Smash Bros. Brawl to Have Co-Op Play

Ars Technica notes that the official Smash Bros. Brawl site is now discussing a co-op play mode for the game. You'll now be able to team up as your favorite Nintendo characters in a vs. Computer story mode. "While the adventure mode was never really the best feature of previous Smash Brothers games, playing through with a friend will likely yield some great gameplay experiences ... Other notes on the mode include details on the camera, which will follow the first player in a way that appears similar to the handling of Sonic and Tails in Sonic 2, an overworld map which hints at a fairly lengthy adventure, the ability to create multiple teams, and five levels of difficulty ranging from easy to intense."

Comments

Correction

[SnoopJeDi]

While the adventure mode was never really the best feature of previous Smash Brothers games, playing through with a friend will likely yield some great gameplay experiences which you'd probably have in regular melee anyway

Fixed that for you.

Re:Correction

[Paradigm_Complex]

Not necessarily. For better or worse I crush everyone locally, so they don't really enjoy playing against me directly. 2h v 2c is horribly boring, considering how obvious the computer controlled characters can be. The adventure mode can have more complex situations which make up for the computer's stupidity, while still retaining the enjoyable human cooperation. For very competitive (tournament) play, this will likely be overlooked, but for casual play amongst players of various skill levels this has quite a bit of potential.

Re:Correction

[Sciros]

Handicap yourself to a 5 or 6 vs Lvl 9 Falco/Ganondorf team (no items of course) if 2v2 is too easy otherwise. Also, we don't know how good the AI is going to be for computer opponents at max level to begin with... although I doubt it will be much stronger than the Lvl 9's in SSBM.

Re:Correction

[PlatyPaul]

I dunno - I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I really enjoyed Adventure Mode for the change-up in gameplay. The side-scrolling levels (i.e., Link's search for the Triforce, Captain Falcon's dash for the finish line) forced you to think in different ways, making for a nice diversion from the intensity of the standard melee. With the difficulty cranked up, the challenge of sheer survival in a scrollable, hostile world gets to be a fun pursuit on its own.

Additionally, I think that this will help me train up my wife on Smash Bros. (despite her never having played the N64 or Gamecube versions) by enabling me to step in when things get rough, while otherwise allowing her to work her way through moves and setups. She's a huge fan of co-op so, aside from the two of us teaming up in the melee, this should work nicely.

Re:Correction

[steveo777]

For better or worse I crush everyone locally, so they don't really enjoy playing against me directly.

I thought that the auto-handicap was pretty good at fixing that problem. If you're good enough it'll get the truly bad, or new, players so powered up that only a couple of hits will knock you off any stage. Usually keeps things even. I'm looking forward to using Pit, Solid Snake, Ike, and Zero Suit Samus to beat Wario and team marshmallow (Kirby, Jigglypuff, and I'll include Meta-Knight) into collective pulps.

Re:Correction

[Paradigm_Complex]

The AI is sufficiently stupid it's quite possible to win without ever attacking at all, and hence handicap won't make a difference. Ganon is particularly easy to punishable - it's possible to get him to up-B off the edge and SD. It's easiest to do with Peach - float just off the edge and bait Ganon to up-B you off the edge, than float out of the way. He won't make it back. Try having yourself as player one and a lvl9 Ness as player two, and go to Jungle Japes and don't move at all. The Ness will SD all on his own. Of course 2v2 is more complicated, but these "strategies" apply equally well. The AI in smash just isn't up to snuff. Here's too hoping the more complex situations in single player, along with online play, will make up for it.

Re:Correction

[Solra Bizna]

I hate handicap in (at least) the original. There are few Smash Brothers experiences more frustrating than continuously pounding on someone for five minutes and having them start to appear to reel slightly under your blows, then having them accidentally do a Smash Attack which sends your 0%-damaged self flying out of the ring faster than Sonic on meth.

-:sigma.SB

Re:Correction

[Sciros]

That's not exactly the point. No-one's forcing you to use AI-abusive tactics... I'm not trying to explain how to defeat the computer, but rather how to sufficiently challenge yourself if no-one in town is up to the task :-/

Re:Correction

[LunarCrisis]

So you have to nerf your playing style to make it hard? I think you miss the point.

Re:Correction

[Sciros]

Hahahaha if your "playing style" amounts to floating off the edge waiting for the computer to suicide himself, and not abusing the AI in such a way is "nerfing" to you, then you're not really the kind of player I would have been talking to in the first place T_T It's not at all how you'd fight against an actual person to begin with. .. Have you ever even played SSBM because if you have it's pretty shameful to say what you said.

