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[The Great Gonzales]

It feels like the window for teching is really generous this time around. I mean, it was pretty easy in Brawl, but here, even when I feel like I've hit the button too early or too late, I'm still successful.

 

[Boss Doggie]

This is more akin to a legitimate screw up than something put in to deliberately ruin competitive play. A lot of competitive fighting games tend to have mechanics or imbalanced design that are birthed from lack of foresight.

Eh I wouldn't really say a screw up. I mean, rather than cry about a throw not being able to follow up with an attack I'd change my approach instead.

 

[Ibuki]

My copy arrived about an hour ago. So far I am loving the game, especially playing Greninja.

I have tried out Palutena, Shulk, Little Mac, Charizard, and Samus. I'd say Greninja and Little Mac are my favorites so far. I need to practice when I get home from work so I can jump online. I'm so excited. :3

 

[ErrorMacro]

No, no, no. It's all about audience. We're arguing over gameplay design based on perceived audience. You're perceived audience is more competitive minded players, while my perceived audience is general players and Nintendo fans. Both can glean the nuances of the game from extended play, and both will. One will surely more than the other. I'm saying a game is poorly designed when the intended audience ceases to get enjoyment out of it because of a ill thought out design choice.

For you, the audience is the more professional, competitive-minded players. I can understand while some design choices may hinder their enjoyment of the game. However, these same mechanics, even if they are not readily apparent to the general audience, I posit, would not negatively affect (and most likely positively affect because of the general intuitiveness of them) the enjoyment of the game.

Subtly and nuance are very important, of course, especially in fighting games. Many players won't actively be aware of them but only be aware of them implicitly. For example, in regards to VI: a casual player might not know the intricacies of VI as much as we do, but they would use it as much because of it's intuitive application and obvious results (as in, holding down while flying up helps them survive). In this way, it's a well designed mechanic because it is simple, clear, and intuitive. The magnitude of the effect is up for debate, but I don't see it affecting the enjoyment of the game from a casual perspective.

I guess my point is that when you look at Smash 4 as a game designed for a general audience, the design choices actually make a lot of sense. Whether or not the subtleties and nuanced mechanics are balanced for competitive play is still up for debate, of course, but I can't say the game is poorly designed because a subset of some of the players don't agree with it.

Pretty much this. There's a world of difference between adding elements to appeal to the competitive community (such as For Glory) and designing the game with the competitive player in mind.

People need to accept that Smash Bros, while it's a game that can be played competitively and has elements that appeal to the competitive community, is mostly (if not completely) designed with the "FFA, all items, all stages" players in mind. Most of the complaints of the competitive players has little impact in the quality of the design for the non-competitive players.

I understand the frustration. It sucks to have the game be designed to a different audience than the one you belong to. But saying the game is badly designed is pushing it a bit too far. As far as a game where you can play as your favorite nintendo characters, in crazy stages and with items flying everywhere, it's a game wih damn good design.

 

[georly]

Is the only way to download the update to quit the game and go to eshop, find the update, and then download it there?

I just get an error code when trying to go online through the smash 3ds menu.

Is this just a limitation of the 3DS? Do all games require patches in this way? I know mario kart did, because it was the first game to ever have patches, so I excused it, but has this not been fixed recently?

Looking forward to wii u downloading patches and applying them automatically. So happy it's had 2 patches already, makes me hopeful for the future.

 

[munchie64]

Your avatar combined with your excessive use of expletives, all caps, over-exaggeration, hyperbole, admittance of annoyance, general attitude and attacking a strawman arguments (with exclamation points) tells me you're at the very least not reasonable. Maybe not angry, but certainly not reasonable.

Avatar shaming now?

 

[theprodigy]

It feels like the window for teching is really generous this time around. I mean, it was pretty easy in Brawl, but here, even when I feel like I've hit the button too early or too late, I'm still successful.

teching is actually harder in Brawl than in Melee, haha

 

[JoeInky]

One of my main problems is the idea that the game has to be competitive OR casual, as if Smash Bros. has never struck a balance in the past (64, Melee).

Many of the things that would make the game more enjoyable at a more complex level either won't affect the casual player or they just won't care about it.

 

[chaosblade]

Pretty much this. There's a world of difference between adding elements to appeal to the competitive community (such as For Glory) and designing the game with the competitive player in mind.

People need to accept that Smash Bros, while it's a game that can be played competitively and has elements that appeal to the competitive community, is mostly (if not completely) designed with the "FFA, all items, all stages" players in mind. Most of the complaints of the competitive players has little impact in the quality of the design for the non-competitive players.

