Why Smash Bros for Wii U won't support GamePad features

While Nintendo is wont to add arbitrary features to its games to showcase its unique hardware, that won't be the case with its upcoming Super Smash Bros game for Wii U. Why? Because it could potentially give a player an advantage over another.

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While Nintendo is wont to add arbitrary features to its games to showcase its unique hardware, that won't be the case with its upcoming Super Smash Bros game for Wii U. Why? Because it could potentially give a player an advantage over another.

"The idea with Smash Bros., you have four players come together, and it's a fair playing field," director Masahiro Sakurai explained. "The idea of having one person with this special controller and special features that are only available to the gamepad player flies in the face of that. Right now, we're not adding any additional [GamePad] functionality at all."

"With Smash Bros. being a four-player game we want people to be on equal footing. That's our main philosophy when it comes to control features," he told Polygon.

The idea of being fair seems to extend to how difficult the game will be. Sakurai admits that while Melee was for "the veteran player," Brawl was designed more for the "casual gamer." However, he believes that his new game will be "really right in the middle." That means doing away with more ridiculous systems, like tripping which occurred in the Wii game.

Andrew Yoon was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    June 14, 2013 5:15 PM

    Andrew Yoon posted a new article, Why Smash Bros for Wii U won't support GamePad features.

    While Nintendo is wont to add arbitrary features to its games to showcase its unique hardware, that won't be the case with its upcoming Super Smash Bros game for Wii U. Why? Because it could potentially give a player an advantage over another.

    • reply
      June 14, 2013 10:42 PM

      I think one thing that was established with the Smash community when discussing what stages are valid, what options are valid (items and the like), etc. is that it's simply not a game meant to be taken as seriously for tournament play as others. It's a game where you play the game how you like it.

      That said, it can't hurt to have a mode that takes advantage of the screen controller. a 4 v 1 mode where you play a boss character such as Master Hand who attacks with touch screen gestures for instance. A special set of stages that reinvent the adventure mode where 1 player sets up the hazards and enemy spawns could work too.

    • reply
      June 14, 2013 11:20 PM

      I'm glad Sakurai is admitting that Brawl really offered nothing to the serious fighting fan, especially compared to Melee. Looking forward to the new one now that he's trying to reach a better compromise (for the record I thought Melee's was fine for "casual gamers").

      • reply
        June 15, 2013 5:20 PM

        why bother nitpicking over which game was more geared for casual gamers? The entire Super Smash Bros series is made to be a fighting game for casual gamers.

        I think Sakurai was just stroking his own ego with that comment.

    • reply
      June 15, 2013 12:55 PM

      "while nintendo is wont"

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