Re:Correction

[LunarCrisis]

Hahahaha if your "playing style" amounts to floating off the edge waiting for the computer to suicide himself, and not abusing the AI in such a way is "nerfing" to you, then you're not really the kind of player I would have been talking to in the first place T_T. It's not at all how you'd fight against an actual person to begin with. If they are dumb enough to fall for something repeatedly I would sure as hell do it over and over until it gets into their brain not to do that. The failure of the AI to learn from mistakes is the very reason they do not make good opponents.

Have you ever even played SSBM because if you have it's pretty shameful to say what you said. Of course I have, I just don't play against the AI for the above reason. It's not fun to win by cheesing something over and over, and it's not fun to consciously stop myself from doing so just because the AI is deficient.

Re:Correction

[Sciros]

Well, to each his own, but I try to find ways to challenge myself in any game I get the urge. Just like some people who powerlevel their FF characters to level 80+ subsequently complain that the endgame areas are "too easy," and some keep Protoss Raping the Starcraft computer because the AI is too dumb to learn how to combat it, I suppose there's some people who try to abuse the AI's weaknesses in Smash. I don't find taking an approach that's not as abusive to be less fun; in fact I find it MORE fun. A computer can't use mind games and can't learn from what you're doing (yeah you can basically trick Ganondorf into doing an up-B every time with certain moves because the comp thinks the up-B is a good counter, etc.) but going 2v1 and concentrating on practicing the more advanced techniques while you're at it seems like a reasonable use of time if you feel like playing SSBM and there are no friends around at the moment (like, rather than floating off the edge, work on something like wavelanding off the edge so your char grabs on, then repeating with a shffl into another waveland, then throwing a nair randomly during one of the recoveries -- comp might not "fall" for it or in any case won't give you the kind of feedback a human would, but the practice can't hurt!). Anyway that's what I do (did... haven't played Smash more than once a month lately).

Re:Correction

[Miraba]

You should swap codes with one of my friends. I'm sure he'd be happy to have someone to play against online who's around his level.

Re:Correction

[Paradigm_Complex]

Direct him here: http://smashboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=88 Best place to look if you want higher level competition.

Re:Correction

[Miraba]

Will do, thanks. Is there a thread for swapping Wii codes for when Brawl comes out?

The different modes

[strider2k]

Random matchups will be the way to fight strangers online while friend codes will be used against friends and family. So, there shouldn't be any complaints coming from the masses stating that it will bring the downfall of the online gaming experience. It may not be as elegant as the XBox360 as many claims, but would that stop you from destroying random players across the nation?

What was so bad about adventure mode?

[tarlos25]

I personally enjoyed adventure mode. Melees got boring after several thousand or so, but the adventure was enough of a challenge, especially on the higher difficulties, that it kept me amused, and still does.

Re:What was so bad about adventure mode?

[TheVelvetFlamebait]

I really enjoyed the entire game. I know it's cool to criticise, but it has to be my favourite multiplayer game. I've played many thousands of vs matches, unlocked/finished everything, can beat level 9s easily, and yet I'm still finding new little tricks and combos to keep my game tight.

I've got *high* expectations Nintendo! Don't let me down!

jeeze...

[7Prime]

Okay, a number of things:

a) This is old news
b) This is probably one of the most minor Smash Bros updates to come out in over a month
c) Today's update about Samus's stun gun was probably more interesting, even

Heck, I've been following Brawl on a daily basis, and even I'm going to tag this one "slownewsday". Zonk, I actually tend to agree with your choice of articles, but this time, I'm not defending you, there's GOT TO BE more important shit out there than this.

Re:jeeze...

[Tofystedeth]

Today's update about Samus's stun gun was probably more interesting, even So you found the fact that we learned a confirmed character has attacks that we all pretty much knew to exist more interesting than a rather large change in gameplay from the first 2 games, which many people have wanted to be implemented. As for it being old news, yeah, c'mon Slashdot. This was from Friday.

Re:jeeze...

[7Prime]

I was being facetious, of course Samus's gun thing was crap, but so was the multiplayer things. C'mon, Smash's adventure mode is no more than a formaility, even if it is going to be drastically expanded. The fact remains that beyond the first two weeks, no one is going to play it for anything but multiplayer. In fact, an extended adventure mode could be a nuesence since it will likely be required to unlock key elements. I'm a big fan of single player games, but NO ONE buys Smash for the adventure mode.

Now, I'm sure the adventure mode will be enjoyable and all, but if you have another person in the room, you're going to want to battle, not co-op. Great for FPSs, but as the Sonic series demonstrated: terrible for platformers.

ie: Friday's news was completely worthless. And yes, Samus's piddly little gun thing is probably going to have a greater effect on our long-term enjoyment of the game.

Re:jeeze...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm looking forward to this adventure mode. If it's implemented as well as it looks like it might be, it might work as a hook to get my girlfriend to try the game.

Re:jeeze...

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I think it sounds pretty damn interesting.

