Chapter 862: It's a Fighting Game, but Not a Fighting Game

No depth?

Hearing the questions raised by Qin Yi and the others, Chen Xu smiled and shook his head.

Indeed, upon first encountering Super Smash Bros., the game appears to have simplified many aspects.

Eliminating input commands and adopting a percentage health bar setting might make it seem like the game lacks depth.

Yet quite the opposite is true—this game possesses an extremely high skill ceiling, even surpassing traditional fighting games.

The core rule revolves around knockback—victory isn't achieved simply by depleting an opponent's health bar.

Instead, characters can be launched in all directions: up, down, left, and right. This introduces the concept of Environmental Kills through stage terrain.

Players can be knocked off cliffs, but naturally, countermeasures exist.

Neutral game ("zuri") becomes extremely important in Smash. One can clearly determine whether a player truly understands the game simply by observing their neutral game techniques.

The integration of these mechanics gives rise to a unique dynamic.

Since defeat is only registered when a player is knocked off-stage, most casual players tend to fight near the center of the stage.

Combined with the absence of a traditional health bar, two players could theoretically battle endlessly.

However, veteran players will maneuver fights toward the edges, even finishing opponents midair or off-stage—requiring psychological warfare and on-the-spot operational reactions.

Regardless of the system, at its core, a fighting game remains a game of rock-paper-scissors, relying on real-time execution and psychological prediction.

As long as these elements are properly showcased, and character balance is reasonably maintained, the game will never lack depth.

"You don't need to worry about game depth," Chen Xu said, looking at the group. "In fact, compared to that, the biggest challenge lies in how we showcase gaming culture within this title."

"Showcasing gaming culture?" Ruan Ningxue, Yang Xin, and others were slightly confused.

"Because this game won't just feature Nebula Games' IPs. We'll also include iconic characters from gaming history, music tracks from various series, stages representing different franchises, items, and fighters. Additionally, we're designing a massive single-player experience. We need to showcase the unique characteristics of each game series through their respective characters," Chen Xu explained in detail.

"So that's why Mr. Chen had us play all those old games before!"

Immediately, Qin Yi and the others recalled how Chen Xu had previously instructed the core team members to fully experience a variety of classic titles.

"Exactly. Aside from multiplayer versus, the game will feature a single-player story mode called 'World of Light.' We'll design a unique large map and integrate scenes from various IPs into it," Chen Xu nodded.

The single-player story wasn't particularly complex—just a classic save-the-world-and-the-heroes narrative.

The core gameplay remained traditional collecting: "Spirits," classic characters from different franchises, categorized into various attributes for players to collect and upgrade.

This turned the single-player experience into something RPG-like. Even clumsy players could enjoy the game and clear it by gradually collecting and strengthening Spirits, then adjusting the difficulty downward.

Compared to typical fighting games, the content of Smash in Chen Xu's previous life was absurdly extravagant—not just the inclusion of iconic characters from various IPs.

Each IP brought its own unique stages, each with three distinct variations. During battles, these stages could seamlessly transition between forms.

The number of stages alone exceeded a hundred.

And that didn't even include variations from stage transformations.

Original music tracks numbered in the thousands. Some players joked that Smash wasn't a fighting game at all, but rather a music player.

Additionally, stage aesthetics varied depending on the characters involved. Items and Spirits also needed distinctive characteristics—not just models with names attached.

For example, the mushroom and Super Star from Super Mario...

Every item had to evoke a sense of familiarity for players who had experienced the original games.

No explanation needed—even if not immediately recognized, the moment they used it, fans of the original title would instantly know.

This was the charm of Smash.

Chen Xu hadn't shared these details with Qin Yi and the others.

Because the main fighters and their moves and techniques would be personally overseen by Chen Xu later on.

Qin Yi and the team, on the other hand, would primarily focus on level design, scene creation, and art direction.

This was incredibly important for a game like Smash.

The consequence of combining various IPs meant an extremely diverse art style—cartoonish, realistic, fantasy...

Characters as fierce as Pyra and Mythra, alongside family-friendly icons like Mario and Yoshi, and realistic figures such as Cloud and Sephiroth.

How to seamlessly blend these vastly different art styles so players wouldn't feel dissonance was a critical challenge.

In Chen Xu's previous life, after Smash's success, many game developers targeted this niche—some launching new projects, others constantly creating crossovers.

Examples included Jump, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, and others.

Yet these games devolved into pure fan-service cash grabs, none achieving the success of Nintendo's Smash Bros.

Beyond gameplay framework and content, art direction was a crucial differentiator.

Jump-based games were somewhat acceptable since they were rooted in Japanese anime/manga.

For fans, controlling beloved manga or anime characters, hearing voice actors deliver passionate lines, and unleashing flashy ultimate abilities was often enough to satisfy.

But Sony's All-Stars Battle Royale became a textbook example of failure.

The game strived to faithfully recreate every original character—sounding great in theory.

Yet the result felt disjointed, as if characters were ripped directly from their respective games.

It felt odd not just to play, but even to look at.

"The workload for this is massive!" Qin Yi couldn't help exclaiming after hearing Chen Xu's description of the fighting game.

If they followed this approach, they'd need to meticulously recreate iconic scenes from classic IP games.

And not just surface-level imitation—deep, authentic integration.

For example, how could they include elements from Dark Souls in a way that makes series veterans smile knowingly?

There were many subtle touches: the Fire Dragon Bridge, the "divine intervention" story kill, the storm that fells the Greatwood, "Praise the Sun," the Moonlight Greatsword...

Common elements could be found across FromSoft's titles—Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Elden Ring—but only players who had experienced them would recognize these nuances.

It wasn't enough to just add superficial elements like Sculptor's Idols or bonfires.

"Don't rush. Didn't we just release the new World of Warcraft expansion? Players can grind slowly—we can develop slowly too," Chen Xu said with a smile.

"But one thing you all must understand: although the gameplay is fighting-based, I don't want you approaching this with a traditional fighting game mindset. Instead, maintain the same spirit we had when developing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey," Chen Xu said seriously.

This was the defining characteristic of Smash.

Though most players viewed it as a fighting game,

neither its creative philosophy nor official marketing ever labeled it as such.

From its inception, the game was targeted at casual players.

In Chen Xu's previous life, Nintendo's promotion and operations were entirely centered around this principle.

Their official tournaments allowed items, ultimate abilities, and stage hazards—increasing the role of luck.

Originally, they wanted to prevent Smash from becoming a professional esports title like EVO, but lacked a good excuse. Then, after Sony Interactive Entertainment acquired the EVO fighting game tournament, they immediately seized the opportunity, announcing overnight that Smash would withdraw from EVO.

Approaching Smash with a traditional fighting game mindset would inevitably distort its essence.

Its core must remain: a light action game that anyone can pick up and enjoy.

<>