'You can choose from the three types of Mii Fighter and select from a set of three specials for each type'

Remember custom moves in Super Smash Bros. 4? After EVO 2015, it seems that most tournament organizers all but abandoned using custom moves at major events.

On paper, the idea sounded really fun and interesting when this concept was first announced. However, I get the sense that these are now very rarely used both casually and competitively.

The unlocking process was quite an ordeal as the activity was completely random. Following that, selecting each player's preferred moveset ate up a lot of time.

Unfortunately, this greatly impacted the usage of the Mii Fighters. Among all the characters in Super Smash Bros. 4, here's no doubt that the Mii Fighters were the most scarcely used. Many professional players didn't even bother with their placement during tier list creation.

Most tournaments only created "1111" versions of the three Mii Fighter types. This greatly limited their capabilities as they were designed to be customizable — a problem shared with Palutena.

Today's blog update for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is very interesting as it details how the Mii Fighters will work.



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When Mii Fighters were first revealed for Super Smash Bros. 4, Masahiro Sakurai — through an English translator — described each "type" of Mii Fighter as a separate character. This meant that the Mii Brawler, the Mii Swordfighter, and the Mii Gunner played completely differently.

It was also stated that each type would be able to "choose four special moves from twelve options." In other words, Mii Fighters could choose between 36 different special moves.

The blog update for Mii Fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has a somewhat different description. Instead it simply states that "you can choose from the three types of Mii Fighter and select from a set of three specials for each type."

I'm interpreting this to mean that each Mii Fighter has three packages of specials that they can choose from. Rather than being able to mix and match moves, every neutral special option will come with a pre-determined side special, down special, and up special.

In total, this would mean that there are only nine different play styles for the Mii Fighters. This is quite a reduction from the 81 that was technically possible in Super Smash Bros. 4.

Now, it's certainly possible that this is only setting up a few default options in order to ensure that the Mii Fighters can be selectable without the hassle of a setup process. Although it wouldn't be very difficult to allow players to choose from each of the 36 specials at the character select screen.

Of course, "each type" could be referring to each type of special move, as in the neutral special type, down special type, up special type, and side special type. Previously, however, the team referred to these as "options" rather than "types." In the same statement, "types" was used to refer to the three Mii Fighter classes.

Supposedly, the development team behind Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is trying to get the Mii Fighters ready for online modes. Remember that custom moves and options were not permitted in the "with anyone" mode — which also meant that Mii Fighters were also not allowed to be used.

Notably, DLC characters in Super Smash Bros. never had access to custom specials. Interestingly enough, data seems to suggest that these were planned for Mewtwo but were ultimately scrapped for unknown reasons.

Masahiro Sakurai seems very attuned to what players are doing with each game in the series and what they want out of it. He mentioned that Super Smash Bros. 4 would not have a story mode like the Subspace Emissary since players uploaded the cutscenes on YouTube, but I get the sense that he was also aware of the fact that players — including myself — rarely revisited this mode after its initial completion.

It's possible he became aware of how underutilized custom moves were in Smash 4, then decided not to spend too much more time with them despite it originally being one of the game's main selling points.

Seeing as how the roster has expanded greatly since Smash 4, the re-implementation of custom moves would likely require adding these to the characters that were previously available via DLC and those that have been cut from earlier titles. Needless to say, this would be a huge undertaking — as if it weren't enough of that already considering that every fighter that has ever been playable has returned.

Only time will tell if custom moves are coming back, but this seems to be an indication of the contrary. Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comment section.