Did Nintendo Intentionally Limit the Features in the 3DS Smash Bros. to Make the Wii U One Seem Better to Sell More Wii U's?

[Nz17]

I hate to say it, but as an owner of the Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS game, I feel that the 3DS version was intentionally gimped to make the Wii U version look better in comparison. Some things I understand being Wii U-only, like the 5-8 person multi-player matches, HD graphics, NFC figurines (for now until New 3DS arrives and/or the original 3DS gets a separate NFC accessory), and the Wii U GamePad stuff; but other things like the lack of the "board game" mode for 3DS, and the missing local multi-player for many of the modes not being in the 3DS one when they are in the Wii U one are B.S. I mean, this game plays great when playing online with multiple people, and even better when playing locally via wireless with a group. So there is no logical argument for multi-player being only available for Smash mode, Team mode (2v2), and 1v1 mode.

I believe that this was done intentionally to get the 3DS version out nearly two months sooner than the Wii U version to double-dip on sales. That way, without all the modes available for online and offline multi-player, development could stop on the 3DS game sooner to publish it sooner, and its condition makes the Wii U release look better in comparison with its exclusive modes and features. It's a win-win for Nintendo, and a loss for anyone who bought the 3DS release hoping for feature parity. That's why Nintendo waited for initial sales of the 3DS version to die down before revealing what was so good about the Wii U release with its "50 Facts" video. That information makes the 3DS one look like junk when shown side-by-side!

I mean, of the two consoles, I only own a 3DS right now - but even so, once I learnt what was going to be in the Wii U release, I was downright miffed! So much of that could have easily, EASILY been in the 3DS game. I know the Wii U is struggling in sales (or at least, that's what everyone keeps saying), so Nintendo needs to make the Wii U look good and sell well. But to do so by gimping the 3DS release to make the Wii U one look better in comparison is just wrong.

[Tanooki]

I agree with you and see no reason to repeat everything as it is everything there that's wrong about it. I have it, sealed, got it in a weird situation at a store with credit I had no use for for $6. This was a month ago at least, and the more I see people dump on it I just don't make time for it, then again much time for anything other than games on my laptop lately. Maybe Black Friday will turn it around with some sales hype and I'll unwrap it as I don't see a good reason to ditch it.

[kupomogli]

Same here. I was never planning on getting the 3DS version since there was always going to be a Wii U version of it, but with all of Nintendo's announcements prior to the 3DS release, they made it seem like the 3DS and the Wii U version were going to have the same content except for the one mode that they were include additionally on the 3DS version. Then a month later they released 50 reasons to get the Wii U version of Super Smash Bros, but how the video turned out, they may as well have renamed it to 50 reasons to get the Wii U version of Smash Bros over that shitty 3DS version. I didn't own the 3DS version, but felt as if it'd been a major slap in the face to those who did.

Three times as much music, ability to change the menu music, home run mode, the board game, coin mode, reverse % mode(turns it into a regular fighting game,) and others I can't remember off the top of my head.

The amount of additions that were done were pretty ridiculous in size and I doubt they completed all that in a matter of a month. Imo, they sold the 3DS two months earlier because there are more 3DS out there to sell more copies and knew a lot of people who got the 3DS version might just ignore the Wii U version simply because they have a version with the same amount of content. The two months delay is less to work on extra content and more to make sure they get everyone who's interested to buy the 3DS version prior to the Wii U version, and they won't get bored of the game in two months so once the Wii U version comes out they'll be more inclined to double dip, especially with the amount of content added to it.

Very scummy of Nintendo, but that's Nintendo for you. I own their consoles but I dislike Nintendo for reasons like this. I've always felt the company has been super greedy and pulls subtle crap like this that a lot of the die hards won't notice, fall for it, and then defend Nintendo on all of the time.

[Rickstilwell1]

Yeah for me it is basically why I almost never buy games anywhere near the time they come out. There is always something better around the corner to drive down demand and value of the previous entry.

