Nintendo said a while ago that they wouldn’t be changing the balance of Super Smash Bros for the Wii U and 3DS anymore. This might not have been completely accurate, at least in terms of stages.
A brand new patch has just come out for Super Smash Bros for the Wii U, patch 1.0.2. The main addition of this patch is the addition of 15, yes, 15 brand new eight person smash levels. The levels aren’t totally new. Instead they are levels from the original game that have been tweaked in order to accommodate eight players. Many of these stages have been increased in size. In addition, stage hazards have been taken out of many of the eight-player versions.
While this is awesome, players are once again asking why we can’t have 1v1 versions of stages with the stage hazards turned off. The eight-player version of Mario Circuit, for example, doesn’t have cars running through it, and without that hazard it makes for an awesome competitive stage.
Nine of these new stages are “normal” stages, with some stage hazards and platforms. Six, however, are omega stages, allowing for a completely flat field meant for 8 player rumbles. The stages are as follows:
Standard
- Mario Circuit (Brawl)
- Pyrosphere
- Norfair
- Luigi’s Mansion
- Lylat Cruise
- Pokémon Stadium 2
- Town and City
- Smashville
- Wii Fit Studio
Omega
- Mario Galaxy
- Mario Circuit (Brawl)
- The Great Cave Offensive
- Lylat Cruise
- Pokémon Stadium 2
- Animal Crossing: Town and City
Note that all eight-player Smash versions of normal stages have had their stage hazards taken out and several graphical effects turned off. As we explained before, Mario Circuit lacks Shy Guy drivers. As for the other stages, Luigi’s Mansion cannot be destroyed, Pyrosphere has taken out Ridley completely, Norfair has taken out all lava hazards, Lylat Cruise has taken out other ships flying around, Pokemon Stadium 2 does not transition between different arenas, all background characters in Town and City have been removed, all background characters in Smashville have been removed, and the mirrored background in Wii Fit Studio has been removed. All of these changes were made so that the game would not slow down with 8 people on the screen, though they come with the added bonus of taking out hazards for high level play.
Unfortunately, you cannot turn these hazards off manually. They automatically turn off when the number of players on screen is six or higher. If you try to play with only two players, even in eight person Smash mode, they will turn on again. The only way to play 1v1 with hazards off is to start a six person match and cause all characters to self-destruct at the beginning of the match. Once again, this is an example of Nintendo not providing the features that the competitive Smash community desperately wants.
Some users are reporting that balance changes have been made, but since replays have not been affected, this seems unlikely. Nintendo did say that they made adjustments to make the game more fun… whatever that means. Other users are saying that online modes have become less stable. All of these claims are currently unsupported, however.
These updates prove that Nintendo can, in fact, update Smash Bros. if it wants to. What would you like to see Nintendo do to the game? Let us know in the comments.