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Smash Bros. Gets Story-Driven Single Player Campaign 81

If you were wondering how they could make the upcoming Smash Bros. Brawl even better than its predecessors, the official Dojo site has some great news for Nintendo fans. Via Game|Life comes the news that Brawl will feature a fully-fleshed out single-player sidescrolling campaign. Called 'The Subspace Emissary', it appears to explore the stories of the individual characters and their interactions with each other. "This time, though, we've managed to create a complete side-scrolling action game. It's storyline isn't overwrought--it's hastened along by a bunch of quick movies ... The Adventure mode also emphasizes character development. You'll see many famous characters persevering under the weight of their personal histories, shouldering their unique burdens... It's really something you won't see anywhere else." While obviously folks like Link and Mario will feature heavily, it's worth pointing out that this will be the first time in more than 15 years that Kid Icarus' Pit will get any sort of 'plot development' in a videogame.
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Smash Bros. Gets Story-Driven Single Player Campaign

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  • *drool* (Score:4, Funny)

    by danbert8 ( 1024253 ) on Friday August 03, 2007 @09:20AM (#20100055)
    (This post should be blank, because words cannot be expelled with all the drool. However using parenthetical statements allows me to convey omniscient thoughts without giving the idea of words, thus I can tell you that I really can't wait to play some serious smash bros. I kinda thought Melee was disappointing, because it never had the sheer madness that was the original, but the game was very unbalanced, especially in favor of DK [that big ape should not be able to move so fast].)
    • The Gamecube version was less 'sheer madness' than the first? Good lord, I've only ever played the gamecube version, but that one already takes only 15 min to burn my eyes and melt my brain.
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        The cube version plays completely different from the original, they made all characters handle looser (they slide more), stages were made much smaller and the whole thing plays like the N64 version with a broken joystick. I think the number 1 complaint among my friends is that they gave up a lot of control for Melee, which changed it from a fist fight to an art of dodging and countering as it is in Melee.

        We haven't seen enough Brawl to judge yet, but I think a lot of us are hoping they will go back to the h
        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by edwdig ( 47888 )
          But in short, Melee is faster paced but it's looser, Original was heavier and required more face to face fighting than being nimble and taking cheap shots until you could finish them off with a heavy attack.

          I don't think I agree with that. Melee is certainly faster. But items were far more useful in the original game. It was a pretty effective strategy in the original game to just grab all the items and throw them at people - particularly the light saber and turtle shell. That doesn't work nearly as well in
        • by dmclap ( 1103635 )
          I must sincerely disagree. While I enjoyed the original, I simply can't play it anymore, because melee is just that much better, and the old one feels sluggish and boring. One of the things I liked so much about the series was that it wasn't at all like a normal fighting series, and reflexes and agility were so much more crucial than standing and fighting. It's a completely different experience, and melee improved on these differences immensely, and in a way that I heartily approve of. There's just some
    • Melee is less in favor to DK and more to Shiek, Marth, and Fox; three very fast characters. In my group of friends, one of them played DK 90% of the time, and though he did well, he was never within the top two or three. I would argue that Melee is fairly well balanced and that it's much more frantic than the original.
      • I honestly think that Melee's characters were pretty well balance. All that really matters is how the player handles their fighters. I was great with Shiek/Zelda, but could never beat a friend who always played Samus. Though I could usually best anyone with Peach. My favorites to play are still Fox, Ganondorf, and Marth. The reason I love playing as Peach is because her smash hits are hilarious. Nothing beats seeing Samus fully charged getting a frying pan upside the head.

        A side note. If they're goin

    • by Sciros ( 986030 )
      Actually DK wasn't even close to the high tier characters in Melee. He was in the bottom half for sure. If you want to talk unbalanced, talk about Fox, Sheik, Falco, Peach :-) (It's questioned whether Marth would have been so high on the tiers if not for Ken's mad success with the character, which Ken has proven many times was mostly due to his sheer talent at the game rather than character strength.)
      • I wouldn't quite say that... you must not have learned some of his tricks. I've pissed of quite a few of my friends by playing DK. He was especially good in a crowded arena.
        • by Sciros ( 986030 )
          Trust me I've played this game more than all but like 300 people. It doesn't matter what character I use against most people. But regardless, DK is a middle-tier char, below Roy and above Pikachu. The characters I mentioned earlier are top tier chars. It's been a while since I looked all that up, but Sheik was considered best in the US, and Fox best in Japan. Altogether I'd have to go with Fox, but they are always top 2. DK isn't even close. Some players are good with him, like "Canada Mike" and a few other
          • The two best players I have ever played played as peach. This includes someone who was able to tell me that my attack was canceled because it executes at the end of the animation and his at the start, i.e. someone who played it way too much. Her dress twirl, hover, and up+a smash are all winners. The dress twirl (down + a) can add 30-40 damage in a hit, and a mushroomed character can be hit 2-3 times by it.