[Tanooki]

Well I don't feel screwed but I only put $6 into it and it's still sealed. The thing is the WiiU is more or less a dead system aside from the first party trickle which is sad so I don't see buying it on there. I really didn't back when they were lying, but now I can see the $20 greater price adding that value. It's kind of a cockpunching but at the same time not just because it's a portable game too for when you're on the go, not so much as a primary version despite they made it appear that way. Anyone apologizing for this needs to just stop if they are as it's too obvious. I really need to unwrap or sell the game that's for certain, but I have so many other games in the way at this rate even after so much selling off it's not a priority and the WiiU is the least priority to me at all behind steam/gog.com games, then the PS4 and 3DS because they get stuff I want to use.

Maybe I should sell the WiiU to nz17? Haha It's brand new with a warranty since I got a replacement when their 5.2 update broke my original.

[Nz17]

Three times as much music, ability to change the menu music, home run mode, the board game, coin mode, reverse % mode(turns it into a regular fighting game,) and others I can't remember off the top of my head.

Whoa, now hold on there, cowboy.

• True
• False - the menu music for the 3DS version can be changed in the sound test/music library section of the game
• False - Home Run mode is included in the 3DS version
• True
• False - "coin modes" are in the 3DS version
• False - the "health bar" option, and many other versus options, are available in the 3DS version and all versions of Smash

Maybe I should sell the WiiU to nz17? Haha It's brand new with a warranty since I got a replacement when their 5.2 update broke my original.

Oh yeah right. At this point in my life, the only way that would happen is if you were willing to sell it to me for $25 including shipping.

[The Adventurer]

Keep in mind a couple things, its my understanding that the 3DS and Wii U use completely different architecture so its not really easy to port content from one to the other directly. To do so takes a lot of work. So by developing a Wii U and a 3DS title at the same time you're actually developing two completely different games.

It's completely understandable in that case that the Wii U version got the bulk of development time, while the 3DS version had to have corners cut. Particularly in singleplayer content. I'm sure if porting the content from one hardware to another was easy. They would have done it.


Though it doesn't quite explain the lack of music, as its my understanding that there's a good gig of unused storage space on the 3DS release. Maybe there are storage space concerns for downloadable games?

[Nz17]

Unless the game was written all in assembly code (which it wasn't) or they were using a lot of hardware-specific performance tricks, porting would not be a problem. And if they were going from 3DS to Wii U, then all the 3DS performance tricks could be dropped because they wouldn't be needed on Wii U. And I might even be tempted to want to give Nintendo and its internal development group Sora the benefit of the doubt, if not for the functionality needed for a lot of these things being in place in the 3DS version already.

Online multiplayer with up to four players?
-Check
Local wireless multiplayer with up to four players including humans and AI bots?
-Check
Are almost all of the modes available in the Wii U version also available in the 3DS version?
-Check
Could these contents and functions be mixed and matched to produce the missing features and multiplayer options? -Check
Are they?
-Uncheck

So unless this is a case where the plan is, "Push out the 3DS version, then we'll finish the Wii U version, then we'll go back and patch in the missing/incomplete features into the 3DS version," I'm thinking we were definitely short-changed. I'm almost tempted to say that I'd pay for a $10 DLC patch to add in the missing features... or even better, that I would have paid $50 instead of $40 for it to have been done in the first place with the original physical release. But not only do I doubt they will do this in any form, but we shouldn't be expected to pay that much for a 3DS game: the development costs for these are much cheaper than for games for television-connected consoles.

[ZP3]

I'm not really sure if we should be holding a handheld game to the same standards as a full, home console experience.

[Nz17]

I'm not really sure if we should be holding a handheld game to the same standards as a full, home console experience.

See, this double standard is part of the problem. Just because a game is made for a less powerful handheld console, people tend to give a game's shortfalls a pass. But there is no good technical reason that these games cannot be as capable at delivering fully featured, rich gaming experiences to people as the bigger consoles.

Today's handhelds are much more powerful than yesteryear's television consoles, and they can even use gigabytes of space for a single game! Listen to how good 3DS, Vita, and PSP games sound when you use high-quality external speakers or headphones. Look at how good the PSP, PSV, and 3DS games look when displayed on high resolution video screens - for example, in professional video reviews, promotional trailers released by Nintendo and other game companies, and of course, the impressive work of the PSP emulator community, as well as the PlayStation (Vita) TV. For crying out loud, half of the PSP's library (and more and more of the PSV's library) were ports from other home consoles! And there is nothing lesser about these releases compared to their original counterparts except for, perhaps, their screen resolutions.

