Controllers have been a fairly touchy subject for much of the community, whether Smash or FGC. In the FGC people are mainly concerned with interruption of matches on wireless controllers, or unfair controller-specific macros; the Smash community is sort of the inverse, where there are so few controller methods that the thought of having to ban a control method is rarely brought up. That is, before the Smash Box.
Smash Box is a new control method for Smash games that borrows heavily from the Hit Box philosophy, laying out the inputs in a keyboard style with only buttons. Your typical GameCube controller is subject to a lot of variance in successfully inputting certain movement techs in Super Smash Bros. Melee, such as dash backs and shield drops. Players have resorted to modifying their controllers to install better analog sticks or include shield drop notches, as well as taking out the springs in triggers to increase input success rates and these are allowed in tournaments, as long as there are no button macros. Like these controller mods, the Smash Box does make techniques like shield dropping much easier, but it requires relearning potentially years of muscle memory to perform these movements on this specialist controller.
However, the Smash Box does this by remapping the buttons used to play Melee, which is something the game doesn’t natively allow you to do, unlike most modern fighting games and even later Smash games. As a result, the Smash Box does represent a potential precedent which opens the door for hundreds of new controller modifications, where players are remapping their D-Pads or other buttons to do inputs which Melee and the standard controller doesn’t allow you to do normally.
The main trade-off for the Smash Box is that it is leagues more comfortable for your hands compared to a controller, and that it is the first controller designed specifically for high-level Smash. When pros like FOX|Mew2King and C9|Mango complain about severe hand and wrist pain from using a GameCube controller, the Smash Box does potentially stop future players from developing chronic hand problems. Moreover, when Smash 64 TOs are letting players compete using computer keyboards, PlayStation, HORI, and Xbox controllers alongside the traditional N64 pad, there is also a precedent for new controllers with different button layouts to be allowed at tournaments.
However, due to the “massive change in muscle memory required to use it,” the Genesis 4 TOs have provisionally banned the Smash Box. As such, lead consultant on the Smash Box and notable Falcon main Gravy has come to the controller’s aid to argue why it should be legal at Genesis 4. Give the video below a watch and make sure to sound off on your thoughts about the controller’s legality.
Source: Hitbox Gravy