Support NeoGAF

[NightmareFarm]

64 - Very dated. Mildly fun in a casual setting.

Melee - Very fun and fluid but unbalanced also there's no built-in online. Incredibly fun to play with friends.

Brawl - Probably the most interesting smash game for various reasons like having a more realistic art style and the story mode. Also personally very nostalgic for me. It lacks in the gameplay department however and the online is so bad it might as well not be there. Good for parties.

Smash 4 - It's ok but heavily dated by ultimate. It fares better compared to the previous three games as it is the first with a competent in built online mode, has a much higher roster and is more balanced and refined gameplay wise. Also smash run was the bomb, taking it out in ultimate was the stupidest decision ever.

Ultimate - The best smash game imo. It's like smash 4 but on steroids. The gameplay is much much better than smash 4 however and arguably melee as well. Theres many QoL changes that make it a better experience other than that like quickplay battles, how lobbies function. Also little things like zoom in for finishing blows, little tweaks to animations to make them look more stylish, etc. Also the fact that it has all of the fighters from previous games plus new fighters such as Sephiroth(my all time favourite), Byleth, King K Rool and various others. It's going to be hard to top ultimate.

 

[Eddie-Griffin]

Melee is the best game because it's the most balanced even if it wasn't intentional, across almost all the characters, instead of having large gaps between them. Also lack of online would be a score against it but online in Smash so far online hasn't really been good, and Brawl was probably the worst with them with all the Meta Knight spammers

 

[feynoob]

Good series. Wish xbox and Ps did something like that.

Nintendo knows how to utilize their franchise very well.

 

[NightmareFarm]

Melee is the best game because it's the most balanced even if it wasn't intentional, across almost all the characters, instead of having large gaps between them. Also lack of online would be a score against it but online in Smash so far online hasn't really been good, and Brawl was probably the worst with them with all the Meta Knight spammers

I'm not entirely sure about Melee being the most balanced

 

[NightmareFarm]

Good series. Wish xbox and Ps did something like that.

Nintendo knows how to utilize their franchise very well.

Sony tried but failed tremendously when they made PS all stars back in 2012.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Asked a girl to smash, she said no.

So now I’m stuck with the shitty ass net code opponents. Damn you woman!

 

[feynoob]

Sony tried but failed tremendously when they made PS all stars back in 2012.

They could try now. They now have more characters. It could be different than before.

 

[Drell]

Still the king of its own genre. Multiversus isn't bad but Smash has something in the game feel that makes it feel better for me. It's probably about the impacts or something like that.

 

[NightmareFarm]

They could try now. They now have more characters. It could be different than before.

I don't think more characters would make a difference. Besides their games have became far more cinematic and serious tonally over the past 10 years, I doubt the crowd who buys say "The Last of Us" or "Days Gone" is going to care much for an arcadey 2D platform fighter game similar to smash bros.

 

[ReBurn]

It's chaotic and overwhelming at times but I like it well enough.

 

[feynoob]

I don't think more characters would make a difference. Besides their games have became far more cinematic and serious tonally over the past 10 years, I doubt the crowd who buys say "The Last of Us" or "Days Gone" is going to care much for an arcadey 2D platform fighter game similar to smash bros.

More characters means more options, and more who would like to play your games.

Sony has a lot of cool characters now.

 

[-Zelda-]

That one game series that looks fun to play, but I have no friends to play it with. Also, Smashfaqs is cancer.

 

[rabbity-thing]

I would prefer it if it didn't play like Smash, but since it's Smash, I'll make do with the sub-par mechanics so that I can tear it up as Toon Link.

 

[NightmareFarm]

I would prefer it if it didn't play like Smash, but since it's Smash, I'll make do with the sub-par mechanics so that I can tear it up as Toon Link.

You want a 2D traditional fighter with ninty characters?

 

[Synless]

Nothing crushes me more than Ultimate being over with. I don’t see how they top it.

 

[GigaBowser]

It's played out.

