Super Smash Bros for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, but Mainly 3DS and Knuckles: Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series

Super Smash Bros for Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, but Mainly 3DS

and Knuckles: Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry Series

Super Smash Bros represents in equal part a fun party fighting game with Nintendo characters and a celebration of Nintendo’s history. They don’t come around often, and because of that each new game feels like an event. The fourth entry in the series is no exception. What is new this time around is that the series makes its handheld debut, being released on the Nintendo 3DS as well as the Wii U. Both versions have features unique to them, but as I have the 3DS version, I will be discussing that here, while taking the opportunity to note that the Wii U version allows for up to 8 players to smash at once, while the 3DS version offers 4 player support.

Fortunately, the 3DS version is not short-changed and treated as a cut-down port. Instead, it gets a separate release that plays to the strengths of the 3DS and sets itself apart from the Wii U version. The Wii U version is built more around multiplayer due to being a home console and allowing for several people to get together and play on one console, whereas the 3DS version takes its portable nature into consideration and places more emphasis on single player content. This is most notable in the 3DS exclusive mode Smash Run, in which players are given 5 minutes to traverse a map collecting stat boosts and battling enemies from various Nintendo games. When the time is up, you must go up against 3 opponents in a challenge that puts your stats to use. Sometimes, this will be a battle between the competitors with a new rule such as giants one hit Kos, a timed challenge to defeat as many enemies as possible, or a race. This mode earns gold that can be used to buy trophies, as well as equipment, custom moves and power ups to make future Smash Runs easier. This mode is available to play alone and with other players, each using their own 3DS. There are also shared modes with the Wii U version, such as the arcade mode, in which your selected character battles through five rounds to a confrontation with Master Hand, All Star Mode, in which you must fight every character in the game in the order they were introduced, and minigames such as hitting a sandbag for distance, using bombs to destroy targets, and a pin ramming game that’s almost identical to Tin Pin Slammer from The World Ends With You.

The character selection is vast, with 58 characters to choose from. Just about every major Nintendo hero is here, along with several villains and side characters, and guest characters not owned by Nintendo, such as Sonic and Mega Man. A lot of them, particularly the newcomers, have some kind of gimmick associated with them. For example, Mega Man fights primarily with different kinds of projectiles, Little Mac is devastatingly fast and powerful in ground combat and has a guaranteed one hit KO punch that charges up over time, with the catch of terrible air combat and the worst recovery in the game, and Rosalina is accompanied with a Luma that she can order to attack independently of her or use as a shield. The Miis are an excellent choice, as they allow players to create whoever they want and put them in the game, but unfortunately they can’t be used online, presumably because Nintendo thought everyone would make Hitler Miis. Also worth noting is that a lot of the newcomers this time around are from newer games, which is a good thing as it allows the game to better celebrate all of Nintendo’s history, while previous entries put more emphasis on older Nintendo games and neglected what was current at the time.

There’s no faulting the quantity, although a few of the choices seem weird. The biggest sticking point is Fire Emblem, which shoots up from two characters in prior entries to six in this one, ranking it second behind only Mario in terms of franchises with the most characters. More frustrating is that 3 of them are clones of each other with a shared moveset but different attributes, and it’s the only franchise to get more than one DLC character, with Corrin being included as an advertisement for their game, Fire Emblem Fates, which isn’t even out yet. Cloud also seems out of place, as he’s more associated with Playstation, but he, and by extension the entire Final Fantasy franchise, is now effectively off limits should Playstation All Stars Battle Royale get a sequel. Nintendo could, and possibly should, have chosen someone from a Final Fantasy game that’s actually been on a Nintendo console. A few characters from Brawl don’t make the cut, but they’re not missed, due to being very minor characters, hailing from well-represented franchises, or in Solid Snake’s case, being out of place in the same way Cloud is in this game. Wolf is the only cut whose absence is felt, and that’s only because Falco came back ahead of him, despite Wolf being the more unique of the space furry clones.

Unlike traditional fighting games, Super Smash Bros doesn’t use a health bar. Instead, each character has a percentage that starts at 0 and increases as they take damage. The higher a fighter’s percentage, the further attacks will knock them away. The aim is to knock fighters off the stage far and fast enough that they can’t get back on and fall off the screen. Matches can be played in Stock, where each fighter has a set amount of lives and the winner is the last one standing, or Timed, in which fighters must compete to get the highest score within a time limit, (The default is 2 minutes) gaining 2 points for each  KO and losing 1 point each time they fall. Think of it as a faster-paced, less disciplined version of sumo wrestling. This basic setup is spiced up with the addition of items, which appear on the stage at regular intervals and serve a variety of purposes, including weapons such as a baseball bat that makes an immensely satisfying sound when a swing hits another fighter, a hammer that makes the user flail wildly while it’s used, and a lightsab – sorry, Beam Sword. Other items include food to restore health, Assist Trophies that release a Nintendo character to help you when opened, Poke Balls which do the same thing as Assist Trophies but obviously you’re guaranteed a Pokemon inside, Smash Balls which allow the fighter who grabs it to use their Final Smash, an extremely powerful attack or transformation that can seal the game for a leading player or let a straggler even the odds, and the really overpowered items, such as a space ship and beetle, which both carry one unlucky opponent off the stage, and the Gust Bellows, which blow a powerful gust of wind towards your opponents that lasts a very long time and makes it extremely difficult for even the most agile fighters to get back onto the stage, as well as severely increasing the likelihood of your friends wanting nothing more to do with you. Fortunately for those of us who value our friends and would rather keep them if at all possible, the extensive item menu allows you to play with items entirely on or off, or select individual items to disable.

