How to solve a problem like move-sets?
With a current roster of 76 numbered and unique fighters (plus 7 echo fighters) it remains beyond impressive that each new challenger in the Super Smash Bros franchise stands as something distinctly their own. The fact that the roster is set to balloon towards a total of 81 once the second Fighters Pass DLC wraps up is further testament to how absurd Super Smash Bros Ultimate really is.
Having seen Hero’s MP based moveset last year, and more recently Min Min’s dual input fighting style, it seems that no concept is too ambitious to find its way into a Smash Bros moveset. Hell, even the black sheep of 2019’s Fighter Pass Vol. 1, Byleth, managed to stand apart by being the first Fire Emblem character to fight with something other than a sword, introducing the franchise’s signature weapon triangle into the fray.
So while one can revel in the creativity demonstrated in the likes of Shulk’s Monado Arts and Cloud’s Limit Breaks, taking a look back at the lower end of Ultimate’s roster can feel a bit rough by comparison. It’s not that these ‘64 to Melee era’ designs are flawed necessarily, but in the over 20 years since Smash’s Nintendo 64 debut, it’s clear that its design philosophy has changed a fair bit.
This idea is perhaps best demonstrated when placing two fighters like Mario and Hero side by side. In many ways, Hero’s character design represents Dragon Quest to a T. Not only do Hero’s smash attacks carry the distinct ⅛ chance of executing a ‘critical hit’, but his down special, ‘Command Selection’, allows him to pick from a randomly selected pool of 21 additional special attacks, paying homage to Dragon Quest’s obsession with goofy named spells. Hero’s moveset doesn’t just feel like how a Dragon Quest Hero should play, but also a love letter to the franchise as a whole, with little winks and nods sprinkled throughout.
When shifting things over to Mario, things feel a little more bland. Not only is the majority of his moveset derivative of one invented in 1999, but when it comes to transferring the essence of what a Mario game is into his character design, it feels like an attempt wasn’t even made. And that’s because back in 1999, that wasn’t the goal. It’s not that these character designs are bad, but rather they’ve struggled to keep up with the standards that continue to trend upwards with each new installment.
I don’t think it’s necessary to riot for a complete redesign, but it also doesn’t seem fair that Dragon Quest as a franchise is better represented in its flagship character than Super Mario is. When looking at how Mario controls in 2D, the basics revolve around jumping and power ups.
So why is it that Mario’s jump feels indistinct and he’s limited to carrying around a small stock of fire flowers and cape feathers at any time. Seeing as footstools already exist in the game, why not let Mario rack up small amounts of damage on opponents by jumping on their head, similar to how he would on a goomba? Does it sound competitively viable? No, not exactly, but it does fall in line with those fun details that make Smash Bros. so enjoyable.
Similarly, instead of utilising a generic kick for his down tilt, why not let Mario swing his racoon tail along the ground to perform an essentially similar attack? Along the same line, why not let the plumber transform into a statue and drop to the ground ala Super Mario Bros. 3? It’s these little tweaks that make a big difference which a lot of the earlier cast members could greatly benefit from.
There is a point to be made that Mario’s original ‘martial artist’ design pulled heavily from traditional fighting games, specifically Street Fighter with his fireballs, Mario Tornado and Super Jump Punch all mimicking staples of Ryu’s kit. Although with Ryu and Ken now both in Smash, it would seem more than deserved for Mario to move beyond his fighting game homage, and into something more distinctly ‘Mario’.
Granted, steps have been made in that direction, with the addition of moves like FLUDD and a taunt featuring Cappy, but given that Mario’ most recent addition to his moveset is from a game 18 years old, it does little to alleviate the feeling of age. Mario might not have the wide array of abilities like Banjo and Kazooie, but steps can be made to better represent the whole of his over 35 year career.
For a standard fighting game, Mario’s design presents little reason to complain. But Smash Bros. has evolved far beyond a standard fighting game to a celebration of gaming as a whole, and this has left Mario’s design feeling generic and comparatively aged, especially considering his place within the industry. Unfortunately this is an issue that is emblematic of most of the cast throughout the series’ Nintendo 64 and GameCube lifespan. While characters like Captain Falcon and Ness feel less antiquated due to a lack of new games to pull additional source material from, it’s hard to argue that characters like DK and Samus feel like representations of their most current selves having had outings as recent as 2014 and 2017 with Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Metroid: Samus Returns respectively.
I will concede that everything above is basically entitled complaining, and I understand where this ‘biggest flaw’ comes from. Game development is hard, and if Sakurai and his team were taking every game as a chance to update the characters left behind, I doubt the Smash Bros. series would progress anywhere. With the cast already as large as it is, following the current series trend of 1-upping what came before seems like a surefire method to series fatigue.
In this sense perhaps this predicament is exactly what the franchise needs. Having an outdated portion of the cast is a flaw now, but in the future it could provide a means to create a different and more compact Smash Bros. experience. As painful as it would be to do, cutting Ultimate’s cast down to a more manageable size would not only prevent the roster from becoming overwhelmingly large, but also afford the more neglected characters some well deserved refinement.
That being said, the series could continue to expand until you eventually have to sift through 100 fighters to find Young Link, and I’m sure everyone would be on board. Nevertheless, the opportunity to tone it down seems to make sense in more ways than one. And in Ultimate’s defence, it’s delivered well on a compromise that lands somewhere in between. Characters like Luigi and Ganondorf finally got to use their vacuum and sword respectively, and even if it wasn’t the major rehaul many were expecting from his Champion’s Tunic, Link’s new remote bombs add a lot more to his kit than one might think.
It’s less that Super Smash Bros has a fundamental flaw, but rather that we’ve become spoilt for standout designs. The less outlandish and more typical character designs are coming to feel more mediocre than they once did. Ideally I’d envision a pseudo-soft reboot pedalling the roster back to a size between that of Melee and Brawl, that places a focus making each character feel unique. That means culling out clones, and giving characters like Luigi and Ganondorf well deserved kits of their own, and revamping characters whose references might be more outdated by now. While we’re cutting out characters, it might be smart to fold Sheik back into Zelda’s down special to focus on boosting that unique factor mentioned before.
Similarly, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong could be seen paired up, appropriating the piggyback style of gameplay from Donkey Kong Country Returns. Furthermore, letting DK switch between DIddy, Dixie and Cranky as his partners would further the connection with his gameplay history, and deepen the complexity of his kit by letting him make use of their unique abilities.
Looking beyond that, it’s clear that there are many characters in Smash Bros. backlog sitting on untapped potential. Let Ganondorf use his dark spells, and return projectiles to their sender in a game of deadman’s volleyball. Everything Ultimate has accomplished remains beyond impressive, but delving back into the series’ history could be just as exciting as expanding its horizons.
This article was originally published on July 15, 2020.
Theonewithoutafairy 