I’ve got another article up on GamersWithJobs entitled My Final Destination, where I go over my history with the Super Smash Bros. franchise and my thoughts towards it now.

The funny thing is, now that I’m playing away from all of the elitists, I’m free to actually learn the game’s mechanics for the first time since I was a kid. Not only do I own the game, I have people I can play it with regularly that don’t insult me or trap me with exploits. I’m free to experiment with characters and learn them at my own pace.

Now, every Smash Bros. game is different than its predecessor. Not only are characters cycled in and out, but the classic ones all see a bit of tweaking and modifications. The latest WiiU release takes it a step further: Characters aren’t merely given tweaks, they’ve all been given steroids. Each one has a handful of strikes and punches that carry a big ol’, hefty oomph to the gut. This is a step into making the game more accessible to players, removing that old reliance I – and I imagine many others – once had on using items to knock competitors off stage. Even the most inexperienced of players now has a chance of taking someone out with a well-placed smash attack.

This was actually going to be two articles originally. I thought it was simply too gargantuan to be a single piece and decided I’d split it in half. The editor, however, thought it would work well as a single piece.

While my feelings towards the whole No Items + Final Destination thing has certainly adjusted, I must confess that I think my true attitude towards the matter is a bit more fluid. Sometimes, I want all of the items off. Sometimes I want to play on what are now labeled as Omega stages, where everything is the equivalent of “Final Destination”. Whether I am in the mood for both of these factors is inconsistent as well.

What is most startling about Super Smash Bros. for the WiiU is that, despite the already incredible amount of customization on tap, there is still room for more to be done. I would love nothing more than to create a playlist of stages, set to either default or Omega, so that I can allow the game to randomly select a stage that I prefer. To reduce the frequency of stage opponents such as Ridley or The Yellow Devil, or to even turn them off completely without having to select the Omega variant of the stage.

While Nintendo has certainly begun to implement downloadable content and other network features exceedingly well for many of their titles, I do have to wonder if such major adjustments to the game could ever be patched in. For some titles, the features evolve in such a manner that the game you play a year, two years, five, or even ten down the line is completely different than the game at launch. I know Nintendo will not be releasing patches to adjust the balance of characters, but is Sakurai similarly against modifying other elements of the game with post-release support? What would such support mean since they also have a handheld version of the game? What does the cost/benefit analysis of such a thing even look like?

I imagine I won’t know until the next Nintendo console releases, inevitably seeing another entry in the Smash Bros. franchise.