It may be a little odd to think of Super Smash Bros. as a stand-alone, legitimate handheld title. Although I had bought into the hype long ago and had already mentally committed myself to buying it, I had my doubts about the new Super Smash Bros. for 3DS. Super Smash Bros., after all, was a game franchise that I played with friends while we giggled at each others’ zany antics and occasionally shot death glares. It is an inherently social game and while the 3DS certainly brought an all new level of sharing and social capabilities to handheld games, I doubted its ability to compete with its upcoming Wii U counterpart. Thankfully most of my concerns were alleviated when I finally got my hands on the full copy of the game.
I’ll be upfront here: the 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. does have its limitations. One of the most prominent is, as I mentioned, the diminishing of the “communal” aspect. In order to play with your friends they must each have access to a 3DS and a copy of the game. This might not be an issue if your game-playing friends or family have their own 3DSes already and were planning on picking up a copy of their own. However for your more casual gaming friends or those friends that will play only when you get together with them, the void will have to remain empty until the release of the Wii U version. Although this may seem like a given considering the medium, I still find myself wondering if some of that spontaneous “let’s play Smash!” magic that, in the past, led to some of my most favorite moments with friends, is missing. Furthermore, while I find the 3DS XL’s screen is a decent enough size to be able to follow what is going on without much difficulty, I suspect that it might be difficult to make out what’s going on in a four player match on the originally sized 3DS.
Despite the change of platform, however, Super Smash Bros. for 3DS is still another strong edition to the franchise we all know and love. Like in previous iterations, you choose a fighter from an array of Nintendo characters, pick a level to fight in, and go head-to-head with your rivals. The character choices in the game are more extensive and diverse than ever before, with almost fifty characters to discover and unlock. This was, by far, one of the most enjoyable aspects for me. All your favorite classic characters have returned to brawl once more but at the same time the cast of new characters offers exciting opportunities to experience and master different move sets and abilities. Nintendo has added a new level of customization to this new edition, allowing you to not only import Mii characters and shape them, by giving them equipment and abilities, into capable fighters, but also to customize the main characters’ abilities and special attacks. Although the balance between the number of male and female characters could certainly use some tweaking, I was at least happy to learn that the ratio had improved fairly substantially from the last game.
Perhaps in order to add more single-player replayability, a new Smash Run mode was added. In Smash Run, you have a few minutes to run through an extensive map, battling enemies and opening chests. Finding these chests and defeating enemy creatures earns you power ups in stats like speed, power, special ability, and jumping. At the end of the run, you put these stats to work in a final challenge that can range at random from a regular smash battle to a speed-based race to the finish line. Smash Run can be an odd but amusing diversion from the main sector of the game that also allows a local multiplayer option.
Internet connectivity plays a key role in keeping the multiplayer functioning in Smash for 3DS. Although there is a local multiplayer option that is useful when wanting to play with nearby players, online Smash will often be what you find yourself diverting to whether you want to play with friends or compete against other players to test your strength. However in my experience, online battles can either be a smooth, enjoyable way to test your abilities or a laggy, slow mess. One battle can go completely undisturbed while another can be laden down with so much lag that it becomes nearly unplayable. Heavily experienced and champion players also dominate the “For Glory” personal challenge-style level of brawl, making the entrance barrier far too high for even an otherwise ordinarily experienced player. Although this is not necessarily Nintendo’s fault, it would have been nice to have the option to play against random players who share my experience level.
Unfortunately I found that many of the levels were misses rather than fun new brawl locations. Some simply have so many AI events and enemies connected to the level itself that it can become almost impossible to have a proper brawl with the other players. In one level, for instance, an “enemy” consistently dealt me more damage and killed me more often than all of the other players combined. It’s fun to have creative and even slightly zany levels to choose from, but it really shouldn’t be so distracting that it prevents players from truly playing against each other.
Overall Super Smash Bros. for the 3DS is a fun, portable way to enjoy a long-running classic until it gets a “proper” console release on the Wii U.
