So for those of you who don't know about this game, Smash Bros is a fighting game of it's own unique genre, pitting you against Nintendo's (and some famous guest characters) against one another to settle the personal disputes of who would kick who's ass. From Luigi kicking Mario off his throne, to the strange lovey dovey pairings of Pit and Samus, these fighters are ready for a brawl!
Introduction
Being the 4th installment of the series, not much has changed from the previous series. With a slightly adjusted speed. In comparison to Brawl and Melee, Bros for the 3DS is a nice middle ground, having faster speed than Brawl, but slower than Melee. New game features have also been added as well, like smash run, street pass smash, and so many more. This is bros series also houses some of the most packed characters in the entire series, boasting 48 characters both hidden and featured (Excluding Mii's since this is limited only by amount of memory space your SD card can handle). New stages as well as stage mechanics have also been added, with some of them having "Boss" Characters that you can defeat for a reward of sorts, and the stages also take a new form called Final destination forms.. Character customization has also been added to give each character their own unique set of special moves and power ups to increase their power.
All of which will be explained in greater detail in this review ^_^
Basic Features
Characters
Spoiler: show
So right away, one of the most discussed parts of every smash bros release are the character that make appearances in them. There are very, very popular demanded character, while some appeared suddenly for now reason. Either way, the roster did not disappoint for the most part. However, I do wish that some of the characters had their own unique style of play rather than being simple clone characters, like Marth and Lucina, who are practically the same except for gender. But besides these minor disappointments, new character like Little Mac or Wii Fit Trainer does make smash a more diverse roster, even including one of the most requested characters to appear, Shulk from Xenoblade.
-Character Customization
As mentioned before, each character in super smash bros can now have their special moves changed. For example in the image above show's all of Mario's different forms of specials, while they all seem the same, each can either deal fast damage, heavy damage, and many more. Of course, you can also add power ups to your character. These can increase their attack power, give them stronger defense, make them faster, and many more.
- Mii fighters
Mii fighters are quite a unique set of characters, with each able to become either a brawler (hand to hand combat), Swordsman (As the name implies, swords.), and Gunner (Again, name implies, uses long range weaponry.) Each type has their own play style, so pick a Mii that best suites that type of style. And just because they're the same type, doesn't mean they'll have the same moves. Their special moves can be changed to make each one different. Not to mention the clothes and hats you can have them wear.
Stages
There are many new stages in smash bros for the 3DS, with a sum total of 34 stages. Each stage has their own unique events going on in middle of battles. Some have you collecting items around the stage to give your character a boost, or ones that have you defeat boss characters to gain the upper hand in battle. But all of the stages now have their own final destination form, which can be changed before selecting the stage. This changes the stage layout to be flat like final destination with no extra platforms of events going on, giving one on one fights with no items on much more diverse.
Smash/Online Smash
Smash is your basic, run of the mill mode where you can go straight into battle by simply picking your character, enemies, and stages to fight. As you fight, there are chances to unlock hidden characters by defeating them, as well as attaining achievements in battle. Rules can be set with to team and of course, single battle with items on, off, stock, time, and so forth. Online matches work a little differently. There is now two modes online. One is for fun, where you can simply play with custom character you have with items on an on any stage besides final destination. Your battle records are not stored in this mode. For Glory mode however, it is a simple, fair fight with no items on a flat stage, using only your skills as a brawler to duke it out with three other people, on a team, or even a one on one match. Battle records are recorded in this mode, including wins, loss, and many more. Online smash with friends is also nice, allowing the use of custom and Mii characters for fun with friends.
Classic and All Star mode
Classic and All Star mode have been changed slightly in it's 4th installment. For instance, you can no longer control how many stocks (lives) you'll have as you start classic mode. Instead in each battle, you are granted two stocks to use, and these stock reset to two after each round. Difficulty is also now determined by an intensity meter akin to Kid Icarus uprising. The more gold you bet, the better you rewards are, but the enemies also become stronger, so ease into the intensities till you gauge carefully of how each level acts. There are also three paths in each phase of classic mode that you can follow, one branch is easy with no coins to offer as you go through it, one with some, and one with many, or even a trophy for grabs, but more rewards of course means higher difficulty. With the last branch having you go against either master hand, or both him and crazy hand.
