The Ice Climbers: A theory on why they were excluded from Smash for 3DS/WiiU
I've got both versions of the latest Smash game. They are both so SO fucking good. When I found out that a version was coming out for the 3DS, I couldn't believe it. I was beyond ecstatic. After Brawl came out, I had spent hours upon hours playing the ever-loving shit out of it. Then I thought about how great it'd be if a Smash-on the go was made. Sure some restrictions should be considered, but who cares? My dream came true in the form of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS!!
In terms of mechanics and stability, it's not exactly like how I expected it to be, but it's still pretty damn impressive. There had to be limitations in order to make the controls and gameplay work and feel like a Smash Bros. game. These limitations included:
- Having a fixed item rate.
- Having only one Poke ball out at once.
- Having Pokemon and Assist Trophy character's running at a lower frame rate. (30fps as opposed to 60fps)
That last one had me thinking about some of the playable characters. If you notice, not every character has an element that runs as smoothly as they should be. Rosalina & Luma are good. Duck Hunt are good. Olimar? Not entirely. If you pay close attention, the animation on his Pikmin looks very rough compared to the actual character. But the Pikmin are basically nothing more than an extension of Olimar's moveset, which is probably why most don't notice it. And up to three of them can be on screen at once. Which brings me to the beloved Ice Climbers.
Here's what I think: The Ice Climbers were working in the Nintendo 3DS. The moved like the Ice Climbers, played like the Ice Climbers, and it felt like you were really playing as them. BUT...due to the hardware restrictions, they were forced to run at only 30fps. Playing as characters running at a slower frame rate than everyone and everything else on screen would've been hard to watch. The Ice Climbers would have been animated just like the Pikmin.
I think the reason why it was so much more difficult for the Ice Climbers than it was for the other three tag-team characters was Popo and Nana played exactly like each other. One wasn't a tool (like the Pikmin) or an extension (like Luma and the Duck) of the main character's moveset, they are literally the same thing with the same moves. Having two characters that played exactly like each in one character slot must've been a big problem for the 3DS. Unfortunately, this problem wasn't conquered and it led to their absence.
Even though I applaud the developers for making the gameplay in both versions very consistent so no one gets screwed over, I still wish there was some way for the duo to come back. I don't really play them that much anyways, but still. They're so goddamn cute.
So that's it for my pointless mumbling. Do you guys miss the Ice Climbers? Or Wolf? Or Lucas? I miss using Lucas...
Comments
Yeah, Sakurai directly confirmed the Ice Climbers were cut because of 3DS limitations. Since the characters were not relevant in any recent series, the development team had less incentive to figure out a way to make Ice Climbers work on the 3DS. Also, I personally imagine that the 8 player mode on the WiiU version also caused some problems, but I don't know if Sakurai ever said that much.