Looking back, what was the consensus on Smash 4 (WiiU)?

[tiesto]

When it released, it felt like a slight return to form after the slower-paced, floatier Brawl. Some of the new characters were cool, i.e. Mega Man, Pac Man, and the DLCs. Though a few slots were wasted with Dark Pit, Dark Samus...

I didn't spend nearly as much time with Smash 4 as I did with the first 3, and I think I played the 3DS game like once... maybe it was due to WiiU being a failure that nobody I knew really owned it or wanted to play.

Ultimate returned to an even faster feel more in line with Melee, plus the largest roster yet, that it really makes Smash 4 feel superfluous at this point.

But does anyone prefer 4 to Ultimate, or the others? How does everybody look back on 4? I see it as a fitting parable for the WiiU, which was an experimental test bed for Nintendo to get back on top with a more core-focused Switch, while 4 steered away from Brawl's more casual elements, clearing the path for Ultimate to dominate.

 

[Sincerest]

Still too slow/sluggish feeling for me, personally. So I know what you mean about 4.

The emphasis on start-up frames and ending lag frames really dampened my enjoyment

Ultimate did a little better, but still.

 

[Brazil]

A bit too slow, but still pretty damn good. A great stepping stone for the wonderful Smash Ultimate.

 

[blondkayvon]

Really loved Sm4sh at the time but there's really no reason to play it now with Ultimate. Especially because Ultimate's art style is so much better (IMO).

 

[WestEgg]

Ultimate is the better game, but 4 was the best in the series before it, and overall I really enjoyed it.

Though a few slots were wasted with Dark Pit, Dark Samus

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Aside from "slots" not really being a finite resource, especially for clones/echo fighters, Dark Samus isn't even a character in 4

 

[GuessMyUserName]

Really loved Sm4sh at the time but there's really no reason to play it now with Ultimate. Especially because Ultimate's art style is so much better (IMO).

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This but I will say I do miss those alt special moves, Smash Run..... and actually yeah that board game mode was kinda fun actually.

 

[steviestar3]

It's better than Brawl (one of the most disappointing games of all time) but it's not great. The single player modes and stage selection are awful. I liked the 3DS version a lot more personally because it was better in those two areas.

 

[Raijinto]

I really liked it, but I have found myself agreeing a comment I read here a while back that the 3DS version was definitely the priority and the 'main' version of Smash in 2014. It released first, sold by far the most, the roster was designed around the limitations of the system and maybe just subjectively speaking finally being able to play Smash on a handheld was the highlight.

But regardless the Wii U version was still good.

 

[Anth0ny]

It was the absolute shits. Worst Smash ever. The game looks like an absolute joke now that we've had Ultimate for a year:



Luckily Sakurai came to his senses with Ultimate in the gameplay department. Best since Melee.

 

[Spinluck]

It was the absolute shits. Worst Smash ever. The game looks like an absolute joke now that we've had Ultimate for a year:



Luckily Sakurai came to his senses with Ultimate in the gameplay department. Best since Melee.

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Smash 4 worse than Brawl?

Lmao

 

[ClickyCal']

Dark samus was in smash 4?

 

[Phendrift]

Best in the series at the time, but now rendered pretty much completely obsolete by Ultimate.

I'll still go back to Brawl for SSE and Boss Battles, and Melee for Adventure mode. But not Smash 4.

 

[laziboi]

A good game that was severely held back by the circumstances and hardware limitations of its respective platforms. Had Smash 4 released on a more successful and powerful console like the Switch at the time, it could've been the best. But today, Ultimate has taken that title. I think Smash 4 is going to be the game in the series that ages the worst, simply because there's no reason to return to it. 64 has Nostalgia, Melee still has huge technical gameplay, and Brawl still has its fetaures. What does Smash 4 have? Anything that it does, is done better in Ultimate.

 

[GreenMamba]

Other than a stepping stone to Ultimate it's pretty much worthless now. Probably the most blah Smash overall. Modes are lame (including the worst Classic mode of all time) and the new stages are probably the worst new batch of any Smash game period. Doesn't have the handheld gimmick of 3DS or Smash Run, doesn't have the beefy single player mode that Brawl has, its actual gameplay pales in comparison to Melee and Ultimate...

Better left in the past.

 

[brinstar]

It was amazing at the time imo, but then Ultimate took the ball and went even further somehow to levels I didn't even think were possible.

 

[Lua]

I mean,the consensus was the same with any smash, people liked it. I never liked playing it much, but i don't enjoy playing any smash since melee anyway. I just like seeing the characters in the menu screen and listening to the music.

 

[Setsune]

Splitting development between Wii U and 3DS was a mistake. They had to, unfortunately, but a Wii U-only 4 would've been much closer to Ultimate, and a 3DS-only 4 would've been a very interesting beast.

 

[Lockheartilly9799]

I played it a bunch with friends. I didn't hate the gameplay. Ultimate is better for sure, though. Cloud Strife's announcement into that game changed my life. That was the dream. I never thought I'd see the day. Just like he said in that trailer. I cried. I was in the middle of my job lay off period and this really comforted me on a personal level.

