Episode 5
Smash 4 History
Developer: Bandai Namco and Sora Ltd
Release Date:
3DS
Japan September 13, 2014, US October 3, 2014, and EU October 4, 2014
WiiU
US November 21, 2014, EU November 29, 2014, Japan December 6, 2014
Development
During E3 2011, Smash was announced for the WiiU and the 3DS. Development for the game didn’t start until October of that year. At E3 2012 there was no mention of the game which confused and disappointed some fans because of it being announced a year earlier. Shortly after E3 during a Nintendo Direct, it was announced that Bandai Namco was along with Sora, Sakurai’s company would be developing the game. At E3 2013, Sakurai began posting photos of the game regularly on the miiverse. At first they seemed to be random screenshots with no info, but eventually, that changed and he began including more info. December 5th, 2014, was the last post and you can see all the archived Miiverse posts here. July 2nd, 2012 Sakurai posted a whiteboard drawing to Twitter showing off a number of characters that would all end up in the game. The picture has been removed from Twitter but can be seen here. Zero Suit Samus, Wario, Sandbag, Pit, Pikmin, Pikachu, Mr. Saturn, Mr. Game and Watch, Meta Knight, Marth, Mario, Luigi, Link, Kirby, Fox and Donkey Kong. Initially, Sakurai said there would be a single player story mode, but it was later dropped.
Gameplay Changes
One of the biggest changes was the speed of the game. Melee is extremely fast-paced and frantic, Brawl was much slower, Smash 4 was faster than Brawl but still slower than Melee.
Melee is an extremely combo heavy game and high-level players could easily punish players that left themselves open to it. Smash 4 allows for combos but not to the extent that Melee does. Getting yourself out of combos is much easier in Smash 4, but not as easy as it was in Brawl. Bridging the gap between casual and hardcore is what Smash 4 set out to do, but that does end up making the competitive matches less interesting to watch than Melee.
The much improved online did a much better job catering to players. The casual could play with friends and the hardcore could play For Glory matches. Lag can still be an issue but it's much better than Brawl.
Competitive scene
Melee’s high-level competitive play is unmatched when watching pros play and the skill gap sets players apart. Most Melee players have stuck with Melee because Smash 4 is still more like Brawl and less like Melee. In spite of that Smash 4 has still made its way into the tournament scene.
Character list for Smash 4
Bayonetta
Bowser
Bowser Jr.
Captain Falcon
Charizard
Cloud
Corrin
Dark Pit
Diddy Kong
Donkey Kong
Dr. Mario
Duck Hunt
Falco
Fox
Ganondorf
Greninja
Ike
Jigglypuff
King Dedede
Kirby
Link
Little Mac
Lucario
Lucas
Lucina
Luigi
Mario
Marth
Mega Man
Meta Knight
Mewtwo
Mii Fighters
Mr. Game & Watch
Ness
Olimar
Pac-Man
Palutena
Peach
Pikachu
Pit
ROB
Robin
Rosalina & Luma
Roy
Ryu
Samus
Sheik
Shulk
Sonic
Toon Link
Villager
Wario
Wii Fit Trainer
Yoshi
Zelda
Zero Suit Samus
Reception
Smash 4 on 3DS is sitting at an 85/100 on Metacritic. The small screen and lack of single player hurt the score some. Some circle pads were also damaged from gamers pushing on it too hard on them. Smash 4 on 3DS is the 8th best selling game on the console at over 9 million units sold.
The WiiU version is a little higher at 92/100 it’s the second highest rated Smash game, Brawl being number one. Smash 4 on the WiiU is the 4th best selling title with almost 5.5 million units sold.
My History with Smash 4
I picked up both games at launch, but the WiiU version didn’t get much play time. I was lucky enough to get the GameCube controller adapter at launch without a preorder but never picked up the Smash Controllers. My boys were really into to shooters when Smash launched so we didn’t play much together. The younger one did have the game on 3DS so we played that periodically. Fast forward to 2018 and I can’t put the game down. This
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