Inside the office conference room, after listening to Chen Xu explain the concept behind this brand-new game, everyone more or less understood what he meant.
That was, Super Smash Bros. needed both an extremely high skill ceiling and an extremely low barrier to entry.
First came its floor: even players who knew absolutely nothing about Fighting Games needed to be able to enjoy themselves freely in the game.
Just like its name suggested: Super Smash Bros.
Up to eight players could play solo or in teams, with the entire experience focused squarely on entertainment.
The incredibly simple move inputs would not require players to practice them repeatedly. They only needed to try them once to understand what each attack did.
Just like the heroes in DOTA.
You would only ask someone what a hero's skill did, not which buttons you needed to press to use it.
With Input Commands removed, the high-level aspects could only emerge through the game's later development.
That was pursuit, built around the game's knockback mechanics!
In Super Smash Bros., what would normally be called combos had been replaced by pursuit. Once players launched an opponent away, they had two choices.
One was to quit while they were ahead; the other was to press their advantage and pursue.
There was nothing to say about quitting while ahead. But for skilled players, pressing the attack was crucial.
Each character in Super Smash Bros. had four Specials, eight ground moves, and five aerial moves. That meant players needed to piece those moves together into combinations.
Moreover, Super Smash Bros.' maps differed from those of ordinary Fighting Games. Rather than simply extending horizontally from left to right, they expanded dynamically, meaning the air would become a primary battlefield and add another layer of uncertainty to every match.
The shared