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Discussion Which is your favorite singleplayer mode in Smash Bros.?

What's your favorite singleplayer mode in Smash Bros.?

  • Total voters
    65
Hero of Hyrule

Hero of Hyrule

Frieren the Slayer
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He/Him
While Smash's claim to fame remains the multiplayer modes and the competitive battle scenes that the series generates in its wake, it has had a litany of singleplayer modes through its history as well. And it seems to never want to rest on its laurels, and each new Smash Bros. game tries something new for the singleplayer campaign - from the RPG-like World of Light to the rogue like Smash Run, from the party board game Smash Tour to the epic, cinematic Subspace Emissary.

Of all the various Smash singleplayer modes, which one is your favorite, and why?
 
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I think Melee's entire single player offerings are my faves. The adventure mode was really cool with the scenarios taken from the games. The Event Mode was really fun with creative situations. And break the targets was still tailored to characters
 
Of the available options, Melee's Adventure Mode feels like where the "campaigns" peaked. Arcade-y enough to just do a quick run through every once in a while, but still offers a decent taste of "traveling across multiple game worlds" with gameplay tailored to those worlds. Subspace's cutscenes were fun, but the actual gameplay kinda felt like just playing a bad version of Kirby tbh, so I was fine with the cutscenes being relegated to character trailers afterwards.

However, character-specific Break the Targets/Board the Platforms were peak single-player Smash content imo.
 
Subspace, mainly for seeing all the different characters interact with one another. Smash is this huge crossover between all these Nintendo (and some third party) franchises, but I always felt (and still feel) that the series could use more in the way of character interactions outside of just fighting. Other fighting games have full on story modes and special dialogue between specific fighters (granted, I get that this would be hard to do in Smash considering how many characters there are that don't speak lol), but in Smash all we have now are the newcomer trailers.
 
On paper, Smash Run. Such a great idea that didn’t reach it’s full potential.

In practice, Melee Adventure Mode. Pretty hollow in hindsight; the novelty was so interesting at the time though.

Super Smash Bros. gameplay doesn’t lend itself that well to a particularly deep adventure mode as Sakurai has tried it three times now. Even the story suffers because Nintendo won’t allow the characters to simply be non-canon versions of the actual characters. They’re toys or trophies. Since that has to be written into the plot and accounted for, the stories never drew me in.
 
Adventure mode is the most fun to replay. SSE is fun the first time then never again. World of Light is terrible. The others aren't remarkable
 
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World of Light is a beautiful distillation of Smash as a museum of video game history. The spirit battles taking a bunch of different Smash elements and using them to represent a character was brilliant. Just a constant barrage of “I understood that reference!” I loved it - and it doesn’t try to shoehorn in platforming, it’s carried solely by smash’s core gameplay with some tasteful world map & RPG flavor.

It genuinely boggles my mind that people view it as a disappointment. It is a single player mode that embodies the love Smash and Sakurai have for gaming history.

Something like SSE wouldn’t work with Ultimate’s roster size. That mode is carried by cutscenes with character interactions and Ultimate has over DOUBLE brawl’s roster. It would be impossible to do it justice.
 
Honestly, from the choices that you listed, Subspace Emissary.

But I think everyone forgets how absurdly amazing Smash Ultimate's Classic mode is. Almost 100 little mini campaigns, with special rules, a huge variety of bosses, and a ton of really cool references. So I would have to go with Ultimate.
 
World Of Light for sure. Adventure Mode in Melee is a cute little thing but pretty light on content and Subspace Emissary is worth playing once and then never again. World Of Light does a good job repackaging the core Smash gameplay loop into an adventure mode of sorts while also having the chance to show off all sorts of cool Spirits. I do think it gets a little long in the tooth, the middle section kind of drags, but overall I still enjoyed it the most.
 
Phendrift said:
World of Light is a beautiful distillation of Smash as a museum of video game history. The spirit battles taking a bunch of different Smash elements and using them to represent a character was brilliant. Just a constant barrage of “I understood that reference!” I loved it - and it doesn’t try to shoehorn in platforming, it’s carried solely by smash’s core gameplay with some tasteful world map & RPG flavor.

It genuinely boggles my mind that people view it as a disappointment. It is a single player mode that embodies the love Smash and Sakurai have for gaming history.