I understand the frustration. It sucks to have the game be designed to a different audience than the one you belong to. But saying the game is badly designed is pushing it a bit too far. As far as a game where you can play as your favorite nintendo characters, in crazy stages and with items flying everywhere, it's a game wih damn good design.

For Glory isn't really for the competitive community. If it was the stage would be Battlefield.

And the bolded is kind of the problem. Appealing to the competitive community while still making something fun for the "everybody else" crowd is possible because the things that the competitive community wants aren't things that are going to hurt the game for anyone else.

The problem is that there are people who feel like any sort of criticism of the game is some sort of sacrilege against Smash and Sakurai.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

As a lame NA person who doesn't own a Japanese 3DS, I don't have much to contribute here. But since I was talking about it a bit earlier, I'll update my earlier talks about wanting a grip for my XL after playing the demo. I went with the CYBER grip. Overall, it's a lot better. My one complaint is that I feel like even though it makes the circle pad and face buttons infinitely more comfortable, it makes the L and R buttons harder to reach. Here's a screen shot of the back I swiped off of a Google Image search:

See where I've circled? If this thing had added some sort of complicated mechanism to make those the actual shoulder buttons, this thing would be perfect. As is, I have to rest my middle finger up there so that my index finger has easy access. It works, but it's not the way I'd have liked it. Alternatively, I can leave my middle finger on the back of the pad next to my ring and pinkie fingers, but reaching the shoulder buttons is quite a stretch.

Overall, I'd say it's a huge improvement for the game. Much more comfortable having it than not. But it still doesn't magically transform the 3DS into being a controller I like using.

 

[zruben]

Okay. Just played the 3DS demo.

Hrm.

Playing this just makes me wish I could play it on the big screen with a proper controller.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. First, I wish I could change the controls.. so I'm uncomfortable with that, as is.. But the resolution is so low for having the camera zoomed out so far.

Initial impression: Does this need to exist? It seems competently constructed, but it sure feels limiting.

I think the screen size is fine... but I'm using an XL, don't know about you.

also, get a grip, like... one of these

it really helps with the control awkwardness.

 

[PKrockin]

It feels like the window for teching is really generous this time around. I mean, it was pretty easy in Brawl, but here, even when I feel like I've hit the button too early or too late, I'm still successful.

Brawl made teching harder, but now it's back to Melee's more forgiving 20 frames I believe.

 

[Foxy Fox 39]

Avatar shaming now?

Clearly tt was a joke. Wreck it Ralph is known to be an "angry guy".

 

[OceanBlue]

Is there a way to quickly turn after running at someone? I just started playing the demo and the CPU keeps dodging through me .

 

[Lunar15]

One of my main problems is the idea that the game has to be competitive OR casual, as if Smash Bros. has never struck a balance in the past (64, Melee).

Many of the things that would make the game more enjoyable at a more complex level either won't affect the casual player or they just won't care about it.

This is my stance on it. I'm not competitive by any means, but I enjoy watching tournaments. The game has always and will always have the "casual" modes, items, and stages that allow for players of all skill types to have a shot at winning. That hasn't changed since day one. Since that's the case, why keep messing with the finer skill points of the series? Y'know, the stuff that made it big in the first place? I understand the desire to keep things simple enough that the game is never intimidating to new players. But at the same time, was Melee so complex that people were scared off by it? I strongly doubt it.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

So did anyone discuss or care that SSB 3DS/U might have Russian translated in-game text (along with Dutch and Portuguese). The search on the NOE page is showing it up. What games NOE translate into Russian is Mario games mainly (even Mario & Luigi 4). You would think other Kid friendly stuff like AC, Kirby and Pokemon would be given too...nope but Nintendogs and Wii Party are.

It could be a mistake but given it is the only future release listed as supporting anything other than English (on Wii U at least) such suggests it is not.

Any word when wave 2 of the amiibos are due?

Wave 1 doesn't even have a date yet...of course it is totally the 21st November...