This is coming from someone who played maybe a couple hours of the original Smash on N64 and didn't see what was so special about it. Never played the Gamecube one. I'm thinking about getting Brawl but people talking about Smash Bros. like it's the friggin' Kumite is off-putting to a gamer like me.

The game sounds like a celebration of all things Nintendo, and something I can dink around with and actually play with my girlfriend. I trust Nintendo and I think they make better games than most, but I don't know a lot about the development of this game. It sounds fun, but if they're catering entirely to the Jedi-master-of-Smash crowd (not saying that they are, but /if/ they are), I'll pass. I always thought Smash was this fun party game, and then I hear all this ridiculous shit about "wavedashing" and B-checking or whatever it is, and I lose all interest.

Just sayin, remember that the audience for Smash Bros. isn't entirely comprised of title contenders.

Re:jeeze...

[Whitemage12380]

Thinking about it slightly differently, that's a bit contradictory. I would argue that Smash's adventure mode is either a formality, or it is drastically expanded, which makes it a more prominent feature (therefore not a formality). It all depends on what the creator wants to do with it. The other statement I would take issue with is that nobody buys Smash for the adventure mode. The original Smash did not have an adventure mode, and the melee version was an experiment that didn't really have much substance at all, so of course nobody would buy it with adventure mode in mind. In Brawl, however, it looks like there's going to be more of a focus, so I think a lot of people will be looking forward to this mode, especially with coop play in mind. Of course it isn't your thing, and I totally respect that. I do definitely agree that at the heart of Smash is its player-on-player combat, be it casual or competitive. I just think that since Smash is expanding its boundaries, so too will what people look for in it expand.

Great Feature!

[RenaissanceMN999]

Co-operative play is a game feature that seems to be making a comeback. I remember all kinds of games that had co-op play from when I was a kid. My younger brother and I played (and beat) games like Bubble-Bobble, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Jackal, Teenage Mutant Ninja Tutles II: The Arcade Game, Contra, Super Contra, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Strike Gunner, Super Mario Kart, and Rock 'n Roll Racing. A lot of developers were trying to emulate the experience of the arcades, where two or more player cooperative games were common. There was a dearth of good co-op games in the next couple of system generations, as the focus seemed to shift more to the graphics, where better results were able to be achieved with single player games. Now cooperative play seems to have taken the forefront again with the advent of online co-op, with FPS'ers leading the charge. It doesn't look like there will be online co-op for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but it still goes to show that developers are being reminded of how much fun this type of play is. With the way they set this mode of play up, I will now be able to easily play and enjoy this game with my young cousin, and he too will be able to play with his younger brother and have some great experiences with it like I did with my younger brother and our NES and SNES games. These are the kinds of games that teach the value of teamwork, provide social experiences that build strong bonds of friendship, and are just so much fun.

Re:Great Feature!

[Anonymous Coward]

You almost brought tears to my eyes remembering all those good games, and playing them with my brother. Popular PC genres killed a lot of good console/arcade games. I wish platformers would make a come back, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that format, and it made multiplayer easy. Mmmm.... Double Dragon, Battle Toads, classic Metroid and Zeldas were my favorites.

Re:Great Feature!

[moogaloonie]

I think it just topok a really long time for them to come up with a workable camera. In the 2D days, one character didn't really obscure the other, and it was relatively easy for players to stay together (except maybe for that impossible chasm jump in Cyborg Justice for Genesis). It looks like there are still similar problems with there camera mechanism in trying to keep the characters on screen at the same time. Not surprising, as the first few generations of 3D games had camera problems with only one character.

Re:Great Feature!

[meringuoid]

My younger brother and I played (and beat) games like ... Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

That game was annoying. Most co-op games get Gauntletitis: one player gets too far ahead and the screen jams until they catch up. Cue negotiations over exactly what route to take to clear the blockage.

Not Chip 'n' Dale, though. No. Player 1 gets too far ahead, Player 2 drops off the bottom of the screen and dies.

For us, that game quickly degenerated into a wrestling match. Pick up the other player, throw him into a monster or an environment hazard :-)

Zombies Ate My Neighbours, though, that was a good co-op game. Mainly because it was so damn hard. You just had to help each other, or you were stuffed...

Great for the Target Market

[sickspeed6]

I am of the opinion that this feature is gonna be a huge selling point. Not with hardcore gamers, not with teenagers, but with families. Yet again, the game designers are banking on the fact that the wii is a family console. The opportunity for a father and son to play a game like smash is great, esp. in coop. its not the way the typical fighting game goes, but, it looks as though it will probably move a few more thousand units off the shelves around the holiday season as the game is released.

I can't wait

[sunsfan1991]

I have never played a SSB title, IMO a adventure mode will add greatly and help me get used to the controls before playing some of you vets online.