could this Smash Master cause? How many arguments could start with “Hey! Why don’t you focus on THEM for once?!” The potential of this mode is through the ROOF, and if Nintendo takes ANYTHING from this proposal of mine, I hope it’s this. It would be an absolute blast.
Online Multiplayer: Online multiplayer in Brawl was, to put it lightly, a disaster. Connections were virtually nonexistent, lag was everywhere, and the anonymity in public matches was asinine. Nintendo will not make the same mistake here, as I expect every mode in Local Multiplayer to be available online, including Tournament and Rotation. 32-player online Tournament? Yes, please!
Aside from those, voice chat support is a must, especially in this Xbox Live age, and since we were able to save replays locally in Brawl, there’s no reason why that feature wouldn’t expand to the online arena, right? Capcom has certainly mastered it; hopefully some of their expertise in that area rubbed off on the Namco Bandai group during Street Fighter X Tekken development.
Those are the ways we’d play the game, but we need characters to play as, right? Can’t have all of those game modes and no one to play with!
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Yo Jason, this is my first time reading one of your articles (I found it on n4g) but dude your really good! Your idea’s are mind blowing! And as far-fetched and outgoing as they may seem, they are all entirely possible. You even thoroughly explain HOW it is possible. The Master mode and Virtual camera idea is among the best I ever heard. Others only focus on what characters will be in the game, HOWEVER, you focus on how to expand the gameplay itself. Check out gamasutra.com and pick a gaming school, Jason. You definitely should be in game design. I’d love to hear more of your idea’s!
If you think they’re going to get rid of Lucario, the only playable fighting type Pokemon in a fighting game… you really aren’t thinking straight. Since Mario and Pokemon got six playable character each in SSBB (yes I’m counting Wario and Yoshi even though they had their own franchise icons since they appear in numerous Mario spinoffs as well as Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard as their own playable characters), they should continue to have the same amount of playable characters in the new SSB. Since you have a total of 8 Mario characters in your character list, Pokemon should get 8 playable characters as well since both franchises are the best selling franchises of all time. The Pokemon characters I’d put in are Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, Charizard (as his own character), Lucario, and a 5th generation Pokemon Trainer with 3 Pokemon. That gives both franchises 8 playable characters each. Other than that, I love everything else you did on the article. Great job!