Do better Nintendo.

 

[unintelligent orange]

ive always thought smash bros was cool, maybe slight button mashing-esque but never really got into it. the times i did play it i found it difficult to really be good as well as and understand what the hell was happening. it is quite chaotic.

 

[It's all in the wrist]

My most played franchise ever. I've never seen a game created with as much love and care as Ultimate. Sakurai is a god amongst men.

If anyone thinks it's a bad kiddie fighter, they can fuck right off. I won't stand for it.

 

[20cent]

I think it's a bad kiddie fighter.

 

[rabbity-thing]

You want a 2D traditional fighter with ninty characters?

Not necessarily. Just something that doesn't play like Smash. Floaty controls are generally not a good thing and with Smash, it's like a core mechanic.

 

[Lasha]

More characters means more options, and more who would like to play your games.

Sony has a lot of cool characters now.

Sony has more characters but nowhere near the stable of icons to power a game like Smash. I would rather see Sony collaborate and get Jax or Kratos in the next game as a guest character.

 

[Celcius]

I'm a casual player. Ultimate is the only Smash Bros game I own. More fun with friends than fighting the cpu. My best character is Samus.

 

[eastcoastkody]

does nothing for me.

I love nintendo franchises. I love fighting games. And yet i can glean no joy out of this series. Feels like a lobby before the real game starts or something if that makes sense

 

[ThatStupidLion]

So where does the series go from here?

 

[ProgenitorCastle]

64 - Very dated.

It's like, the best one lol

 

[remember_spinal]

i grew up addicted to smash bros, the best gaming experiences I’ve had.

I do wonder where they can really go at this point. It would be a bitch to get all that licensing back for 3rd party characters for the next game.

 

[NightmareFarm]

i grew up addicted to smash bros, the best gaming experiences I’ve had.

I do whatever where they can really go at this point. It would be a bitch to get all that licensing back for 3rd party characters for the next game.

Whatever the case there's no way they're going to have that many characters again so lots of third parties will have to go.

 

[BennyBlanco]

smash ultimate has the craziest and most unlikely roster to ever exist anywhere. fuckin bayonetta vs banjo kazooie. the OST is phenomenal and massive.

 

[NightmareFarm]

So where does the series go from here?

I want to see the next game bring back realistic art style but perfect it this time with next gen graphics(it didn't work for brawl because that was realism with fucking wii graphics). The roster size needs to be cut in half as well and returned to form. An aesthetic change is in order, I feel like the past two or three games have had basically the same aesthetic with the same bland white UIs.

Gameplay wise, they need to revolutionise it somehow, it feels like each new version is just minor tweaks whereas in games like street fighter you get completely new mechanics like parry or focus attacks or V trigger each game.

 

[Rentahamster]

Great fighting game!

 

[Kabelly]

great game for local play. atrocious online play made me not touch Ultimate since after a month since launch. a waste. i don't have anyone to play with in person so.

 

[GeekyDad]

I think it's a bad kiddie fighter.

 

[Kataploom]

Still the king of its own genre. Multiversus isn't bad but Smash has something in the game feel that makes it feel better for me. It's probably about the impacts or something like that.

It has actual weight in the characters, that's something I hate about Multiversus, characters and attacks feel floaty as hell and too disconnected.

I love smash as it brings me a lot of good memories but Ultimate has waaaaaay too long input buffer and it's online is still the worst I've played in any game (and I play Paladins a lot, mind you).

I wish they put an option on controllers to reduce buffer but they never did and never will

Online is very sploitable by a set of ez win characters like Sonic or the dlc which I hate to fight against due to how safe they are (homura/hikari being the worst offenders... At least before the self told joke that is Steve).

Wish smash would take it's balance more seriously

 

[Chastten]

Loved and played the hell out of N64 and Melee with my friendgroup at the time. The N64 original is obviously very different and somewhat dated but I still prefer some of the moves and mechanics in that game over what replaced them.

