Masahiro Sakurai, the creator behind the classic Super Smash Brothers Melee has claimed that the game was “too difficult”, and that any future Smash Brothers games will not be aimed at the same hardcore crowd.
“I had created Smash Bros. to be my response to how hardcore-exclusive the fighting game genre had become over the years. But why did I target it so squarely toward people well-versed in videogames, then?
“That’s why I tried to aim for more of a happy medium with Brawl’s play balance.”
“There are three Smash Bros. games out now, but even if I ever had a chance at another one, I doubt we’ll ever see one that’s as geared toward hardcore gamers as Melee was.
“Melee fans who played deep into the game without any problems might have trouble understanding this, but Melee was just too difficult.”
“If we want new people from this generation of gamers to come in, then we need it accessible, simple, and playable by anyone. You can’t let yourself get preoccupied with nothing but gameplay and balance details.
“That’s where the core of the Smash Bros. concept lies, not on doggedly keeping the game the way it was before.”
– Masahiro Sakurai
New SSB Game In Next Few Years By Any Chance?
Uhm. I found brawl better balanced, altough missing some of the things of melee.
Anyway, brawl cannot be defined as ‘easier’.
Reason?It always relies on the player you’re fighting. If he’s good, it will make you bite the dust anyway.
That’s the way i love every single smash bros.
Anyway, i’m looking forward for a 3DS one.
It’s possible, i feel it, and it would be simply GREAT.
Difficult? Are you kidding me? I’m no wave-dasher but come on those moves were easy as all heck to pull off. Actually doing good takes skill and that’s a whole different story. If you’re going to make a game that’s so easy that you don’t need any skills then what’s the point of playing it? Everyone is shifting towards the casual crowd and real games are hurting because of it. Brawl was good as well but there wasn’t that much of a difference between Melee and Brawl’s core mechanics except that Brawl might have been a little slower. So if it’s going to continue like that then OK but don’t dumb it down to where no real gamer is going to want to even give it a chance.
there are NOTHING more important in a fighting game than balance and gameplay… Melee was the best fighting game EVER… Brawl was my worst nightmare coming true… I’ve never felt so betrayed in my whole life…
RIP Real Smash Bros.
**** the new generation. seriously. brawl is such a disappointment compared to melee.
Guess Melee will be the last smash I ever really care about.
Melee sucked. It was boring.
This makes me shed a tear. I guess Melee will continue to be the best in the Smash Bros. series. The fourth could be good if and ONLY IF they:
1) At least speed it up a little. It doesn’t have to be as fast as melee but dammit Brawl was waayy too slow paced.
2) Remove tripping: Idk how they possibly thought that gimmick would be fun. It’s not fun tripping into a smash attack.
3) Make every character have potential. I saddens me how they made the good characters from melee simply gimmick characters in brawl. Not saying make then number 1 again, but at least try to make every character have something good about them, and not just unless style.
If they can do this for SSB4, it may be really good. Not saying Brawl sucked, but it did not live up to the hype they gave it(and before anyone argue with me, Nintendo did in fact hype Brawl up. Not Halo hype, but still hype.)
Melee is an easy game. Anyone can still pick it up and play. That doesn’t mean you have a chance at beating experienced players within the first ten minutes of playing, but what kind of game would that be anyway? (right, brawl… >_< )
“3) Make every character have potential. I saddens me how they made the good characters from melee simply gimmick characters in brawl. Not saying make then number 1 again, but at least try to make every character have something good about them, and not just unless style.”
lmao. this comment is great. you don’t know how hard it is to balance things, do you?
as long as there’s no random tripping in the next one I’m cool with whatever Sakurai wants to do.
oh so i guess you do, with you being a game creator for smash bros right? So you’re gonna tell me they didn’t INTENTIONALLY debuff those characters? Don’t be an idiot.
Bull
So what is going to be the next smash theme?
Yeah Brawl was too slow. Make it a little faster, eh? Or do you guys think slower = Easier?
I <3 Melee.
Also, tripping is stupid. Doesn't make it easier, actually makes it harder on that person, and gives the other an unfair advantage.
Make the character selection more balanced.
Also at least put in some techniques that might require some practice, kids CAN get bored if they aren't challenged at ALL.
Lol but if this will be easy it'd be easy to pick up for us, then. Would you want US to do that? I mean us as Melee enthusiasts, brawlers, and original smashers (64). :{
The most ridiculous statement that I’ve seen about Smash Bros.
