Your Friend Who Likes Games

Prior to now, any time I had played any version of Super Smash Bros., it was in a setting that included other players who all had some sort of idea what they were doing when playing. It has always been that franchise that I never had the time or opportunity to be with on my own – until now.

A good friend of mine lent me his copy of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. To this point, I’ve played a little over 10 hours and near 200 fights of it, leading to a bit of temporary burnout that hopefully won’t taint this post too much. I hope to celebrate the good but also be critical of why I’m hitting a wall. Though, I have an early hunch, and I’ll start with just one word: more.

But I don’t want to forget how thankful I have been for this opportunity. I got to play the game at my own place and in my own way for a bit. I didn’t have to enter an intimidating space in which I’m the only one who doesn’t understand how to play. I can now identify with what my experience with the Super Smash Bros. franchise is thus far.

First off, I love that Sakurai games begin with an epic anime-esque intro cinematic that brings emotion and sets the stage for the game. We see the same flavor in Kirby Air Riders as we do in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. I appreciated here the lyric, ‘search your soul and re-awake any undying light.’ I can connect to these parts of games maybe as deeply as the creators intended. Not only do we find similarities in intro cinematics, but in presentation as well between the aforementioned games. Sakurai influence stays.

And with the fact that Masahiro Sakurai is the creator of both the Kirby and Smash Bros. franchises, Kirby becomes the main character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Kirby is the ‘one who survives’ the attack of the light in the adventure mode, and is the fighter you start with. And I’m here to tell ya, he has been the fighter I stayed with.

That might very much be a rookie thing to say, but when it comes to Smash Bros., that’s exactly what I am. I can’t give up the multi-jump float. I never had an issue getting knocked off the edge, and with my deep dive into the Kirby discography this year, he felt familiar to play with. Kirby, for me, served as a bridge into a video game franchise that had always felt intimidating. And I’d say I found success.

I played a decent amount of the Adventure mode on Hard difficulty, and it made me feel good to achieve victory in fights without really getting stuck on any of them. Made me feel like I finally understood what the game wanted me to understand. When I felt confident or started desiring variety, I’d try out one of the characters I had unlocked, and would fail quickly. The closest prospects of other characters I may use in the future are Samus and Fox. I enjoy the ability to shoot from a distance. Kirby can’t do that :p

You may call me closed-minded here, sure, but most times I use a character other than Kirby, the game can feel foreign again. That certainly didn’t feel good so I chose to stop chasing it. I’ve stuck with Kirby for my first 10 hours of play. But I challenged myself in this mental pattern, and tried to pinpoint what the motivation is to use other characters is. I’d like to think it would be to see all that the game has to offer, and I still may do that someday, but… I think the real motivation to try out and play with other characters is: to get better, and to see what characters you are best at using. And that statement alone has big-time social implications. Why would one want to get better at Smash Bros.? To beat other players.

I’ve had no problem competing against the CPU using Kirby and rode that wave for a while. The next, bigger challenge, would be to play online, and I entered with an open mind. I’d say I did as good as I expected to. I competed in some matches, others I couldn’t get a hit in, and overall I concluded that I don’t really have a motivation to ‘get good.’ At least not in a manner that meets the demand of a social competition.

Unfortunately, in my brain, this is where the cultural train for the Super Smash franchise feels a bit far past me and I don’t feel motivated to run in order to catch up to it. Getting good in order to compete against and beat others isn’t quite enough of a motivation for me to ‘train.’ I also don’t think it was my goal from the start. I wanted to see this game franchise away from other social pressure that comes along with it. And I think I did 🙂

Before I leave this section I’d like to solidify why I may lack the motivation to be good. I think it’s simply that I lack a social context that requires me to be good. The friend who lent me the game is the only person I know in my personal life that plays, and I already know he’s better than me. I submit. People online more than likely have been playing this game since 2018. White flag. Now, if I had 3 roommates that all played? Of course I’d be working my way toward honing in on a few mains I’d feel confident taking them all on with dependent on the situation. But I live with wife and baby, and I’m the only person in the house interested in video games (for now – to be determined what baby eventually will be into). So this playthrough of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, like all games I play, was through an individual lens.

