Super Smash Bros. (review)

Posted By Puching Zhang in Gaming, Reviews

BreakingModern — Mash the buttons and watch the explosions. Wait! Wha-?! What just happened?! If you’re like me, you have fond memories of Nintendo’s awesome smash hit (yes, pun definitely intended), Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It featured a seemingly non-ending parade of videogame characters taken from the Nintendo vault.

In 2014 the company released a sequel to its giant and addictive crossover game. The new rendition of Super Smash Bros. (available for Nintendo 3Ds and Wii U) featured cool new features and kept a lot of the retro tidbits we all loved so much.

Let’s start with the characters. Nintendo has always done a good job of expanding its universe with every title, and this one’s no exception. In terms of new characters, I tend to divide them into three categories: expansions on previous games, alter-egos and characters from new games.

In the first category, I applaud Nintendo for not digging into too many franchises for its new characters, but rather expanding on adding characters from franchises in previous games.

For example, my personal favorite character in the game, Lucina, is pulled from the game Fire Emblem and retains similar movesets to Nintendo’s franchise Ike and Marth. However, I would have to say the best expansion comes from the Pokémon franchise. Nintendo dropped the Pokémon trainer from previous games and allowed the Pokémon to exist as independent characters.

This sort of independence is not limited to Pokémon, however. Nintendo has made the decision to separate some characters’ alter egos, most notably the famous Zelda-Shiek pair. In terms of customization, this was a good move on the company’s part. But I admit that it screws around with the balance of characters like Zelda. And I’m sure that upsets some players.

Finally, Nintendo has added a few new franchises into its current game, including the Wii Fitness Trainer. Yep, you read that right. The Wii Fitness Trainer is now a character. To a lot of people this may seem a weird decision on Nintendo’s part, but I personally think it’s pretty cool. She’s a well-balanced character with her own unique moveset, so I think that she’s a welcome addition to the game.

You’re probably thinking all the good stuff is new and fresh, but what makes this franchise so special is that it reskins old things to make them new again. There are stages from Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. Melee included in this game. And that’s a great way to include a sheen of positive nostalgia.

Like Brawl and Melee before it, Super Smash Bros. includes both hip new stages for players wanting to have some fresh new experiences, and cool old stages for players who want to relive the glory days of past games. Let’s be honest here, many fans of this game, including myself, grew up with its predecessors Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros Melee. We’ve played many of the original games that the characters came from and watched these characters develop over the years. The inclusion of these old stages is a nice nod to long-time Nintendo fans.

Along with characters and stages, the overall multiplayer feature of the game has also been improved. In the past there was a limit of four players on a single stage, now the number has been ramped up to eight. I can only describe Eight-Player-Mode as complete and utter anarchy and fun – with more explosions than a Michael Bay movie.

The addition of Eight Player-Mode in Super Smash Bros. gives the game the same formula of success as other great multiplayer games like the Battlefield series. By making multiplayer so large, both Battlefield and Super Smash Bros. create awesome gameplay and new challenges that come with large battles. The graphics, while similar to past iterations, are well done and look more next gen. With the remade stages from the past, the new game still has a comfy feel.

Overall this game gets a 9/10. Super Smash Bros. is an awesome game that harkens back to my childhood and (at the same time) brings the series into the next generation.

For BMod, I’m Puching Zhang.

All Screenshots: Puching Zhang