Smash Bros. Gets Story-Driven Single Player Campaign

If you were wondering how they could make the upcoming Smash Bros. Brawl even better than its predecessors, the official Dojo site has some great news for Nintendo fans. Via Game|Life comes the news that Brawl will feature a fully-fleshed out single-player sidescrolling campaign. Called 'The Subspace Emissary', it appears to explore the stories of the individual characters and their interactions with each other. "This time, though, we've managed to create a complete side-scrolling action game. It's storyline isn't overwrought--it's hastened along by a bunch of quick movies ... The Adventure mode also emphasizes character development. You'll see many famous characters persevering under the weight of their personal histories, shouldering their unique burdens... It's really something you won't see anywhere else." While obviously folks like Link and Mario will feature heavily, it's worth pointing out that this will be the first time in more than 15 years that Kid Icarus' Pit will get any sort of 'plot development' in a videogame.

Comments

*drool*

[danbert8]

(This post should be blank, because words cannot be expelled with all the drool. However using parenthetical statements allows me to convey omniscient thoughts without giving the idea of words, thus I can tell you that I really can't wait to play some serious smash bros. I kinda thought Melee was disappointing, because it never had the sheer madness that was the original, but the game was very unbalanced, especially in favor of DK [that big ape should not be able to move so fast].)

Re:*drool*

[Turn-X Alphonse]

The cube version plays completely different from the original, they made all characters handle looser (they slide more), stages were made much smaller and the whole thing plays like the N64 version with a broken joystick. I think the number 1 complaint among my friends is that they gave up a lot of control for Melee, which changed it from a fist fight to an art of dodging and countering as it is in Melee.

We haven't seen enough Brawl to judge yet, but I think a lot of us are hoping they will go back to the heavier more controlled playing style of the original with some larger fighting grounds which can fit on 4 people unlike the ones in Melee.

But in short, Melee is faster paced but it's looser, Original was heavier and required more face to face fighting than being nimble and taking cheap shots until you could finish them off with a heavy attack.

Re:*drool*

[edwdig]

But in short, Melee is faster paced but it's looser, Original was heavier and required more face to face fighting than being nimble and taking cheap shots until you could finish them off with a heavy attack.

I don't think I agree with that. Melee is certainly faster. But items were far more useful in the original game. It was a pretty effective strategy in the original game to just grab all the items and throw them at people - particularly the light saber and turtle shell. That doesn't work nearly as well in the new game, so you have to get closer and fight directly more. Throws were also much more effective in the original game, so you could hit someone with an item from a distance, then run and and throw them offscreen. That doesn't work well anymore either. You really have to rely on close combat much more in Melee.

The larger stages in the original game were nicer though. In Melee there isn't as much room off the edges, so sometimes you die when you felt like you would've been able to make it back on the stage if the game gave you a chance. Ness really suffers in that regard. He could make it back on from pretty far off the stage in the original, but a lot of the newer stages aren't wide enough for you to try.

Oh god...

[UbuntuDupe]

I'd love to hear their explanation of how Zelda, Mario, and Samus (for starters) ended up in the same time and place ...

Re:Oh god...

[thefirelane]

Doug: In episode 2F09, when Itchy plays Scratchy's skeleton like a xylophone, he strikes the same rib twice in succession, yet he produces two clearly different tones. I mean, what are we to believe, that this is some sort of a [the three nerds chuckle] magic xylophone or something? Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

Re:Oh god...

[AKAImBatman]

Aliens.

You need to watch more TV and read more books. Aliens always abduct people and put them in competitions that would be pointless under any circumstance other than a fourth-wall breech of the universe by all-knowing aliens. And if you don't believe me, try reading Walter Farley's Black Stallion series. When he wanted to do a cross-over between Black and the "secret" Island Horse flame, who fixed the continuity problems so they could both race? That's right, aliens did it.

You'd think that a race of beings with technology superior enough to travel between universes would have something better to do than kidnap folks from their homes and force them to participate in some sort of competition. (A competition that the contestants always seem more than willing to compete in?)

See also: A wizard did it!

possible mistake.

[musikit]

while i am open to the idea of story line for characters isnt this what destroyed the street fighter and mortal combat francise?

Re:possible mistake.

[rob1980]

I thought what destroyed Street Fighter was all the ridiculous pseudo-sequels. You had SF 2, then SF 2: Championship Edition, then SF 2: Turbo, then Street Fighter Alpha Championship Turbo Hyper EX II Deluxe Edition, etc...

Re:possible mistake.

[bishiraver]

Yet it worked so well for Soul Edge / Soul Blade / Soul Calibur / Soul Calibur II / Soul Calibur III .....

Premise was not only mindless action

[LordZardoz]

Lots of games offer mindless action.

The primary reason I purchased Smash Brothers on the Gamecube was so that I could use Bowser to beat Pikachu into a tiny bloody stain.

