[~What if Smash was a rhythm game?~]

pleaseputtempoinsmash5pleaseputtempoinsmash5pleasepu.. huh? Oh hey.. didn't see you over there..

Gonna be real for a moment here. I've had this idea in my head for quite some time. But after thinking about it, I thought it could never work. A rhythm based Smash styled fighting game? It seemed impossible, but then I saw two games which had given me the inspiration to give this blog another go.

I couldn't believe either of these games existed! A rouge-like dungeon crawler, and a bullet hell game both based around rhythm and timing! Seeing these developers turn these two genres into music based games, I figured my idea could work after all!

So if it wasn't obvious, most of the stuff you see in this blog will take inspiration from these two games. Because their creators were able to come up with cool gimmicks and concepts for them and I'm basically just hitting Ctrl + C

With that out of the way, let's get composing!!

[○● :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: :musical_note: ●○]

[●○Character Attributes○●]

For this new genre, each weight of characters is gonna need a new play style.

[Lightweights]- Since speed doesn't matter too much with everyone moving in the same rhythm, lightweight characters will have an advantage of moving in between beats. Meaning these characters can move about twice the speed of the normal tempo if they choose to.

[Midweights]- Same as previous Smash titles, midweights will be the generally well rounded characters. They move with rhythm normally and can deal good damage. However, they will have an added bonus of being able to skip beats. Meaning they can perform actions after doing nothing for one beat and performing an action on the next.

[Heavyweights]- Heavyweights will have outstanding attack power, in exchange for limited speed and a longer lasting shield. For the rhythm based movement, limited speed would involve only being allowed to move half the current tempo. Which seems like a bad thing, but then take the next game mechanic into mind.

[●○Multiplier○●]

So, you don't HAVE TO stick to the rhythm. However, this mechanic will greatly encourage players to do so. For keeping attacks, movement, shielding, etc, within the beat of the song each player's multiplier will slowly increase the longer they hold out the streak.

Each player's multiplier starts at 1.0 and will stay that way until several well timed moves are executed. It will then move to 1.1 and slightly increase the damage that player does. The maximum the multiplier will go will be 1.5. Why? So heavyweights don't end up having their entire move set turn into OHKOs.

However, if you accidentally move off the beat, the multiplier will go back down to 1.0, plus whatever action you tried doing will be nullified as punishment.

[●○Stage Difficulty\Songs○●]

I lied earlier , there will be THREE games I take inspiration from. The third of these games being a hidden jem on the 3DS' eShop called Harmoknight. Anybody on the D3 Chat knows about my love for it.

I'm looking at you, "Monarch of Music"...

Anyways, back on topic. Each stage in Harmoknight had two modes. Normal mode, which you play the stage regularly. And Fast mode, which is pretty self explanatory. Since Smash already has an enormous soundtrack, it'd be unwise to just take one song per stage and speed it up.

Each set of songs will divided into three categories. Easy, Moderate, and Fast. Songs like Midna's Lament would fit in Easy, whereas a song like Waluigi's Pinball would go into fast. That way all of our favorite songs can make it in, but everyone can still play at a select pace.

[●○Stage Design○●]

Since movement will be based around rhythm, stage design will have to be more limited, straight, and divided into sections to signal were you will go when you move. This is how movement worked in Necrodancer, and it worked pretty well, but this isn't a dungeon crawler were talking about here.

No, it wouldn't be all omega stages. Platforming would be present, but the jumping mechanic would need to be slightly altered to make platforming possible, since all actions are timing based. As for the platforms themselves, they would need to be divided into even sections throughout the stage, while staying equal distances between one another.

[●○Gameplay○●]

As mentioned before, the stages will be divided into even sections. Characters will move within these tiles as I am calling them. And... well, you saw the gif, you've got a good idea of how moving will work. So how will jumping and attacking work then?

