Super Smash Bros. 3DS - Why and How It Could Work

Super Smash Bros. 3DS
 Why and How It Could Work

Table of Contents                         

                             

I. Introduction

II. Controls

III. Single-Player

IV. Multi-Player/Wi-Fi

V. Characters/Stages/Etc.

I.      Introduction

Dear He/She/It/Assorted Other Being,

If you took the time to view this (currently) relatively unknown site, then that means that it’s more than likely that you already know what the Super Smash Bros. series is and are a fan of it. If this isn’t the case, then I urge you to look things up on Wikipedia, Google, YouTube, or some other source in your spare time as I refuse to go into the simple details about the series thus far for paragraphs and paragraphs. Most of you won’t need to do such a thing, I reckon, and are familiar at least with Melee for the Nintendo GameCube and Brawl for the Wii. Some of you have played and fully completed all three titles made thus far like I have. Kudos to you if you’ve done such a thing!

Anyway, on with what this here feature is about: a plausible way to put Super Smash Bros. on the (not yet released) 3DS handheld of course! We’re mere months away from the handheld’s release, and people are already debating back and forth about why it would work and how it wouldn’t. Want me to divulge a little something to all of you disbelievers? Look at Nintendo’s release history—we’ve never seen something set-in-stone with them, not ever. It might be true that a “real” Pokémon title hasn’t hit the home consoles yet, but who says that one never will? That’s a falsehood created with faulty logic with all sorts of loopholes woven around and in between it. Just recently Level 5 announced a Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright game for the 3DS! Some people dreamed of such an item, but never has it ever been thought that it’d truly happen.

 Likewise, who from the days of the Genesis/Mega Drive vs. the SNES would’ve ever believed that Mario and Sonic would be starring in their own game series together?  Regardless, the point is that with Nintendo, as far as video game ideas go, (and several other companies for that matter) ANYTHING is possible. Shooting down ideas, no matter how ridiculous they are, only sparks debates. While it is true articles such as this one may do the same, it’s built on optimistic building blocks whereas the aforementioned type of debate will only spark negative verbal scuffles amongst the (admittedly ‘slightly’ immature) gaming community.

Without further ado, let’s get on with this “book” of sorts and into the real action—starting with…

[ <-- No it isn’t “adieu” which means “farewell” in French either so don’t correct me. Saying “without further adieu” would mean that I was saying goodbye this whole time. Doesn’t really make sense for an “introduction” does it? -->  ]

II. Controls

It should be fairly obvious what that square, two-screened object below is. The control deck on the bottom half of the 3DS will of course take center-stage as far as the control scheme goes, though we’ll find that the cameras, tilt-sensor, and of course the 3D Slider can also be used in certain ways.

The control scheme can be viewed in list form on the page following this one.

Proposed Control Scheme

Analog stick: Character and menu movement/certain attacks (aka “moves”)

Directional pad: Taunting/Menu movement

X/Y: Provides another way to jump

B: Special moves/Cancel (menu)

A: Normal moves/Accept (menu)

Start/Select: Pauses the game

Home: Returns the player to the 3DS HUB

L/R: Shield/Grab/Dodge

Those above controls should’ve already been fairly obvious for the most part, huh? Well luckily now it’s time to get into the 3DS “special” controls: the cameras located on the inner and outer shells can be used to take custom background pictures should the Stage Builder be incorporated once again, and one would assume that the tilt sensor (aka “accelerometer”) could be used for certain final smashes; though in my honest opinion it’d be better if this game didn’t really use tilt controls, as the normal way of “accessing” final smashes is perfectly plausible.  

The 3D Slider would of course be used to control the amount of 3D used in the game. Now, what kind of objects could we make noticeable in 3D in a game such as Super Smash Bros.? Well, for starters, the formerly mentioned final smashes could have some seriously cool effects with the 3D function involved. Imagine Mario’s “Mario Finale” fire-stream flowing out from the screen as it burns his opponents to a crisp, or Zelda and Shiek’s golden arrow flying straight past your face! Better yet, imagine the characters popping out in full 3D at all times, making it seem as if you’re truly a spectator of the event!  Assist Trophies and Pokémon could be given the same treatment. A mass of buildings controlled by Dr. Wright popping out of the screen and startling you? – Priceless. The Nintendog Labrador Retriever pawing at the screen and distracting you from the madness behind it? – Instant sales (as we’ll see with Nintendogs + Cats closer to the launch of the 3DS handheld)!

III. Single-Player

I firmly believe that it’s all-too-obvious that no matter what installment in the Super Smash Bros. series you’re playing, that there will at least be a single- and multi-player set of modes. Skipping ahead to the generation of Brawl and so on, one would also expect Wi-Fi to be incorporated. Starting with single-player, we’ll touch upon each of these archetypes of playing.