The stages must also be taken into consideration when battling. These backdrops, taken from various Nintendo games, can pose as much of a danger as the other fighters. Some, such as the Reset Bomb Forest from Kid Icarus Uprising, will change their layout as the fight progresses, meaning you’ll have to pay attention so that you don’t fall after failing to notice that the ground beneath you has just vanished. Others, such as N’s Castle from Pokemon Black and White, will have characters appear in the background and interact with the stage and fighters. In this case, the legendary Pokemon Reshiram and Zekrom will attack the stage with their Fusion Bolt and Fusion Flare attacks, covering the centre of the stage in fire or destroying the bridges to the sides. Between stages, items and the other fighters, there is a lot to deal with, and it can be overwhelming to keep track of at times, particularly for new players. This is why Omega Mode is a great idea. Much like the item switches, this option will switch off any stage interactivity and change the stage layout to a flat plain. This can be useful for introducing someone to the game by easing them in and giving them less things to worry about, which is particularly important for the 3DS version with its smaller screen. This option is also much appreciated by those players who favour competitive play and want to test their skill in a pure battle without the unpredictability the regular stages can provide. This split also applies online, where upon entering you can choose to play For Fun (unranked matches with items and interactive stages on) or For Glory (Ranked matches, items off, Omega Mode on. In other words, No Items, Fox Only, Destination! Although contrary to what the meme insists, you can use characters besides Fox.)

It is worth getting to grips with the game, as the combat is fast-paced and weighty, with each hit having some impact behind it, in contrast to Brawl which feels very floaty and slow after playing this game. However, the game is also able to strike a balance and avoid being so fast that it’s difficult to follow, an issue that gave Melee a very high entry barrier and made it unfriendly to newcomers. The character roster is also the most balanced it’s ever been, despite being the largest in the series. Of course, character tiers still remain, and winning as, say, Jigglypuff or Zelda will be tougher than winning with the likes of Sheik or Zero Suit Samus, but every character is viable, and there are no utterly useless characters you should never use under any circumstances like Melee Kirby and Brawl Ganondorf, or characters so overpowered you’d be a fool not to use them, like Melee Fox or Brawl Meta Knight.

Smartly, only a handful of stages are shared between the two versions of the game. The rest are unique to either the 3DS or Wii U version, with the Wii U version’s stages tending to be based on Nintendo’s home console games, while the 3ds version’s stages draw from their handheld back catalogue. This decision means that there is exclusive content for both versions, and helps the 3DS version in particular stand out as a companion game in its own right, as opposed to a second-rate cash-in. For those who have both a Wii U and a 3DS, there are valid reasons to buy both versions of the game because of the different features they provide – a rarity for games released on more than one console.

For Nintendo fans, Super Smash Bros is an essential purchase. Of course, if you are you already knew that, as from Melee onwards, the series has been renowned as a love letter to Nintendo, and you’ve probably already bought several copies. For anyone else, it comes highly recommended, with fast, frantic action that’s ideal to play in a bite-sized portable format and offers mountains of content stuffed onto a small cartridge, possibly with a process involving pixie dust and prayer to cram it all in there. And then there’s Amiibos, figures modelled after the game’s characters that can be used in the game to access an AI fighter of the character in question and trained to go from clueless noob that couldn’t beat Glass Joe in a fight, to harder than Superman, Chuck Norris, Kenshiro, Saitama and Bruce Lee all in one (the Wii U version can do this as standard, the 3DS version needs an Amiibo reader sold separately), or simply serve as cool game memorabilia, which is what I do with them.

Graphics: 8       Fighters and most stages look great. Stage backgrounds and minor characters are less detailed or static, but this is a necessary evil, and therefore forgivable.

Sound: 9       Excellent soundtrack that takes songs from all over Nintendo history and immensely satisfying sound effects. Voices are passable and mostly restricted to battle grunts and the occasional taunt.

Gameplay: 8      The chaos may be initially daunting, but once it clicks, it reveals itself to be intuitive and deep.

Lifespan: 9         A massive character roster, lots of unlockables and modes, and online multiplayer means you’ll be here for a long time.

Overall: The definitive Smash Bros package, encompassing Nintendo’s past, present and even future all in a single game. All the care and effort that’s gone into the game is enough to offset the few minor complaints. The only worry now is what more can Nintendo possibly add for Smash 5 to top this?    9/10