            All that said, fox is one of the cheapest mofos around, and probably the best. With good timing of the
            • by Sciros ( 986030 )
              Yeah Peach is a nightmare to play against if it's someone good using her. Heck, turnip spam alone is a pain in the arse if you're trying to make it back onto the platform, let alone her dsmash.

              Yeah I'm not sure how well-equipped Samus is to take on Peach... I never used Samus much. I think the counterpick for Peach was Marth...
  • Oh god... (Score:3, Funny)

    by UbuntuDupe ( 970646 ) * on Friday August 03, 2007 @09:22AM (#20100073) Journal
    I'd love to hear their explanation of how Zelda, Mario, and Samus (for starters) ended up in the same time and place ...
    • Did you NOT watch Captain N, the Gamemaster? Sheesh...
    • by thefirelane ( 586885 ) on Friday August 03, 2007 @09:44AM (#20100379)
      Doug: In episode 2F09, when Itchy plays Scratchy's skeleton like a xylophone, he strikes the same rib twice in succession, yet he produces two clearly different tones. I mean, what are we to believe, that this is some sort of a [the three nerds chuckle] magic xylophone or something? Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.
    • by AKAImBatman ( 238306 ) <akaimbatman AT gmail DOT com> on Friday August 03, 2007 @09:48AM (#20100431) Homepage Journal
      Aliens.

      You need to watch more TV and read more books. Aliens always abduct people and put them in competitions that would be pointless under any circumstance other than a fourth-wall breech of the universe by all-knowing aliens. And if you don't believe me, try reading Walter Farley's Black Stallion series. When he wanted to do a cross-over between Black and the "secret" Island Horse flame, who fixed the continuity problems so they could both race? That's right, aliens did it.

      You'd think that a race of beings with technology superior enough to travel between universes would have something better to do than kidnap folks from their homes and force them to participate in some sort of competition. (A competition that the contestants always seem more than willing to compete in?)

      See also: A wizard did it! [tvtropes.org]
      • Aliens always abduct people and put them in competitions that would be pointless under any circumstance other than a fourth-wall breech of the universe by all-knowing aliens
        Thats how they do it in the marvle universe, and no doubt capcom vs snk! (correct me if im wrong)
        • by locoluis ( 69948 )
          IIRC, "Capcom v/s SNK" was an event organized by Ken Masters and Robert García, mostly for the $$$ that would come from such a massive event. It's mostly like KOF v/s Street Fighter.

          Though that doesn't explaint those from the Darkstalkers universe, as well as those who came from the ancient sword battles of yore (yay Nakoruru!)

          Now, "SNK v/s Capcom: Chaos" was a whole different thing, much clouded in mystery. I suspect of the goddess Athena and the chief boss in "Daimakaimura" (you know, that game with
    • It's the Subspace emissary, so obviously it's going to involve routing the transporter signal through the tachyon deflector array and inverting the dilithium crystals in the warp core.

      Scotty will say it'll take 8 hours, but you he'll be ready in 4.

      Just don't let that Crusher kid near it, or they'll come back with their heads on backwards.
      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by hal2814 ( 725639 )
        Why didn't anyone tell me my butt was this big?
      • by Minwee ( 522556 )

        Scotty will say it'll take 8 hours, but you he'll be ready in 4.

        And yet, somehow, it will all be wrapped up within 44 minutes and everything will be just like it was at the beginning.

    • <po-face>
      iirc, the premise of Smash Bros is that these are not actually your belov'd Nintendo (and others) characters, the scenario has always been that these are 'trophies', akin to those hero-clix thingies. Hence the 'Hand' bosses (the hands of the child/children who collect them).
      </po-face>

      *bets on chaos emeralds*
    • http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/gamemode/modea/mode a01.html [smashbros.com]
      So you haven't watched the intro to the other two games have you?
      They're statues, figures really... animated by, well god knows what but lets say by Master Hand (end boss/pointing device), to fight for it's amusement, or something, it's all pretty foggy thus the relevance of announcing a fleshed out story mode.
    • A Master Hand did it.
    • by edwdig ( 47888 )
      The original game never gave an explanation of how they all got together, but the manual did say they were all having a picnic, people started bragging, and they decided to fight it out to see who was the best.

