With the release of Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl just around the corner (i.e. today), the Super Smash Bros. community is curious how the game will do — and how it will impact the Smash scene.

For years, there have been other platform fighters released. But All-Star Brawl is arguably the first time we’ve seen it backed by another major developer. Inven Global had the opportunity to speak with some of the top players and content creators in Smash, discussing their thoughts on the game and how it will impact the Smash scene.

Axe: "The way that the mechanics work [...] definitely speaks to Melee players"

Main game: Melee

Main fighter: Pikachu

Ranking: 4th on the 2019 MPGR

"It looks so silly. [laughs] It just looks funny. I saw a trailer showcase of Nigel Thornberry's moveset, and I'm like, What is this?' It just looks so funny. The game looks really cool, the mechanics that it has.

"I would like it if it was like a huge esport. Funnily enough, I think it's something as simple as voice acting. The way that there's no voice actors in the game, it kind of hits it a little bit. I think the mechanics, the way that the mechanics work in the game, I think it definitely speaks to Melee players in general, including myself. 

"I see that game, and I'm like, 'This looks awesome. I want to play it.' I mean, you can wavedash with SpongeBob and Reptar. That's awesome. So I definitely want to try it out. I think that most people are going to try it out. Probably all the top players — and a bunch of Melee players. But it also brings over the Ultimate community as well. There's going to be a lot of people playing this game. 

"And I think it'll be awesome, but there's really no way to tell if it's going to turn into like a huge esport with time. I think initially it's going to be huge. A lot of people are hyped for this. But you never really know how these things are going to turn out until the game releases. It does look pretty promising, though.

"But looking at the game itself, I guess I'm a bit worried about that."

iBDW: "I don't think it'll have too much impact."

Main Game: Melee

Main Fighter: Fox

Ranking: 9th on the 2019 MPGR

"I don't think it'll have too much impact. If anything, it'll just give us more traffic. But I really don't anticipate that it'll have much of a significant impact in terms... or at least a negative impact, perhaps only like a positive one. But I just think it's gonna be really good for viewership. I think a bunch of people, if you kind of play your cards, right, you can really kind of grow your stream and get your brand out a little bit more.

"I'm gonna be playing like 10 hours a day. I'm gonna try to find people to play with and branch out just a little bit, you know? So I think that it's not gonna have much of an impact unless you go out of your way to make it have an impact, but then it would only be positive.

"It seems genuinely really interesting. I am super excited to see where it goes. I think that the defensive mechanics of what I can tell is going to make or break the game. Because we have no idea what the majority of defensive mechanics are going to look like. So we'll see kind of how that plays out.

"We'll see how it functions and then from there, we can see how it will interact with the game. But it looks very interesting so far at the very least."

Ice: "I think it will be the perfect side event."

Main Game: Melee

Main Fighter: Fox

Ranking:  51st on the 2019 MPGR

"By watching the trailers and the character announcements, I've had high hopes for the game. Not to the point where I would say that it could rival the competitive and cool movement factor of Melee.

"But the great thing about it is that for me at least I feel like there might be a high chance that the developers of the game are really open to critique or feedback from game communities (like the Smash community) to adapt their game to people's liking. Because for me, by having this wave-dash function, for example, it already proves to me that they definitely took some inspiration from some of the Smash titles. And I think this is really great.

"And I also think that the game especially for the Smash community can be a nice way to get other gaming communities to try out a game that is pretty similar when it comes to the mechanics and the very notion of how a platform game like Melee or other Smash Bros titles works. So in the end, I think it can only do good for the Smash community as a whole

"I think it will be maybe the perfect side event honestly. It's really similar, or will be pretty similar, I assume. And at the same time, it will be the kind of game where people can just have a great time, while at the same time trying as hard as possible, of course. But after all, it will not matter as much as the main game or whatever.

"I'm not really sure about it [perception in Europe], but I can say personally is that two of the things I watched that are pretty famous or used to be pretty famous on Nickelodeon was SpongeBob and Cat Dog. So knowing that those two characters I think will be in it — I'm not so sure about Cat Dog right now, but I assume so.

"And most people, especially from my generation, at least watched one of the titles that will be presented in the Nickelodeon game. So I think it's a nice way to just duke it out with some of your childhood memories pretty much. And yeah, I guess it will be fun for everyone."

Maister: "It has the potential to be huge especially because it's got something that Smash doesn't have"

Main Game: Ultimate

Main Fighter: Mr. Game & Watch

Ranking: 6th on the 2019 PGRU

"So I definitely think — I tweeted about it once — it can definitely affect Smash. I don't know how I feel about it. Because like I was like, 'Hey, you think Nickelodeon All-Star might affect Smash?' And everyone was like, 'No, you're crazy. You're overthinking it and stuff.'

"But I think it's a really good game. I think it has the potential to be huge especially because it's got something that Smash doesn't have and probably will never have. And that's that that game is focused on being competitive. And I know it's focused on competitive play because the developer said it. That's one. It also has rollback which will be making the online experience really good. 

"And two,  it has the developer's support. And that's something that Smash does not have. If the developers support a game for it to be competitive and stuff, I think that's a huge step forward for it to be an esport. If you look at the esports nowadays you see like Fortnite—Epic Games supports it immensely. And then VALORANT and League of Legends—I mean Riot is also crazy. Smash doesn't have that, and it's really all it's missing for it to be huge.

"So I think Nick has the potential to be huge, but we'll see how it develops."

PracticalTAS: "It needs to follow through and deliver an exciting game"

Super Smash Bros. Melee content creator

"That's a difficult thing to predict before release. NASB has generated a lot of buzz but it needs to follow through and deliver an exciting game (and sustainable community) if it's going to have any impact at all on the Smash scene beyond some players streaming it during its release window.

"Assuming it succeeds, I think it can go one of two ways. The more likely is that there's a new platform fighter with a significant crossover with Smash, which means NASB is likely to be featured at some Smash events, similar to Rivals of Aether. 

"The other possibility is that it has its own scene, like Brawlhalla, which is big and independent from Smash. I think this is less likely since lots of Smashers are already familiar with the NASB roster and so are more likely to try the game out. In either case, some players and commentators are likely to switch over if they see more success in NASB, but the former case is more symbiotic in that viewers of either game are more likely to be exposed to the other and potentially become fans of both."