Posted 8.10.2001
Up until now, Smash has only had two in-game modes, Time and Stock.
Time: KOing an opponent nets you one point, getting KOd takes away one of your points, and you fight for the highest overall score.
Stock: Every player starts with a set number of stocks, and loses one each time they are KOd. The last player standing wins.
Now, we’ve added “Coin.”
Or as we call it, Coin battles.
At the custom rules screen, Coin is now an option. We’ll talk about the other menu options later!
In Coin battles, when you attack an opponent, they spill coins.
The player with the most coins at the end of the match wins!
Smack an opponent and grab their coins.
Gold coins are worth 10 coins, silver coins are worth 5 coins, and bronze coins are worth 1coin!
The amount of coins that are spilled is proportional to the amount of damage dealt!
Even if you get hit, you won’t lose any coins!
Lose a stock and your coins will be halved, and you’ll scatter coins everywhere!
You can collect your own coins back after a little time passes!
The direction coins fly in is somewhat based on the trajectory of the attack!
*There is a chance that these rules are slightly adjusted in the final release.
Lose a stock and coins come flying in from outside the screen.
If you’re smart, you might be able to pick some up.
If you’re a big character, it’s easier to pick up coins, but it’s also easier to get hit.
I’m designing this game so that the objective is to have fun, and winning or losing is secondary.
There is fun in competition, but I disagree that winners should be celebrated.
When only one person can have fun in a four person game, that’s not a good feeling.
But this is a game,so you can’t run away from the binding nature of “the rules.”
So as a more casual form of play, I came up with Coin battles.
Coins are flying everywhere across the screen, and while there is strategy in trying to fight, survive, and stealing coins from your enemies, in the end you’re all just grabbing coins everywhere.
It’s crazy and haphazard, but it’s fun.
You can go for direct attacks…
Or just go straight for the coins.
There’s actually one more mode.
It’s actually suited far more for hardcore players, but if we don’t have enough time we’ll have to cut it.
I’m slightly worried, but stay tuned.
Ah, coin battles…I don’t think I’ve ever played a coin battle in my life. But anyway, if you want to support Source Gaming and are willing to part with your coins…check out out Patreon!
- Sakurai’s Internal Smash for Wii U/3DS Development Notes - June 23, 2017
- Kirby’s Development Secrets - April 19, 2017
- Sakurai Discusses His Game Design Philosophy In a Podcast [2002] - March 28, 2017
I rarely play coin battles these days. Mostly during the Melee days, but sort of dwindled on and on. It’s nice to have it for the people who play it from time to time. At the same time, I have Smash Tour as my underrated mode to play with from time to time.
I’m guessing that the more hardcore mode that Sakurai was referring to was Stamina Mode. It makes sense when you consider that the mode lacked a victory screen transition in Melee (instead immediately returning to the character select screen after the match), which could imply a rushed job. This falls in line with him saying that there was a chance that the mode could have been cut if they didn’t have enough time.
Nah, he’s actually talking about Bonus, which is one of the battle “modes” and not Special Melee stuff (bonus, coin, time stock are the battle modes). I’m guessing stock is what he refers to as “hardcore,” compared to time/coin/bonus at least.
I play coin matches occasionally, it’s definitely a different experience from stock or time matches. Since you have to try and get the coins in order to win, long combos or strings don’t become as effective because you’re not picking up the coins that are spawning, and other players are likely to get to them first. The mode is pretty pointless for 1v1 matches though, but things can get pretty hectic with more players spewing coins everywhere. Plus, the match results are even more unpredictable, so you never have to feel bad about a loss and don’t have a reason to gloat over a win.