All Star's change is that instead of fighting character from their separate franchises, the order in which you fight them is based on which years they have made their appearance, with fighting fighter from the earliest days of gaming, to ones that have just surfaced very recently. You also fight them in groups, which maybe intimidating at first, but is easier than you'd think. Difficulty can be set in this mode, with simple easy, normal, and hard mode settings. Healing items in this mode also changed from being just hearts, to Maximum tomato, Fairy bottle, and two hearts
Home Run Contest and Multi Man Smash
Home run contest is a game mode that had barely changed. What you basically do is you have ten seconds to damage the sandbag as much as possible before time runs out, then launch the bad using the bat to see how far you have launched it.
Multi Man Smash however has changed. Instead of using wire frame characters, Mii fighters are used instead, and each of their faces are used from your Mii plaza, so you'll be beating up some Mii's from your own plaza. But other than that, every aspect is the same
Vault
Vault is where all bonus stuff is kept, such as collected trophies, snapshots taken in paused fights, and replays that you can show off in case you have an epic moment, and luckily, there doesn't seem to be a time limit on the battles you record for as long as you have the memory to store said replays. A new small feature called Tips has been added to the vault. Here you can simply read randomized tips to better understand aspects of the game. You can also buy Trophies using coins you earned
-Trophy Rush
Trophy Rush is a new mode added to make it easier to get trophies and coins. What you basically do is destroy as many blocks as possible within the given time limit. There are dangers such as getting thrown off the stage. You also use coins to increase time, the more coins, the more time you have. Maximum time is 2 minute, 30 seconds.
Smash Run/Street Smash
Smash Run is a new mode introduced. Basically, you chose a fighter, then you are dropped at a huge stage where you must travel around for 5 minutes, defeating foes and attaining power ups. The more you attain, the better off you'll be. There are multiple enemies from different franchises appearing so it's quite diverse. There are also doors you can go into that have challenges for you to do. If you complete them, you earn rewards. By the end of the five minute mark, you are either pitted against one another with the power ups you got, or given a certain task that you must do better than the competition. Also, in this stage, each player is in their own area, meaning you can't meet your opponents on the stage itself. You can however see their achievements.
Street Smash is a small, new feature added that allows you to collect coins, equipment, and power ups by defeating people you have passed by with the game. Basically you just ram you opponents out as many times as possible to win.
Music
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Some of the music in this game is simply amazing, having my headphones on as I play this game sometimes gives me goosebumps as to how the music can send chills of excitement to me as I duke it out. Overall, the music is really nice and well done
Graphics/FPS Capabilities
Graphics in this game is surprisingly good for a 3DS game, especially one of large scale like smash, and even more so by keeping Frame rate to 60 seconds per second even with 3D on, which is very impressive for the system. The only thing is that during online play, depending on connection, lag may either be slim, or bad to the point of one second delay in reaction, but in that case, it's the connectivity, not the game. To keep Frame rates up for fighters, frame rates for items like pokemon or assist trophies are toned down to 30 FPS to keep speed going.
Gameplay
Gameplay of course is an important aspect of the game itself. It's relatively the same as previous smash bros installments. Lag is practically absent in normal gameplay offline, with the frame rate only slowing down if there's too much going on at once at the game. But even with 4 players, the game still plays smoothly. Online gameplay is different and lag is noticeable, but shouldn't be too much of an issue, but it all depends on connectivity as stated before. Lag can be sometimes be too much with a whole second before the characters react to your controls. Local play's lag is also noticeable, but again it shouldn't obstruct gameplay enjoyment. The joystick seems to respond well, knowing when to use a dash move with that of simply walking, but because of it's small size, moving the joystick even a little can cause you to dash, so you have to have precise control of it to make use of side attacks. As for battery life, well Smash for the 3DS is a big game, so it's no surprise that it sucks up large amounts of battery. It take away more power than any games I've played so far, and takes longer to charge as well. So even tho it's portable, you won't be able to play for extended amounts of time without plugging it in to charge. But it's a rather fair trade off considering the game plays well
WiiU Compability (Coming soon ^_^)
Verdict
Super Smash Bros has always been a unique fighting game genre, and holds a special place in my heart. It is the perfect party fighting game, and also perfect for competitive spirits out there wanting to prove who's best.
A perfect 10/10 for me ^w^
