Ever wondered who would win in a fight? Mario or Link? Yoshi or Donkey Kong? Pikachu or Fox McCloud? Well, wonder no more, because you can finally lay the boots to Yoshi and his gang and get back at them for that off-key singing. Ah, sweet justice. For one of the first times ever, Super Smash Brothers offers in home fighting action for up to four players! Super Smash Brothers may have limited appeal with the teenage set who are into serious fighting games, but younger kids will love it.
First off this game doesn't feature the real stars of Nintendo's classics. The ones doing the fighting are just lovable cuddly toys with a penchant for mass destruction. Of course these toys look, move and sound exactly like their "real" videogame counterparts, so why Nintendo had to invent the ridiculous backstory is beyond me. "So wait, you're saying that the Yoshi on screen isn't the real Yoshi, but just a video rendered 3D lifelike toy. Oh okay, that's good because it would be upsetting to me to know that the real videogame 3D polygonal Yoshi just bit off the ear of the real 3D polygonal Kirby." Are you confused yet? What difference does it make Nintendo?! Have you lost it completely? I have a dark secret Nintendo. I pretended that these were the real characters fighting! Hee hee. Oh yes, my imagination is all-powerful. Okay, my rant will be ending in a few short little dots...
Once you get past the preposterous premise, Super Smash Brothers just might be the game you've been waiting for. You can play as any one of your favorite Nintendo games stars toys. There's Mario, Fox McLeod (Star Fox), Samus Aran (Metroid), Donkey Kong, Link, Picachu (Pokemon), Yoshi, Kirby and other secret hidden characters such as Captain Falcon (F-Zero), Luigi and others that I'll let you discover.
Each character has moves based on (or reminiscent of) moves they had in their own games, and some new ones invented just for this game. Link has his hookshot and his twirling sword move, Yoshi uses his tongue, Fox uses a blaster gun, etc. As you might guess, each character has his, her or it's own strengths and weaknesses. Donkey Kong is powerful but slow, Link is fast but weak and Mario is just right. Your goal is not to beat your other opponent into unconsciousness like most fighting games. A round is won by having the most points at the end or by knocking your opponent off the level. A nice touch is the ability to jump back in the ring after being tossed out, but you had better be quick and had better master that awkward triple jump. Luckily this means that a ring out may only be a temporary setback.
Each character also fights in an environment taken from their history. For example, Link fights on Zelda's Castle, Yoshi in his bizarre storybook land, Donkey Kong in his jungle and Fox on the Starfox ship which name escapes me for the moment. All the environments are designed to have different playing levels so that you can move up or down, and are not free roaming but 2D. Although this may seem limiting, it's really no more limiting than any other fighting game. In fact with it's multi levels, SSB shows quite the innovation in the arena department. In truth, the levels are designed small that you can see most of the level all at once, because once you get four players going, the camera moves way back so that the entire playing field is visible. Though this is necessary for four players, I found it very difficult to see what was going on. Younger players who sit with their noses touching the screen may find no problem with it. Oh and by the way, don't do that.
Controlling your player takes a bit of getting used to. Personally I played this game for hours and still wasn't 100% comfortable with the control scheme. Moves are generated by pressing either the A or B buttons. More moves can be launched by pressing up or down on the analog stick while pressing A or B. Throw moves are done by pressing the R button and pushing the analog control in the opposite direction of your opponent. Some characters such as Link have projectile weapons that are thrown, and this is also accomplished by pressing the R button but this time in the direction of your opponent. Blocking also uses the R button, but only while you are standing still, which leads to a lot of blocking when you wish to throw an enemy or a weapon. Jumping is achieved with the upper c button. To do a double jump, simply press the c button again at the top of your jump. To do a triple jump do the aforementioned double jump, and then press B and up on the analog stick. Huh? Convenient, no? Why couldn't a triple jump be accomplished by another tap of the c button? The double and triple jump are of utmost importance to this game. Mastering it will save your bacon countless times. As you can tell, the moves available to each character are fairly limited. To perhaps make up for the stunning lack of moves, there are weapons that find their way into the battle, like hammers, magic wands, bombs, koopa shells and more. These can help turn the tide around quickly.
In conjunction with the regular fighting levels SSB also offers some fun bonus rounds. Although there are only 3 types of bonus rounds, each character has his own particular version to beat. Although not the most amazing extra's ever introduced, these levels will provide a challenge and help to maintain the replayability of the game.
Super Smash Brothers falls short in many areas unfortunately. The aforementioned limited moves per character is a real downer as is the awkward jump controls. The idea of four players at once is great but the reality is, is that it just doesn't work very well. Once the camera backs out to fit in the entire level, everything becomes too small to control. Be warned that this also happens in the one player mode because on a few occasions one player fights turn into 2 against two (with your partner controlled by the CPU) or 3 against 4. Again it's great in theory but hard to manage. Another bone of contention is the way the game makes you fight the same people in the same order every time. That got old fast. On the plus side, the boss characters were cool and tough and quite a neat surprise. Play it to find out who the final surprise boss is. Oh and it's not Bowser.
Super Smash Brothers is definitely not for everyone. I highly recommend trying it before buying it. It will definitely appeal to the Pokemon crowd (especially with all the hidden Pokemon characters that make appearances) but older gamers raised on Street Fighter, Tekken and Virtua Fighter may find SSB fun for awhile but ultimately extremely limiting. The concept is cool, the characters are classic and some of the features are truly innovative, but it all comes down to real depth. This game is a novelty and no matter how much you may disagree with me now, let me ask you if you are still enthralled with it next month.
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