“That’s why I tried to aim for more of a happy medium with Brawl’s play balance.”
Brawl punishes players who want to get good at it, It punishes players who want to play quickly. It punishes players for using (and abusing) the best moves in the game. It punishes you for picking someone who doesn’t have multiple jumps. It punishes you for wanting to win.
And every game that can be construed as competitive will be. People don’t play Marvel Vs Capcom because it’s balanced. They play it because it is fast and frantic gameplay that is simply fun. By exploiting the game’s engine, the people who play MVC2 have a lot of fun.
Melee was the same way. People continued to use a very open game engine to make a game faster, and more frantic than initially intended. Now you have Brawl, which the only people who play it are kids, and people who want to win money off of it, because it’s so simple to join into that scene. I mean, if people want to have fun with a game, let them, but if you make a game that allows for more creativity you get a better turnout. Melee was fun. You could play as anyone and have a good time. You didn’t actually need to play a top tiered character to know who to play. You didn’t need to play defensively, and fly away for entire matches, or do “planking” if you wanted to win. You just fought and tried to beat your opponent.
If you want to win, Melee had interesting matches. Brawl is and always will be boring if people take it serious in any way (and when you make a game that can be turned into a 1 on 1 fighter, you will have people that take it serious). Instead of making a game that is boring to watch, you should make a game that people want to watch. Something that you can have a video go around on the internet, that makes people say “I want to do THAT”. Brawl has not done that. It never will do that, and for that reason, it’s a massive failure to anyone who takes fun in winning or learning, and not only playing. Because playing for fun should still be Playing to win.
To your last paragraph
1. I find watching Brawl more fun than Melee.
“Because playing for fun should still be Playing to win.”
2. Playing for fun never really was “playing to win”. If winning is the only fun result, then you must never have any fun. Geez, are you one of those Stop Having Fun Guys or what?
Also, Melee did have tiers, contrary to what your post suggests.
Biggest problem with your statement is that if you’re playing to win, and you lose, you can’t have fun. Which is not the case. The point I’m trying to make is that it’s always MORE fun to win, than it is to lose. You are talking in half truths.
That being said EVERY game with the ability to choose characters that change how the game is played is going to have tiers. That’s inevitable. What I’m saying is that given enough time playing Melee, you CAN get good with any character. Maybe not AS good as Fox/Falco/Marth but you’ll do better than you can with Yoshi or Link in Brawl.
On top of that, there is a noticeable gap in gameplay between people just picking up Melee and being a Melee pro. Brawl’s gap between a noob metaknight and a pro metaknight was almost entirely based off of how many times you grabbed the ledge(now, anyone taking the game serious tries to limit the amount of ledge grabs, because it promotes boring gameplay). It’s obvious that you are pretty terrible if you don’t see the inherent flaws in Brawl’s system (slower movement, less return off of KOing moves, lowered returns off of using the same moves, removal of balances from melee, tripping).
I’m not trying to say that you shouldn’t have fun with a game. I’m just saying if you are ever trying to get better at a game Brawl is not that game. Melee awards you for playing creatively and offensively, where Brawl awards you for not walking/running, not using your best moves, and picking one or two characters.
man first of all STFU you damn cry baby “aww wann wann wann :*( brawl is not fun wann wann wann melee is fun b/c it doesnt take skill to play wann wann” second kids dont only play the f**king game get your facts str8, third brawl is better then melee b/c its gives you a challenge and the cpu is pretty damn smart (un like melee) i agree with the trapping that junk is annoying and last the gameplay is still the same stop crying seriously!
I liked all three smash bros and I don’t really care if they they do any thing to the next smash game.
It”s still going to be competitive just like its predecessors. Balanced games make it more fun because, everyone can beat anyone. So gannondorf can beat mk or any high tier characters. No even play melee all you people saying melee is the best smash bros game
You probably play brawl most of the time compared to melee.
Let give a couple reason why brawl is better than melee (even though melee is cool.) Better Roster: their are are no complete duplicates. RoY-marth, pichu-pikachu young link- Link and the worst of them all Dr.Mario-Mario. More fair.