What is there to say about single-player mode? You have your Classic mode, which will more than likely return as the major way of unlocking characters and providing quick bursts of fun when there are no other 3DS owners around to play with on local multi-player or Wi-Fi or when you can only play for a set amount of time. Alongside Classic mode, there’s usually an All-Star mode in which you fight all playable characters once they’re unlocked. The return of this “all-time classic” (heh… pun intended) is entirely plausible and should be expected.

Typically, we’d see two to three “arcade” modes as well, and the ones that I’m betting on returning are the “Multi-Man” fighting sessions, “Home-Run Contest,” and “Target Smash/Target Test.” If we throw in a fourth, I’m personally rooting for the return of “Board the Platforms” from the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. 

Then there’s the event matches: fights with strict conditions which are numbered and may or may not have a bit of a story to them. I expect these to return as well, though with a lesser number of events than in Brawl and Melee – roughly around 50 to 55, I’d guess.

Last but definitely not least there’s the ever-evolving “Adventure” type mode, which went from a half-baked, over-done “event match fest” of sorts to something with an actual (admittedly convoluted and overdone) story. It’s questionable as to whether something along the Subspace Emissary would be featured in a handheld take on this series, though some sort of middle-ground between that and the original Melee Adventure mode could very well happen. We’ll just have to wait on this one.

IV. Multi-Player/Wi-Fi

As far as the local multi-player affair would go on a handheld such as the 3DS, we have two options. For one, there is the usual DS Wireless Connection service which can be used for brawling over a set amount of modes such as Multi-Man, Home-Run Contest, and a typical fight. Secondly, there’s the new SpotPass service which works similarly to Wii-Connect24 in that it’s functional 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Even when the system is asleep, it can be pitting two to four separate 3DS’ together for special matches that can affect certain things in the actual game once it’s turned back on again. 

Ah Wi-Fi~! Good ol’ Wi-Fi… -sigggghhhhhh- You know that in Brawl you just about failed us on the overall correct? Take a look at Mario Kart Wii’s Wi-Fi connection service for how to really do things, and then throw in the Smash Bros. motif and you get the formula for how things should be for the Wi-Fi in any future titles in the series. The only thing I could think of from there is to exclude in-game friend codes, which are really kind of a bother, and keep things to a singular friend code built into the 3DS systems. Knowing Nintendo and their security/safety measures though, this isn’t gonna happen. They aren’t so much of a fairy tale company when it comes to the technicalities of online gaming, that’s for sure, but in-game friend codes aren’t all too bad. They’re just… unneeded on the overall.

V. Characters, Stages, Etc.

Characters are always the most talked-about thing in a fighting game. Unlike most other genres of multi-player games, like in racers, generic sports, etc., a fighting game’s roster actually matters and affects the game-play on a whole other level.

Imagine a Street Fighter sequel without Ryu or Ken included, or one with them included but with everyone else being completely new to the series and being highly overpowered compared to them. Would that be a plausible game? I think the general consensus would say no, though there’s definitely you few dolts out there who’d find it a dinger to go ahead and say yes for the heck of it. The first mistake was including only two familiar characters in a timeless classic. While Ryu and Ken are the staple characters of the series, there’s still other very popular characters that we’ve seen multiple times such as Chun-Li and M. Bison which should have been included without much hesitation. Secondly, no character should be so seriously overpowered that they break the game; it’d make it so that the game isn’t nearly as fun if someone is constantly “move spamming” as said overpowered characters (see: Gold Lightan, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom). 

Whatever lucky souls are chosen as playable in a 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. need to make sure that they are relevant to the Nintendo handheld scene in some way. Amongst the needed veterans (Mario, Kirby, Pikachu, Samus [and potentially Zero Suit Samus], Fox, Pikachu, Luigi, Jigglypuff, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Ness, and Captain Falcon), the characters who are chosen from there should somehow “fit” with the portable crowd, particularly within the GBA and DS generations. For example, it’d be entirely believable to have such characters as Lyndis (Fire Emblem) and Isaac (Golden Sun), once assist trophies, playable in this game over certain others due to their notoriety in the handheld market, correct? Another idea that’s passed through my head now and then is the idea of a playable Professor Layton. I’m not entirely sure of how it’d work, and I’m not using this feature article to speculate all too much on those trivialities, so I’ll keep it to myself for the time being.

The same can be applied to selectable stages, items, assist trophies, and Pokémon (though all Pokémon are pretty much relevant to handhelds and Nintendo’s history in general). Whatever they choose for each of these categories, you can bet he/she/it is going to be indicative of Nintendo’s history, and in particular its handheld history.