Off the Cuff Plays Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)

So, the 100th post in this blog, and it's a fittingly big one. After spending over 10 days playing this game and still having not gotten close to completing it 100%, I have enough information to write this review regardless. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018) is Nintendo's (and, in all honesty, gaming's) most ambitious project yet, and I'm thrilled to say that it more than paid off. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a 2D crossover fighting game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd, published by Nintendo and directed by Masahiro Sakurai.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)

Right out of the box, this game proves itself worthy of its 'Ultimate' subtitle. Its character roster is without question the strongest in the entire series. There are no cuts. Every single character from every Smash Bros. game is returning, including those that were cut from previous instalments. Not only that, but every returning character has seen a few changes that make them feel distinct from the many different characters included. Everyone feels a lot stronger than they did in the past, and there are few characters that I genuinely disliked using. Not only that, but the newcomers, though sparse, all feel unique and fun on their own. King K. Rool and Incineroar in particular felt really great for me, specifically K. Rool, who quickly became my new main. They even made 'clones' feel less egregious, reclassifying them as 'Echo Fighters', giving them a new identity and leaving fans open to the possibility of more and more clones to come. Even the stage roster is by definition the best its ever been, with 103 different stages, all distinct from the last in either layout, mechanics or aesthetics, with the majority of them coming from past games in the series. I do mean that, since there are just 4 stages new to this game, which I don't see as a problem. The returning stages have all been given a fresh coat of paint, and look breathtaking, especially compared to their appearances in the past. What I find especially impressive is how they made the stages based on 8-bit games look incredible in HD whilst still looking more true to their home games, literally looking like they've been taken directly from their 8-bit environments. Of course, the game as a whole is beautiful, but I'll get to that later.

Battlefield

The gameplay is also updated from past games. With the 3DS no longer holding things back on a hardware front, the game runs faster than the previous games, but not so fast as to return it to the Melee levels of unaccessible. That said, the new knockback mechanics occasionally make it so you briefly lose track of where your character is, since the characters fly faster, but decelerate quicker. It only happened to me once or twice, and once I'd gotten used to the new gameplay speeds, it never happened. In general the game seems faster, and not just because of the movement speeds. The new game mechanics favour offensive play over defensive, since the game punishes players who dodge too frequently, and it's much harder to time your shield to perfectly block an incoming attack. The game wants you on the offensive as much as possible, and this results in quick matches, even on the larger stages. Beyond that, the gameplay is fairly unchanged from the recent games. It feels like the gameplay of 3DS / Wii U but with a little facelift to fix any little inconveniences that arose from those mechanics, leading to the most refined core gameplay in the series.

King K. Rool

Not only is this the best multiplayer content the series has ever had, but it's also got one of the best single-player components. That might initially sound weird since a lot of the single player modes from the previous instalments have been culled for this game. There's no Smash Run/Tour, no Home-Run Contest, no Target Smash, no Events, no Trophies, even All-Star Mode has been relegated to a Mob Smash Mode. This might seem disappointing at first, but when you realise that the massive character roster would require you to clear each of these modes with every single character for full completion, like it was in previous entries, you don't miss them. The modes that are here have been given a lot of time in development, and it shows. Classic Mode is the best it's ever been, combining the replayability of Melee with the structure of Brawl. Every character has their own unique path through the mode, either playing off an element from their home series (Pokemon Trainer battling all the other Pokemon to become the very best) or relating to their appearance in Smash (Lucario fighting the other characters with counters). These are great, and figuring out each character's gimmick is exciting, especially seeing which of the 7 boss fights they'll get (even if half the time it just ends up being Master Hand). The main event here is Spirits Mode, which has a lot going for it. The basic gameplay of Spirits is sort of like a combination of Events, Trophies, Equipment and Stickers. A Spirit is a character not playable, but that uses a playable character as a vessel, giving that character their abilities and attributes, simulating a battle against that character as best the game allows. These are all well thought-out matches, and there's a lot more to Spirits than this, such as levelling them up, combining them to summon other Spirits, and sending them on expeditions to gather loot. The main event of Spirits Mode is the new adventure campaign: World of Light. While it's nowhere near as story-driven as Subspace, the gameplay more than makes up for it. On the surface it may appear to just be a series of Spirit battles with a set path, but there is so much more to it than that, in ways I don't want to spoil for you. Let me just say this: it has by far the greatest final boss in the series' history.