 

[MP!]

Duck Hunt was the Best... they screwed him up in ultimate somehow

 

[Deleted member 3815]

I actually prefer Smash 4 over Ultimate as my main didn't get cut. Though to be honest given that I play Smash for the single player content and both Smash 4 and Ultimate fails in this department, Brawls edges out for me.

 

[AGoodODST]

It was a good game and the Online was super streamlined and easy. For Glory was a much better system than we have now plus the ability to change characters after a game.

It was pretty slow paced though. And the single player was absolute dogshit.

 

[Greywaren]

A bit too slow, but it was still a lot of fun.

 

[Protome]

It was my least favourite Smash Bros but still great. I mainly play Smash single player and Smash4 was the worst one yet on that front. They even ruined Classic mode! How?!

Smash Ultimate replaced Brawl as my favourite thanks to just sheet variety of great single player content.

 

[HibbySloth]

I enjoyed Smash 4 a whole lot. It was a step up from Brawl. Nowadays I find no reasons to revisit it. I'm thankful the Switch released not long after, because without Smash 4 we wouldn't have Ultimate.

 

[MaitreWakou]

It was awesome. New levels weren't that great, but Brawl new levels also weren't that good. New characters were fun tho, and the DLCs newcommers were some of the best. (Smash 4 DLCs is imo when Sakurai started to peak. Smash 4 DLC newcommers, Smash Ultimate newcommers, and Ultimate DLCs newcommers are the best he has ever designed.)
Classic mode was shit on Wii U, great on 3DS. The 3DS was definitely legit as fuck, a portable Smash game felt insane ! Doing the game on both 3DS and Wii U was really ambitious. Unfortunately, once Wii U released, I didn't had any reasons to play on 3DS again.

But now that we have Ultimate, I realize that the artstyle of 4 was fucking ugly.
I even prefer Brawl's artstyle because at least it totally assumed its edgy art style.
4 is a bit colorful, and a bit edgy. It's between the two, it's weird.
Ultimate's reveal at E3 was awesome, the Everyone is here trailer, because it just starts with Battlefield and you're like "holy shit it looks good", and then Mario pops and you're like "HOLY SHIT ! THE COLORS ! IT'S SO VIBRANT !"

 

[Choppasmith]

It was the absolute shits. Worst Smash ever. The game looks like an absolute joke now that we've had Ultimate for a year:



Luckily Sakurai came to his senses with Ultimate in the gameplay department. Best since Melee.

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Man that IS weird to look at now. I'll miss those "transformation Final Smashes" for some characters but yeah speeding up stuff like that really makes sense now.

It was amazing at the time imo, but then Ultimate took the ball and went even further somehow to levels I didn't even think were possible.

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Pretty much how I feel. I guess I'm the only one that LIKES Smash 4's Classic Mode? I mean Ultimate's "themed" runs are cute, but give me random opponents + the Master bosses any day! I'm still hoping Sakurai could add them in as a DLC boss mode or something.

 

[julian]

I loved it. Felt so much better than Brawl. Online was tolerable. New characters were fantastic and varied.
The single player on the other hand was kind of terrible.

 

[Richietto]

Great game, but lordy I won't be coming back to it with Ultimate here. Game is faaar too slow.

 

[Datajoy]

RIP For Glory

 

[SPRidley]

A game made worse for it existing a 3ds version.

Not a fan of any of the game modes that appeared/dissapeared because of the inferior 3ds version existing.

My least played smash without a doubt. The only think i really enjoyed was the addition of Little Mac as a big fan of PunchOut!!

Had also my least favourite main theme and the menu apart from being a mess had zero hype visuallym

I loved world of light and ultimate.

 

[GalaxyDive]

Super meh. It was fun enough and the raw gameplay was better than Brawl, but as someone who had no interest in the 3DS version (despite owning one but not a WU until a few months after launch), the WU version felt boilerplate with little to do since all the characters were already unlocked etc

 

[Lark]

It was a great step up from Brawl, and an important part of the foundation for Ultimate.

That said, it has the unenviable position of being the one Smash title that has nothing going for it that another title doesn't also have, like a major exclusive feature (Brawl with Subspace Emissary), massive fanbase nostalgia (Melee), the significance of having started the entire series (N64), or a mindboggling amount of content and polish (Ultimate). It may end up being the most easily forgotten Smash Bros.

 

[Rodney McKay]

I thought the game played fine, but the single player modes sucked.

The mode they added in the 3DS version was alright, sort of a new take on Melee's adventure mode mixed with multiplayer, but I only ever played it once or twice.

Wii U's single player mode sucked IMO. I remember njot liking what they did to Classic mode (I forget what changed, I just remember not liking it), and the board game mode wasn't all that fun to me either.

I really need to get back to Ultimate's Spirit mode. I did everyone's classic mode so far (except maybe Banjo and the newest guy) and that lode was exactly what I was looking for in a Smash Bros. game.

