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A Smashing New Era - What's Coming in the New Super Smash Bros?


by Max Holtman

It has been six years since Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out for the Wii.  Rumors of a new game started stirring shortly after the release of “Brawl”.  A lot of competitive Smash players disliked Brawl for its slow gameplay, while casual gamers were mostly indifferent.  I sat down with competitive Melee and Project M (a mod for Brawl to make the game perform more like Melee) player Tim Graupner to talk about the new game and his expectations.


“I hope it is more balanced and has more characters that are viable to competitive play,” he said, “I certainly hope that it will live up to Melee, and based on what I’ve seen and heard, it will.”




Lead developer Mashiro Sakurai has posted on Miiverse and updated the official game website with in-game screenshots.  The new games will feature bosses on some levels. Players can defeat them which results in a big explosion that damages other players. This stage attribute will be able to be turned on or off in the options menu depending on the player’s preference.

Sakurai is also approaching online play by using a sharper system.  Multiplayer is split into two modes which are called “For Fun” and “For Glory”.  “For Fun” allows players to play with items.  The other game type “For Glory,” lets players play on different versions of the stage final destination without items.  Both game modes track player wins.  This system will allow players both novice and competitive to play the way they want to while tracking their successes online.


When it comes down to getting prepped for Smash, the character roster receives the most speculation.  The game has sparked attention to new characters in an exciting way, especially with its sleek cinematic trailers for newcomers such as The Villager from Animal Crossing and Pac-Man.  These announcements are always eye-opening for fans, and they encourage players to brainstorm what characters they want to join the fight.  All kinds of podcasts, roster rundowns and dialogue have come from the gaming community.

       

The new games will introduce new and old, bringing characters like Mega-Man to life fighting Mario with gorgeous graphics on the Wii U and on a 3DS.  Besides all of the exciting content that will be included, these games can possibly do more than just excite the Smash community.  They can increase Nintendo’s sales drastically because of the game’s party style and competitive nature combined.


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