Easier for new people at the game. New items. An actual story. Bosses. Stage builder. Still competitive. Their are less melee competitive smasher then Brawl competitive smasher. Oh and it has wifi. And melee is a bit eaiser then brawl in a competitive way. So yeah SSB4 will be epic
the ones who loves melee (me included) generally love it as a fighting game… i think that if we look the big picture Brawl would be better than Melee, but as a PARTY/Casual/Single Player game…
as a fighting game Melee is waaaay ahead of Brawl
Are you known as link500 on Animal Crossing Community, by any chance? That looks exactly like something from one of his rants.
I’m gonna break the trend here and say that Brawl is much better in the difficulty department.
In the original SSB, the only thing I’ve unlocked is Jigglypuff, but I’ve only played it twice or so, so whatever.
In Melee, I have most of the unlocks, but I’m still missing Ganondorf, Falco, Mr. Game & Watch, Flat Zone, Battlefield, Final Destination, Dream Land, Kongo Jungle (Past stage version), and Yoshi’s Island (Past stage version). I probably never will get those, because the unlock criteria is just too hard.
In Brawl, I have every character and stage.
I think I’ll go for the variety and choose Brawl over the others.
hahahaha
I used to unlock most of what you listed in a day or two
Melee was not hard AT ALL
And, though now pretty much dead (thanks nintendo r,r) its still the best Smasxh game out there
and i was 11 ;D
Some of it either takes things that I really don’t have the skill to do (And also I swear the computer cheats on some of the event matches), and others require you to play hundreds of rounds.
I change which game I am currently playing very often, and it seems like Brawl catered more towards people like me in the unlockables department.
This is funny to read. I just picked up Melee for several hours yesterday, but i kinda have a hard time believing it is harder than Brawl. The number of negative comments against Brawl here shocks me. This is a guy who’s put so very many hours into both. Yeah, they slowed down Brawl. Yeah, there’s annoyances like tripping. The difference is that in spite of all the changes they got much more right than wrong. People have accepted Melee as the standard and refuse to accept any changes.
While Melee is great and its fast paced gameplay appeals to folks, Brawl was a better game to me because it shook up the boring character copies that plagued Melee, there’s more modes, online is fun to play, and in my opinion, it’s harder to win at. Sure, classic characters like Mario are downpowered, but using a Meteor Smash for every KO isn’t fun either. Just saying, there’s a lot more to credit Brawl for than people care to remember.
THANK you.
Hmmm leaves me astonished what he had to say. Mr. Sakurai talking about this why? My guess, is a new installment. Oh Goody ahaha. I cant wait but I still wish the series had a bit hardcore mode in them. :( Or at least Clones, I loved Young Link, and Pichu. Mewtwo was personally my best to play with and Doctor Mario and Roy I had a few good laughs with them with my friends. So long and hello New Installments.
All my “casual gamer” friends like brawl less than Melee anyways. But this statement is just plain stupidity by Nintendo. It’s like their giving up on us. They’re changing one of their best games to fit a new type of gamer and completely ignoring the rest of us.
Why couldn’t they find a way to make it work for BOTH types of gamers? Melee was my first real “hardcore” game, and I played it non-stop for hours everyday, but when I got brawl I just beat the SSE, got all the characters and most of the unlockables but gave up before I got them all because it was just not the game that I was hoping for.
Jesus Christ, you all the biggest freaking group of Stop Having Fun Guys that I have ever seen anywhere short of an actual Smash Bros forum.
Okay, that was a hyperbole. I need to calm down. But most of you people do seem to fall under the Stop Having Fun Guy banner.
aww dude shut up
you just didnt know the intensity of a good challenge
everything is unlocked too quickly and even expert gamers can lose to an amateur
what kind of game is THAT?
Newsflash:
There are tiers in Melee too. A good player using Kirby (Ranked last) could very well lose to Fox (Ranked first).
And again, the fact that everything is unlocked quickly is a good thing. I’m never gonna get all of Melee’s unlocks, but I already have all of Brawl’s – which allows for more variety and just more fun.
Now I think I’ll play some Brawl with my little brother and have a great time. You can keep your “Fox only, no items, Final Destination” matches to yourself.
“There are tiers in Melee too. A good player using Kirby (Ranked last) could very well lose to Fox (Ranked first).”
