The lights are on
You might recall that Super Smash Bros. Brawl had a story mode called The Subspace Emissary. In between levels, players were treated to cutscenes that were mashups of characters from different properties. It was pure fan service. And it's not happening again.
Series creator Masahiro Sakurai recently shared his disappointment that the cutscenes were uploaded to the internet. In a regular column on Weekly Famitsu (translated by Kotaku), he explained why he won't be including them in the series' next entry.
"I felt if players saw the cutscenes outside of the game, they would no longer serve as rewards for playing the game, so I've decided against having them," Sakurai wrote. Instead, characters will get intro sequences similar to what we saw at E3 with the introduction of Mega Man, Animal Crossing's Villager and the Wii Fit Trainer.
The piece also mentions character customization, though no details are offered beyond the feature being more than cosmetic. There is also a hint about a new mode for the 3DS version that is different than the core versus experience.
[Source: Weekly Famitsu via Kotaku]
Our TakeThere are a lot of reasons to ditch the campaign mode for a fighting game. Nonsensical story? Sure. It diverts resources from the core versus mode? Absolutely. Fans reacted poorly? Definitely a good call to drop it. YouTube? No.
I played the entire Subspace Emissary mode. It wasn't fantastic, but it was worth trudging through for the cutscenes. If they had been on YouTube immediately at launch, I wouldn't have played it either.
I still would have marveled at the videos (they were consistently enjoyable) and appreciated the work. I had already paid for the game, and it would have focused my time on the versus mode.
There are so many reasons Sakurai could have given for this change. The one he chose shows a serious disconnect with contemporary technology, especially in light of how many people watched one of his earlier titles during EVO 2013.
"If they had been on YouTube immediately at launch, I wouldn't have played it either." So...you're... just a few days short of being the reason he decided to do this?
I respect Sakurai for this. Now the people who want to play the game can play the game, and the people who want to gratify themselves without putting in any effort can get shafted.
Wait, so the guy is cutting out this game mode because a previous entry's cutscenes ended up on youtube? That's what's happening, right? It's not that upcoming cutscenes leaked?
I mean, it's his prerogative, but that really just doesn't make sense. Pretty much all cutscenes from every major release from the past decade have made their way to youtube... I agree with Mike, dude is showing a serious disconnect with technology.
People played for the story? The cut-scenes were great and all. Though I won't miss them. The gameplay is the most important part of a SSB game.
What the heck is this. This is the stupidest reason.
That sucks. The cuts from Brawl were awesome. I hope there will be character customization.
I'll admit that I love story content on any game but especially fighting games. I was wishing for something similar to a story mode, but I've been playing Smash Bros. since the Nintendo 64 years so I'm still in for this next version. ^_^
another mistake by Nintendo
If Smash Bros. did do a story mode they should try to do it like Street Fighter or Soul Caliber. A unique story for each character, even though that would take an extremely long time. If anything just a unique ending will do.
seems like a poor excuse to me. I mean if someone wanted to ruin their play-through experience by watching cutscenes online that's their bad. I would avoid watching the leaked cuts online altogether.
Not everyone eats a candy bar before dinner, Sakurai.
man that kinda sucks but still cant wait till it comes out... BETTER NOT SCREW UP NINTENDO!
Kinda sucks, call me childish but actually enjoyed the cutscences in the previous installments.
Now that's just bull.