Situationally, this incident would repeat itself if you were playing Melee. And only Melee (And quiet possibly SSB64).
This game was built from the ground up with a new engine with "balance" in mind. What we eventually discovered is that Sakurai didn't begin directly from the epicenter of the games engine to focus on the characters and fighting, but the actually engine itself. Why? To get casual players, competitive and non-gamers on the same playing field. many of the games mechanics clearly state this.
Hit stun reduction: This was very prominent in SSB64, fairly existent in Melee, but practically non existent in Brawl. Hit stun is an essential factor in fighting games in general that allow set ups and link attacks. An example would be 3rd strike, where it's possible to do a jab or L.k on a blocking opponent to open them up for a grab due to shield stun.
It's also the foundation for hit stun reliant combos such as SHFFL'd Dair>Falcon Punch at certain percentages on fast fallers. Hit stun was removed to where this is not only impossible, but nearly impossible to link any attacks that don't go beyond a 2-3 hit string and extremely low percentages. it's nearly impossible to link any thing to an aerial after 40%, or even on the ground. Single jab attacks are also obsolete due to this new engine.
The basic gist of the design was to only allow massive hit stun during high percentages; where it would be impossible to follow up to anything. This simply eliminates any potential for combos.
Multiple aerial dodges: Another aspect of the game that eliminates following up in addition to limited hit stun on many attacks. Another reason why some combos exist is because a player simply can't escape them without good DI without getting punished. If a player even made an attempt to Air dodge away from the middle of a combo, it would result in punishment; A smash or free grab; Suicide. This elements was implemented by sakurai so that you can defend yourself in the air at a cost. It was practical, and it had to be used strategically in Melee.
Now in Brawl, you can do multiple air dodges, to avoid anything. Form a recovery, coming to the ground, or even being hit by a tilt attack. The massive hit stun reduction really gives this mechanic a lot of practical uses. Even in casual matches, you can see an opponent charge a smash to knock an opponent away due to not sweet spotting the edge correctly. It's a basic tactic that forced players to actually know the approximate distance for their recoveries instead of blindly using them (Which is the next case I'm going to cover). Punishing the opponent, even for a casual player, is nearly impossible.
Auto-ledge snap/Reverse ledge snap: A lot of inexperienced players in the Smash series had trouble calculating their recoveries (?) which resulted in getting smashed off of ledges and missing in general. Sakurai made it so that characters can recover simply by going near the ledge and automatically recovering. Recovery doesn't need any approximations what so ever; just aim for the ledge and you'll grab it as if you were Mario in Melee. Also, the auto-ledge snap causes other adverse effects:
-You can grab the ledge when facing the opposite direction of the ledge at all times.
-The opponent can grab the ledge as soon as the opponent has moved from it (This is probably the only good thing I can say about the ledge mechanics)
-You're opponent cannot execute any action during the invincibility frames on the ledge
-3rd jump recoveries are canceled immediately upon coming in contact with the ledge
-Jumps auto snap after the jump animation is completed.
Hit box tangency reduction (HTR): All characters had moved with hit boxes that weren't exactly annexed to the characters themselves. Even though it may seem bad, it allow characters to be able to space appropriately and land attacks at safer distances. This prevented a competent player from just running into an attack without proper timing and distance. Characters with disjointed hit boxes (Sword characters for example) were able to space their attacks very well because the hit box was slightly extended beyond the sword, just as a punch or kick would be extended beyond the foot.
In Brawl, character hit boxes are almost completely tangent to the character, if not reduced to where it doesn't exist that far beyond the physical character. Marth's sword for example has a hit box that just barely extends to the tip of the blade. I have tried to study Marth's hit boxes only to discover that his hit boxes don't actually hit beyond the sword itself, and the tip hit box is so hard to hit accurately that it can't be used effectively without rigorous practice and visual aid.
The hit box reduction itself eliminated spacing capability for all characters. Even though this isn't extremely bad, it just puts more emphasis on visual spacing than reflex approximations.
