From what's been pointed out by Sakurai, Samus' charge shot has been greatly improved in both speed and power, she had a couple of new aerials, and her grapple beam's range has been extended. The first few veterans haven't gotten the amount of spotlight the newly revealed ones have, so there's likely quite a few more changes we don't know of. And the fact that the developers aren't averse to changing up veterans this time (Link's new dash attack / up air; Donkey Kong's roll attack) probably means that effort is being made towards making those characters viable.
...Remember that "balance" does not mean "everyone is equally viable". Most fighters are quite balanced, but there are still tier lists. Balanced just means that the range characters fall into is more narrow. If you take the time to actually learn a character, in theory you could win as them a lot.
Last year's EVO SoulCalibur V grand final was won by a Tira player, for example, who is universally considered a bottom tier character.
Anyway, Smash 4 is being developed by the Tekken team at Namco, specifically because they have more experience with fighting games than Sakurai's usual team. I'm sure balance is being considered.
edited 2nd May '14 6:55:33 AM by BadWolf21
Yeah, I know it's probably going to be pretty good about balance. It was just on my mind. And of course I don't expect balance to be perfect. Just better than before would be good. There'll always be some little things that people exploit, but I don't plan to play at a level at which that will become relevant. If it's balanced well enough that, with a decent understanding of the game you still can't clearly say that some characters are just clearly inferior to others, that's a big improvement already. (Unlike, say, the situation with Brawl's heavy hitters. Ganondorf is strong - and not even THAT strong - and literally nothing else, Ike is very strong and has range as well as a good jab, Snake is very strong and has unnecessary range on ridiculously fast and powerful attacks IN ADDITION to the myriad of other stuff that he's SUPPOSED to be about...)
I wonder if Dillon will end up among the most requested bunch of characters for the next game considering how cool looking he is and the fact he would lend himself well to Smash.
Also, am I the only one that think Wonder Red, if he doesn't make it in as playable, should be in as an Assist Trophy?
edited 2nd May '14 8:37:27 AM by KSonik
It'll be a shame if Wonder-Red isn't playable, but an assist trophy would sort of be appreciated. Kind of like a Smash Bros. consolation prize
. Though if Wonder-Red or some permutation of the Wonderful 101 does get a playable slot; Wonder-Bayonetta would be a pretty good choice for assist trophy.
Little out of left field, but... does anyone have an idea of what the Wii Fit Trainer even plays like? She doesn't seem particularly fast, but it would be a little out of character for her to be particularly strong? So she's probably a combo character, I guess.
It would make sense and be kind of funny in a meta sense if they made her take the role of the "balanced character" this game. I understand why that role is always given to Mario, but I'm not sure it quite fits him, at least in respects like jump height. Marth should not be able to compete with him in a jumping competition!
She does have a movie called deep breathing that increases your attack damage. And a movie called sun salutation that you can apparently save for later.
edited 2nd May '14 9:19:32 AM by edvedd
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Makes sense.
Hugging a Vanillite will give you frostbite.People need to pay attention to their spell checkers or else we will have "there", "their" and "they're" having the exact fucking same defenition in the english dictionary in 10 years.
Please donate to the Save The Languages Fund. For every dollar you donate, we will seek out a half illiterate person and Throw the Book at Them. Thank you.
Kill the languages! They're imprecise and connotatively loaded and too many words mean the same thing anyway.
Donate instead to the World Telepathy Fund to support research for exact and universal mind communication.
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Telepathy is an invasion of privacy and only makes people hate one another!
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A hidden secret: using a cheat device to open the debug menu in Super Smash Bros 4 allows you to take control of assist trophies like regular fighters!
They don't have as many attacks, but it's like they made the A list!

Why does ZSS need Power Buff?
edited 2nd May '14 6:24:59 AM by randomness4
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