      I think the TV commercial for the game played off that. Had the characters beating up each other at a picnic.
    • by ash05 ( 1137901 )
      Well Zelda, probably like Link, can travel through time (Ocarina of Time), and Mario can also travel through time using his time machine [wikipedia.org]. So they can both meet with Samus in the future.
  • possible mistake. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by musikit ( 716987 )
    while i am open to the idea of story line for characters isnt this what destroyed the street fighter and mortal combat francise?
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by rob1980 ( 941751 )
      I thought what destroyed Street Fighter was all the ridiculous pseudo-sequels. You had SF 2, then SF 2: Championship Edition, then SF 2: Turbo, then Street Fighter Alpha Championship Turbo Hyper EX II Deluxe Edition, etc...
      • I thought what destroyed Street Fighter was all the ridiculous pseudo-sequels. You had SF 2, then SF 2: Championship Edition, then SF 2: Turbo, then Street Fighter Alpha Championship Turbo Hyper EX II Deluxe Edition, etc...

        Well many of them were smashing successess. The often riduculed re-tooled SFII turbo blah blah blah were capcoms responses to hacked roms, incorporating some of the novel ideas into standard play. I always liked the series and the follow up cross overs and SF III and alpha.
      • I stopped as soon as Jean-Claude Van Dammes head appeared on Guiles body . I'm glad to hear it was something else that killed this for everyone else.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by bishiraver ( 707931 )
      Yet it worked so well for Soul Edge / Soul Blade / Soul Calibur / Soul Calibur II / Soul Calibur III .....
      • God, the Soul Calibur storyline (at least in SC II) was so perfunctory. And the announcer at the beginning sounds like a sophomore english major waxing profound:

        "A hero desires a sword, and a sword desires truth..."

        I mean really, what the hell does that even mean, and how is that helping gameplay??
    • Re:no not really (Score:3, Informative)

      by Psykechan ( 255694 )
      Someone got the idea that 2D fighters (along with 2D everything else) was unpopular. Everyone started clamoring to make their own 3D fighting game with mixed results. Some good, some not so much. 2D fighters also suffered a period of "Madden"ing where a new game would come out once a year with the big upgrade being the roster. Fortunately a roster change was a much bigger deal because it added whole new playstyles to the game, but it didn't help the public image.

      Nothing really destroyed the Street Fight
      • by dopplex ( 242543 )
        Actually, it's not even really new.

        Looks to basically be the adventure mode from Melee at a much larger scale.

        It worked in Melee - no reason why more of the same (except bigger and with more plot) wouldn't work in Brawl.
    • Personally, I'd blame it on the death of arcades and the fact that the genre doesn't translate well online because even a bit of lag will affect the perfect timing you need to actually succeed in those games.
  • I have been enjoying Super Smash Brothers since it came out, and while I paid no attention to Brawl, I am looking forward to another chance to jump into the franchise.
  • Amazing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MeanderingMind ( 884641 ) * on Friday August 03, 2007 @10:06AM (#20100635) Homepage Journal
    All I can say is Nintendo has the best marketing of the big three. Smash Brothers fans are practically dehydrated from drooling over the blog.

    Seriously, what other game in history has successfully maintained news updates every weekday? There hasn't been a weekday since it started where there wasn't something new, however small.

    I remember when the site first opened and I read the text "I will be updating this site periodically". I thought "Oh, I can expect some random news every few weeks/months". I was stunned to find that it was literally every weekday.

    I don't think there's a single game hyped as well as this one.
    • by Kimos ( 859729 )

      I don't think there's a single game hyped as well as this one.
      Really? I can think of one [google.ca]...
      • Note: "As well" not "As much". I don't think the quality of Spore's hype is comparable.
        • And pray do tell us, what is the release date of Spore on any platform? I'm starting to feel that getting excited for the release of Spore is like getting excited for the release of Duke Nukem Forever...
          • I believe you misunderstand.

            The game I am excited about is Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and I believe the effective and ingenious hype-machine Nintendo has created is a part of that. I have thus posited that Brawl may have the best hype ever constructed, especially if it delivers.

            To this, someone cited Spore, and I stated that Spore may be hyped an analogous amount but not as effectively. Your waning excitement is clear evidence of this.

            Hence, I am confused as to where you are coming from. Your tone insinuat
            • I understood what you meant about Smash Bros. Brawl's hype being one of the best marketing strategies for any game ever. I've been diligently reading up every weekday morning to find out new tidbits of information on this game. I plan on buying it the day it comes out because I am a big fan of the series. My sarcastic reply to your post was meant as an acknowledgement that Spore definitely has been overhyped for its current level of progess. It has been touted as the game that will take the crown as Bes
    • I can't speak for Sony, but MS's history is full of the biggest marketing blunders in history (i.e. linux, tablet, SPOT, MS TV ...)
      However, when you look back over Nintendo's history you find some of the most intelligent, successful marketing campaigns in business history. Using the DS to market the idea of a different control interface paved the way for the Wii's success. In my opinion, Nintendo's franchise games have gotten more hard core (i.e. Windwaker vs Twilight Princess) with more need for walkthrus
  • If you've every played DoA or Soul Caliber, you know what to expect from the plot. "My feet ache... with destiny!" "You stepping on my pet goldfish... prepare for death!" (Grrr, can't find the link to that Sluggy cartoon...)