Tripping: This is another element that Sakurai used in the sake of "balance". for some reason, he thought that including a random element beyond your control was very suited for what is essentially a fighting game. I can understand items, for they can be controlled and set however you see fit. But tripping itself is randomly executed under certain conditions. It is believed that it happens more a higher percentages to prevent a player from staying alive for certain periods of time. Many people believe that it's simply a sigh of exhaust, but it's actually meant to keep a good player from moving too much at higher percentages of preventing that character from moving constantly. This itself is absolute BS. I have nothing more to say. Anyone who has played the game can conclude that this is an idiotic game element.
Reduced Character Control: Simply put, you don't have as much control over your character in this game. A attacks are automated, Ledge grabbing is easy and automatic, Downward C-stick aerials cause characters to fast fall, and physical movement over your character doesn't feel tight. this is probably due to the speed reduction and the inclusion of the new buffer system that allows commands to be executed in a fraction of time before the animation starts. Also, with random variables like tripping, you can't actually make a move or calculate an attack without risking randomly falling. This nearly forced characters to walk if they want to achieve ground movement without worry. I guess this is for more "aerial combat", but how can you fight in the air without prominent hit stun? How can you land an aerial when the enemy has multiple air dodges at his/her disposal?
Many of the previous competitive aspects of the games actually existed at E For All. An form of wavelanding, L-cancel, Crouch Cancel, Dash dancing and prominent hit stun for many characters. In addition to that, tripping rarely occurred if at all. But they were all intentionally removed so that the game can appeal to the whiny autistic children that Nintendo is catering to.
It seems as if Sakurai's philosophy on the smash series changed over time beyond what the developers really wanted. According to Sakurai, he believes that the Smash series shouldn't be competitive in any way, yet he claims to support the community. In the previous smash games, he didn't completely supervise the development of smash, for the developers actually implemented certain aspects of the game purposely to balance out the games competitive engine. Sakurai actually listened to some of his previous staff for ideas and implemented them into the game engine. Sakurai had an experienced staff with him, but this isn't the case in Brawls development.
Sakurai had a completely foreign staff at his disposal, that supposedly, consisted of numerous smash bros fans (Unknown if they were casual or not). Not only that, they were completely directed by Sakurai himself, under his beliefs and general philosophy. Sakurai isn't exactly a competitive person, and that aspect was directly focused onto Brawls core engine. even if he had many smash bros fans under his wing, they couldn't help but build the game under his general philosophy if that's what Sakurai wanted.
Beyond Sakurai, look at it this way. The previous installments to the smash bros. series were supervised by Nintendo back in the day, when they weren't entirely focused on the casual player, but the loyal fans and the casual players. Looking at Nintendo's philosophy now, how many of you can actually say that this wasn't inevitable? Even if this wasn't created directly from Nintendo, it's still supervised by the same company. With Nintendo's new marketing demographic and target audience, Nintendo obviously wanted this game to cater to the audience that can put more money in their pockets and not give a **** about the game after the initial purchase.
Fighting games in general often progress in their newer installments, which is the opposite of Brawls direction. When developers create a fighting game, they listen to the casual players, but also put emphasis on how the game can advance in the competitive aspect. This ultimately creates a game that is universally fun. The direction of Melee and SSB64 was catered to everyone, which created the great game we have today.
I know a lot of people are going to say "Give the game more time", "This isn't Melee 2.0", "The community wasn't built in a day", "This is how the game was supposed to be", "The game wasn't well polished and the games competitive aspect was created by accident". Sure, one can easily say that these things are true, but just look at Sakurai's philosophies and Nintendo's demographic, it's blatantly obvious that they're way of thinking was going to be taken into effect. Sakurai is non competitive and Nintendo makes their decisions based on economic benefit. One last thing, let me direct you to this article. I didn't find this BTW, credits to Gimpyfish.
http://www.n-sider.com/articleview.php?articleid=637
In terms of progress in the series, it's basically like this:
SSBB>SSB64>SSBM
All that aside, Brawl can still be competitive, but only if the community will tolerate the games obvious limitations, which kills the games longevity for casual and competitive players. A casual player can only be casual for so long until they master the basic mechanics and thrive for more. Casual players exist, but they can't exist forever. Progress is a natural process in both gaming and real life.
The theory of Brawl being a "Party game with fighting game aesthetics" is proving to be more true by the day.
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