Smash Bros 4 3DS Review

So the latest installment in the much beloved Smash Bros franchise released this past Friday for the Nintendo 3DS. This is the game that is expected, in tandem with its WiiU version, to save Nintendo from any sort of financial problems it might be having.

What is Smash Bros?

This is Smash Bros!

Smash Bros is a fighting game first developed for the Nintendo 64. It is a four player game wherein players take the roles of their favourite Nintendo characters in a battle royal in various stages inspired by different games from the Nintendo archives as well as various items meant to help turn the tide of battle. It’s comparable to the Avengers of the Marvel film franchise for being a dream game containing so many characters of gaming’s childhood.

So… how is it?

The fourth Smash Bros (having been denied some kind of follow up to the title like its contemporaries) is probably the finest fighting game on a handheld. Compared to Super Street Fighter IV (also released on the 3DS) Smash Bros runs smoothly in both the 3D and 2D graphics settings without any slowdown with only a few issues while loading.

The controls are overall very tight and there’s no issue inputing button presses for the various attacks, grabs, guards and air maneuvers. It seems like a lot of effort was made to make this mobile version of the title be as forgiving as possible for player input.

The graphics are top notch and render amazingly well. Players can even control the use of cell-shading in actual character models.

Now to the nitty gritty.

This game is clearly a hard split in attention between the hardcore players that revere the game for its competitive components and the players that simply see it as a fun fighting game. Players are able to immediately start a standard Smash battle and customize it to their liking. For those players that like a more bare-bones game, each map has the option of an Omega mode meant to strip away all features making a level playing field for a more fair and balanced battle. That combined with the option to turn items off is a mode that’s effectively built for the more hardcore players.

For everyone else there’s… everything else.

There’s a new feature in the game called customization where players can alter and change their choice characters in different ways, this includes altering damage ratios, speed, move power and the like. More features for this are available but they must be unlocked through other game modes. This customization sees a showcase in Smash Run where players run through a stage gathering powerups to tweak their character before battling other players (or the computer) in a final brawl. It’s a nice idea for player vs. player multiplayer as it adds a strong level of tension and impetus in getting the right upgrades. Unfortunately it uses much of the terrible level design from Smash Bros Brawl for the stages where players must gather upgrades so it detracts a lot.

On top of that, with the nature of the customization, I don’t see a lot of players taking advantage of it in actual Smash battles. There are already items that exist that can easily alter how a character plays in the air, in taking damage and so on. To have more features that do the exact same thing on a much more minute level feels needless. Especially when you have to unlock more moves in the game.

There’s additional modes such as Classic where players take on a series of challenges with a single character until they beat the traditional final boss Master Hand. There is also All-Star mode which is much like Classic except you cannot choose your opponents from match to match and you do not reset damage between matches and the usual stadium games.

One of the bigger problems with this game is that the best option for unlocking characters is purely in normal Smash battles. While some characters will unlock if certain challenges are met in other modes, some can only be unlocked by the number of Smash battles you’ve had. Meaning it’s just easier to go into smash and have 120 battles to unlock all characters. You may be taken aback by that number but I assure you, many players have already cleared this hurdle, myself included.

You think I’m joking about that huh?

The other problem is that coins, rather than being used to buy more maps and such, are instead used to buy higher difficulties for certain modes so that players have a chance to earn more maps. It’s clearly a bad idea when the developers could have both systems used in parallel where players could choose to simply take the hardest difficulty and unlock more or take the slow route and get coins. And believe me, getting coins is a slow route.

There’s an additional 35 challenges in the game that exist in parallel to an achievement system (they don’t call it that, but it’s an achievement system) that simply logs memorable moments. One of which is simply turning the game on for the first time. So they come off as meaningless quite quickly. Most players will likely just rush to unlock characters and passively unlock more during downtime.

Despite these criticisms this is easily the best handheld fighting game I’ve ever played. I can’t wait to go to conventions, parties or even my local geek stores to play against people. Setting up local matches is easy, fast and an absolute riot. The characters have been refined further and the new additions are at the very least interesting if not always perfect for every situation. The controls are tight, the options are varied enough for the normal battles, everything that matters most is just solid.

I cannot wait to see the mileage I get out of this game and battling strangers wherever I go just through random encounters in real life. I love the fact that while being social with my friends we can all flip open our games and have a four man battle in mere minutes.

This was a smart move to create the game for the 3DS and I can’t wait to see how the options to work with the WiiU handle. But, for that we will have to wait.