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SUPER SMASH BROS. REVIEW

by Kaiokenattack

Ok, I have been known to write REALLY REALLY long reviews in that past that some people just really don't want to read, so this time I'll keep it as short to the best of my ability. Well first off, I love this game. Super Smash Bros. is one of those games that just makes me happy Nintendo is still around after all the screw-ups they've been doing lately. The game just does everything right in all the right places. On to the specifics of the game.

Concept: Beginners will find the game very easy to learn, yet as you play it more and more, you realize that there's more to it than what is shown. Let me see if I can sum it up for you. Everyone starts with a percentage of 0 at the bottom of the screen. (no energy bars here, folks) Well, when you get hit your percentage rises. The higher your percentage is, the "weaker" you become. Weaker, as in you can be thrown across the stage farther. Once your percentage is high enough, you can get knocked off the stage so easily it "kills" you and you lose one point of stock. The one who remains after everone else's stock is gone is the winner. You can raise and lower your points of stock up to 99 in multi-player mode, but I'll get to that later. So you see, it's an interesting idea.

Gameplay: Unlike the fighters of today, Smash Bros. uses only 4 buttons with very simple combinations. This makes it easier to just concentrate on knocking off your opponents instead of going down-forward-back-quartercircle-twice-around and fierce punch 3 times to pull off your super-mega-quintuple-really-bad-owie-hurt combo. Here they are: A button: action button. does quick, short moves. When combined with the control stick, they become more powerful and just as quick. B button: "special" move button. B alone does a single special move (many are projectiles), and the control stick up or down does more special moves. Slower, but deadly. C button(s): all jump. Down C is mostly preferred. Press C again in the air for a double-jump. This is when you get knocked off--you can get back on the stage! R button: R is used for a throw move. Some characters have grappling mechanisms (such as Link and Samus) that can grapple and throw you from a short distance. Hey it's cheap but it's really effective!

Z button: Z is used for blocking. When pressed, a bubble is placed in front of the character, and when your opponent hits it the bubble gets smaller and smaller until it pops and your are sent into dizzy-mode for a while. Characters: All the characters are from Nintendo games and some span across all 4 systems. I'll name all 12 of them for you: Mario, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Fox, Pikachu, Kirby, Luigi, Captain Falcon (from F-Zero), Jigglypuff, and Ness (from Earthbound). Each character is rendered in 3-D and looks great. They all have 4 alternate colors as well.

Graphics: To keep frame rates at a never slowing, silky smooth 40 frames a second, the team at HAL has made the characters out of less than 100 polygons each. This does reduce on some of the detail of the characters, but those who play the game won't care at all. There are also nine "2 1/2 D" arenas that are backgrounds of all the characters' games. Such are the Great Fox, Hyrule Castle, and Saffron City from PokŽmon.

Sound: In my opinion, this game has some of the best sounds in N64 history. Sound samples are crisp, and clear. You can hear Pikachu yell "Pikkkaaaa" so well it's scary. Besides the characters sound effects, the background music is unbelievably nostaligic and so well done that will make you hum along as well.

Replay: Well, 4 player mode is what this game is all about. In a word, it is the BOMB. In two words, "It's Awesome!" The one player mode gets old after a while since the order you fight the characters never changes, but it's only there to "train" you and unlock all of the many many secrets of the game. I believe this out-does the beloved Mario Party as far as funness goes. Is funness even a word? Well, this game is MORE than worth the $54 pricetag. And that's the bottom line.

In conclusion, (and this did end up being quite long after all) Super Smash Bros. will go down in history as being one of the greatest games in the N64's library. It isn't quite a "real" fighting game, but it is one hell of a good time. The 2D-3D look and feel of the game is something I believe many more developers will continue to experiment with because it has a great amount of potiential. I think anyone that loves Nintendo characters or wants to just beat the living $hite outta Pikachu should definitely pick this great game up.