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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

"You didn't build that" — Smash 4's Stage Builder

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Oh yes I did! It just sucks, but I built it!

According to President Barack Hussein Obama, I didn't build KoopaTV. Somebody else made that happen. And I guess it's true, since we have a whole staff working at KoopaTV and the website design and server is outsourced to Google.


But you know what I built brick by brick, coil by coil? The KoopaTV stage in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U.
 
KoopaTV Super Smash Bros. For Wii U Stage Builder custom stages Ludwig Von Koopa
Overlooking my work. By the way, the background music is "Tough Guy Alert". I think it's appropriate.
We first learned of Super Smash Bros. For Wii U's stage builder less than a month before the game came out in the 50-Fact Extravaganza presentation. RawkHawk2010's (who never bought the game — shame on him) immediate reaction was:
"Stage Builder looks perfect."
Mine was,
"Well, much better than Brawl's."
But is it really? Here's Sakurai's detailed outline of Super Smash Bros. Brawl's stage builder, featuring choice quotes such as:
"You can create your own stages this time?! No way. REALLY?! With a feature like that, won’t I be able to play this game forever?!"
"Those who enjoy a little effort may be able to enjoy this stage builder for the rest of their lives."
Sakurai says, "Just place terrain however you like. Chuckity-chuckity-CHUCK!"

While you're "chuckity-chuckity-CHUCK"-ing in Brawl, you're hand-drawing the terrain in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U. And you have a wide range of... small blast barrels, large blast barrels, small springs, large springs, small lava, and large lava. Meanwhile, Brawl has a much wider range of options, including conveyor belts, trees, ladders, moving platforms, unique structures, ice blocks, springs, and more.

Sakurai thought people would be building new stages in Brawl for life, but there was a wrinkle: Popular Super Smash Bros. Brawl modification Project M does its intrusion into your Wii via the Stage Builder. When you download Project M onto your SD card, you're instructed to delete all of your stages in Brawl's Stage Builder or it won't work. ...So... that's all a lot of people use Brawl's Stage Builder for nowadays.

Let's look back to the KoopaTV stage. The only ledge (grabbable part of the stage from the air) is the very right-most part of the V. You'd think the T would be, but nope. Or the left part of the K or left part of the P. Nah. It apparently depends on how specifically you draw it, but you have no option to fudge the thing and make specific points ledges. Back in Brawl when you built things block-by-block on the grid, you knew you'd have ledges because things were perfect squares. You ain't got that option in For Wii U.

I'd rather have spikes (Brawl) than lava tiles (For Wii U) to skewer that plumber.

So yeah, you're trading off a lot of cool structures and features for free-forme drawing. Is it worth it? Well, you wouldn't be able to create the KoopaTV stage in Brawl, but again, it's unplayable anyway.

Oh, interesting mechanic: If you play as me and sit in the crevice inside the V and use Up-B (Abandon Ship!), the Koopa Klown Kar warps outside the V to the right side and drops. Weird, huh? If you know what that symbolises, lemme know.

Now with the Mewtwo update, you can share your Stage Builder stages to your friends and the world, along with a mandatory post to the stage-sharing Miiverse community. I don't think you're really gonna get much mileage out of Stage Builder in Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, and you didn't really get much out of it in Brawl, either. It's not like the course builder from F-Zero X or anything!

And... I'm not gonna share the KoopaTV stage 'cause, again, it just sucks.

...But I built it. I made that happen.


Ludwig would rather just play the pre-made existing stages. You can play him on those stages, his stages, or your stages by friending him on your Wii U at NNID PrinceOfKoopas. Careful, friend slots are filling up fast! If you fail to friend him (or in addition to friending him), you can submit a request for a KoopaTV article. That's how this article first came to be. That also gives you points for the KoopaTV Loyalty Rewards Program, with Round 1 ending at the end of the week!


Ludwig wants to know why Stage Builder is nowhere near robust as Super Mario Maker.
Stage Builder is used to make a Donald Trump border wall joke article.

4 comments :

  1. Koopa Klown Kar...KKK.

    I'm gonna tell your parents and they're gonna be sooooo maddddd

    ReplyDelete
  2. "And... I'm not gonna share the KoopaTV stage 'cause, again, it just sucks."
    But you could use it for advertising.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What, within Smash Bros. itself?
      I mean, that doesn't sound very effective.

      Maybe with my friends list, but not random people.

      Delete

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