Smash Bros: Why the Hate?

[Zan]

This is my first attempt at a blog in this fashion, I'm not particularly happy with the strength of the prose but I think I got my point across.  Hope it generates some interesting discussion.

Tourney fag.  It's a commonly used term to describe competitive Smash players out there almost exclusively, yet they operate on similar lines to nearly any competitive fighter, and actually anything else out there with a hardcore audience.  Just to compound the problem even fans of other fighters tend to dismiss Smashs place on the scene.  What I'm trying to understand is why Smash cops so much flak.

Before I start really getting into it, I should note that I'm a scrub at Smash, and I play it like a scrub.  Myself and a few other friends promised ourselves we would join in on the tournaments once Brawl came out, but alas... we stopped.  Now I confess I've probably spent more hours reading prerelease hype than actually playing it.  Most of your average Smashers would probably find me a fair fight, and yet I love watching good vids of the pro players, and find it quite entertaining.  I feel like I'm the only one.

The Smash tournament scene was a gradual thing that came about fairly naturally.  As people begun to discover hidden depth in Melee's game mechanics.  What Melee eventually came was a very highly paced fighter, which required a lot of technical skill on behalf of the player to both reduce the vunerabilities of their chosen characters moves, and to space your character.  That sounds like a lot of other fighters huh?  The truth is it is.  The reason that a lot of the people complaining give is that this implementation is poor, and the game isn't designed to be played this way.

The haters are largely right.  Some will say that Melee's biggest problem stems from the fact that it wasn't designed to be played this way and I agree to some extent.  While people might have felt a little less 'shocked' if something like l-cancelling was advertised, one would still have to question the complex input required for wavedashing if it were an intended feature of the game.  When this is all said and done though, it still doesn't really explain the negative press that Smashers get.  I mean glitches survive in other competitive games to simply become elements of them, such as CvS2 and it's roll canceling.  Or take Tribes for example.  It tooking 'skiing' and made it a proper feature in the second game.  Smash players are much more divided on whether the exploits are to be celebrated or condemned.

The only conclusion I can seriously come to is the large factor of difference between skill in the playbase.  On one hand we see a large bulk of the playerbase playing the game as a party game, and on the other we see it being played at tournament level.  If you look at any other fighter on the market, you will see that the variance in skill is a lot shorter.  Take technical heavy fighters such as Guilty Gear that are tailored for the hardcore and also have a difficult level of entry.  Why is Smash unique in this aspect?  It's because it's is unique.  Not because of the damage aspect, items anything like that.  It's unique because it's a fighter designed to work around a Nintendo 64 controller and it's following successors analogue thumbsticks.

What typical fighter fans do not take into account is just how old the typical control system for fighters are.  All successful fighters are developed in Japan with the arcade stick and buttons controls in mind.  They worked great back with street fighter 2, and to an extent you could say that the SNES controller is able to replicate it okay.  Since then however, nearly all fighters have more complex button combinations or movements... it makes sense for the hardcore Japanese arcade scene, however it presents unique issues everywhere else.  The complexity of the games makes it hard for current generations of gamers of course, however the biggest issue I believe is that the control schemes are no longer relevant to the current average gamer.  Typical fighters are still based off the SNES scheme for SF2 years ago, and the only controller to faithfully recreate this experience is the dual shock, however few other games in other genres use the dpad anymore.  Gamers will enter in other genres if they are already comfortable with the control scheme.

Enter Smash Bros with it's analogue stick flavoured control scheme.  A control scheme that works for anyone that has been playing typical X-Box or Nintendo games after the 64.  Smash doesn't feel like an offshoot of a fighting game, it feels like somebody reset the genre, and Melee emerging with it's own advanced techs and tournament play simply reflect this.  Smashers are a new generation of hardcore fighters... it's very similar movement to these professional tournaments that are taking place for Halo on console alongside the PC ones.

Would Smashers play a more hardcore game with a similiar control scheme?  Perhaps.  We won't know unless one ever comes out.  I guess until one ever does, those who spit the words 'tourney fags' need to build a bridge.

[Dominic]

At the moment I don't really consider Smash a fighting game at all. Since the only thing it really has in common with other games of that genre is that you hit each other. Instead I would classify it as action game in the realm of previously greats such as Power Stone 2 or the like.

If every fighting game came to a party at my place games like Street Fighter, Guilty Gear and KOF would be drinking twelve year old scotch and talking about the old days, Tekken, VF and DOA would be enjoying some boxxy and showing off their 'guns' to each other while Smash would be in the corner, alone, tripping on mushrooms and ultimately having more fun than the rest of them combined.

Good article Zan.

[Tak]

XD i am sooo quoting you on that
Great write up Zan
It's great because it's true

[Zan]

At the moment I don't really consider Smash a fighting game at all. Since the only thing it really has in common with other games of that genre is that you hit each other. Instead I would classify it as action game in the realm of previously greats such as Power Stone 2 or the like.

It has all of the elements that make a fighting game competitive though, with all the associated mind games and spacing.  The point is more relevant to this and 'high' level play, rather than elemental things like lifebars and quartercircles.

Actually I remember back at the first Seat, the Naruto gamecube game was quite popular.  I think the control thing is very much a generational thing.

[Ugly Man]

The thing that I think makes it such a target for hatred is the complete shift. It is a fighting game by definition, in that you're physically beating the other guy until they die. It's the execution thats completely different.

A Streetfighter, Soul Calibur or similar will have a move list for each character that often carries into the dozens if not hundreds. You may be able to move in three dimensions, but awkwardly. Most of the fighting will be on a 2d plain, and the floor will be flat. You will have a health bar.

Smash Brothers has a grand total of twenty moves per fighter (a-combo, 3 tilts, 3 smashes, 5 air attacks, 4 special moves and four throws). You have a lot more movement possible. The stages are larger, and batshit crazy compared to most fighters. You don't have a health bar.

To torture my own analogy, imagine a fancy dress party where everyone is dressed up as vampires. They are the fighting games. Suddenly in walks Smash Brothers dressed like a carebear with an uzi. Technically, they fit the definition of the party. They are still going home alone.

[Shaderoth]

I put it to you that anyone throwing around the term "tourney fag" is not playing to win, and is also a tard.
That said, I don't like smash bros (at least partially because I suck at it) and prefer to invest my time in games I actually enjoy.

[Zan]

I put it to you that anyone throwing around the term "tourney fag" is not playing to win, and is also a tard.

They are most definitely not playing to win, and I can assure you that anybody in this frame of mind would would simply think of Sirlin as an arsehole if they read the book.  They aren't all tards though, just some people who haven't given it much though, and wish that others would do the same. 

[letrien]

1st warning