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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate looks set to be more accessible to casual players, says game director Masahiro Sakurai, who admitted that GameCube brawler Super Smash Bros. Melee was a bit too much on the technical side.
Melee obviously had a very strong presence in the competitive fighting game scene, and was used for years in various tournaments around the globe. However, Sakurai-san noted that the concept behind eSports does not marry well with Nintendo's own philosophy when it comes to gaming.
'The philosophy behind [eSports] doesn’t go in line with Nintendo’s philosophy in that some of these players are playing for the prize money,' he told The Washington Post. 'It comes to a point where [fans are] playing the game for the money, and I feel that kind of direction doesn’t coincide with Nintendo’s view of what games should be.'
'I think a lot of Melee players love Melee,' added Sakurai. 'But at the same time, I think a lot of players, on the other hand, gave up on Melee because it’s too technical, because they can’t keep up with it.'
Frankly, Sakurai has a point. Try playing Melee without any of the items turned on (i.e. the stuff that made the game fun) and you'll see just how technical Melee can be. Me and my mate used to go at it for hours in one-on-one matches, and he usually ended up destroying my Captain Falcon in the process.
Pretty sure she was unbalanced though, so therefore he cheated.
Anyway, to this end, Ultimate will eschew some of the more advanced techniques the series has seen, such as the wave dash among others.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is due for release on December 7, and includes every playable character the franchise has seen to date. So, that means you'll be duking it out not only as the likes of Mario, Peach, Bowser, Samus, Link, and Pikachu, but also Cloud Strife, Sonic the Hedgehog, Ridley, Solid Snake, and Wolf.
Nintendo has made it clear that Ultimate is not just an updated version of Smash Bros. for Wii U, but an all-new game.
