UltiMario
Out of Obscurity
There is a balance in this.I didn't see Sm4sh, so what happened?
Nonetheless, like Brawl I rather think that the problem isn't so much the game as it is the metagame, players, rules. I don't know Sm4sh but I know Brawl runs the same time limit as Melee (and one less stock), so what's the deal? Obviously, Brawl matches tend to push time much more but if the time is a fucking problem then why the fuck don't you use a lower time limit? I mean come on, that's the reason it exists!
Edit: also lower stocks to accomodate if you don't want most games going to time; two stocks, five/six minutes for Brawl? Hell, even Melee could stand to drop the timer 1-2 minutes if, theoretically, every game going to time makes the tournament too long. (That means your timer is too generous.) I've personally never seen a Melee tourney match even go to time anyway, few even go to six minutes.
People stopped playing with 5 minutes and moved to 6 for a reason. With the timer at 5 minutes, it became very realistic for a large portion of the cast to just focus on time out, killing your opponent twice is only something you would only actually ever do if your opponent either SD'd or if they were so under your skill level that you didn't have to play to win, you could just do w/e. This was getting to be problematic as the average of smash 4 games was increasingly pushing towards 5 minutes. With the 6 minute timer, the average game length has actually lowered since now it's harder to stall to time and it's gotten easier just to kill your opponent.
As the timer decreases past a certain point, game length is skewed because playing to time becomes the best strategy for the game. As the timer increases past a certain point, games become longer since people see that they have 15 minutes left where they can camp and just sit around looking for opportunities. Theres a balance you have to strike and "just fucking lower the time limit" doesn't solve it. The game ran at 5 minutes for months and it didn't work, thats why its at 6.