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Bowser Made Stronger in Upcoming Super Smash Bros.

by Kimberly Keller - January 2, 2014, 4:57 pm EST
Total comments: 9 Source: (Siliconera), http://www.siliconera.com/2013/12/30/sakurai-impor...

Send your enemies flying with updated attacks!

In his column of this week's issue of Famitsu, the director of the Super Smash Bros. series, Masahiro Sakurai, talked about how he balances characters in the games. The upcoming 3DS and Wii U games so far will see the most change in Bowser.

“Now that Sunday’s day off is past, I’m currently working on the character adjustment for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U,” says Sakurai. “At the moment, Bowser is very strong. He’s really strong. Fans of Smash Bros. probably never saw him as too much of a strong character, but this time, his ability to knock others out is very strong!”

Sakurai wanted to focus on how it feels to play the game when designing characters this time around. This lead him to build up satisfying additions to moves, like allowing Bowser to send opponents flying through the air with his smash, aerial, and special attacks.

However, these strong attacks must come at a price for the sake of balance. Careful thought was put into adjusting attacks to make it feel natural, a process that is so fine-tuned, it started six years before Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s release. The differences in free-for-all and one-on-one fights also added to the complications, creating instances where certain attacks would be better in group fights than in singular battles, and vice versa.

“Rather than directly weakening an attack’s advantageous parts, we’re putting effort into keeping them strong, while adding other weaknesses to them. Like giving the attacks punishable openings, or weakening the character’s mobility or recovery rate. We’re making comprehensive adjustments to characters, even for parts that might seem completely irrelevant.”

“Doing things like simply ‘lowering the performance’ can make games lose its fun. Additionally, making a strong attack weaker can take away from the ‘good feeling’. By making adjustments that get rid of all advantages and disadvantages, it can turn a game into a mediocre one without any challenge.”

Talkback

OblivionJanuary 02, 2014

Whaaaaat? I've found Bowser incredibly powerful in Brawl; I can easily knock someone out of the arena with a simple side smash or a down special.

Nile Boogie ReturnsJanuary 02, 2014

Sweet lord! talk about "beast mode". Boswer from what I remember was already a top heavy player. Hopefully that means Fox (my main) will get a tad stronger and a bit slower.

pokepal148Spencer Johnson, Contributing WriterJanuary 02, 2014

Quote from: Oblivion

Whaaaaat? I've found Bowser incredibly powerful in Brawl; I can easily knock someone out of the arena with a simple side smash or a down special.

He was, but based on my understanding of the general smash tierlists any of these heavyweight Juggernaut characters (Bowser, DK, Ganondorf) tend to hang around at the bottom tier (DeDeDe managed to escape that trapping because of his chain grabbing abilities.

CaterkillerMatthew Osborne, Contributing WriterJanuary 03, 2014

Bowser in both Melee and Brawl was one of the worst characters by far. Trust me I mained him and played competitively. It was like a one legged man trying to win a kicking contest. I got pretty good with him but man it takes some work and a lot of patience.


Anyway I don't think Sakurai means just his physical strength, because even the Smash laymen can see that Bowser always hit really hard. It's pretty clear to me that Sakurai is talking about his general ability to be competent and actually knock someone out consistently.


Smash Bros favors the smaller and faster and completely stomps on the many giants. Though like Pokepal said, Dedede escaped this fate with amazing grabs, lots of jumps, quick frames and down right brutal hits on even simple movements like his dash or projectile.


This aspect of balancing that Sakurai is talking about is sounding really really good! Captain Falcon was so great in Melee! Remember the knee of justice? And then what happened to him? Same goes for Shiek and Ganondorf as well! Nerfed to hell and never returned!


This however sounds like the good characters aren't' getting major nerfs but the bad characters are getting buffs! And the thought of the game feeling good because of these hard hits just gets me so excited!

Plus let's not forget that Sakurai has gone on record saying that balancing happens near the end of the development process and he's been talking about balancing for months now! I think we're getting this in the summer!

Leo13January 03, 2014

Wasn't Smash Bros trailer in the "through spring 2014" Nintendo Direct?
Wouldn't that mean we should be getting it before summer (ie before June 21st)?
I'm hoping for this or Hyrule warriors by March 13th (I know a long shot) cause that's my birthday.

Luigi DudeJanuary 03, 2014

Quote from: Leo13

Wasn't Smash Bros trailer in the "through spring 2014" Nintendo Direct?
Wouldn't that mean we should be getting it before summer (ie before June 21st)?
I'm hoping for this or Hyrule warriors by March 13th (I know a long shot) cause that's my birthday.

Smash Bros and Hyrule Warriors were both exceptions since the Direct even said after each game they were sometime 2014 releases while Mario Kart 8 specifically said Spring 2014.

Actually the Japanese version of the Direct said Hyrule Warriors is Summer 2014 in Japan while Smash Bros was still just 2014 there as well so Smash Bros is still most likely a Fall 2014 release.

Leo13January 03, 2014

As much as I hope you're wrong, it's hard to argue with that.

Mop it upJanuary 04, 2014

Hm, wonder if this means they're rethinking the game so that it isn't all about speed anymore.

If Smash Bros. is coming out in the spring, it's coming out in the spring of 2015.

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