Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS – Does It Suck?

The most anticipated game of 2014 is finally here! Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS was released last Friday. Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS, along with the upcoming Wii U version, is the fourth and the latest installment of the insanely popular Smash Bros series. The 3DS version is also the first time the series has been introduced on a handheld system. The struggle was real. We have suffered the constant waiting for a while. We had postponement after postponement, teases, character reveals, and leaks. After all the trials and tribulations and wandering in the video game dessert seeking the promised land of October 3rd, it’s finally here and I’ve gotten my hands on it. But the question is the latest Smash Bros. for the 3DS worthy for you to get it. Does it suck?

Gameplay

If you’re new to Smash Bros, it’s a fighting game that features an all-star cast of Nintendo’s biggest and most memorable characters from popular Nintendo in a intense yet-cartoonish battle royale. Almost like Wacky Races meets Street Fighter. Super Smash Bros. is different from other fighting games. The other fighting games involve you fighting each other until the yours or the other player’s HP is gone. Super Smash Bros involves you fighting your opponent on a stage and you hitting them enough that they rack up enough damage points to the point where it will be easier to knock them further and further away from the stage. There are items and stage hazards to help or hinder you.

The Combat is a big step up from Brawl which a lot of people complained was a lot slower than Melee. It’s quick. The AI, even set a low level, can be smart at times so you have to be a bit strategic. Not much has changed to Classic, other than it presented as a choose your path scenario with the same challenges we all know and love from the other Smash Bros. games, and Muiltiplayer, but then again if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

There are some changes or tweeks to the gameplay this time around for the latest installment. The first is that they had tweeked some characters. Characters like Yoshi and Bowser got an upgrade, changing their posture to a more fighter stance to balance them out. Sheik, Zelda, and Samus along with Zero Suit Samus have been seperated and they have been designed to be even more of their own characters, not with a new Down-B or just a character design without armor.

What’s new to Smash Bros. for the 3DS is the option to customize your fighter. You can almost change the fighting style of the character as well as special moves. You want Mario’s Up-B to have a bit more jump, you can do that or if you need his attacks to pack a bit more punch, you can do that. You can acquire these upgrades in Classic or in Smash Run, the “Adventure Mode” of the game where you travel across a gigantic stage, beating up enemies from Nintendo games and collecting power-ups to use later on.

Controls

Controls are easy. Even if you’re a new player or are just playing Smash Bros. on the 3DS for the first time, you learn things quickly. You understand quickly what buttons do what. The B-button is the special moves button just like in all games. The control stick is for moving and a quick swipe to the left and right triggers your side smash The  It’s been a while since I played a Smash Bros. game so I had a bit of difficulty figuring things out. After practicing a bit, I got the hang of things.

Characters

With over 52 characters, you would think certain ones would get repetitive or boring, but that is not the case. With the roster, you get a lot of variety that makes gameplay exciting each time. You get to test drive which characters you like and fight with them. The system of unlocking characters is relatively easy. For every 10th fight in Smash mode, you’ll trigger an unlock battle. You don’t even have to win a match for it to count. After playing a few hours, I was able to unlock half of the 12 hidden characters in the game. I feel like Sakurai did this as a way to get the task of unlocking characters out of the way and allow people to enjoy and pick their main quicker. As I stated in an earlier post, some characters had to be cut like Ice Climbers, due to the technological limits of the 3DS, Wolf, and Pokemon Trainer (Boo) and Dr. Mario who is back from Melee. There’s an issue that has been brought up with Smash Bros and its clones (Lucina, Dr. Mario, Falco, and Dark Pit) and I don’t see it as a problem. For the most part, you have a lot of fighters that give you a lot of variety that you wouldn’t even care if there’s only a handful of clones in the game, except Dark Pit. Seriously regular Pit even has you as an alternate costume. Why are you even here? Speaking of alternate costumes, it is nice to see and learn the history behind the alternate colors behind every character. I might do a few posts about them perhaps?

Stages

Director Masahiro Sakurai stated that the 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. will feature stages from handheld titles of Nintendo games. Smash Bros. not only does that, but you also get some stages from past  Smash Bros. games like Corneria from Melee and Star Fox 64 (A remake was made for the 3DS) and Planet Zebes from the original Smash Bros. and Metroid: Zero Mission. Honestly before getting the game, I was let down by seeing clips of the stages, but actually playing them my mood changed. Seeing the pics don’t do the stages justice. Actually playing them, you get a feel of the personality of the stages and you get a feel of  Nintendo history and nostalgia playing them.

Visuals

How things look visually in the game are amazing. It’s pretty amazing to see the 3DS display these kind of graphics. It almost looked like Brawl on a handheld. Ironically,a small problem I had was with the camera. Sometimes too much would be going on and it zooms out. This would leave me to takes a while for you to process where you are on the screen and where your opponents are.

Music

Just like every other Smash Bros. game in the series, you get a collection of rearranged music from classic Nintendo titles by well known Nintendo composers as well as songs from actual Nintendo games, including the previous Smash Bros. games. It’s always nice to hear how they would rearrange your the melodies from your favorite games, but hearing some songs in this game left me in a meh state. To me, Brawl set the bar for how creative the composers could be and with the current game, they haven’t excelled or set the bar higher. You felt the awesomeness with Brawl’s composition. I’m not saying the songs in the 3DS version are bad. It on par with Brawl but better than Melee so there’s that.

Final Verdict

If you can guess what the tone of the game is, you could say that it was to take a step up from the previous game, Brawl. In some ways they did. The gameplay overall is a big step up from Brawl. They revamped the game by allowing the feature of customization, giving fresh life into the game. The only problem you would have is again the screen. Everything else seems fine. Does it suck? Nope. If there was a ratings system, I would give it a 4.5 out of 5. Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS is fun and fast ensuring good times for hours, or until the Wii U version comes out Nov 21.  Buy it or buy both.