[ZeroCool]

I'm not really sure if we should be holding a handheld game to the same standards as a full, home console experience.

This times a million. Its like comparing a PSP to a PS3 not that drastically but similar.

[Tanooki]

I have to admit, he's right, holding a handheld, even one as good as the 3DS is to the same standard as a console is a bit of a stretch. They're meant for quick pick up and play/shut down -- gaming on the go and those with limited time. For that, Smash does the 3DS well. Sure it could have had more, but it wasn't needed and would have diluted some WiiU sales for that dying system.

[ZP3]

See, this double standard is part of the problem. Just because a game is made for a less powerful handheld console, people tend to give a game's shortfalls a pass. But there is no good technical reason that these games cannot be as capable at delivering fully featured, rich gaming experiences to people as the bigger consoles.

Today's handhelds are much more powerful than yesteryear's television consoles, and they can even use gigabytes of space for a single game! Listen to how good 3DS, Vita, and PSP games sound when you use high-quality external speakers or headphones. Look at how good the PSP, PSV, and 3DS games look when displayed on high resolution video screens - for example, in professional video reviews, promotional trailers released by Nintendo and other game companies, and of course, the impressive work of the PSP emulator community, as well as the PlayStation (Vita) TV. For crying out loud, half of the PSP's library (and more and more of the PSV's library) were ports from other home consoles! And there is nothing lesser about these releases compared to their original counterparts except for, perhaps, their screen resolutions.

I guess I never really saw what was so restrictive or limited about the 3DS version of smash; there were the exact same amount of characters, an entirely new selection of stages, great online features, and a game mode that wasn't included in the Wii U release. I'm sorry to sound brash OP, but it seems like you are bitching about stuff, like 8 player smash, that isn't really even possible given the specs of the 3DS.

[Lothars]

I guess I never really saw what was so restrictive or limited about the 3DS version of smash; there were the exact same amount of characters, an entirely new selection of stages, great online features, and a game mode that wasn't included in the Wii U release. I'm sorry to sound brash OP, but it seems like you are bitching about stuff, like 8 player smash, that isn't really even possible given the specs of the 3DS.

I don't think he is, Smash 3ds feels like half the game that smash wii u is and maybe that was always the case, it's still dissapointing.

[Tanooki]

Its only half the game if you wish yourself to see it that way. The problem is that they dual released them. Had they even a year apart few if any would be complaining. The added fluff modes on the WiiU game just justify the added price.

[ZP3]

I don't think he is, Smash 3ds feels like half the game that smash wii u is and maybe that was always the case, it's still dissapointing.

What is missing that makes it feel like half the game? Just curious...

[Tanooki]

WiiU just has more play modes like a board game mode among a few others. 3DS has just a few modes, even if some of it is unique. The WiiU game has more audio tracks as well supposedly, but ultimately they both have the same character roster.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

This times a million. Its like comparing a PSP to a PS3 not that drastically but similar.

I agree also, the PSP is definately a great console, I play mine a lot, but the PS3 is just more powerful. Now, the PSP was released almost 2 years before the PS3, but there's still no question the PS3 does things the PSP just can't. I'd compare the capacities of the PSP more to the PS2, lotsa the ported games on the PSP were PS2 games, and even then I'm willing to bet the PS2 is capable of more then the PSP. I mean it's definately a great system and has great graphics but the PSP does not rival the capacities of the home consoles of its day.

With that said, I'm gonna go play Loco Roco.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

A good test would be to see how the remote play for the PSP to PS3 actually works, I've never done it. I haven't tried the PS4 to PS vita compatibilty to see how games compare but I suspect Metal Gear Solid 5 does not look as crisp on the Vita.

[kupomogli]

^But PSP and Vita titles were never different than their PS2 and PS3 counterparts.

The only game that's releasing cross platform that has more content is Tearaway. The PS4 version has 50% more content than the Vita version, but one major difference is the Vita and PS4 versions weren't developed side by side and released two months apart in order to sucker the fanbase out of more sales. The PS4 version wasn't originally planned and is releasing atleast a year and a half later.