    Granted its Nintendo, but I'm not expecting anything on the order of a different awesome side scrolling game for each character, more of a slight upgrade to the pale 1P mode in the GCN Smash with more character interaction & cutscenes in between a la DoA/Soul Caliber. It might be
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by PeterFranks ( 523503 )
      Heh, if they DON'T do dialogue such as this, then I think the game will actually suffer.

      I love the nonsensical plots and creatively wacky dialogue, especially in a compilation game such as this. It's not supposed to take itself as seriously as Soul Caliber tried to. It's supposed to be something "fun" to play, just like Monkey Ball. I can't think of anything more fun than watching each character interact in their own stereotypes, apparently oblivious to each other's stereotypes.
      • I completely agree. If anyone recalls the hilarity of MGS3, then that kind of dialog makes perfect sense. If anyone recalls the conversation Snake has with the weapons expert while in the box, they know what I'm talking about. Or even the preview video that showed Snake appearing as a new fighter in Brawl illustrates the kind of humor I'm hoping for from this game.
        • Oh, I'm not saying that it won't be appropriate and hilarious. I fully expect my example to be really, really close. I'm just saying that no matter how clever/cheesy the dialogue, they'll likely play the level once and done.
    • Here's what I envision the "Solid Snake meets Mario" level being:
      "I need to get into this top secret government facility, and there's no good fox-urine covered cardboard boxes around. Hmm..."

      Shouldn't he go to Fox with that problem?

    • "My feet hurt... With destiny!" and... "You killed my goldfish!" "Why does that pickle you?" I think that's how it went. Too lazy to find the comic, though.
  • Co-Op? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sciros ( 986030 ) on Friday August 03, 2007 @10:32AM (#20101031) Journal
    I would be ecstatic if they mentioned this story mode was playable in co-op. I've been wanting something like that in a Smash game ever since the original.

    Sadly HAL seems to only really do about 50% of what they're capable of; it would be okay if Smash games were released every couple of years, but waiting a whole generation and-then-some puts a lot of pressure on them to add more than just "the usual improvements."

    Oh well. I'm big into Smash, so just knowing that they didn't blow off the single-player mode entirely this time around is good news to me.
  • Will this single player mode have anything to do with: Captain N, The Game Master?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_N:_The_Game_M aster [wikipedia.org]
  • More information (Score:4, Informative)

    by Creepyguywithastick ( 934101 ) on Friday August 03, 2007 @12:40PM (#20103069)
    I've been following the site for a while, and they've cleared up some questions in the last teaser update about the story: It takes place in an alternate universe, the characters aren't the "real" canon characters, they're trophies of those characters. It's always been implied in the opening cinematic that Smash Brothers was just a kid playing with toys (which is why the final boss is a hand--kids have their action figures fight their hand when they finally run out of other toys for it to fight), but it was explicitly stated in the last update that all the characters are simply toys, and not part of the canon. When they die, they turn back into toys. They exist in an alternate universe where trophies exist to fight in tournaments, and this lifestyle has been maintained for the past two games, but now Metaknight has broken the tradition by storming the tournament and dropping some evil-looking goo that turns into evil-looking monsters, and somehow requires the trophies to stop him. Keep in mind, Smash is primarily made by the people who make Kirby, so the villain is probably going to be Dark Matter or something. Metaknight is traditionally a red herring villain that turns into a helpful rival in the end. It's not "a series of fights with motivations for the fights" in between, it's a full on side scrolling game, like the first level of the last game's Adventure Mode. It's probably punctuated with actual fights, but it's mainly side scrolling, fighting enemies (which also appear in the main game as "assist trophy" summons, like, Hammer Brothers are enemies in the side scrolling game, but you can also summon them to aid you in the multiplayer game). It also says the plot wont be bloated, just quick-paced cutscenes between action. I doubt there's going to even be text boxes.
  • the robots (Score:3, Funny)

    by Allison Geode ( 598914 ) on Friday August 03, 2007 @12:44PM (#20103129)
    the robot thingies that come out of the airship look like fruit-fuckers.
  • You know they're going to do it at the last minute.

    They've already got Snake lined up.

    C'mon, Super Smash Brother Sonic!

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