Intro
Ok I know what you are thinking ! "It is about time Capcom entered the 2D Party Fighter genre!" right ? No ? "holy shit this OP is so wall of text that even has an intro give me art" ? ok ... if you don't want to read or discuss anything about how capcom can make an awesome game that will sell like hotcakes, than jump to the last part of the post that said Give Me Art.
Now fasten your seat-belts because the ride will belong awesome because I am thinking way to much of this really want something like this to happen =D
Why ?
There are basically 2 companies that I think can make a Smash Bros style game and be awesome : SEGA and Capcom. But SEGA is printing money and already crossover their IPs in awesome casual focused games like Sonic Kart Transformed. Capcom is not exactly that good financially and they practically invented the more casual focused crossover fighter with Pocket Fighter (yes, Fighters Megamix was released earlier in some regions but it was an AM2 crossover, not a sega one. It didn't had SONIC for god's sake!).
Casual focused fighters are making rivers of money. The mobile fighter genre is incredibly popular and even games like Playstation All Star Battle Royale (which was BAD) and Smash Bros 4 WiiU (which was on a console that sold worst than the Vita) sold A LOT. Like "more than SFV" a lot. With this game Capcom not only can make a game like it, with brand recognition to match, and it can release on Switch, a console that is selling a lot and have a history that any nintendo-like game will sell a lot, and the PS4, a console that already sold a lot. And it can cost almost nothing compared to SFV and MvC:I (no licensing deals yaaay). AND it can work as an ad platform for future Capcom titles for an audience that would probably don't care that much about it because they are always dark and gritty and mature. It is a win win win win situation. Hell it is so perfect that they even had their own "+" shaped symbol to represent the crossover !
The basics 1 : The Graphics
If there is one thing that anyone that ever went to The Cutting Room Floor pages for smash knows that smash bros is basically reused content : the game.
And this is good. Reusing models to make trophies and stages is awesome considering you get a reference to a game AND you cut the costs. Specially good if you use mostly the same engine across most games like Capcom's Framework.
Which reminds me, there is a mobile game released some time ago called Puzzle Fighter. I propose that like the CPS2 game that predated Pocket Fighter, much of the assets can be interchangeable.
"But Platy those models are UGLY"
To which I reply "oh god yes". My personal choice would be to remodel the characters for a more simplistic poly count (specially making the faces more cute, with less details of face shape and bigger eyes).... BUT an easier choice would be simply adding some Cell Shading effects ! Here is a basic mock up :
->
See ? somehow better, specially if you consider that in the Puzzle Fighter game, the models are zoomed in and immovable. Party fighters are chaotic and most of the time you will be watching like 4 players on a small size, as this crap gif demonstrates :
AND with this you can easily port characters for both games .. so it is like you are making 2 DLCs for the price of one ! =D
The Basics 2 : Mechanics
Playstation All Star Battle Royal failed in lots of points, but besides having the ugliest menu EVER the biggest one was trying so much to recreate the wheel. Look at the soulslike games : don't be afraid to copy what works.
Since you are capcom than you will probably copy Smash Bros Meele's engine than Smash Bros 4's since it has more EVO potential (and this is good, as long as you keep your primary focus on casuals). But I propose a small change that will both make it more Capcom like AND fix one of my biggest problems with Smash controls : You don't need 2 jump buttons. So behold my fix :
Change a jump button so you can have a KICK button ! I propose the default configuration to be the Triangle button because it makes casuals who are just starting the game to focus more on one normal punch when they are learning. And for the initiated, it would be an interesting introduction to the 6 button layout of most capcom fighters. For those who don't know much smash, you can have basically 3 variations of punch :
So with both kick and punch and the wonders of button configuration which is something every game needs, you can have a default 6 button layout in your arcade stick if you are a pro. While most casuals can probably just use L and the smash attack, which is default to the R Stick
I personally would suggest an arcade stick configuration of
Since it is closer to the Versus series with main 2 buttons and you have an easier special button for uses when the regular motion (remember Ryu in smash 4 ?) is not needed and because tap jump sux. Feel free to change punch and kick places.
Which reminds me .... the great thing about this is that Nintendo themselves already adapted Ryu AND Megaman for you. I would personally extend the "you can press B to hadouken but doing the half circle motion is slightly more powerful" to every character so that your filthy pro players can have their fun showing the mastery of controls as well (and allow the 6 button with only punch and kick arcade configuration to be viable). And to make the SFV crowd happy, make the input to be Street Fighter 3 precise because i don't want to give a hadouken randomly when I am button mashing =P
Comeback mechanics can be cool, but more of a super bar that takes a while to fill than overkill smash ball. Can be activated by Special+Punch for Super 1 or Special+Kick for Super 2. Less powerful than smash ball style supers.