 

[OricWindstar]

As a lame NA person who doesn't own a Japanese 3DS, I don't have much to contribute here. But since I was talking about it a bit earlier, I'll update my earlier talks about wanting a grip for my XL after playing the demo. I went with the CYBER grip. Overall, it's a lot better. My one complaint is that I feel like even though it makes the circle pad and face buttons infinitely more comfortable, it makes the L and R buttons harder to reach. Here's a screen shot of the back I swiped off of a Google Image search:

See where I've circled? If this thing had added some sort of complicated mechanism to make those the actual shoulder buttons, this thing would be perfect. As is, I have to rest my middle finger up there so that my index finger has easy access. It works, but it's not the way I'd have liked it. Alternatively, I can leave my middle finger on the back of the pad next to my ring and pinkie fingers, but reaching the shoulder buttons is quite a stretch.

Overall, I'd say it's a huge improvement for the game. Much more comfortable having it than not. But it still doesn't magically transform the 3DS into being a controller I like using.

Ah, I was considering getting something like this. Even with the shoulder button issue, it definitely seems to fix the issue of cramping my hands up to grip the 3DS. Just be sure I'm looking at the same one, this is around $27, right?

 

[emb]

Is there a way to quickly turn after running at someone? I just started playing the demo and the CPU keeps dodging through me .

Not really. The best you can do is put up shield, drop it, turn around, or shield then roll.

 

[PKrockin]

Is there a way to quickly turn after running at someone? I just started playing the demo and the CPU keeps dodging through me .

Dash one way and then press the other way and grab simultaneously to pivot grab.

Dash one way and then press the other way and A to pivot forward tilt.

When running forward you can always just jump back and use an aerial.

Down smashes in general tend to counter people rolling behind you from the front.

 

[The Great Gonzales]

It's almost comical how easy it is to hit even high-level CPUs with Villager's Timber. Lv. 9's still just walk right into it.

Brawl made teching harder, but now it's back to Melee's more forgiving 20 frames I believe.

teching is actually harder in Brawl than in Melee, haha

Was it really? I remember it being harder in Melee. Then again, it's been a long time since I've touched Melee, and I was a lot younger then.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

Ah, I was considering getting something like this. Even with the shoulder button issue, it definitely seems to fix the issue of cramping my hands up to grip the 3DS. Just be sure I'm looking at the same one, this is around $27, right?

Hmm... went up about $5 it seems. We're probably talking about the same thing. This is the one I bought: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008ZXBYJU/?tag=neogaf0e-20

 

[jorgejjvr]

People will never be happy

I for once am more than excited for this game. Love the demo, cant wait for the full 3ds version, and of course the wii u version, this games will last me years and will be a lot of fun. All these new technicalities we just have to get used to, thats it, I simply cant wait for this game and beat you guys up when its out xD

 

[Kouichi]

One of my main problems is the idea that the game has to be competitive OR casual, as if Smash Bros. has never struck a balance in the past (64, Melee).

Many of the things that would make the game more enjoyable at a more complex level either won't affect the casual player or they just won't care about it.

Depends on what you mean by "causal player". Is somebody who plays hours upon hours of Smash Bros, but not competitively, a causal player? Perhaps they enjoyed Melee in a noncompetitive way, but the changes made from Melee to Brawl could have made their method of play even better.You can't just say separate anyone who isn't competitive into a "casual player". The changes made matters to them just as much as any competitive player.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Personally I feel 64 is the only perfect balance due to how physics and speed were handled there. The characters weren't like round shaped boulders like in Melee.

 

[rawktapus]

The problem is that there are people who feel like any sort of criticism of the game is some sort of sacrilege against Smash and Sakurai.

I think that's a fair point to make, but there certainly have been some posts and commenters that do seem to have an axe to grind with Sakurai, and reasonable or not, fill their posts with dripping sarcasm and contempt, which becomes tiresome.

This kind of stuff also gets directed towards the competitive players too, unfortunately. I think both sides need to take a bit of a step back and calm down. There are issues with the game, we don't know how game-breaking/changing they are, they could be patched, so we could all stand to tone things down a bit.

 

[OricWindstar]

Hmm... went up about $5 it seems. We're probably talking about the same thing. This is the one I bought: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008ZXBYJU/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Considering there's only one left on Amazon, they possibly bumped it up with people buying it for Smash. I may have to buy this soon.

For others looking into it, here's a video review on some grips.

 

[OceanBlue]

lmao holy shit, I jumped at someone off the stage and my thumb moved to the touch screen so I could hit the C-stick.

Dash one way and then press the other way and grab simultaneously to pivot grab.

Dash one way and then press the other way and A to pivot forward tilt.

When running forward you can always just jump back and use an aerial.

Down smashes in general tend to counter people rolling behind you from the front.

Awesome, thanks. Moving around still feels weird so this stuff is appreciated.

