Masahiro Sakurai Confirms Super Smash Bros. Changes to Edge Grabbing Mechanics

Guess you could say this article... GRABBED my attention.
Eh? Ehhh?
Well, I wasn't much of a serious player, so I guess this doesn't affect me. Still neat, though.

I didn't realise there was much of a mechanic behind it? I'm not sure I understand the change.

@Humphries90 More of, if you're holding on, and I come along and try to grab it, I could throw you off.

Wow.
This means that edge grabbing will likely be used less, as it was a way to get back onto the field after being smashed off, as you are usually hit off with high damage. That together means you need skill to get back, amd can't just hang there... and it basically shifts the battles more towards land then in air.
And letting grabs be trumped means that there will be less time spent on the edge...
All in all, their goal was obviously to keep people from making returns as often after smashes, especially against serious players, giving them an edge if they are in better health and not being flung around.

Oh. This is good news. A chance of survival from my buddy who is the edge-grab king. The pleasure of kicking him off the ledge will be oh-so-sweet.

More like keeping Meta Knight in check. He practically defined planking in Brawl.

The comment regarding "grab controls" essentially refers to how characters would have slower get up, roll, and ledge attack animations above 100%. The invincibility comment is also fairly straightforward, though he makes no comment on whether you'll have more or less invincibility as your percent goes up...I'm assuming more, since they're making the changes to 100% animations.

But, I don't know how drastically this will affect ledges. It was already possible to snatch the ledge before a recovering player in past games. I'm assuming this will just let you grab the ledge after a player's invincibility time has run down, but I could be wrong. If so, though, why not just hit the ledge grabber with a strong meteor? I guess this is something I'll have to see in action to get a better grasp on how it works.

@linktothepichu @Humphries90 But that's something you're able to do on Brawl...though.

Sounds good. I would love a good way to kick those off, who are clinging on, as long as it does not become cheap.

There's many characters that makes grab the edge simpler than others... I think this time around they will try to make it more balanced, influenced by the damage % and/or how much you'll be able to hang in there! I believe remembered on melee or brawl, if you was too much time on the edge something happen within the stage animations that makes you fall (star fox/metroid stages)

I'm pretty sure what this means is that you can't edge hog any more. If a character is holding onto the edge, another character can actually push them out of the way in order to get back on.

This is SUPER helpful when using characters who have grappling returns, like Olimar, where edge hogging is essentially insta-death.

Yeah, I'll be tapping buttons and hoping.

This game will be epic!

This is quite big news actually, the edge grab controls are a major part of how to play smash. I wonder whether or not the percentage increase will mean a weaker or a longer edge grab. I kind of was used to a perfectly timed down slap on someone hanging from the edge but perhaps the variable time will make the opposing player less immune to surprise spikes down

I don't lean on edges that much, so this doesn't affect me.
Still, I have a feeling Smashboards (and SmashWiki as well) is gonna have a field day with this one.

I'll be honest, at first I was like "Wait is this suppose to be good or bad?" since I'm not that much of a hardcore Smash Bros player but I've been reading that this is a pretty good thing and it can make battles more dynamic like it was in Melee. Looks like Sakurai is looking at every single detail of the game very carefully to make the perfect combination game between Brawl and Melee (wich is in some cases, more appreciated than Brawl because of the speed and perfect balance between controls/characters) This could be the greatest fighting game ever!!!

@RickyNGmr I knew you could use a Special + up attack to, but you can just grab it without attacking? Didn't know that...

My kids may be the right age when this comes out to learn this stuff. They love playing the games but are all about the bashing. Went to a tournament and they were very surprised to see how many people were grabbing and using force fields. We came home and they practiced that stuff a bit but decided it wasn't as fun that way and just went back to pounding on each other. Since this game will be new to everybody maybe they'll play differently. And maybe the world will get enough Wii U that the new game becomes tournament playable.

I don't have a problem with changes, and these sound okay, but I would like to see them in practice. No matter how sound something may be in theory the only thing that really matters how it works when put into practice.