Also, as Sakurai himself said : Unbalance is FUN.
Don't spend much time and money balancing it. Just look at any meele tourney. It is basically Fox Falco Peach Jigglypuff Marth Roy and everyone else is shit. This works for the meele pro crowd and works WONDERS for the casual people who love to play 4x4 with itens on. Being unbalanced makes for hilarious couch fun !
A more unbalanced party fighter is perfect for casuals AND cheaper !
Single Player Modes
This one is IMPORTANT.
No need to spend lots of bucks on story mode with lots of voice actors, we are on a budget here !
I propose a few variations :
Arcade Mode
I know, shocking. Make the classic Alpha 3 version of fight a few people (regular rules of the game), a rival (can be the franchise's final boss or main character if you are playing as a villain) than boss. I personally recommend the main ship from Vulgus (Capcom's first videogame) to replace Master Hand. Can move flying, hard to hit, lots of lasers and can summon enemies from that game for cool patterns that you need to avoid.
Ok that is basic. Now lets go for another type of single player (and by single player I mean that every of those modes should also be able to be played in coop dramatic battle style) : Franchise recognition.
Fighting Game Mode
No items, Ryu only, Final destination.
This is the classic fighting game mode. "Omega mode" style stages only, no itens and HP instead of %. Probably ends in the rival fight. See ? you changed basically nothing of the arcade mode and now you have a completly new mode ! =D
As a bonus, after you release more characters you can even make a Street Fighter or Darkstalkers version of this mode where either the enemies or anything you can choose can only come from those games. New mode if you have like 6 characters from a franchise yaay
Megaman Mode
No itens, HP mode, Cage match
You select who you will fight but there is a catch : you will only be able to play as a megaman main character (zero/megaman/bass/etc) AND you start without specials. Defeat a character, you can choose one of their Specials to put on your character Since in the pocket fighter mobile game all characters follow the same height and skeleton, it should not be harder to move swap to megaman. You basically only animation job is adapting stuff from characters like Amaterasu and random Rathalos. "But megaman will be broken if people choose the right stuff" and that is ok because it is a versus PC mode !
Beat em up style mode
Basically fighting polygon team, but the map is very horizontal and made from assets of other stages. Like make a very horizontal stage with assets from city like stages (final fight, street fighter, rival schools, resident evil), a stage with assets from stages from medieval japan (onimusha, okami) and sci fi (megaman, star gladiator, cyberbots) .. enemies can be either fighting polygon team style of one texture of other fighters or even enemies summoned by other characters like zombies from the resident people and raptors for regina's moveset. At the end of the stage, a fight against an actual character, Meele adventure mode style
The Characters
This is where it gets fun and where I need you !
Actually you can post a discussion on any mechanic gameplay and mode I said, but this is where you get art !
oh wait lets call your attention...
Give me Art
"So Platy when can I ask you to draw Regina ?"
The deal is simple, Jawmuncher : You create the character moveset (AT LEAST the specials like B, -> B, vB and ^B) and I will draw that capcom character you created in the style of these 2 :
How about that ? =D
You can also discuss everything I said before, saying that I am crazy or creating new crazy ideas ... but I will only draw your favorite capcom character if you at least give this character special moves.
Create a moveset for a CAPCOM character -> I will draw said character in the style above
Please avoid repeats with the same moves, so bearded ryu is sadly a no no, but I don't know, Insect Armor Megaman Exe or Evil Ryu are ok because they can be considered new fighters. If you are thinking regular morrigan deserves a different moveset than classic sprite morrigan than you have to make a good argument about it =P
Here is an example that probably nobody will ask :
Character : Vulgus Ship
(reference image helps, but is not needed)
Because the final boss needs to have a playable form
B - Double Lasers (stop on impact)
>B - Missile (more powerfull, don't stop on impact, needs recharging)
vB - Trow the shuriken like enemy to both sides. Low damage but great area and slightly follows the enemies
^B - Rocket powered jump, creating fire and damaging on the way up
and then I will draw a playable not "flying around boss" version of it:
Are we good ? Lets the discussion, wishlisting an character ideas begins ! =D
Ok I know what you are thinking ! "It is about time Capcom entered the 2D Party Fighter genre!" right ? No ? "holy shit this OP is so wall of text that even has an intro give me art" ? ok ... if you don't want to read or discuss anything about how capcom can make an awesome game that will sell like hotcakes, than jump to the last part of the post that said Give Me Art.
