To Nintendo & Masahiro Sakurai, 

I recently watched a very long Super Smash Bros. Melee documentary, which crafted an organized chronology of Smash Bros.'s birth and growth in the competitve gaming world. It captures the pure essence of competitive Smash and expresses the raw passion that players had for the game. Sadly though, these seem like "the good ol days" rather than a modern feeling, and this is what inspired me to write this plea.

As I type this, I speak for all core Smash fans everywhere, but before I get started, a little bit about me:

(I know this petition is long, so if you readers don't want to read it all simply read the text that is in bold. You'll get the gist of every point I am making.)

I am a competitve Smash player and enthusiast, long-time Nintendo fan, and a follower of Mr. Sakurai's work. From Kirby to Kid Icarus, I've enjoyed it all. I started playing with the original Smash on N64. I spent a countless number of hours on the game. In my mind, the game couldn't get any better than it already was. Then Melee came out and completely blew Smash 64 out of the water. Melee had amazing content, extended single-player modes, and an awesome roster and stage selection. But the most amazing thing about Super Smash Bros. Melee was it's gameplay. It was faster and edgy, yet, the game still managed to retain it's accessibility that Sakurai always intended for the series.

I played endlessly with my brother, friends, and families, and attending tournaments held at my school, GameStop, and other places. Melee was the core of my gaming childhood.

But enough about me.

Brawl was announced, and every Smash fan around the world was ecstatic, but when the game came out, the majority of us were sorely disappointed. Brawl had been slowed down tremendously and many mechanics we learned to master and cherish were removed from the game, all in order to level the playing field for the more casual players. Us competitive Smash players felt burned and betrayed.

With all due respect to Mr. Sakurai, that was the wrong move to make.

Brawl caused a divide in the Smash community, and many players who once played Melee religiously decided not to even play Brawl past it's initial launch period. Don't get us wrong, Brawl was a fun game, it was just a step down from Melee from a gameplay standpoint.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to make your game accessible to everyone Mr. Sakurai, but here's the thing: Smash Bros. was ALWAYS ACCESSIBLE.

There are multiple problems with the decision of minimizing Smash's competitive gameplay, but the fact that Melee was never inaccessible to begin with to casual players is the most obvious one.

Yes Melee was faster and had more advanced techniques that could be mastered by more experienced players, but those mechanics were not required to know how to use in order to properly play the game. People could still pick up a GameCube controller and play, instantly. And with comprehension of what they're doing too.

Again, I understand the want to appeal to everyone, but Smash never stopped doing that and the important thing Mr. Sakurai has to realize is that in a fighter, if one player is more skilled than the other, than that player has the right to completely obliterate his/her opponent. He or she earned it by training and practicing hard. It's not fair that somebody who plays Smash once every month gets a handicap advantage over someone who plays it every day. It's essentially rewarding people that play the game less than the Smash faithful.

If a more casual player is upset that he cannot beat a more hardcore player, than they need to simply get better.

And since a casual player plays the game CAUSALLY, he or she won't really care about losing to a better player. Typically, casual players play with other casuals, and competitive players play with other competitive players. So Brawl's changes to shorten the gap between skill levels wasn't even widely utilized, seeing as how players tend to stick to their skill ranges.

More importantly Mr. Sakurai, it's us competitive players that support these games after years of their releases. Melee and even Smash 64 are still being feautured at major fighting game tournaments around the world. Whereas casuals will drop the game within a year and move on to others, we continue to support and cherish your creations. Melee came out in 2001 - we've been playing this game without cease for 12 years now.

It is not fair to us competitive players that the game gets dumbed down for the sake of people who don't support the game nearly as passionately as we do.

We're the ones that will be playing the game in the long run, so why adjust it for people who won't play it nearly as much as we do? Casuals did not complain about Melee, they played it just like they played Brawl. The casual players do not care if the next Smash is more competitive, they just want to play the game.

You're catering, Mr. Sakurai, to an audience that never even asked to be catered to.

Now what exactly are the changes we want made from Brawl?

We're not saying Smash Bros. 4 has to be JUST like Melee. We are aware that you do not want to make a Melee 2.0, so we will not request that. To be simple and quick-to-the-point, these are the main 2 things we want Sakurai:

Speed and Hit-Stun.

If we got just those two things, we'd be happy. We don't need wavedashing (although we love it), we can live without it at the end of the day. So we're not even asking for that many changes.