I can only hope this is to make the game more fun, interesting, and/or balanced and isn't about making the game easier or more random, or worse, reduce the effectiveness of edge guarding, which was a great part of Melee but was noticeably more absent from Brawl.

I remember on Brawl there was a tactic in which, after using a smash attack to send an opponent off to the side or bottom of the screen, you could then go and jump off yourself, and grab hold of the ledge, meaning the opponent you sent flying had less chance of getting back on the stage, as they couldn't grab the ledge.
I guess this means that's no longer a guaranteed method to prevent an opponent from grabbing a ledge, but, as far as I can remember, I only successfully pulled it off once anyway.

Does this mean that ledge grabbing wont be as annoying?

So here's my guess to how Nintendo is going to spread out their exclusives.
February: DKCTR
March: Mario Kart 8
May: Smash Bros
August: Bayonetta
September: Yoshi's Yarn
October: X
November: the inevitable Zelda U

It's only a matter of time when we'll get that legendary Direct.

'Bout time.

@SecondServing - Nice line-up, and the ND can't come soon enough considering all the bad news of late and there's only 10 days left in Jan.

My less optimistic take on your dates:

Feb is DKCTF, it was probably already mostly finished anyway
ND says MK8 in April, but it gets delayed into May. (If it were March they wouldnt have a lowered their Wii U projecton from 9m - 2.8m as March 31 is the end date of their fiscal year so they know it won't be out before April)
May - actual MK8 date so SSB will have to wait, it will probably get an "Autunm or Q3" listing in the ND anyway
Aug sounds good for B2
Sept - if Yoshi's Yarn does come out I think it will be a holiday (Oct/Nov) release like the 2 Kirby games on Wii, but that's quibbling
Oct - Yoshi, X won't be out this year those games take FOR-EVER, maybe next March
Nov - SSB; Zelda will be unveiled at E3 so Nov 2015 is more likely
Dec - maybe Wii Music U or Sports Club Resort 2, something "causal"

I hope you are more right than I am, and I hope something big is coming out for the holidays that hasn't been announced yet. And Dynasty Warriors Hyrule should be out some time this year.

If either of us are close it should still be a good year for Wii U.

"hopefully all is on target for that planned 2014 release."

TW, don't let my negativity and pessimism rub off on you, the Wii U needs more positive thinking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuStsFW4EmQ

@Balaclavab You just described ledge grabbing which is a very popular tactic in ever Smash game, this is an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOBs_TUrIB4

@AlexSora89 You'd think so, wouldn't you? Normally we would, too. Today, however, we're too obsessed with the (potentially fake) leak of Palutena. There are roughly 300 viewers on the rumors thread over there as I type this.

@rjejr "Nov - SSB; Zelda will be unveiled at E3 so Nov 2015 is more likely" even though this is a speculation, I just got really excited reading that.

As always, I will suck at this game.

I've never been one to care much about the mechanics in the Smash games (which is why I've never had a preference of Brawl or Melee) but this sounds like a great change.

On another note, "Livin' On the Edge" by Aerosmith is in my head now.

(Also, @Thats-what-she, just wanna say I see what you did there. Nice username/avatar. )

Is there a new mechanic where we can fight our way out of Kirby's mouth? It would really be helpful as Kirby player usually had the advantage when it comes to sucking.

but if Donkey Kong used the grab for the plain wall grab will that be under the effective line?

make it more like melee! this sounds like a nice balance. the auto edge grab in brawl was overly strong, you were practically magnetically pulled to it. hopefully they balance it

This sounds pretty good I wonder what other cool new mechanics they'll add to this game.

Its great that they're nerfing these cheap, pro skills that are unnecessary and balance the game taking away the wall between pros and joes. I always thought the tiering system was really stupid too.

@LavaTwilight - Zelda wasn't a trick, it was a reply to somebody who was putting out imaginary dates so I added a few of my own. Would you believe anything anybody said w/ my puppet cat Mario icon?

hehe I'm loving all the new smash bros stuff.

@5ony lol