You know, I’m not sure that I would want to know how many hours I’ve spent playing
the Super Smash Bros. series.
I’m not joking when I say my friends and I used to race home from middle school every
day just so we’d have time to get a few extra rounds in--okay, and maybe we also wanted
to make it back home in time to catch the Pokemon cartoon too.
My point is this: Super Smash Bros. is fun--like, ridiculously fun.
And now here we are with Smash Bros finally finding its way to a handheld system, and
with it featuring the largest roster yet of around 50-characters, there’s a lot to be
excited about.
Not surprisingly, the game feels pretty similar to Brawl, but with some notable tweaks, such
as a faster pace and a huge change to how edge grabbing works.
Unlike past games where you could prevent an opponent from recovering by hogging the
ledge, this time the person recovering will actually steal it from anyone currently hanging
on.
It’s a really smart change that gives more power to those already against the ropes.
But of course, the biggest additions are the new characters with more than a dozen new
ones clocking in, including the likes of Little Mac, Villager, Rosalina, Mega Man and Pac-Man.
In short, the roster is not only the biggest, but also the most diverse it’s ever been.
Nearly every new character plays--and feels--unique.
Take Rosalina & Luma for example, who can separate and function as independent fighters.
Little Mac is a close-range powerhouse--seriously, even his standard attacks can KO opponents,
whereas Mega Man is built around long-range combat with a huge emphasis on projectiles.
I really can’t stress enough how impressive it is that a roster this large can also feel
so diverse.
Now that’s not to say it’s perfect, as there are still a few clones to be found that
seemingly exist mostly to pad out the roster, but that isn’t anything new.
And in case the current selection of characters isn’t enough, the game even features the
ability to heavily customize every character, including adjusting their stats and even swapping
out any of their special attacks for one of two others.
It completely changes how these characters feel.
Unfortunately, the process for unlocking those custom Special Attacks is pretty slow and
tedius, as they’re awarded randomly for playing the single-player modes, and you’ll
even have to deal with repeats too
But while the character selection is the most robust it’s even been, the stage selection
isn’t quite as impressive, featuring 34 as opposed to Brawl’s 41, and even of those,
a few too many of them were lifted from past games.
Thankfully, the new stages, on the whole, are pretty fantastic, such as Super Mario
3D Land-- a scrolling stage--in which you’ll explore 3 distinct sections that all feel
very different from one another.
Spirit Train might be one of my favorites, as the stage changes dynamically--and dramatically--
as you play, with additional trains cars joining the battle providing extra platforms to jump
to, as well as other trains that can cause yours to slow down, shifting the play-area
of the battlefield.
Some even feature completely unique gameplay mechanics, such as Golden Plains where grabbing
100 gold coins will lend you improved strength and increased resistance to being knocked-out.
In short, the stages feel almost as varied as the characters do.
And that goes for the items that randomly appear during each match too, which on the
whole are a lot of fun to use, with stand-outs being the Gust Bellows that can blow people
off stages, a Blue Shell that’ll try and take out whoever’s in the lead, and a Mario
Kart-inspired Bullet Bill that’ll destroy anyone in its path.
But unfortunately, the items appear a bit too frequently for my tastes, often turning
the match into one that’s more about the items than it is the characters.
Now in past games, you could actually adjust the frequency that item appeared at for a
more balanced experience, but that option is inexplicably missing this time, meaning
it’s all or nothing.
But you are at least still able to toggle individual items on or off.
Besides the core battle, Smash Bros. 3DS offers up a host of additional single-player modes.
Among them is a greatly improved Classic Mode--each playthrough only takes a few minutes now,
while offering up a greater amount of diversity in the form of multiple routes that feature
different challenges, making multiple playthroughs far less tedious than past Smash Bros. games.
Now perhaps the biggest new mode is something called Smash Run, which can be played with
friends locally or by yourself with CPUs filling in.
In this mode, you have 5-minutes to explore a large map defeating enemies and collecting
power-ups to upgrade your character’s stats.