[Jumping + Mid-Air Movement]

You flick up on the stick and jump. However, rather than quickly ascending and descending, you will stay suspended in air for a single beat and fall back to the ground after another beat. However, if you push any direction while jumping, other than down, you will be moved into that direction while staying in the air. If there is a platform where you decide to go you will land on that platform. Also, with jumping altered like this, fast falling will no longer be necessary. Chilling, I know.

[Combat]

Similar to Arms, the timing based combat will have a sort of Rock-Paper-Scissors based system. Attacks and specials will be blocked by shields, but beat grabs. Shields beat most attacks and specials, but are prone to grabbing. Grabs penatrate shields, but will be counter by most attacks.

If a fighter lands a successful normal attack, let's say a smash attack, then the fighter receiving the punch will be knocked back to the tile in whichever direction the smash attack was inputted in. Heavyweights, however, will send foes two spaces away from them when they hit an opponent with a jab.

Aerials will be changed a bit since mid-air movement has been slightly altered. Aerial moves will be replaced with a multi directional, mid-air dash attack. This would work similar to midair movement, but pressing the attack button at the same time as moving. And, as an added bonus if you hit a shielded player with this dash move you will be sent to the tile behind them. Leaving an opportunity to attack from behind, or maybe go for a stylish read.

[Shielding]

Once again similar to Smash, using your shield will cause it to shrink the longer it's pulled out. Normal shields will last 10 counts before breaking, while heavyweight shields will last 12. Foes attacking the shield will cause it to take a beats worth of damage, however a smash attack will do 2-4 damage, depending on how long it's charged up.

When your shield breaks, you will indeed be allowed to mash to try an escape. But, you cannot mash recklessly, your button pressing has to be equal to twice the tempo of the current song playing. This is so it keeps into the rhythm. Mindless mashing will not only not help snapping out of being stunned, but it also makes you lose your multiplier. Which, if you've actually been reading this blog, isn't a good thing.

[Grabs + Launching Foes]

Okay, so this is where it might get a little complicated. How come? Well... when you grab an opponent you expect to launch them really far right? Well, working a launching opponents mechanic into a rhythm game isn't the easiest thing since everything has to be in time with the music. So before we discuss grabbing, let's talk about how launching foes work..

When an opponent is launched they get sent flying in the direction of the throw and/or attack. Once flying, the launched foe is sent into a two phase flight. The first phase being launched, but will only go half the distance of how far the launch is about to send them. The second phase will send the launched foe the rest of the distance, but control is now returned to them so they can try to recover.

Now that we understand how launching works, let's actually get a hold of the concept of grabbing! When you grab your foe, you will be moved onto the same tile as your opponent, you're then given the option for all four throw options. However, if your opponent attacks you when you attempt a grab the attack will cause the grab to cancel out.

[Specials]

Special moves will have different attributes depending on how the move is used. Since I can't all of them, please just list one move from each category could think of.

Chargeable, activated on release- Link's Spin Attack, when charging, would take 3 counts to charge fully. On the fourth charge the move is automatically used.

Chargeable Projectile- Samus' Arm Cannon would work normally. You push the button and the gun starts charging. Most of these chargeable moves will share a common theme of taking 3 counts to charge and on the 4th count is either finished charging or used automatically.

Normal Projectile- Mario's fireball will bounce across the stage and move ahead one tile for each ing beat. The fireball would be released on the beat the button is pressed and bounce forward for 3 more beats.

[●○CONCLUSION○●]

Okay, so I'm not gonna cover EVERY single aspect of Smash. Most of it just boils down to "change this objects' action any movement involved has to be applied to timing." And at that point this blog would've just gotten repetitive. I already feel like it started getting repetitive as soon as I started talking about moves, so I'm gonna end it here.

As I'm sure you noticed, this blog contained a bit more writing than most of my other blogs recently. That's because I feel like my blogs have been coming off as "average" recently. I don't want that for my blogs, so I'm trying to think of ideas that would really challenge me. Please feel free to give me some and maybe some advice for blog writing in the future!

And with that, I must bid you farewell once more... Ciao~!!