Put into more formal terms, Smash Brothers lets you use your favorite game characters to beat up on characters you like less. It also, at its core, provides much of the appeal of "Freddy vs Jason" or "Aliens vs Predator". You may enjoy Metroid and Zelda, but outside of this game, your not going to get any chances to see both in the same game.

It also does not hurt that the game its self is highly entertaining and has a great deal of comedic value.

END COMMUNICATION

Re:Read the summary:

[hal2814]

Why didn't anyone tell me my butt was this big?

Amazing

[MeanderingMind]

All I can say is Nintendo has the best marketing of the big three. Smash Brothers fans are practically dehydrated from drooling over the blog.

Seriously, what other game in history has successfully maintained news updates every weekday? There hasn't been a weekday since it started where there wasn't something new, however small.

I remember when the site first opened and I read the text "I will be updating this site periodically". I thought "Oh, I can expect some random news every few weeks/months". I was stunned to find that it was literally every weekday.

I don't think there's a single game hyped as well as this one.

Re:Waggle?

[Macthorpe]

You might want to actually visit the website once, just so you can read the part where you can use any of 4 different control schemes - Gamecube controller, Wii Classic Controller, Wiimote & Nunchuck or Wiimote.

Re:no not really

[Psykechan]

Someone got the idea that 2D fighters (along with 2D everything else) was unpopular. Everyone started clamoring to make their own 3D fighting game with mixed results. Some good, some not so much. 2D fighters also suffered a period of "Madden"ing where a new game would come out once a year with the big upgrade being the roster. Fortunately a roster change was a much bigger deal because it added whole new playstyles to the game, but it didn't help the public image.

Nothing really destroyed the Street Fighter franchise. Capcom could, and will, release a new SF game and the fans will buy it. The problem is garnering new fans to expand the franchise. I commend them for their (3D) Street Fighter EX which while not being that great of a game, kept true to the playstyle of the 2D games.

Mortal Kombat did have a "story driven side scroller" game that tanked pretty bad. It was a complete departure to the style of play of the other games. MK also made the jump from 2D to 3D prematurely and unfortunately lost many things that fans liked about the series such as the digitized characters and the sheer manicness of the gameplay. The game evolved over the years to be better but it never received as much attention that it did when it was 2D. The franchise isn't dead, it's just not as popular as before.

2D fighters aren't dead. There are still Guilty Gear and a few others. One could argue that Super Smash Bros. is the current leader in the 2D fighting arena despite the fact that everything is 3D and Brawl is only the third game in the series.

Please note that this new story driven mode will be in addition to the standard fighting modes. For people that liked the other two games, this will be just another diversion that you can try once you're bored of kicking your friends' off of the arena.

Co-Op?

[Sciros]

I would be ecstatic if they mentioned this story mode was playable in co-op. I've been wanting something like that in a Smash game ever since the original.

Sadly HAL seems to only really do about 50% of what they're capable of; it would be okay if Smash games were released every couple of years, but waiting a whole generation and-then-some puts a lot of pressure on them to add more than just "the usual improvements."

Oh well. I'm big into Smash, so just knowing that they didn't blow off the single-player mode entirely this time around is good news to me.

Re:Fighting game "plot"

[PeterFranks]

Heh, if they DON'T do dialogue such as this, then I think the game will actually suffer.

I love the nonsensical plots and creatively wacky dialogue, especially in a compilation game such as this. It's not supposed to take itself as seriously as Soul Caliber tried to. It's supposed to be something "fun" to play, just like Monkey Ball. I can't think of anything more fun than watching each character interact in their own stereotypes, apparently oblivious to each other's stereotypes.

More information

[Creepyguywithastick]

I've been following the site for a while, and they've cleared up some questions in the last teaser update about the story: It takes place in an alternate universe, the characters aren't the "real" canon characters, they're trophies of those characters. It's always been implied in the opening cinematic that Smash Brothers was just a kid playing with toys (which is why the final boss is a hand--kids have their action figures fight their hand when they finally run out of other toys for it to fight), but it was explicitly stated in the last update that all the characters are simply toys, and not part of the canon. When they die, they turn back into toys. They exist in an alternate universe where trophies exist to fight in tournaments, and this lifestyle has been maintained for the past two games, but now Metaknight has broken the tradition by storming the tournament and dropping some evil-looking goo that turns into evil-looking monsters, and somehow requires the trophies to stop him. Keep in mind, Smash is primarily made by the people who make Kirby, so the villain is probably going to be Dark Matter or something. Metaknight is traditionally a red herring villain that turns into a helpful rival in the end. It's not "a series of fights with motivations for the fights" in between, it's a full on side scrolling game, like the first level of the last game's Adventure Mode. It's probably punctuated with actual fights, but it's mainly side scrolling, fighting enemies (which also appear in the main game as "assist trophy" summons, like, Hammer Brothers are enemies in the side scrolling game, but you can also summon them to aid you in the multiplayer game). It also says the plot wont be bloated, just quick-paced cutscenes between action. I doubt there's going to even be text boxes.

the robots

[Allison Geode]

the robot thingies that come out of the airship look like fruit-fuckers.