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What the pros want from Smash Bros on Switch
With rumours swirling, we catch up with pros to talk potential Melee and Smash 4 Switch ports.
Smash Bros could be heading to the Nintendo Switch
© Nintendo
With the biggest event in the gaming calendar just a few weeks away, the rumours about upcoming announcements at E3 are once again circulating. Some publishers are blowing their load early, while others are keeping everything a tightly guarded secret. Nintendo are usually a little from column A, a little from column B, but when it comes to Smash Bros., it’s a stone wall of silence.
With Smash 4 just a few years old, no one's expecting a totally new title in the franchise. However there have been more than a few rumours surrounding Smash and the new Nintendo Switch. Over recent months there's been talk both of Melee coming to the Switch via a GameCube Virtual Console system and of a Switch port for Smash 4, complete with a new character and stages. The latter theory's been given some credence by both the 3DS port of Smash 4 and the recent Switch upgrade of Mario Kart 8.
Really, no one outside of Nintendo will know how much of these rumours are true, or if they're all just whispers from hopeful fans that gained a bit of traction online. But until we get that announcement, or no announcement, we're free to speculate about what Nintendo will pull out at E3.
Of course we could tell you our opinions, but we thought we'd go one better and get some of the best Smash players in the world to give us their views on if we'll see either title hit the Switch at E3, and how that'd impact the scene if it did happen.
Rumours abound that we may see some Smash action on the Switch at E3. Both Melee and Smash 4 have been mooted to appear on the new console. What are your thoughts on this. Do you think either will be announced at E3?
McCain ‘MacD’ LaVelle – Splyce – Melee: “I never thought there were serious rumours around Melee on the Switch, so I just never cared to think about it at all. Melee I always thought if it would happen would just be a Virtual Console port. Melee HD is the dream of course. Never even crossed my mind it would be at E3. Now, Smash 4 rumours I heard more of and thought it’s plausible. It's an easy way to put Smash on the newest system. It's way too soon for them to make a new Smash game, but Smash is one of the classic Nintendo titles. If Smash 4 on Switch would happen, E3 would make a great place to announce.”
Jason ‘ANTi’ Bates – Immortals – Smash 4: “I feel as if Nintendo is waiting for the perfect opportunity to announce Smash 4 on the Switch, but honestly, in recent times I've begun to lose faith in them. They may announce it at E3, but I wouldn't be surprised at all if they didn't even hint towards it at E3.”
DaJuan ‘Shroomed’ Jefferson McDaniel – Immortals – Melee: “If any game was going to be ported I'd expect it to be Melee through the Virtual Console. Smash 4 is pretty new to already be ported over. But at this point it feels like Nintendo have specific games in mind for eSports support, regardless of the communities behind their Smash games. I may just be pessimistic because I've been around so long with Nintendo barely batting an eye our way. I sincerely hope I'm wrong and Melee gets a clean port to the Switch, with Smash 4 not far behind.”
If either game was ported to the new console, what changes do you think it would need, if any? Balance tweaks? Gamecube controller support?
Michael ‘Nintendude’ Brancato – Splyce – Melee: “Gamecube controller support is a must for it to be adopted by the community. Smash players have been using the Gamecube controller for over a decade and that would really be impossible to change at this point. For Melee, the game must be an identical port of one of the Gamecube versions of the game without any technical hiccups (Smash 64 on the Wii VC had this problem). Balance changes could be good in theory (for Melee), but it would be a difficult shift for the community since we operate under an assumption that the game never gets patched. For Smash 4 I think a balance patch would be fine. Graphical upgrades such as widescreen and HD would be welcome changes I think.”
Charles ‘Cactuar’ Meighen – Splyce – Coach: “For Melee vets, GC controller support is a necessity for any long-term commitment in converting to playing on the Switch. Balance changes would probably be frowned upon, as one of the things we (at least I) appreciate about the game is that the metagame has developed within a static environment. Except wobbling, they can definitely remove that.”