I meant: “There are tiers in Melee too. A good player using Kirby (Ranked last) could very well lose to an inexperienced player using Fox (Ranked first).”
a pro player NEVER will lose to a newbie in Melee… NEVER
i doesn’t matter what characters they pick, the pro will NEVER lose in Melee…
and there’s a actual HIGH chance that the noob woudn’t ieven take one stock from him…
I myself played Roy against 2 friends of mine (both non pro) in a 2×1 match (Marth and Fox) and i beat’em all day long… and it was friendly fire off…
hey dumb dumb, i did the samething on brawl last year, me against two noobs and i put them on the same team against me and they did not beat me once!
hmmm
If they make another game, it would be cool if you could download new characters and stages like downloading songs on rock band
I will second that.
Melee was great. It was addicting, fun, and put you in CRAZY situations. There’s too much to list. Brawl was great, also. Great roster, great stages, great balance. And, again, too much to list. Each game is dumbed down in their own way. Whether it was slowed down gameplay, or easier controls, both games hold their own weight. I, personally, LOVE Brawl. You can’t imagine how many replays I have of ridiculous matches with my friends! Melee was a more “Holy crap! Did you see that!?!” game where everyone was hovered around one TV watching it. That’s something Brawl didn’t have, yes, but it didn’t make it better. I love both games. They may be the same series, but definitely NOT comparable. Kind of like Mario Galaxy and Mario Sunshine.
And this is why recent Wii games are terrible
It’ll be really funny when next console generation rolls around and you all are praising Brawl. Heck, you’ll be praising Nintendo’s moves during this generation in general, while saying that the then-current gen just can’t compare.
Why is it that whenever a game comes out, it sucks but the version from the previous gen is the best in the series (Or so claims the fanbase), but when the next-generation sequel rolls around, suddenly it’s the best and the last one was the worst?
Nobody seemed to like the Gamecube generation while it was happening, but now it’s being praised like it was the golden days of Nintendo. Geez.
wth? “melee was too difficult” are you f***** kindin me the cpu on that game was so dumb, and the only way to make it difficult is to put the cpu on 9 and they still was easy
Melee wasn’t too difficult, Brawl was too easy.
ja it’s so true, melee is very dificult if you compare it whit brawl, i have friends that are very good in brawl but the suck in melee, I’m not a hardcore gamer but I do my things, and in my own opinion I love melee a million times before, brawl, brawl is quite atractive cuz it has a lot of new things, but can’t be compared to melee, melee kick asses, and that what i love xD
My god, is it against the law to have a challenging game anymore?
Yeeeeaaah, let’s make it easier for the beloved retard generation…
“too difficult” … it was challenging, but that’s a good thing in times of easy games ;)
Melee was tooo easy for me although brawl was easy too its better but the triping was dumb the next one should have more characters like shadow or silver and it be AWSOME if they put darth vader in the fight
Um you DO know that Smash Bros. is for Nintendo all stars right? Last time I checked shadow and silver are not Nintendo all stars(why does everyone want lame sonic characters in the game)? And Darth Vader isn’t even close. Sonic and Snake can in fact be considered third party all stars for the following reasons: Snake was on a Nintendo system waayyy before he was on a Sony or Microsoft system and has had a few games on Nintendo systems since then. Sonic has had games made for Nintendo for a long time. If they ever consider to put more third party characters in the game, it would be people like Megaman(has had the most games on Nintendo systems than any other third party company), or even Bomberman(has been on Nintendo systems most of the series life span).
Nice article. I’d like to apoligize to the writer of this article. I accidently plagirized this on another site, and I’m deeply sorry. My actions weren’t meant with a mean intent, and it was an accident. If you have anyquestions, please email me at my listed email.
i feel like there was no problem ssbm or brawl i feel like you guys should make a new you on the same concept with more chars brawl was one of the best games ever we NEED ANOTHER ONE
it amazes me how stupid people are. melee was better then brawl in so many ways..
all you ppl bring up the stupidest points in your arguments too, i keep seeing ppl say, oh brawls cpu’s are smarter.. LOL and, melee had so many clones “plaguing” up the game? k bs, there hardly even clones in the meta game, they look similar but play completely different..
but fuck it, smash is dead. there will never be another melee.
that’s SO TRUE!
just wait til computers can handle melee online tho ;) revival of melees coming up soon :) i can’t wait..
just gotta find a USB 2 game cube hook up, and i’ll never need to buy another video game again
That’s great news, I never knew that someone was working on this kind of project!
can’t wait!
I liked Brawl. So there.
Brawl is sure better balanced, but I really prefer Melee’s gameplay.
Melee makes the difference between an experienced player and a noob. Brawl also does it, but not so much as Melee.
sakurai noooob!!!