Moray Towers

Okay, one paragraph left, and there's one important thing to address, which may just be the most important part of the game: the aesthetics. The game looks gorgeous as always, and the soundtrack kicks ass, and with remixes like Zinnia's theme, Big Blue, Gangplank Galleon and an epic orchestral rearrangement of Melee's How to Play theme, as well as the new Splatoon and Castlevania music, this might just be my favourite Smash soundtrack yet, but these aren't what make the presentation of this game so great. It's all of the little touches that mean absolutely nothing in the long run. I've mentioned before that the things that elevate something above and beyond are the little touches, and this game has those in spades. There's the big slow-mo zoom-ins that occur on the final strike of a battle, or the way the score flashes up on screen when a KO happens in 2-player battles, or the fact that Ryu and Ken never turn their backs on their opponents, just like in Street Fighter, or the new HUD which displays stuff like Cloud's Limit Meter and Villager's pocketed items, or Incineroar showboating for the crowd after landing or missing a strong attack... Holy f***, there's just so much to like about this game. And that's not even mentioning the quality-of-life adjustments, like the way you pick the rules before anything else, or how you don't need to hold down 5 different buttons to exit a match, or how you can look up each character's special move list from the pause menu, or the new Smashdown Mode which encourages people to be good with lots of different fighters... Gah, it's just so clear that an awful lot of time and care went into making this the perfect package for everyone, and that's not even including the upcoming DLC characters. There are 6 new fighters on the way, 2 of which we currently know about: Joker from Persona 5 and the hilarious Piranha Plant. When you put all of this together, it's hard not to see this game for what it is: perfect.

Galeem

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018) is just the best Smash Bros. game ever. I'm honestly a little perplexed as to how they'll top this with the next instalment in another 6 or so years, but for now, I'm not going to dwell on that too much and just play this game forever. All this game needs is for Crash Bandicoot to be playable. And just you watch. I feel good about my chances. 10/10.

Off the Cuff Reviews Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Last December I watched 32 superhero movies. This month, I'm watching one. I know it's been a while since my last Movie Marathon Month, but I have something bigger planned for next year. For now, let's talk about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018). Good Lord, this film's amazing. Starring Shameik Moore as Miles Morales / Spider-Man, Jake Johnson as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy, Mahershala Ali as Aaron Davis, Brian Tyree Henry as Jefferson Davis, Lily Tomlin as May Parker, Luna Lauren Velez as Rio Morales, Kimiko Glenn as Peni Parker, John Mulaney as Peter Porker / Spider-Ham, Nicolas Cage as Peter Parker / Spider-Noir and Liev Schreiber as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Alright, off the bat, this movie is gorgeous. The animation style is so unique; it truly feels like a comic book come to life. The colours are vibrant and the lighting is beautiful, especially in the darker, shadowy locations. It feels almost like stop-motion at times, but the art style alone isn't what makes this film so visually impressive. The movie movie moves at a breakneck pace, and I don't mean that in terms of the pacing, although that is true as well. Even outside of the action scenes, it's very rare that there isn't something happening on screen. There's so much movement, but it's never movement for movement's sake. The good thing is that the film knows when to slow down or take a moment to give the audience a break, which comes back to the pacing of the film. It's a very fast paced movie, and there's an awful lot crammed in here. What's impressive about this is how easy it was to follow what was going on. There are 6 'Spider-Men' in this... Spider-Men... Spider-Mans?... There are 6 spider themed superheroes in this film, but it never feels too cluttered. They find the perfect balance with pretty much everything, and they pull it off beautifully.

Shameik Moore as Miles Morales

The action scenes are especially great. They take advantage of the fact that it's animated and it's Spider-Man to bring us some really creative fight scenes. This is where the animation style really shines, and it's a situation where I was sitting in the cinema watching these action scenes and feeling bad for the poor animators who had to put in all the time into making this look so good, though I imagine working on this would be more rewarding than working on something else. Not only are these action scenes super great to look at, but they're also really unique, especially for Spider-Man movies. The scene with Miles carrying a passed out Peter through the city is something you just don't see in other superhero movies, especially considering how funny it is. Because it is. This is a hilarious movie. You can really tell Lord & Miller worked on this, and there are so many stand-out jokes here that on the way home I kept remembering more and more great lines. This is probably one of the funnier movies I've seen in the last couple of years, and the jokes are also really varied, considering all of the different types of Spider-People we get in this movie. Spider-Noir specifically cracked me up consistently, and there was more than one joke that had me rolling in my seat. Really clever and relevant jokes. Great stuff.

