If I ever built a time machine the first stop would be 1992 to pay a visit to myself, fully charged 3DS in hand. I'd leap out of dark alley and hit myself with a rolled-up copy of EGM. While my past self was dazed I'd snap open my 3DS and show my past self Super Smash Bros. (for 3DS). Besides being impressed by the tech -- especially compared to the current GameBoy, the Game Gear, or the Atari Lynx -- my 1992 brain would implode with the thought that Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Donkey Kong, Mega Man, Pac Man, Samus, Starfox, and that crazy new character Kirby (and a gaggle of other characters) could be in one game.
It's like the craziness that was "Cartoon All-Stars to The Rescue" or those bizarre DC/Marvel crossovers!
My last experience with the "Smash" series was Smash Bros. Brawl back in 2008 and this iteration of the series easily eclipses that experience (even without Solid Snake), though there are few aspects of the game to consider, the first being, eye strain.
I'm not quite to the "adjusting my spectacles" era of my life, but very often the fighting pans out to try to keep all the fighters on-screen, which greatly reduces the character size. It makes them difficult to identify and the action hard to follow. It gets a little easier with practice and experience, but with the 3D turned on, trying to follow everything on screen (particularly tracking power-ups), gave me a rockin' headache. Every. Single. Time.
In case the title threw you off, the focus of Super Smash Bros. is fighting. Only a very small handful of the included modes don't include some kind of epic showdown of some of gaming's most recognizable characters (though I'm still on the fence with including the Fire Emblem roster in the "most recognizable characters" category).
It feels like there are a dozen different modes to fight through either single-player or multiplayer.
Nearly all of my playtime with Super Smash Bros. was spent offline and "solo," mostly because of my commute situation, but if other sources are to be believed, the online and local wireless fighting, though rough to start with, has evened out somewhat.
Of course, sometimes it comes down to a lucky hit or snagging the right power-up at the most fortuitous point. And it never feels like the game is cheating or "rubber banding" like Mario Kart tends to do, where opponents suddenly turn up the heat and land a series of lucky punches. The fighting is fair and the difficultly can be turned up to really offer a solid challenge, especially with some of the fighting environments (taken from multiple different games), where the battlefield is constantly changing and positioning is everything.
Super Smash Bros. has a feature that not enough games on 3DS put to use: screenshots. All the screens accompanying this review were taken from my fights. The in-game camera can be repositioned, rotated, zoomed, to get the best shot. Why don't all 3DS games have this feature?
For $40US, there's not a lot to complain about with Super Smash Bros. (for 3DS). It pelted my nostalgic memories for a lot of these games and was just crazy fun to explore and bash around with and made me realize that games can be still be fun. All those Console Wars of yesteryear and even the current boiling in and out of the industry (see: GamerGate), melt away and we're left with something that's good and weirdly uplifting to play, like 2010's NBA Jam. Truly, my 1992 self would glimpse the future and envy my present self.
Then I'd check in with Nicola Tesla.
- Aaron Simmer
Follow @EmpireArmchair
The Good:
- Giant roster of fighters
- Great amalgam of battle arenas
- Lots of Solo options
- "Classic" mode to fight Master Hand
- StreetPass offers a weirdly addictive air hockey variant game to play
The Bad:
- Instant headache thanks to a camera that tends to zoom out on the action
- Even faster headache with the 3D turned on
- Would love to see an actual story go into Smash Bros!
