It's weird and different for sure. But so was the Smash Bros. percentage/stage knock-out system back in 1999. I don't think anyone really knew how that was gonna work from a competitive standpoint before we really played it for a bit, but it turned out to actually work quite well.
I'm not gonna claim to know whether this system will work out or not, but I'm very interested to see it in play for a bit. I can see how it could work, and I could see how it could be a total failure. I think a lot of it comes down to how they balance the super moves and meter gain.
I will say, these guys have been working on it for over two years, and it sounds like they are considering the competitive aspect of it. They've probably spent plenty of time considering the exact same potential issues people keep bringing up. They've probably also play-tested the game enough to be pretty confident in the system. Of course, as we all know, things within a play-testing environment are very different from things after release, so who knows if it'll hold up once it gets out to the public. But I'm sure they didn't just slap that system in there with no consideration for how it'll affect the actual fighting system.
True true. I forgot they've been developing it for awhile now and they're going with what they felt was good/right. I meant it looks fun and after reading more about how the supers work:
Level 1 - can only kill one
Level 2 - maybe 2
Level 3 - possibly all others
I felt a bit relieved. They also mentioned how you can be knocked off the stage in Sandover Village and you can swim back to the stage. Everyone in the media who has played it keeps raving about how fun and solid it is so I'm definitely not getting too worried - it looks fantastic.
I just can't wait to play it myself and see how the super meter plays out. My main gripe is that I hate time limits in any game, like REALLY hate time limits, so I'd much rather have a health/lives system. Maybe there will be another mode with that? They have to include a survival mode of some sort.
Another thing to remember is that you can knock out AP from players and add it to your own special bar, so I guess you can compare the main mode to Smash Bros. coin mode (or whatever it was called), except you can only kill people with a smash ball - if that makes sense. There has to be a true survival mode of some sort so we'll just have to wait and see how that mode plays out.