SSBU is the least progressive Smash game

[greatbernard]

SSBU is a good game; it has content and polish. But it's greatest weakness, in my opinion, is that it tries to do what previous Smash games did rather than move the series forward. It just feels like Smash 4 but with a lot more characters.

Many of the decisions for the game were made because those decisions were made in previous Smash games rather than because the devs decided that they were the best decisions to make in 2018. A few examples: Including every legacy Smash fighter, even though several of them would've never made the cut. Clone characters; at least a dozen characters could've been differentiated with ability reworks, but still remain clones, and more clones were added. Games & More modes are mostly rehashed from old games, limited replay value; not much innovation there.

I'm careful not to make this post just a wishlist of why they didn't add everything to the game I wanted. But moreso on the general concept of the devs playing it so safe.

For younger people new to the franchise, it's probably amazing to experience all this for the first time. Among the older fans, maybe there are fans who want to stick very close to tradition, but for me I feel like it's the same experience as Smash 4 but with more characters.

Maybe there's a point of diminished returns. Smash N64 had a ton to expand on, so Melee was a big jump. But Smash 4 was polished to the point where there's not much to add.

One area that could've been expanded on is the online. Seeing how numerous other PVP series' have esports scenes and are popular on Twitch, there could've been more features and modes.

 

[MasterWarlord]

I saw the thread title and expected the thread to be about the amount of female/diverse newcomers.

"Progressive" in the sense you are using it generally means adding more gimmicks we don't want - Brawl is the most progressive game in that regard. The fans just want more content added on rather than a gigantic reinvention of the wheel.

As far as modes, I personally enjoyed World of Light the most of any of Smash's single player modes anyway, but I understand that's controversial. If the SSE is the quality of a traditional single player campaign, I'm not interested in ever seeing one of those again.

 

[Mike 223]

I do agree with you regarding online, not really much to do there unless you find grinding GSP fun, or messing around in battle arenas, which is fun at first, but when someone begins dominating it gets boring waiting in line knowing you'll be destroyed anyway and keep fighting the same person.

With everything else though this is the first game I've played so can't say much else lol

 

[Linkmain-maybe]

but when someone begins dominating it gets boring waiting in line knowing you'll be destroyed anyway and keep fighting the same person.

Trust me, you will soon become that person. How do I know? I AM that person. Best thing to do is to let yourself throw some games so that other people can play. But most people who do this just continue dominating without remorse which is very annoying.

 

[Mike 223]

Trust me, you will soon become that person. How do I know? I AM that person. Best thing to do is to let yourself throw some games so that other people can play. But most people who do this just continue dominating without remorse which is very annoying.

Trust me I do dominate often, but I know it bores other people from experience, so I usually back out after a couple of wins in a row. Don't wanna frustrate others, games are supposed to be fun, not infuriating.

 

[volbound1700]

I was going to post a thread about the Future of Smash but I looked around and felt like this one was a good one to post in. I recently picked up Smash Ultimate and have been playing it again.

Smash Ultimate is nearly perfect in the Multiplayer aspect. Most of the characters are somewhat balanced. I think a lot of it has to be with the addition of DLC to Smash allowing updates to fix lack of balance. The cast of characters are all well done. I sometimes disagree with the choices of roster by Sakurai but I have to say that Sakurai is generally very faithful to the source material and does a hell of a job of translating aspects of their franchise into move sets for Smash.

So where can future Smash games improve? Well, it goes down to where Ultimate was a letdown. Single-Player content. I still feel like Brawl was the height when it came to Single Player content for Smash. World of Light, for the most part, felt bland. Random map with random spirits thrown into it. The most entertaining part was the Boss Battles although they are over quick. I did like that Street Fighter run portion of it and I felt like that is what WOL should have been. Go to a Mario setting, Legend of Zelda setting, Sonic setting, etc. I won't lie, I also missed the platforming aspect of SSE. Another issue with WOL or Spirit Battles in general is that most are very forgettable and since they are 1 stock, they are over very quickly. They don't really feel special.

SSE could have also been better. It got bland at times. I think something akin to Smash Melee's Adventure Mode with steroids is really want the fanbase would want. A quick run through of all the major franchises of the game (or at the very least, the Nintendo franchises). I can theorize in two ways why this hasn't been expanded upon:

1. Technical Limitations
2. Sakurai's desire to still keep Smash original

Going back to OP, compared to Smash 4, you might be right. However, I think Smash 4 is the weakest title now in the Franchise. It almost seems like Smash 4 was the prototype for Ultimate.

One item that really should have been brought over from Smash 4 though was the Smash Run focus on the handheld version. I never played Smash 4 for 3DS and I have wanted to try the Smash Run. It seemed like a lot better Single Player feature than the Smash Party feature we got on the Wii U version.

 

[Quillion]

TBH, single player content isn't the only thing Smash can improve; I think the core gameplay needs cool new universal features to stop it from being as stale as New Super Mario Bros. or Call of Duty.