Never really got into Brawl as I hated the Wii.

4 and Ultimate are great, but after 20 years of these games I haven't invested as much time in them as I could've. They're still absolutely fantastic partygames for 4-8 players on local multiplayer nights but yeah, there's only so much nights of those and so many games we want to play

 

[AV]

Fun party games that some real weirdos take FAR too seriously for their own good.

 

[Tams]

Only fun if there aren't any sweats playing. It quickly gets tiring when someone at a party is a tryhard over it. In that regard, Mario Kart or Mario Party are better party games as they have more chance and 'cheats' that can drag people back if they get too far ahead.

And I never really got the hang of it. If it weren't for the characters, I'd have not interest.

 

[Hitchyhero]

Imo melee is the best. I prefer all the side extras and trophy collecting. Never really enjoyed the sticker thing in ultimate.

Ultimate is really good though. It would bey second choice.


Never played 4.

Brawl was terrible. They made it too casual. The ball you can smash to use your special clearly favoured the losing player ala Mario kart.

I don't know where Nintendo go from here. The series is almost at a perfect place and adding characters won't garner my interest.

 

[Roufianos]

I loved Melee but have never really got into the others. I know they make small tweaks but it feels like the same game over and over.

 

[Big Baller]

I'm a bigger Bang Bros fan

 

[Drell]

I wish they put an option on controllers to reduce buffer but they never did and never will

I plead guilty. Back in the day, when I was a teenager, I could enjoy Smash 64 and Melee without the 10 frames buffer. But nowaday, if I try to play them again, I can feel its absence and I'm bad at the game. I feel like I was spoiled with something I didn't even need in the first place and that now I'm addicted to it.

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

Don't believe the hype. It sucks! Tried to enjoy it on WiiU, didn't! KOF for life.

 

[NahaNago]

It's a fun series. I do wonder how they will top what Ultimate did with it's roster though. The only thing I can think of is adding pop culture characters like mortal kombat does or they could just completely switch up the style of gameplay.

On the Microsoft and Sony doing something similar. I honestly can't see Sony doing something like a smash game again. They are in the mostly serious AAA game making mode so something like smash just doesn't seem like it would work plus they don't have the largest roster of iconic characters.

Now Microsoft could definitely do it considering how many publishers they just bought plus they also have Rare. They have been doing a lot of more all ages online multiplayer stuff so this seems like a good fit.

I'm a bigger Bang Bros fan

 

[MagnesD3]

For me Ultimate>Brawl>64>Melee>WiiU

(PM is great too)

Ultimate as a multiplayer game is untouchable compared (I got Banjo Kazooie and Ridley and Wolf back jesus..) to the others its amazing, single player was fun but nothing still touches Melees Adventure mode in this realm, really miss unlocks for characters too.

Brawl had the best newcomer set (D3 my smash main was born) and new content set until ultimate, so much new music, 3rd party characters, stages and subspace was cool (unlocking characters not being as fun started here tho..), tripping and cutting Mewtwo was terrible but I just enjoyed what was around it so much I keep playing) (also PM made the game even better in alot of ways (some worse) and was alot of fun too.)

64 I really enjoy the way the game looks, sounds and the weight/combos characters have feels good, unlocking characters is super fun too.

Melee has the best single player its awesome, unlocking characters is great (sadly alot of clones but Ganon looks cool and Mewtwo is cool), this used to be more up there for me but when I go back to play it I just dont like the weight of characters as much, it just doesnt feel as good to me as the other games which is odd (wave dashing is neat but unnecessary for the series imo), this is fanatastic sequel like brawl tho Ill say it just lowered for me in rank over the years due to game feel.

Wii U's roster was pretty wack for me, they cut wolf, they changed my main D3 and none of the newcomers really appealed to me which is a big part of the fun for me so I just wasnt into it. Tons of avatar characters and anime sword characters bleck (cloud is allowed tho). That mario party mode was actually really fun tho and its still smash so its still fun.