Something like SSE wouldn’t work with Ultimate’s roster size. That mode is carried by cutscenes with character interactions and Ultimate has over DOUBLE brawl’s roster. It would be impossible to do it justice.
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World of Light was neat at first, but it drags on for longer than it needs to. Subspace does too, but at least it had the cutscenes which kept me engaged to a degree.

I ended up using a cheese spirit build near the end to steamroll everything (barring the final boss) since I was was just waiting for it to be over. I could've simply stopped playing, but they locked changing the main menu music behind it so I had no choice, lol
 
Subspace is the greatest. Everything after has been a big letdown, with World of Light being decent at best
 
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Smash Run from the 3DS was my favorite. That mode should return and be iterated further upon. Maybe like an online battle royale with like 30 or so combatants and the top 4 hi-scorers fight in the finals. Probably not feasible online with that many players but would be cool. If it were, the larger level could slowly fall apart until at the end it is left to a smaller battlefield size level for the final match to seamlessly take place.
 
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Weird to include Smash Run and Smash Tour when those are very much not focused on single player. If I was to choose my favorite of that list in general, though—not strictly limited to single player—then I’d have to say Smash Tour. It is quite simply the best mode for causal party multiplayer in Smash by far. Nothing else really comes close (Smash Run would if it wasn’t limited by the 3DS and you could actually interact with other players throughout the bulk of the gameplay), and my biggest disappointment with Ultimate is that it has no equivalent to Smash Tour.

Speaking strictly for single player, however, I’d have to give it to World of Light. The Subspace Emissary is amazing with its cutscenes and all, but I have to hand it to World of Light for being a better utilization of Smash’s gameplay for an Adventure Mode. I just wish they would have changed some base game spirit battles to make use of DLC content where appropriate.
 
Melee Adventure. I loved the cutscenes in Subspace as a kid, but as an adult I think they're a perfect example of why Smash should never have a story mode.

World of Light was boring imo.
 
Tough call for me between Brawl Subspace and Melee Adventure. But I have to go with Subspace. I'll always cherish the memories of playing it for the first time with my younger siblings and having a blast with each new awesome cutscene!
 
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"Special Orders" feels like the more trademark single-player mode for Smash Wii U than Smash Tour, which is clearly a party thing. But then it's not like it'd win the poll anyway... 🤔
 
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I only played it once, but I dug Subspace Emissary the most as it had some Kirby Super Star energy and some fun cutscenes. Practically, I played Adventure mode more (and it was by far relatively the most cool at the time) and World of Light is probably the best though very long. Also want to give a shout to break the targets and board the platforms especially when they were unique to each character.
 
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World of Light because it incorporated more than just the fighters in a pretty novel way. Honestly I don't really care about cutscenes, since the cast is fundamentally limited by the silent characters like Mario and Link. It's hard for me to get invested, when it's just the characters miming around.
 
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Most of these aren't even the best single player modes in their respective games. Of this lot World of Light is probably the winner even if it is kind of overlong. It's not like it was the only source of spirit battles in the game, they could have trimmed it down a bit...
 
Mine isn't even in the poll - Smash Ultimate's Spirit Board. It was World of Light without the fluff, plus it had post launch support with free promotional spirits and DLC spirit boards making it a great reason to revisit Smash over the years it was supported.

What I liked about spirit battles was it felt like a single player mode that actually took into account Smash gameplay and played on its strengths. Now I think there's room for improvement such as more win conditions. Event matches of the past gave as a look at what's possible there.

Seeing characters interpreted by Smash was also very clever. Heck, sometimes I'd revisit a spirit battle after playing the game a character was from to see if I understood the references.

Also it didn't suffer from the one aspect many of the older modes suffer from as Smash gets larger - no need to finish it multiple times with every character.

But since it's closely tied to World of Light, that wins my poll vote by default.

Though I want to give a shout-out to the way Ultimate handled Classic mode. Much like Spirits I liked the way each path was a reference to the character you were playing as (admittedly some paths were cleverer than others). However I'd argue this should be given its own name like Journey Mode, and Classic Mode should stick to being what it has always been, a series of random fights ending in a boss battle. At least it still resembled the linear path like the original Classic Mode and wasn't whatever that mess was in Smash for Wii U.
 
I’m gonna go against most of the thread but I don’t understand why Melee’s Adventure Mode gets so much love, it’s neat conceptually but the execution is meh. The Zelda stage is the coolest part but the rest isn’t that exciting IMO.

I voted for Subspace Emissary, the platforming brawler gameplay is a ton of fun, it makes you play as several characters and the boss battles were pretty cool.
 