 

[free_bubble]

It was a massive return to form after Brawl but still too slow and simplistic compared to Melee. Ultimate is a goddamn triumph, full-stop. It might be my new favorite game in the series.

 

[Zacmortar]

I dont know what it is, but 4 still feels way better to me than Ultimate. Ultimate feels too fast and hectic, i love th slower/floatier combat of 4 waaaay more.

 

[Zacmortar]

A game made worse for it existing a 3ds version.

Not a fan of any of the game modes that appeared/dissapeared because of the inferior 3ds version existing.

My least played smash without a doubt. The only think i really enjoyed was the addition of Little Mac as a big fan of PunchOut!!

Had also my least favourite main theme and the menu apart from being a mess had zero hype visuallym

I loved world of light and ultimate.

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the 3DS version is the better version though

 

[Phendrift]

I actually prefer Smash 4 over Ultimate as my main didn't get cut. Though to be honest given that I play Smash for the single player content and both Smash 4 and Ultimate fails in this department, Brawls edges out for me.

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Who was your main....

 

[Cryptosporidium]

Smash 4 had better online and was a more responsive game (I recall it having 6f input delay compared to Smushs terrible terrible 8f). I put over a 1000 hrs into 4 but then I got into other FGs like KoF which were even more responsive and so coming to Smush made it feel like I was playing in syrup.

Smash 4 is an amazing game and I enjoyed its neutral a lot.

 

[Cronogear]

It was alright, though Smash Run and especially Smash Tour were disappointments. I thought the gameplay was much improved over Brawl, even if it was still pretty jank at times.

Sadly, Smash 4 will likely be the red headed step child of the series, since Ultimate is better in basically every way. At least Brawl still has Subspace, and Melee has a large competitive scene. Smash 4 really doesn't stand out at all.

 

[Soul Skater]

I miss the single player stuff. Event, challenge mode and the full Allstar mode were amazing. Also liked some other stuff like the bonus and stadium games.

Smash ultimate sped things up for the better but it really hurt to see so much good stuff, including Smash Run on 3ds, go

also smash tour wasn't fun but it was a good idea. I would have much preferred all this other stuff get improved/ refined and combined into smash ultimate from both the WiiU and 3Ds instead of World of Light which wasn't even good.

 

[Jimnymebob]

I hated all of my old favourites on it, but luckily Greninja, Pac-Man, and Duck Hunt Duo were great.

I think it's easily the worst out of the post Melee games though, and while Ultimate doesn't really feel like a huge change from it, compared to how different the other sequels felt from the previous games, it basically just does everything better.

 

[Deleted member 36578]

I totally loved it!!!!! But with Ultimate there is absolutely zero reason for me to ever play it again. It's insanely obsolete.

 

[Aprikurt]

It was good, better than Brawl, but as others have said the existence of Ultimate kind of kills it dead really.

 

[scare_crow]

I actually prefer Smash 4 over Ultimate as my main didn't get cut. Though to be honest given that I play Smash for the single player content and both Smash 4 and Ultimate fails in this department, Brawls edges out for me.

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But... everyone is there?

 

[Tibarn]

It felt at the moment like a big improvement over Brawl, and has lots of great newcomers. But:
-Character parity with the 3DS version was an error and made no sense. No IC, no Pokemon Trainer etc... The only good thing about this change is that it allowed Zelda/Sheik to have a better moveset, but I'm not sure if having the two together again would make them more viable.
-Graphics now seem kind of ugly. Ganondorf is really ugly in the game, and all the attack effects look far worse than in Ultimate, mostly because of the art direction. I love how explosions in Ultimate look like in Melee instead of the realistic style of Brawl/4.
-Some classic stages being exclusive to 3DS was also a really bad decision. And all classic stages were really ugly, they didn't improve any of them that much.
-Balance was worse than is it now, some DLC characters were really broke and were never fixed.

Game now feels slow and boring, but it introduced some cool things, like amazing reveal trailers (remember when Ike, Wolf, Olimar... were announced in a small update in the Dojo website?), competitive versions for all stages and edge-stealing.

 

[Ehoavash]

I had a love hate relationship with it..

Loved the online, probably played 500 hours of it online on Wii u

Single player just like ultimate, was trash

But it gave us cloud, Megaman etc Soo so good

 

[Deleted member 23212]

But... everyone is there?

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I guess someone was a big Black Yoshi fan.

 

[Jack Frost]

For Glory is the only thing I miss. But that 2 minute limit was terrible for 2v2.

 

[Tarot Deck]

i liked less than Brawl because of the lack of single player content.

But I've never been into really into Smash until Ultimate and I am loving it way too much.
Its the fighting scene I am watching the most ( SFV lost me unfortunately) and I used to be one of those who never cared about Smash as a fighting game.

 

[Doskoi Panda]

I liked it, but I couldn't get my Smash buddies to get into it, they preferred to stick with Melee and Project M. Eventually, I went back to playing Project M, too. Ultimate is soooooo much better than 4 was.