Was there ever any value to this game's existence? This is a genuine question I have over this game. Did Super Smash Brothers for the Wii U truly have to exist in this world?
Take away the competitive aspect that all fighting games have and what you're left with what is the most corporate and soulless Super Smash Bros. game in fucking existence.
Sure, you could argue the series has always been this corporatized, actively milked cash cow that has done nothing but drain Masahiro Sakurai and his team of the back half of their lives, but this one to me takes the fucking cake.
The Classic Mode is this bland, move your trophy around the board with no thematic reasoning or purpose behind it. Take on the new Master Hand forms that are just generic shadow monsters ending with this sole tiny core that isn't even satisfying to beat up because it feels like a representation of the creators' giving up.
What about Smash Tour, the most boring and pointless sidemode addition ever, that barely makes any fucking sense and the end result winds up feeling hollow. Even then, that's if anyone wants to play the damn thing.
The artstyle is the worst of it for me, it's just this hollow lifeless standardized HD crap that just feels so flat and awful.
I'll admit, I grew up with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it's still my favorite of the series even now. Sure it had that overly realistic artstyle where Mario wears denim, and characters slip and slide everywhere but it also had a fucking soul. You could tell the developers wanted to make Brawl the best it could be. I never felt that with 4.
Smash 4 is just the stepping stone to Ultimate that didn't need to be, because regardless of the quality of that game, given the sheer level of content it has it already eclipses Smash 4 several times and then some. Where was the Adventure Mode for Smash 4? We've had an adventure mode in Smash games since fucking Melee in 2001, why didn't Smash 4 have one?
Why does everything in Smash 4 feel like the developers didn't want to make the game?
Outside of that on a more personal level I fucking hate this game. It's my least favorite game yes for those reasons above but how it affected my life in highschool is why I sold the game off and will likely never play it again.
Friends of mine so much more entrenched into the Competitive Scene than I was constantly wound up fighting among each other, within our school gore would be sent due to disputes over the game, friendships were ruined and shit, it was all fucking stupid but at the time it was utter misery that I wouldn't want in my life ever again. It ruined fighting games for me, permanently.
It killed any interest I could have had in that genre by showing me the absolute most toxic direction that playing those games could go.
Smash 4 is the video game equivalent to gonorrhea, because once you have it flushed out of your system, you never want to experience it ever again.
Take away the competitive aspect that all fighting games have and what you're left with what is the most corporate and soulless Super Smash Bros. game in fucking existence.
Sure, you could argue the series has always been this corporatized, actively milked cash cow that has done nothing but drain Masahiro Sakurai and his team of the back half of their lives, but this one to me takes the fucking cake.
The Classic Mode is this bland, move your trophy around the board with no thematic reasoning or purpose behind it. Take on the new Master Hand forms that are just generic shadow monsters ending with this sole tiny core that isn't even satisfying to beat up because it feels like a representation of the creators' giving up.
What about Smash Tour, the most boring and pointless sidemode addition ever, that barely makes any fucking sense and the end result winds up feeling hollow. Even then, that's if anyone wants to play the damn thing.
The artstyle is the worst of it for me, it's just this hollow lifeless standardized HD crap that just feels so flat and awful.
I'll admit, I grew up with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it's still my favorite of the series even now. Sure it had that overly realistic artstyle where Mario wears denim, and characters slip and slide everywhere but it also had a fucking soul. You could tell the developers wanted to make Brawl the best it could be. I never felt that with 4.
Smash 4 is just the stepping stone to Ultimate that didn't need to be, because regardless of the quality of that game, given the sheer level of content it has it already eclipses Smash 4 several times and then some. Where was the Adventure Mode for Smash 4? We've had an adventure mode in Smash games since fucking Melee in 2001, why didn't Smash 4 have one?
Why does everything in Smash 4 feel like the developers didn't want to make the game?
Outside of that on a more personal level I fucking hate this game. It's my least favorite game yes for those reasons above but how it affected my life in highschool is why I sold the game off and will likely never play it again.
Friends of mine so much more entrenched into the Competitive Scene than I was constantly wound up fighting among each other, within our school gore would be sent due to disputes over the game, friendships were ruined and shit, it was all fucking stupid but at the time it was utter misery that I wouldn't want in my life ever again. It ruined fighting games for me, permanently.
It killed any interest I could have had in that genre by showing me the absolute most toxic direction that playing those games could go.
Smash 4 is the video game equivalent to gonorrhea, because once you have it flushed out of your system, you never want to experience it ever again.
5 Comments
I think a lot of it at the time was that there were no other alternatives. Like Brawl still existed but if somebody wanted the current state of Smash Bros. they didn't really have a choice but 4. Nowadays since we have Ultimate nobody talks about Smash 4 anymore, doesn't help that a lot of those who got famous because of Smash 4 got outed for pretty heinous stuff. It's just like, you know a game has no true impact when it really isn't talked about years after it's release, in even a cult following way. So I can see why people don't go back to it even if they grew up with it.
Exactly, it's kinda sad given how this game is fine gameplay wise but it feels like they made this game out of obligation instead of a genuine passion like Brawl or Ultimate, since previous games are revistable due to singleplayer, exclusive features etc like yeah Mega Man and Pac Man were cool reveals but in terms of the game itself it didn't leave much of an impact on me especially compared to Brawl which i got a few years back and still somewhat play, i think the last time i touched 4 after Ultimate was for some Master and Crazy hand challenges and too play that subspace level, that's it whereas Brawl i keep coming back due to Subspace and it's singleplayer along with the strong moding community where as 4 only has mediocre Mario Party and Anrgy Birds modes. But strangely enough i think the 3ds version slightly gets away with this due to better stages and singleplayer content, especially smash run.
I haven't owned the 3DS version, only played my friend's copy when they'd let me, but from what I hear yeah the content of that version is somehow way better than the Wii U version. It is really sad to think how this game is literally the most forced product of the series because Smash is meant to be a celebration of video games but Smash 4 is just, not that in my eyes. Like, I can go back to Brawl and have a good time or play a few rounds of Ultimate but Smash 4 I just never wanted to go back to after 2016.
I'm not a smash fan but it's a damn shame you had your perspective on the genre as a whole ruined for you because of a smaller toxic community. I've never had to deal with people that bad aside from some individuals I knew who were bad influences and just so happened to like Guilty Gear, and even so they weren't as toxic as these people you're describing.
as for the game itself, yeah I agree. Definitely lacks any content or sense of identity. Played this one with a neighborhood friend back in the late elementary school days and remember having fun, but nowadays this game just... exists. But yeah, good review nonetheless!
as for the game itself, yeah I agree. Definitely lacks any content or sense of identity. Played this one with a neighborhood friend back in the late elementary school days and remember having fun, but nowadays this game just... exists. But yeah, good review nonetheless!
Speedy
1 year ago