 

[Foxy Fox 39]

Pretty much this. There's a world of difference between adding elements to appeal to the competitive community (such as For Glory) and designing the game with the competitive player in mind.

People need to accept that Smash Bros, while it's a game that can be played competitively and has elements that appeal to the competitive community, is mostly (if not completely) designed with the "FFA, all items, all stages" players in mind. Most of the complaints of the competitive players has little impact in the quality of the design for the non-competitive players.

I understand the frustration. It sucks to have the game be designed to a different audience than the one you belong to. But saying the game is badly designed is pushing it a bit too far. As far as a game where you can play as your favorite nintendo characters, in crazy stages and with items flying everywhere, it's a game wih damn good design.

I agree with this post for the most part but even a non-competitive party player would be pissed about randomly tripping. Sakurai does things like that. He implements terrible mechanics with good intentions.

And anyway you're right. Smash was never intended to be competitive. It's just people got used to Smash 64 and Melee and they miss it.

I don't think Sakurai is ruining the game. I don't think Sakurai hates competitive players. I do think he often wants to drastically change the way competitive players play his game though.

When you boil things down to pure competition, it's not always the most engaging experience. For example, think about the 50-meter dash. This is something that really comes down to speed. You see a lot of people progressing in a linear direction, and the person who is fastest in the beginning is quite often going to be the winner. It's predictable--and while it is pure competition, it's not necessarily engaging in the same way as events with unpredictability. As developers, we have to think about all of these circumstances when designing fighting games.

When I began working on the first Smash Bros., there was a great focus on [highly-technical] fighting games, and that's something we've seen branch off into sort of a niche direction. Now, those types of fighting games have a very high barrier to entry for new players, while Smash was always meant to appeal to lots of people from different gaming communities. When you look at fighting game forums, you'll see a preference for Melee, and yet, I think there are lots of people in the silent majority who don't post online who prefer Brawl. Ever since I started working on the Kirby series, I've always thought about the needs of the less vocal, beginning players of games.

One of the best ways to look at the fighting game genre is thinking about this pinnacle--this peak--we've built up to where these games have become more of a hobbyist [genre]. I think that trend might be reaching an end.

I.E. lowering the skill ceiling so it's not a hobbyist game.

The idea of Brawl’s ‘carefree brawling’ motto was to get rid of as many restraints as possible and allow people to choose whatever play approach they liked. I’d like people to take some freer approaches with their gameplay, but the sort of battle style you describe in your letter is not interesting or fun. That’s why I’ll probably be thinking of a way to deal with that in the next game. We’ve learned a lot about net play since Brawl was released, after all, so a lot more is possible. I suppose the fact that we’ve still got no-fee online battles available in a game that was released five years ago is another cause of the problem. It would have been nice if we could have revised the game rules as appropriate, but with the system we had, that wasn’t possible.

Sakurai goes on to say that Melee’s controls were rather complicated, and that this is one of his regrets regarding the game, as it ended up being a “Smash Bros. game for hardcore fighting fans,” and that isn’t the goal of the series at all. In fact, Sakurai says, he feels that complicated controls are the greatest shortcoming of fighting games in general, and this is why he feels the need to avoid them.



“Companies that release products that target a very vocal, visible group of gamers tend to receive good reactions and they may feel good about it, but I think that we have to pay special attention to the less vocal, not so visible group of players, or else games will just fade away,” Sakurai explains. This is a sentiment that is often voiced by many other designers that work internally at Nintendo as well.



Instead, Sakurai says, the goal of Smash Bros.is to be an “opponent-based action game” where a wide variety of events can occur, some of them “quite outrageous”.



“The most important thing is that the game have breadth and depth, since we would like them to be popular with both novices and hardcore gamers,” he shares. “We think that people who aren’t so good at turning the tables and coming back from behind can still get enjoyment out of the [new] game, even if they turn off items and Smash Balls.”

Lastly this:

When planning the development of a new game, I always take a lot of care to discuss the concept and try to define it as best I can. For example, I like to think of Smash as a four-player battle royal action game. You'll notice that's a lot longer than saying it's a fighting game, because 'fighting game' is a completely different label. You can talk about a fighting game or an action game or a racing game, but as soon as you define your game specifically in those terms, you start limiting your creative range because you're thinking of the limitations of that genre. Perhaps the best thing we can do now is start with a concept rather than a genre. If we can do that, perhaps we can grow the whole idea a little bit.