But wait, there’s something else to unpack…

I think another factor in my relationship to this game has to be addressed. I was prompted to think of it during my playthrough and really want to attempt to reflect on it here: ownership. I have a bit of hipster mindset when it comes to anything popular. If I didn’t get to it first, or have an understanding of something before others, I either act too cool for it or completely avoid it. I admittedly have a hard time with shared experience. Or maybe deeper than that, trust in others. It’s an insecurity I often fight. I often like to have space to see and think of things myself before culture tells me what it is. So when a friend hands me a game and says, ‘the sword characters are really fun to play with,’ ‘stay open-minded and try different characters,’ it’s an expression of ownership of the game’s experience, and I feel like I do it wrong if my experience combats that given premise. I know for certain that’s not at all how he was trying to make me feel, but rather just excited to give a recommendation. I do it to other people all the time, especially with the hundreds of video games I’ve played. I’m sure I can be quite annoying about it. A lot of folks in this online space do it. We like to claim ownership of the experience before someone else does. Again, not what my friend was trying to do, but I think this fear of being told how to experience a game before we get to experience it ourselves is why some of us in this space race to get there and complete it first.

Most individuals with less mental health issues than I can be secure enough to listen to recommendations, maybe take them with a grain of salt, and continue about in the way that they do. And overall, I actually feel like I’ve done that after I’ve swam through this mental bullshit and practiced gratitude instead. I had to check my own BS, and question why a game that I borrowed vs. a game that I purchase warrants a different conversation. Why I intially feel different toward a game lent vs. a game I decide to purchase on my own. If I purchased Super Smash Bros. Ultimate myself, that’d promote a fuller commitment from me with the buy-in. I’d be looking for ways to justify why I love this game I purchased, why I decided to buy it in today’s context, and so on. But instead, I feel that ugly intimidation from a friend that had the experience before me, so my gut-reaction attitude is to be too cool and find a means to an end. Calling it out here to stop my silly mental behavior. Because the truth is I’ve really enjoyed my time with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate after permitting myself to do so, regardless of the cultural context of the game.

I should continue to flip the perspective here too, because there is a lot to celebrate. I’m making a connection with a friend over a game, which should always be a goal. We’ve texting back and forth about tendencies and gameplay styles. And I should celebrate that 2 years ago, I more than likely wouldn’t permit myself to play something that wasn’t brand new. That’s progress.

Back to what I’ve enjoyed 🙂

I love that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a beautiful celebration of Nintendo’s history. Not only does it host a ton of deep cuts in character like Mr. Game and Watch, the Duck Hunt Duo, and the kids from Earthbound, but the equally massive variety in environment make it clear that Sakurai has been given the keys to play with Nintendo IP. It makes me smile to fight in environments with Animal Crossing villager crowds, or an F-Zero race taking place behind my punches. The various styles capture various eras – the early pixel art of Super Mario Brothers vs. the beautiful during-the-fight sunset that happens in a particular Legend of Zelda setting.

Not only are environments visually pleasing, they’re kinesthetically pleasing too. Some environments have action and movement that influence where you need to be in the arena, and provide additional entertainment and novelty to fights.

The fighting-game style and presentation of the game is so unique and badass. It’s exciting to see a character get blasted off the screen. The hyper-zoom freeze frame KO before the final knockout is amazing. The speed of this fighting game that needs to be precise in order to be fair is impressive. I continued to think of how impressive it was that this runs on Switch 1 – obviously looks real good on Switch 2.

I feel like I’ve always known this to be true, but Smash is more complicated than it seems. It’s one of those games where its foundation pitches simple inputs in the How-to-Play, but with its simple entry-to-play and balance of 89 characters makes it more complicated than just button-mashing. While playing, I’ve felt like the game consistently has a conversation with greed. If you just attack attack attack, you continue to open yourself up to get countered and hit in response. The game asks you to be mindful of what your opponent is doing, and be tactical with your timing in when you choose to strike. I don’t need to tell you that it’s a pretty perfect fighting game.

I’ve enjoyed the RPG mask the game’s Adventure mode offers, but it doesn’t do much more than navigating a map to the next fight. I think anything more would get in the way, so that’s not necessarily a knock. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, I should expect to be fighting. A lot. And I have. 200 fights worth. And there’s still plenty more fighting to do and a lot more map to conquer. And that’s where my temporary wall comes into play but let’s not put a nail in the coffin like I’m regularly looking to do with my writing. My brain and my interest in games comes in waves. Sometimes games in my brain need space to breathe in and out. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is too good not to keep visiting.

So far, I’ve tried to learn what the game is trying to show me in the various fighting scenarios presented in the Adventure mode. The wall I have to climb over now (see, not just stopping at it) is one that says stagnant Kirby use is leading to burnout and complacency, and I need to try being open-minded like my friend originally suggested. I need to allow myself to try other characters and see what kind of benefits they can offer in scenarios where Kirby may not be the best choice. I need to permit myself to take breaks and permit myself to have fun. I need to permit myself to try and experiment.

But this equation is always a part of the conversation: Time economy divided by interest in other games equals motivation to keep playing. My interests and what I play are always in flux. We’ll see what I write about next time.

Cheers, thank you for reading,

Your Friend Dillon