 

[Bragr]

It quickly gets tiring when someone at a party is a tryhard over it.

You play Smash Bros. at parties?

 

[SSfox]

Never been interested on it. Even when they put on it some my favorite characters ever i couldn't care less.

 

[Tams]

You play Smash Bros. at parties?

This is going to be a shock to you, but some of us can quite happily have a drinking party, or a dinner party, and then play computer games afterwards.

If you like parties to just be drinking, or a sit down dinner, or whatever; good for you. I do sometimes too. Sometimes though, I want to do one of my hobbies socially, especially if I'm the host.

Anyway, not I don't tend to play Smash Bros. as fighting games aren't that popular in my friend and acquaintance circle, plus there are a couple who are competitive sweats over it and suck the fun out of it.

 

[Kataploom]

I plead guilty. Back in the day, when I was a teenager, I could enjoy Smash 64 and Melee without the 10 frames buffer. But nowaday, if I try to play them again, I can feel its absence and I'm bad at the game. I feel like I was spoiled with something I didn't even need in the first place and that now I'm addicted to it.

Well, that's ok, sometimes it may be necessary, but for people that like playing fast an option to reduce buffer time in the controller profile would have been awesome, many of us would probably manager different profiles with buffers or character, it's there to help some people make combinations they otherwise wouldn't

 

[Neff]

One of the most beautiful pieces of game design ever created. Genius risk/reward mechanics. Definitive celebration of gaming history. Technically impeccable. Illegal amounts of content. Crappy controls. Appalling fanbase.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

I am terrible at it. Always have been. I missed out on 64, but Melee was so goddamn hyped when it came out, I fell for it. And I hated almost every minute of it. If there’s a gaming memory I’ll never lose, it’s that fucking event battle against Dr. Mario and Nurse Peach. That’s some PTSD fodder, all right. Also the Melee fanbase is pure radioactive sludge. That “Wombo Combo“ meme is the only good thing that ever came out of Melee for me. And yeah, I guess Mario’s denim looked out of this world in 2001.

I was very LTTP with the Wii, but my friends were all into Brawl so I played some with them, and I have very fond memories of it. The slower pace of Brawl allowed me to at least get somewhere. And the Subspace Emissary adventure was some ridiculous amount of content.

Conversely, I was the only one among my Brawl friends to get a WiiU, so Smash 4 fell upon my shoulders. It was OK. We didn’t play that much of it, but the character reveals were crazy and a lot of fun.
Smash for 3DS we played very little. It was one of the most incredible feats of dark magic programming ever, but I never felt it very much.

I hate Ultimate.
But I also love it.
When it came out I burned through its single-player content, totaling 83 hours in 20 days when I finally got the last spirit available at the time. It was addictive. The adventure was genius, so much video game stuff in a single game, so much variety.
But I was so bad at it, and my friends suddenly decided to git seriously good at it and finally play with no items at all. Not having any interest in becoming competitive, every Smash session thereafter was pretty much me getting destroyed.

To me, Smash’s controls make no sense.
As in any Sakurai game, the hardest thing is to make your character turn reliably. I can’t count the times I side-B’d my character into the void because it was somehow always facing the wrong direction, even if I pushed the stick to the correct side (fucking Incineroar).
Attack priority is completely random, I swear. Hundreds of times I’ve started my attack first. I’ve seen my opponent’s fingers move after my own fingers on the pad. And yet it was me who got hit. It’s infuriating.
I’d also swear the characters have different recovery times when my friends play them. When I use K.Rool, the damn guy moves at a snail’s pace. When my friends use him, he has exactly zero recovery time, no matter what he does. It’s just impossible to find an opening, the guy switches between attacks without the slightest pause.

Long story short: I love Smash, but I hate playing it. It’s like From Software made this game for Nintendo.

 

[Naked Lunch]

Theyre all 'babby's first fighting games' and for people who dont, and never will, understand how to do a fireball or dragon punch motion.