So yes. Sakurai is not ruining Smash Bros. He's simply making it into something else. But I am not wrong when I say that a lot of his decisions are intentional to minimize traditional competitive play and he says as much. So please stop with the denial. Stop acting as if the competitive scene is full of conspiracists.

 

[jorgejjvr]

I think that's a fair point to make, but there certainly have been some posts and commenters that do seem to have an axe to grind with Sakurai, and reasonable or not, fill their posts with dripping sarcasm and contempt, which becomes tiresome.

This kind of stuff also gets directed towards the competitive players too, unfortunately. I think both sides need to take a bit of a step back and calm down. There are issues with the game, we don't know how game-breaking/changing they are, they could be patched, so we could all stand to tone things down a bit.

I dont see how it is game breaking honestly, people are over exaggerating

 

[chaosblade]

Is there a way to quickly turn after running at someone? I just started playing the demo and the CPU keeps dodging through me .

You can pivot ftilt (or grabs) really easily in this game, or you can attack out of the skid animation.

If you just want to turn and you are in full run you can put up and drop your shield as you stop. Having the shield up keeps you from going into the skid animation, so you stop faster and can react more quickly.

 

[Timeaisis]

After reading a whole bunch of smashboards threads, posts, tests, analysis, it seems like in general VI will have this effect on the game (in my opinion):

• KOs upwards will be significantly harder
• Combos will remain, but be may be more difficult in certain cases (read: characters)
• Horizontal KO ability will be more important
• Gimping will be encouraged

I think the biggest takeaway here is that Usmash won't be as effective as it once was, even fully charged. I don't think this will affect the air game much though, with uair probably still being effective at height.

As far as combos, initial results seem promising, but it's too still too early to tell.

 

[georly]

People will never be happy

I for once am more than excited for this game. Love the demo, cant wait for the full 3ds version, and of course the wii u version, this games will last me years and will be a lot of fun. All these new technicalities we just have to get used to, thats it, I simply cant wait for this game and beat you guys up when its out xD

Don't worry, it's so much fun! Even doing the single player content is fantastic. Way better than brawl. Classic/all-star are JUST RIGHT in difficulty, length, rewards, and variety.

You get way more trophies/rewards for doing classic, and it's way shorter, it feels, than brawl, so it's much more rewarding to do it over and over. All star isn't too bad either, despite the 50 character roster you fight against (no mii). You fight 7-8 per round, which makes it very doable, and it has generous recovery items.

Trophy rush is a blast to play, and if you wanna go for high scores on it, DK is a beast w/ his down special.

It's just great. You should be hyped!

 

[emb]

lmao holy shit, I jumped at someone off the stage and my thumb moved to the touch screen so I could hit the C-stick.

Awesome, thanks. Moving around still feels weird so this stuff is appreciated.

I did that at first too, lol! Well, not to the touch screen... but at first my right thumb kept getting confused and not knowing where to go. Then for a while I was accidentally hitting R to attack like I was playing 64. You get used to it over time.

And the pivot f-tilt stuff is really good! Definitely incorporate pivoting. It's easier to do and pretty satisfying at the same time.

 

[Pappasman]

It's on the SmashBoards "Vectoring" thread:

http://smashboards.com/threads/vectoring-the-replacement-to-directional-influence-in-smash-4.368780/page-22

Why was this guy testing fully charged up smashes? lol. That has no bearing on a real match.


Ya the strongest characters will be the ones with the easiest time killing downwards. going off the top is just incredibly inefficient.

 

[theprodigy]

Personally I feel 64 is the only perfect balance due to how physics and speed were handled there. The characters weren't like round shaped boulders like in Melee.

If Smash 4 had 64 physics people would rage so hard at getting 0 to death all day long.

 

[JoeInky]

Depends on what you mean by "causal player". Is somebody who plays hours upon hours of Smash Bros, but not competitively, a causal player? Perhaps they enjoyed Melee in a noncompetitive way, but the changes made from Melee to Brawl could have made their method of play even better.You can't just say separate anyone who isn't competitive into a "casual player". The changes made matters to them just as much as any competitive player.

The changes between melee and brawl doesn't have anything to do with what I said, other than the fact that the series stopped trying to strike a balance in Brawl.


The game can have completely different mechanics to both games and still be fun casually and competitively if they just design the systems in play with actual balance in mind rather than trying to limit it by making weird decisions to decrease the skill ceiling.

 

[ffdgh]

Well I downloaded the NA demo for the heck of it lol. Looks like the club nintendo and regular use different saves.