The main problem with Brawl wasn't that Wavedashing was out, but rather the fact that combos were much harder to achieve in Brawl. Either characters were launched too far to follow-up with another attack, or the opponent would recover from hit-stun too quickly, or the game simply wasn't fast enough to catch them in the next move.

That's is why the speed and hit-stun of Smash 4 is very crucial to us. They are the two essential elements of combo-ing an opponent. I know it was already stated that Smash 4 would fall in-between Brawl and Melee speed-wise, which is great, but it still worries me. Brawl was extremely slow, so there's a very wide margin there between it and Melee speed-wise. Sakurai, please put the speed more on the Melee end of the spectrum. If Melee is a 10 on the speed scale and Brawl is 0, we would love for Smash 4 to be a 7-8 rather the the perfectly in-between 5.

Set knock-back distances for (few) certain moves would also be ideal, as they will allow a player to combo an opponent even if they're at high percentage.

A faster speed and Melee-like hit-stun will fix all of our combo problems.

But there are also other mechanics the made previous appearances that we would like to see return in Smash 4:

1. Fast-falling
2. L-Cancelling
3. DI (Directional Influence)
4. Crouch Cancelling
5. Dash Dancing

We're sure other mechanics like short-hopping,  meteor smashing/spiking, and power-shielding will undoubtedly return, so that's why they're not highlighted above.

To wrap-up this address to Sakurai, as I stated earlier, why cater to a crowd who not only never asked to be catered to, but is also the minority? We support Smash many years after an installment releases, we have the gameplay videos up on social media sites, and we're the ones who vividly express how awesome of a series the franchise is. This game should be made primarily with us in-mind, not the casual players, with all-due respect to them.

Keep this in-mind: It's easier for a casual player to enjoy a fast, accessible game than it is for competitive players to enjoy a slow, simpler game.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now we're sure everyone reading this has noticed that I also would like to address Nintendo in this petition as well. Nintendo, your role should be supporting the competitive Smash scene rather than trying to squander it.

Earlier this year you tried to shut down Melee at EVO 2013, but reversed your decision in a matter of hours due to the immense backlash you recieved. That should be a sign to you. We take Smash very seriously. 

Once the Melee EVO 2013 stream happened, Melee became the 2nd most-watched fighting game in history. And to think you almost prevented that...

All of these years the Smash community has ran these tournaments by themselves, with no support from you guys, while the Street Fighter and MvC community is well-supported by Capcom. Not only have you not been helping, but like the situation that happened earlier this year with EVO, you've actually continually worked against the Smash scene, making things harder than they already were.

Has anyone up there at Nintendo watched an actual video of a professional Super Smash Bros. match? I don't see how anyone couldn't have, especially Mr. Sakurai. And I also don't see how watching so many people REPRESENT and CHERISH your game that YOU made doesn't light a fire in you. Do you not care that we appreciate your game immensly? You should encouraged by this, supporting this.

To further emphasize what we mean, Sony made an appearance at EVO 2012 with Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale. The game was a brand new IP and wasn't accepted very well by the fighting game community of the Playstation fanbase in-general. Yet, you, Nintendo, have had a series that's been featured at various tournaments around the world but have not been engaged in the community whatsoever. Sony would love to be in your shoes with All-Stars - take advantage of what you have.

There was a recent report that Nintendo is actually interested in bringing Smash Bros. for Wii U to MLG (Major League Gaming). We don't know the legitimacy of these claims, but if this is true, then Nintendo, you are on that right path. That's what we're talking about. 

By supporting the Smash Community, you are supporting your own game by default.

We're not making any demands here, but it would be great to actually see Nintendo support the Smashers by helping pay for venues and TV's. Sponsor some of the players. Be engaged with the community like Capcom is.

More importantly Nintendo, you are going through an image crisis right now. Many developers and gamers alike have trouble taking you seriously when it comes to hardcore gaming. Supporting the Smash scene will definitely help out with your image and show that you truly care for the hardcore gamer.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We just want the Smash we know and love back, that's all. Eiji Aonuma recently just stated that Nintendo is no longer insterested in making games easier, so hopefully this new direction will influence Sakurai to bring Smash to it's former competitiveness. 

Mr. Sakurai and Nintendo: We are long-time fans and supporters of both of you. We have backed you through thick-and-thin. All we are asking is for this little favor in return for all of the dedication we have shown to you.

 

- The Super Smash Bros. Community