Cornstalk
Smash Journeyman
I remember the simple joy of being an ignorant scrub back in the day. Playing crazy 4 way matches with friends on the awkward 64 controller. Melee rolled around and that joy was there for a while. Unlocking everything was a thrill. Roy was freakin' awsome, Game & Watch was clearly the best character because he was unlocked last. But slowly and surely something changed...
Over time and playing it became clear how absolutely terrible some of the characters where, while others were so ridiculously easy to use at the novice level. At first it mostly effected 1 on 1 fights, where characters like Marth and Falco were 'broken' and 'cheap'. Then it started to seep in to the 4 player chaos where friends I talked to online would tell me how characters like Marth were banned and they weren't allowed to play Shiek anymore.
For me it finally fizzled out in 2006 when I tried to get back in to melee. After having some people over I realized just how sick I was of fighting Marth, Falco, and Fox all the **** time. Most people in their blind quest to be the best instantly went for the 'top tier'. Even if they weren't even close to the pro level, the general speed and power of Melee's top tier was still frustrating when trying out characters like Pikachu and Ness just to try and keep some variety.
I'm just too casual for that hardcore 1 on 1 attitude. It's still fun once and a while, but the part of me that fell in love with the chaos of the game from the N64 was left with a terrible case of blueballs in melee.
Here comes Brawl. Melee habits reared their ugly head and I tried to do some 1v1 for the first month or two. Once again the same frustration came as it seemed like I was running in the same limited cast of irritating characters. I'm looking at you Ike, MK, Pit, and Wolf.
With the game put on the shelf to collect dust, I distracted myself with other games until something wonderful happened... a few friends got a Wii and picked up the game. They had only a limited knowledge of melee (yet even they knew how retardedly easy Marth and Falco were to use on a novice level). We started doing some 4 way FFA's, sometimes stock, sometimes Coin. Sometimes with item set ups of all kinds, sometimes none at all. Curry, giant, tiny, oddball games like snake rocket tag and Lucas/Ness PK tag. The game was suddenly fun in the way Melee never really was.
It took me a while of mulling it over until I realized what the big difference is. At the entry to veteran level, the characters are surprisingly well balanced. Over the 4th we had an 8 person game set up (2 winners rotate out), and EVERYONE used random at least half the time. There was the groan of "I'm terrible with this guy" once and a while, but that didn't seem to hamper the fun at all. They'd still get KO's, they'd still have crazy recoveries and stupid deaths. They'd even have jaw dropping moments of wtfpwnage.
Random not showing you your character until the fight actually starts is pure awsome too. No more "Ew, I hate DK *reselect* ew I hate ganon *reselect*" and so on. It surprises the heck out of me when I get someone like Sonic, who I'm completely lost on how to play, and have more fun then if I had gone with a comfort zone character like GW.
I really don't see Brawl suffering the over/under power issue that Melee had in character design for the average player. Maybe one day the tournament scene will have the same tedious top tier based match ups, but for all the people that love the game just for the sake of beloved mascots having cartoon antic free for all fights... well, I don't know if that could ever really die with how much variety there is in cast, stages, items, and oddball settings.
I miss bonus mode though, but that's just nitpicking.
Anyway, that's my long winded and mostly pointless story how Brawl actually started being fun in an oldskewl way.
P.S.
Coin matches are a great way to introduce brand new players to the series. Even if they have trouble staying alive in a 4 way, they actually get to play for the whole match without being wiped out early all the time. Plus, with how odd coin matches can go, they may even win once and a while. And winning will encourage them to get better, maybe even becoming a new buddy to do 1v1 for the folks big on that kind of thing.
Over time and playing it became clear how absolutely terrible some of the characters where, while others were so ridiculously easy to use at the novice level. At first it mostly effected 1 on 1 fights, where characters like Marth and Falco were 'broken' and 'cheap'. Then it started to seep in to the 4 player chaos where friends I talked to online would tell me how characters like Marth were banned and they weren't allowed to play Shiek anymore.
For me it finally fizzled out in 2006 when I tried to get back in to melee. After having some people over I realized just how sick I was of fighting Marth, Falco, and Fox all the **** time. Most people in their blind quest to be the best instantly went for the 'top tier'. Even if they weren't even close to the pro level, the general speed and power of Melee's top tier was still frustrating when trying out characters like Pikachu and Ness just to try and keep some variety.
I'm just too casual for that hardcore 1 on 1 attitude. It's still fun once and a while, but the part of me that fell in love with the chaos of the game from the N64 was left with a terrible case of blueballs in melee.
Here comes Brawl. Melee habits reared their ugly head and I tried to do some 1v1 for the first month or two. Once again the same frustration came as it seemed like I was running in the same limited cast of irritating characters. I'm looking at you Ike, MK, Pit, and Wolf.
With the game put on the shelf to collect dust, I distracted myself with other games until something wonderful happened... a few friends got a Wii and picked up the game. They had only a limited knowledge of melee (yet even they knew how retardedly easy Marth and Falco were to use on a novice level). We started doing some 4 way FFA's, sometimes stock, sometimes Coin. Sometimes with item set ups of all kinds, sometimes none at all. Curry, giant, tiny, oddball games like snake rocket tag and Lucas/Ness PK tag. The game was suddenly fun in the way Melee never really was.
It took me a while of mulling it over until I realized what the big difference is. At the entry to veteran level, the characters are surprisingly well balanced. Over the 4th we had an 8 person game set up (2 winners rotate out), and EVERYONE used random at least half the time. There was the groan of "I'm terrible with this guy" once and a while, but that didn't seem to hamper the fun at all. They'd still get KO's, they'd still have crazy recoveries and stupid deaths. They'd even have jaw dropping moments of wtfpwnage.
Random not showing you your character until the fight actually starts is pure awsome too. No more "Ew, I hate DK *reselect* ew I hate ganon *reselect*" and so on. It surprises the heck out of me when I get someone like Sonic, who I'm completely lost on how to play, and have more fun then if I had gone with a comfort zone character like GW.
I really don't see Brawl suffering the over/under power issue that Melee had in character design for the average player. Maybe one day the tournament scene will have the same tedious top tier based match ups, but for all the people that love the game just for the sake of beloved mascots having cartoon antic free for all fights... well, I don't know if that could ever really die with how much variety there is in cast, stages, items, and oddball settings.
I miss bonus mode though, but that's just nitpicking.
Anyway, that's my long winded and mostly pointless story how Brawl actually started being fun in an oldskewl way.
P.S.
Coin matches are a great way to introduce brand new players to the series. Even if they have trouble staying alive in a 4 way, they actually get to play for the whole match without being wiped out early all the time. Plus, with how odd coin matches can go, they may even win once and a while. And winning will encourage them to get better, maybe even becoming a new buddy to do 1v1 for the folks big on that kind of thing.