 

[Rizific]

Playing this just makes me wish I could play it on the big screen with a proper controller.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. First, I wish I could change the controls.. so I'm uncomfortable with that, as is..

Initial impression: Does this need to exist? It seems competently constructed, but it sure feels limiting.

this is how i felt after about 5 mins of playing the platinum code demo. buttons felt awkward as hell. kept jumping instead of doing specials, i wished the shield/grab buttons were reversed, and i wished for a proper controller. after a few matches, everything became natural. this game plays fantastic and im absolutely excited that ill be able to play smash on the go. no it doesnt need to exist, but i sure as hell am glad that it does. this will definitely be enough to hold me over until the wii u ver comes out. even then, i wont stop playing the 3ds ver.

 

[emb]

Why was this guy testing fully charged up smashes? lol. That has no bearing on a real match.

Because it does more knockback/damage in a more predictable direction. The bigger the effect of the attack, the more clearly we can get a picture of what effect the VI mechanic has. No one is acting like he's simulating an actual match. He's just testing something.

 

[chaosblade]

If Smash 4 had 64 physics people would rage so hard at getting 0 to death all day long.

I 0-deathed a level 9 Mario in the demo. As far as I'm concerned at this point anything is possible!

 

[Shorts]

In light of the "Smash Six 2015" project, and this: http://i.imgur.com/kzKxsjc.png

I've made a DLC poll. You know the drill, it's who you want not expect. http://kwiksurveys.com/s.asp?sid=ym416lj3aj1wezl419997

But since we're on the subject of expectations. What exactly do you expect from the option of DLC?

 

[zroid]

I wonder if you can import the 500 coins from each demo >.>

 

[Pappasman]

Because it does more knockback/damage in a more predictable direction. The bigger the effect of the attack, the more clearly we can get a picture of what effect the VI mechanic has. No one is acting like he's simulating an actual match. He's just testing something.

Ya that's true. He ended up actually doing an uncharged test as well. Nevermind then haha.

 

[ffdgh]

For the vectoring debate, I wanna see some tests done with the "rage" mode to see how much of an effect it makes.

 

[emb]

Ya that's true. He ended up actually doing an uncharged test as well. Nevermind then haha.

No worries! It's kind of exciting that we're still figuring out mechanics like this and the rage thing. I look forward to seeing what other subtle changes are in place.

 

[JoeInky]

I think I agree with what D1 said about this game ending up being better as a 2v2 game though.

It isn't as exciting as I'd like a 1v1 game to be, but maybe with 2v2 we'll have more opportunity for actual combos and better edgeguard setups.

 

[Gonzo The Great]

It's on the SmashBoards "Vectoring" thread:

http://smashboards.com/threads/vectoring-the-replacement-to-directional-influence-in-smash-4.368780/page-22

Urgh. I hate all of these stupid terms people come up with that eventually stick just because they were made first. Firehopping, wavedashing, vectoring, etc. They just intimidate casual players.

 

[rekameohs]

I wonder if you can import the 500 coins from each demo >.>

Hah

Today's demo is exactly the same as the Club Nintendo one, but with a play limit, right?

 

[Foxy Fox 39]

I think I agree with what D1 said about this game ending up being better as a 2v2 game though.

It isn't as exciting as I'd like a 1v1 game to be, but maybe with 2v2 we'll have more opportunity for actual combos and better edgeguard setups.

I imagine it will be as well.

 

[PadWarrior]

As a lame NA person who doesn't own a Japanese 3DS, I don't have much to contribute here. But since I was talking about it a bit earlier, I'll update my earlier talks about wanting a grip for my XL after playing the demo. I went with the CYBER grip. Overall, it's a lot better. My one complaint is that I feel like even though it makes the circle pad and face buttons infinitely more comfortable, it makes the L and R buttons harder to reach. Here's a screen shot of the back I swiped off of a Google Image search:

See where I've circled? If this thing had added some sort of complicated mechanism to make those the actual shoulder buttons, this thing would be perfect. As is, I have to rest my middle finger up there so that my index finger has easy access. It works, but it's not the way I'd have liked it. Alternatively, I can leave my middle finger on the back of the pad next to my ring and pinkie fingers, but reaching the shoulder buttons is quite a stretch.

Overall, I'd say it's a huge improvement for the game. Much more comfortable having it than not. But it still doesn't magically transform the 3DS into being a controller I like using.

Thanks for this impression!