Now fasten your seat-belts because the ride will be
Why ?
There are basically 2 companies that I think can make a Smash Bros style game and be awesome : SEGA and Capcom. But SEGA is printing money and already crossover their IPs in awesome casual focused games like Sonic Kart Transformed. Capcom is not exactly that good financially and they practically invented the more casual focused crossover fighter with Pocket Fighter (yes, Fighters Megamix was released earlier in some regions but it was an AM2 crossover, not a sega one. It didn't had SONIC for god's sake!).
Casual focused fighters are making rivers of money. The mobile fighter genre is incredibly popular and even games like Playstation All Star Battle Royale (which was BAD) and Smash Bros 4 WiiU (which was on a console that sold worst than the Vita) sold A LOT. Like "more than SFV" a lot. With this game Capcom not only can make a game like it, with brand recognition to match, and it can release on Switch, a console that is selling a lot and have a history that any nintendo-like game will sell a lot, and the PS4, a console that already sold a lot. And it can cost almost nothing compared to SFV and MvC:I (no licensing deals yaaay). AND it can work as an ad platform for future Capcom titles for an audience that would probably don't care that much about it because they are always dark and gritty and mature. It is a win win win win situation. Hell it is so perfect that they even had their own "+" shaped symbol to represent the crossover !
The basics 1 : The Graphics
If there is one thing that anyone that ever went to The Cutting Room Floor pages for smash knows that smash bros is basically reused content : the game.
And this is good. Reusing models to make trophies and stages is awesome considering you get a reference to a game AND you cut the costs. Specially good if you use mostly the same engine across most games like Capcom's Framework.
Which reminds me, there is a mobile game released some time ago called Puzzle Fighter. I propose that like the CPS2 game that predated Pocket Fighter, much of the assets can be interchangeable.
"But Platy those models are UGLY"
To which I reply "oh god yes". My personal choice would be to remodel the characters for a more simplistic poly count (specially making the faces more cute, with less details of face shape and bigger eyes).... BUT an easier choice would be simply adding some Cell Shading effects ! Here is a basic mock up :
See ? somehow better, specially if you consider that in the Puzzle Fighter game, the models are zoomed in and immovable. Party fighters are chaotic and most of the time you will be watching like 4 players on a small size, as this crap gif demonstrates :
AND with this you can easily port characters for both games .. so it is like you are making 2 DLCs for the price of one ! =D
The Basics 2 : Mechanics
Playstation All Star Battle Royal failed in lots of points, but besides having the ugliest menu EVER the biggest one was trying so much to recreate the wheel. Look at the soulslike games : don't be afraid to copy what works.
Since you are capcom than you will probably copy Smash Bros Meele's engine than Smash Bros 4's since it has more EVO potential (and this is good, as long as you keep your primary focus on casuals). But I propose a small change that will both make it more Capcom like AND fix one of my biggest problems with Smash controls : You don't need 2 jump buttons. So behold my fix :
Change a jump button so you can have a KICK button ! I propose the default configuration to be the Triangle button because it makes casuals who are just starting the game to focus more on one normal punch when they are learning. And for the initiated, it would be an interesting introduction to the 6 button layout of most capcom fighters. For those who don't know much smash, you can have basically 3 variations of punch :
So with both kick and punch and the wonders of button configuration which is something every game needs, you can have a default 6 button layout in your arcade stick if you are a pro. While most casuals can probably just use L and the smash attack, which is default to the R Stick
I personally would suggest an arcade stick configuration of
Since it is closer to the Versus series with main 2 buttons and you have an easier special button for uses when the regular motion (remember Ryu in smash 4 ?) is not needed and because tap jump sux. Feel free to change punch and kick places.
Which reminds me .... the great thing about this is that Nintendo themselves already adapted Ryu AND Megaman for you. I would personally extend the "you can press B to hadouken but doing the half circle motion is slightly more powerful" to every character so that your filthy pro players can have their fun showing the mastery of controls as well (and allow the 6 button with only punch and kick arcade configuration to be viable). And to make the SFV crowd happy, make the input to be Street Fighter 3 precise because i don't want to give a hadouken randomly when I am button mashing =P
Comeback mechanics can be cool, but more of a super bar that takes a while to fill than overkill smash ball. Can be activated by Special+Punch for Super 1 or Special+Kick for Super 2. Less powerful than smash ball style supers.
