Bonus Battles
Posted 11.9.2001
Earlier, I talked about how in addition to Time, Stock, and Coin battles, there might be one more type of battle, but due to it possibly being cut I didn’t want to talk about it.
But somehow, we were able to add it to the game.
It’s called Bonus.
Now there are four different types of matches.
To be frank, Bonus mode is probably one of the most unique and strange modes in any action game, so you should really think of it as a supplementary mode.
I’m the one planned this mode, and I still don’t really know how to play it.
The single player modes Classic and Adventure have Special Bonuses. These are unique to Smash.
These things.
Depending on the actions you took during the battle, you’re given a certain score, but fighting it out “only” with these points is Bonus mode!
First, fight until time runs out!
Then you see the results screen. Each player’s got a lot of bonuses…
Depending on the actions you took during the battle, you’re given a certain score, but in Bonus mode these points are the sole determinant of victory and defeat!
KOs and such become points as well, but it’s much more important to get the special bonuses.
I’ve listed a few of the bonuses below.
Backstabber: majority of attacks hit an enemy in the back
Meteor Smash: KO’d an opponent with a Meteor Smash
Exceptional Aim: used a reasonable number of attacks, and hit with most of them
Berserker: used at least 60 attacks in one minute
Butterfingers: failed on at least 40% of all grabs and dash grabs
Acrobat: always used your double jump
Self-Destructor: had a lot of self-destructs
There’s a few hundred bonuses. You can see how many bonuses you’ve gotten in a normal match, too.
You can also check which bonuses you’ve gotten in a separate area as well, along with what the criteria for each bonus is.
Like so.
The rules are kind of like Mahjong, actually. In the sense that you have to build up your score while battling. I would recommend shouting out the titles of the bonuses, like “Connoisseur!” “All Aerials!”
You can’t just use your fingers– you’ll have to use your head too if you want to win.
- 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 remember back when I played Melee, I didn’t know what I had to do to get each bonus, so I never really cared that much for them. I do remember frequently getting “No R 4 U”, so that should key you in on what kind of player I was. I guess the mode wasn’t all that popular, which would explain how it got removed from Brawl, and bonuses entirely aren’t present in Smash 4.