And once the 5-minutes are up, you’ll then battle your powered-up characters against
one another in a random battle.
Sometimes it can be a simple 1-minute match, in which case having a strong attack can be
beneficial, or it might involve climbing a tower as fast as you can, in which case having
a strong jump can be useful.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because it plays very similarly to Kirby Air Ride’s
City Trial mode...but with one key difference.
You and your opponents aren’t actually exploring the same world, meaning you have no direct
interaction with each other for the entire 5-minute exploration phase--in fact, you won’t
even see each other at all until the random match at the end--and sometimes not even then.
It makes the whole thing feel rather disconnected, almost as if you all are participating in
isolated time trials.
Between that, the random chaos, and the anti-climatic minute-long challenge at the end, I just didn’t
find it holding my interest for long.
But regardless of how I feel about the secondary modes, Smash Bros. has always been about the
core gameplay, and thankfully Smash Bros. 3DS doesn’t disappoint--well, mostly.
The battles themselves really do feel great, with the new mechanics providing a better
balanced experience than past installments.
And it doesn't hurt that the entire game looks great, running at a mostly solid 60 frames
per second and with a fantastic soundtrack to boot.
I mean, just listen to this.
Alright, now I know what a lot of you are wondering.
“How does it work online?”
Well, let me cut right to the chase: Although it’s far from perfect, it’s a lot better
than Brawl.
At its best, it’s actually surprisingly smooth.
1 on 1 battles generally performed well, even when I went up against opponents in Japan.
Yes, there are still hiccups and slight input lag, but it’s actually pretty bearable overall...again,
for 1 on 1 battles.
But sadly, it was often a different story when taking on 2 or 3 otehrs players, because
if even one player has a poor connection, it ruins it for everyone else.
But hey, at least you can still play with friends locally, right?
So, about that...when Smash Bros. 3DS works well locally, it works really well.
It’s fast, smooth, and responsiveness.
But here’s the problem: in my experience, it often doesn’t work well...or even at
all.
I’ve had matches turn into a near slideshow--I’ve even suffered disconnects locally, sometimes
several in a row.
Hell, my friends and I actually had a better experience when we switched to playing online
instead, despite everyone being together in the same room.
Now let me stress that your experience may vary greatly, as the problems seem to stem
from wireless interference.
We tried playing a local coffee shop instead and had almost no issues there, whereas it
was often unplayable from my house.
So it’s entirely possible you’ll have no issues at all--or maybe you will.
The fact that it’s even a question is what’s concerning, as I’ve not experienced this
with any other 3DS game.
And speaking of other 3DS games, I've never found the original 3DS’s screen to be too
small...until Smash Bros. 3DS, where it can be difficult to tell what’s going on when
the camera zooms out and items are flying around--particularly in 3 and 4-players matches.
Thankfully, this is less of an issue if you’re playing on the XL, but it’s something to
keep in mind if you only have the original 3DS.
I also can’t say I loved playing the game with the 3DS as a controller.
While I did get used to it after a while, I still don’t think the Circle Pad offers
the precision of a proper control stick.
And the system really wasn’t built for the kind of inputs that Smash Bros demands, often
giving me hand cramps after a short while.
All in all, I Liked Super Smash Bros 3DS, even though I wanted to love it.
I mean, most everything about the gameplay itself is fantastic: the character roster
is incredible, the new stages are a lot of fun, and the game really does look great.
But the inconsistent multiplayer--both online and off--is a major problem, considering that’s
the main reason I love the series so much.
And there really is just something about playing Super Smash Bros. with your friends on a TV
with a proper controller that the 3DS can’t quite replicate--besides the fact that it
always works that is.
But again, your experience may vary.
If anything, the solid foundation has me even more excited than before for the Wii U version.
Thanks for watching and make sure to stay-tuned to GameXplain.com for more on Smash Bros.
3DS and Wii U and other things gaming too.