The Tragedy of a Smash Clone - What Happened to Icons: Combat Arena?
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- Опубліковано 22 жов 2020
- Icons: Combat Arena was a free-to-play platform fighting game designed by Wavedash Games.
Two years following the end of support for Project M in December of 2015, the team behind this initiative to make a better SSBM set their sights on a new project.
Taking heavy inspiration from Super Smash Bros. Melee, Icons: Combat Arena had the potential to be a hit, but a rough launch with a lukewarm reception from the fighting game community and questionable monetization choices eventually led to the tragic downfall of this title.
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What do you think is the most important thing that a developer needs to get right when it comes to making a platform fighting game?
I’m glad they didn’t give up tho, that’s cool that they worked on a new game
The main reason's simple: Icons had all the visual appeal and unique identity of cardboard. It's the natural end result when you get a team who have no inspiration on either gameplay nor concept. All they knew is they wanted their own Melee, and the rest of the game is just a vehicle for that. Hell, it didn't even get the greater Melee community, because the fun there is largely in playing as these famous videogame icons that helps seal everything together. It just ended up being painfully generic and, consequently, mediocre.
It always looked aesthetically displeasing to look at, and the character designs weren't great either.
It turned out that gamers value fun over function.
Oh this is gonna be a good one.
That intro feels like smash but also somehow Overwatch before Overwatch existed
What's up with this myth that fighting games have never looked good, or pushed graphical quality? Where does that come from?
I was at the first (and only) Icons major at Low Tier City 4 or 5. A good friend of mine from the Project M scene had been disillusioned with Smash and was helping TO it. He even gave me some Icons merch, which I still have. He was devastated when Icons failed and quit fighting games entirely afterwards.
Since they had to make original characters, I feel like they should have tried to add a little more charm or uniqueness
The biggest tragedy was how fast they squandered their funding. They raised well over $4.5 million for the project when I was fighting tooth & nail to raise a meager $1.5 million for my visionary platform fighter that focused on marketing concepts like "Fall Guys" but publishers couldn't see my vision...
Do not cry that Icons is over,
If there is something that I learned about game designer is that you don't simply get inspiration from one game, Shovel Knight isn't inspired only on Megaman, but Megaman, Mario, Ducktales, Castlevania, etc. A Hat in Time isn't just Banjo Kazooie, is BK, Mario, Crash, Spyro, etc.
"Now, fighting games had never been known for their cutting edge work in the visual department..."
Presentation is just as important as gameplay, or maybe even more important. It's the first thing a potential player is going to see before buying the game.
How to kill your game's hype:
I forgot this game existed tbh. I think the fact it's so similar to Smash in gameplay, and pretty much every other major fantasy themed game visually, it just got lost in the shuffle. Also I think they missed out on the fact that what draws casuals to Smash minus that their favorite video game character(s) are in the game and play relatively close to their home series in most cases, is that Smash is still first and foremost a party game. They kept marketing Icon's as a competitive game, but most casuals either don't know there's a competitive Smash scene or just don't care. They play the game with their friends and family to get a laugh out of cheesing people with items and having random stage hazards mess people up, not to spend hours labbing out combos and optimizing their movement. Even Melee is fun for casuals though it still has that depth for the competitive community too and that's what I think was really missing. The balance between player options, you can make Smash as casual or as competitive you want. Smash is a toy box, a playable museum of gaming history where you're given the toys, accessories, and playsets to play however you want within it's limits. Nothing else has or I think ever will fully be able to capture that.
The character animations of
We're probably never getting another mod like PM, because the reception is dependent on how Smash players receive the latest entry in the franchise.
Probably a little late, but a video on Slap City would be greatly appreciated. Its official release went widely unnoticed as almost no reviewers or youtubers covered it. It's also in a funny situation because it is a fairly competitive game that looks so silly that people usually dismiss it.