Also, as Sakurai himself said : Unbalance is FUN.
Don't spend much time and money balancing it. Just look at any meele tourney. It is basically Fox Falco Peach Jigglypuff Marth Roy and everyone else is shit. This works for the meele pro crowd and works WONDERS for the casual people who love to play 4x4 with itens on. Being unbalanced makes for hilarious couch fun !
A more unbalanced party fighter is perfect for casuals AND cheaper !
Single Player Modes
This one is IMPORTANT.
No need to spend lots of bucks on story mode with lots of voice actors, we are on a budget here !
I propose a few variations :
Arcade Mode
I know, shocking. Make the classic Alpha 3 version of fight a few people (regular rules of the game), a rival (can be the franchise's final boss or main character if you are playing as a villain) than boss. I personally recommend the main ship from Vulgus (Capcom's first videogame) to replace Master Hand. Can move flying, hard to hit, lots of lasers and can summon enemies from that game for cool patterns that you need to avoid.
Ok that is basic. Now lets go for another type of single player (and by single player I mean that every of those modes should also be able to be played in coop dramatic battle style) : Franchise recognition.
Fighting Game Mode
No items, Ryu only, Final destination.
This is the classic fighting game mode. "Omega mode" style stages only, no itens and HP instead of %. Probably ends in the rival fight. See ? you changed basically nothing of the arcade mode and now you have a completly new mode ! =D
As a bonus, after you release more characters you can even make a Street Fighter or Darkstalkers version of this mode where either the enemies or anything you can choose can only come from those games. New mode if you have like 6 characters from a franchise yaay
Megaman Mode
No itens, HP mode, Cage match
You select who you will fight but there is a catch : you will only be able to play as a megaman main character (zero/megaman/bass/etc) AND you start without specials. Defeat a character, you can choose one of their Specials to put on your character Since in the pocket fighter mobile game all characters follow the same height and skeleton, it should not be harder to move swap to megaman. You basically only animation job is adapting stuff from characters like Amaterasu and random Rathalos. "But megaman will be broken if people choose the right stuff" and that is ok because it is a versus PC mode !
Beat em up style mode
Basically fighting polygon team, but the map is very horizontal and made from assets of other stages. Like make a very horizontal stage with assets from city like stages (final fight, street fighter, rival schools, resident evil), a stage with assets from stages from medieval japan (onimusha, okami) and sci fi (megaman, star gladiator, cyberbots) .. enemies can be either fighting polygon team style of one texture of other fighters or even enemies summoned by other characters like zombies from the resident people and raptors for regina's moveset. At the end of the stage, a fight against an actual character, Meele adventure mode style
The Characters
This is where it gets fun and where I need you !
Actually you can post a discussion on any mechanic gameplay and mode I said, but this is where you get art !
oh wait lets call your attention...
Give me Art
"So Platy when can I ask you to draw Regina ?"
The deal is simple, Jawmuncher : You create the character moveset (AT LEAST the specials like B, -> B, vB and ^B) and I will draw that capcom character you created in the style of these 2 :
How about that ? =D
You can also discuss everything I said before, saying that I am crazy or creating new crazy ideas ... but I will only draw your favorite capcom character if you at least give this character special moves.
Create a moveset for a CAPCOM character -> I will draw said character in the style above
Please avoid repeats with the same moves, so bearded ryu is sadly a no no, but I don't know, Insect Armor Megaman Exe or Evil Ryu are ok because they can be considered new fighters. If you are thinking regular morrigan deserves a different moveset than classic sprite morrigan than you have to make a good argument about it =P
Here is an example that probably nobody will ask :
Character : Vulgus Ship
(reference image helps, but is not needed)
Because the final boss needs to have a playable form
B - Double Lasers (stop on impact)
>B - Missile (more powerfull, don't stop on impact, needs recharging)
vB - Trow the shuriken like enemy to both sides. Low damage but great area and slightly follows the enemies
^B - Rocket powered jump, creating fire and damaging on the way up
and then I will draw a playable not "flying around boss" version of it:
Are we good ? Lets the discussion, wishlisting an character ideas begins ! =D
:origin()/pre00/f018/th/pre/i/2015/176/c/6/sengoku_basara_x_kenshin_x_kasuga_by_hes6789-d8ypm3k.png)