MacD: “That's an easy no for Smash 4. It is in an especially good spot right now. There are so many viable characters and it's all about the players. Melee doesn't need balance changes, but picking between NTSC and PAL versions would be interesting. This is a convo that I've had with Melee peeps. NTSC is what is seen at all the majors since it's in the US, but PAL is technically the latest version of Melee. The thing is some of the character changes in PAL were huge (Sheik is the easiest example). It'd be a different meta that NA has never dealt with, and most probably wouldn't want. There are some minor changes that I think would be good, but it becomes hard to draw the line of what is an okay change if things are character specific.”
Shroomed: “Gamecube controller support is an absolute must. I don't have enough competitive knowledge of Smash 4 to form a good opinion, but if I had to pick something, I'd take out the rage mechanic. You shouldn't get stronger because you're getting bodied, IMO. For Melee, this is a really tough question because it's such a sandbox game. I have no idea what strategies might be born from any tiny change. An obvious change that would immediately improve the overall competitiveness of the game would be a version of Pokémon Stadium that didn't transform. That, and removing phantom hits.”
Melee as a community 100 percent should switch over
If either game was ported, do you think we could see the pro scene move over to the Switch?
MacD: “Melee as a community 100 percent should switch over, but it could be difficult depending on how stubborn people are and how the game is on the system. Melee is a 15-year-old game that's hard to find and expensive, on old systems that are slowly becoming scarcer, and uses CRT TVs that even Goodwill won't keep anymore. Our growth is hella limited by these factors and makes running tourneys a pain. Ultimately I think the community would just have to accept the game as it is and move to the Switch. They would have to screw up the port so badly that everyone agreed we just couldn't move over.”
Cactuar: “While we could definitely move to the Switch for tournament play providing a Switch port allows for lagless gameplay on newer screens, unless a similar depth in training tools was part of a new version, most competitive players would likely spend their time training elsewhere.”
ANTi: “My ultimate dream in Smash is to have one unified game where top Melee players and top Smash 4/Brawl players both appreciated it and played competitively. It'd be amazing seeing talent Smash Bros. players duke it out against each other in Smash for the Switch.”
Shroomed: “I'd imagine the Smash 4 community would immediately switch as long as Gamecube controllers were supported. I'm sure the Melee community would be hesitant to switch over as using HDTVs would introduce some input lag which would DRASTICALLY change the way the game is played. If we could address this problem somehow, I'm sure the Melee community would be happy to be done hunting for and lugging CRTs to every event.”
Nintendude: “Only if it is 100 percent free of technical issues, supports the Gamecube controller, and is an identical port with minimal or no balance changes, although Smash 4 would be more flexible on that last point.”
Is there anything else you would like to add about either Smash 4 or Melee on Switch?
ANTi: “BRING BACK SNAKE PLEASE. That's my favourite Smash character of all time and if he came back that would most likely put an end to my character crisis, haha. #SnakeForTheSwitch.”
Nintendude: “Until anything official is announced it's not something I really concern myself with, but the potential is definitely there to make a big splash with a Switch port, especially for Melee. It would be great if Nintendo decide to capitalise on the opportunity and do a good job with it.”
Shroomed: “For Melee, it's nice to think about a port to the Switch but I doubt it wouldn't come with meta-changing side effects. Most people play Melee because it's the hardest game we've ever tried to master. It's why we still play after all these years, because there's so much room to grow. Porting to the Switch would be a breath of fresh air for the community and bring new players into the scene, but I'm not sure if that trade-off is totally worth it if the integrity of the game is compromised.”
MacD: “Thinking about it, having both games on the Switch would be cool. I used to play Smash 4 often with my roommates, but I can't anymore because I moved and don't own a Wii U. I would love to be able to play it occasionally with friends. I think if both games were on the same system, there would be a lot more cross love between the games. I know other people like me who would love to mess around with the other game, but we don't have easy access. I think it would help make the two communities closer and help both grow.”
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