This confirms that the next smash will be even worse than the brawl, the technique requires at least brawl and Mindgames good claim to want to make the game simple and accessible for all D:
new metagame smash….. sucks…
brawl sucks!!! melee <3
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Melee was by far the best SSB todate. I remember playing for days on end. If it ever got too hard just use DK Down and B ground pound! I never used that cheap move of course. I do remember the only hard time was when a challenge forced you to use a character you’ve never used before. If people thought this was hard I hate to hear what you thought of F Zero GX Diamond Cup……..
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I may be a tad late on the reply, but I have to disagree with anyone who posted that brawl just sucks.
First of all, Sakurai is clearly referring to the single player and AI content in this article in addition to the multiplayer aspect; the former being where the biggest notice can be seen in reference to difficulty.
In MP there is no difficulty, there is only skill. True the mechanics have been slightly altered, but such changes are necessary when implementing new characters, as a balance needs to be found. Anyone who remembers the transition from SSB to SSBM should recognize this. All the characters speeds were altered, with new moves added, effectively adjusting their play style. If you are having trouble playing SSBB then you aren’t playing right.
Aside from tripping, which was the stupidest addition to any game series in history, the mechanics in this game were very well balanced to compensate for the new variables and I find I can play any character with ease as I have been able to in past titles. Adjusting to a new game dynamic should be expected always, and anyone who thinks otherwise can’t be considered hardcore. The differences are too minute to give SSBB a completely poor review.
Ok this may sound very shocking to much of you…. but I think I might be the only one here that will testify that Brawl was actually SIGNIFICANTLY HARDER than melee was. I have mastered melee to the point that I can destroy level 9 bots with any character i want and I have even beaten Classic mode on very hard with several characters. But when I got Brawl…. dude that was a whole new story. The level 9 bots are ridiculously strong. Everytime I start a Brawl match, the level 9 bots jump right at me and they throw 90% damage in 5 seconds, leaving me completely unable to compete or even survive the rest of the match. Not only that, but they level 9 bots just block and counter every damn attack you make. It’s as if I press the buttons and they shield up accordingly. They are too smart and just completely avoid any charged smash attack I make. Brawl is not even enjoyable anymore. I don’t mind a good challenge but not to the point that they deny everything you do. Melee was so much easier. I don’t understand what people say when they said melee was too hard and much more fast paced. I don’t see it.
What truly saddens me is how much nerds and people are going on about tiers and catering to the hardcore demographic. As a loyal gamer since my childhood, I cheered for Smash and Nintendo, and found plenty of games fun – particularly Smash Bros. It was paced fine, and Melee improved upon it with the speed and precision.
Though, those two things were such a drawback if you’d play for fun; instead it turns to a bloodbath for competition, tiers for competitive players to ONLY choose from, go nuts about wavedash and running left and right frantically (need I say the nitpick of choosing Marth over Roy because his sword is longer?), and an overall bundle of nerds clawing at newcomers and casuals.
Once Smash 4 came out, I was impressed; it improved upon the formula that balancing was possible, and each character felt unique and playable. Someone low tier like Palutena or Mega Man can easily wreck a Captain Falcon, Zero Suit Samus, Shulk, or the infamous Diddy Kong (results vary on experience of both players competitively).
It felt more pristine, not because balancing can be done with patches, but there was a greater accessibility. If you want to win, you DON’T have to pick the top tier, you don’t have to concern over hindrances that ruin the experience (R-dodge stopped when tossed in Smash. Tripping, Brawl? Really?), and you can master a character you feel attached to, and rock on with a grand ol’ time.
Sadly, I can still feel the Melee spectrum with top tier players online (ZZS, Falcon, you name it) flooding the online battles often. And that’s thankfully countered if you can play a character of any tier right (again, experience tips the scale). Smash 4 did a better job at making each character have strong suits and is more accessible to the public, but still required a bit of mastery.
Thus, I am here to say just play the game, everyone. N64, Melee, 3DS/WiiU, or even Brawl. Isn’t the point of video gaming to simply have a grand ol’ time with the game, and not be blindsided with punishment because your sword is too short or the game made a trip costing you your match. Video games to be successful are to drawn in loyal fans and hardcore gamers, but also newcomers and casuals. Otherwise who else will be part of the crowd when Melee fans die out? Newcomers join the scene and love the game as much as them, and can not feel cheated out of it because of minute details in the competitive scene and continue to have fun.