Out of all the poll choices, it’s World of Light. It doesn’t try to make Smash awkwardly fit into a 2D platformer mould, and it’s all the better for it.

However:

Lozjam said:
But I think everyone forgets how absurdly amazing Smash Ultimate's Classic mode is
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This is the real answer. Classic Mode in Smash Ultimate is straight up incredible for reasons the poster I quoted already mentioned.
 
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The Subspace Emissary is by no means perfect, but it is the realization of what an original Smash Bros. story mode can and should be, and nothing else in the series comes even close to its scope. The story is a lot of fun, the cutscenes are top notch (the assault sequence is still legendary), and the set pieces are interesting. I understand why it may not have been worth it to keep something similar in future installments, as the effort was better put towards the marketing than a game mode as Smash became more of a hype conduit that exists beyond the game itself, but Subspace Emissary was special in a way the other single player modes can't match.
 
I was addicted to Smash Run for a while. It's cool to explore, learn the map, set loadouts, and adjust planning on the fly based on what events, enemies, or bosses you run into. My biggest hope for Ultimate was that they'd expand that mode (maybe with some extra maps) and make it multiplayer, but it wasn't meant to be. A real shame, since a Smash Run map based on Dracula's Castle... Damn that would be cool.
 
LuckyNumber69 said:
My #1 favorite though is the event matches in Melee and Brawl.
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Yesssss.

Event Matches remain my favorite type mode because it plays up the crossover in a ways that tells a little story, while interjecting some fun mechanics.

I doubt we'll get anything like it again with the roster being as large as it is, but I'd be happy if it came back.

Just like I hope Smash Run comes back, too. So much potential, as another put it best.
 
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They basically turned the main thing people liked Subspace for, the cutscenes, into reveal trailers.

And if anything they're better since many include the actual worlds the characters are from, which is also a key part of a crossover.

jnWake said:
I’m gonna go against most of the thread but I don’t understand why Melee’s Adventure Mode gets so much love, it’s neat conceptually but the execution is meh. The Zelda stage is the coolest part but the rest isn’t that exciting IMO.

I voted for Subspace Emissary, the platforming brawler gameplay is a ton of fun, it makes you play as several characters and the boss battles were pretty cool.
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It has a strong opening with the Mario level and Zelda levels. Also the Metroid escape sequence is quite neat. But outside of some of those made for Adventure mode areas, a lot of it is just Classic mode fights on standard stages, but the same fights every time, which drags it down, especially since they expect you to clear it with every character.

However, when you first play through it, and I suspect many first played it when they were young, it was a cool romp through most of the worlds of Smash, and it didn't overstay its welcome. Having non Mario characters run through a Mario level was novel at the time.

I'll be honest, shocked you then voted for SSE, which is mostly not exciting stages through generic waste lands and jungles. People seem to only remember the cutscenes and boss battles and forget the tediousness in-between.

And the less said about all the OC SSE Army designs the better. At least Adventure Mode mostly stuck to the worlds we care about.
 
Kid me really liked Subspace but I have no clue if it would actually hold up. It did feel like a fun time though. So I'm voting for that. I really like World of Light conceptually but never actually got around to playing much of it. Enjoyed what I did play of it though
 
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BGBW said:
They basically turned the main thing people liked Subspace for, the cutscenes, into reveal trailers.

And if anything they're better since many include the actual worlds the characters are from, which is also a key part of a crossover.


It has a strong opening with the Mario level and Zelda levels. Also the Metroid escape sequence is quite neat. But outside of some of those made for Adventure mode areas, a lot of it is just Classic mode fights on standard stages, but the same fights every time, which drags it down, especially since they expect you to clear it with every character.

However, when you first play through it, and I suspect many first played it when they were young, it was a cool romp through most of the worlds of Smash, and it didn't overstay its welcome. Having non Mario characters run through a Mario level was novel at the time.

I'll be honest, shocked you then voted for SSE, which is mostly not exciting stages through generic waste lands and jungles. People seem to only remember the cutscenes and boss battles and forget the tediousness in-between.

And the less said about all the OC SSE Army designs the better. At least Adventure Mode mostly stuck to the worlds we care about.
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SSE was tedious at time but there was enough fun to be had as well, it felt like a Kirby game with all the Nintendo characters. It's an impressive side mode for a fighting game. I would love an improved SSE with less generic areas, but that could only exists as a spin off game or DLC.
 
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