Jake Johnson as Peter Parker

The cast is also fantastic. Shameik Moore does a brilliant job bringing Miles Morales to life, and he bounces off basically the entire cast in different ways wonderfully, but I'll talk more about him later. Jake Johnson is a fantastic Peter Parker, and a really different Parker than we've seen on the big screen, and a refreshing take on the character at that. Sure, it's great seeing Peter as an actual kid in Homecoming, but seeing him as a 30-something bum is something different, it works for this story, and I'm glad this interpretation exists. Gwen Stacy is still a great character and Hailee Steinfeld does a great job in the role. She specifically bounces off Moore really well, and stands out as a great character of her own right. The rest of the supporting cast do their jobs really well, particularly the other Spider-People: Nicolas Cage, Kimiko Glenn and John Mulaney. Cage in particular was hilarious, as I mentioned, and it gets even better when you consider that all of these different versions of Spider-Man actually exist in the comics, and this medium is really the only format that lends itself to those characters.

Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy

Which brings me to the best thing about this movie: the tone. With all of these different versions of Spider-Man, you would think the tone would be all over the place, but they find a nice balance here. They take themselves just seriously enough that the more serious moments and overall plot don't crumble into itself, but it doesn't take itself so seriously so as to make the audience stop taking it seriously. But it's more than that. Not only is this film silly and serious, but it's also really emotional at times. There's a lot of heart in this movie, and that's where Moore shines. He nails the more emotional moments, and it's these moments that take the film out of the realm of a fun family film and turns it into something really special. I really have nothing else to say. I have no nit-picks or quibbles or hesitations. I also have nothing else I can say without spoiling the movie in some capacity. Just go and see it.

Nicolas Cage as Spider-Noir

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) is one of the best superhero films I've seen, and the best Spider-Man movie I've seen. If you have a chance to see it on the big screen, absolutely do it. What a beautiful movie. 10/10

Off the Cuff Plays Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (2014)

Alright, we've had the appetiser, now for the main event. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (2014) is what will always be considered the '4th game in the franchise' and it's easy to see why. For all the content Smash on 3DS didn't have, it's back here and... it's... mostly good. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is a 2D crossover fighting game developed by Bandai Namco Studios, published by Nintendo and directed by Masahiro Sakurai.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (2014)

Okay, to get the obvious out of the way, there's no point in discussing the roster or the gameplay here, since it's all basically the same as it was in the 3DS version. Talking about the graphics... hoo boy, Smash has never looked better. HD suits Smash well, and the added colours make the characters just stand out so well. The characters themselves all have far more personality than they had in previous instalments. Characters like Duck Hunt Duo and King Dedede especially can be downright hilarious in the facial expressions. Something I didn't mention about the 3DS version that holds true here is the new visual effect that occurs when someone gets KO'ed. On the finishing blow, big red and black lines appear around the fighters, sort of resembling how one would illustrate a mighty blow in a comic book. It's a great effect, and it's the small stuff like this that really stands out. As with pretty much anything, it's always the little, irrelevant stuff that is the true indicator of how much effort you put into something, and the same is true in Smash Bros.

Battlefield

The stage roster is far greater than it was in any Smash game before. This game, once again, has some of my favourite stages ever, such as Duck Hunt, Orbital Gate Assault and Kalos Pokemon League, with very few stages I downright hate. Pac-Land gets close, but not enough for me to turn the game off if it comes up in the random stage select. As with the previous games, each stage truly feels faithful to the game it's based off, and the new HD graphics certainly help with that. There are even some larger stages, and I do mean LARGER stages, such as The Great Cave Offensive and Palutena's Temple. While these stages can make regular fights drag on a bit, there is a reason for their inclusion. This game is the first in the series to support 8 players in the one match. There are certain stages this is restricted from, but this seems to be more of an aesthetic concern than a size thing. Battlefield is one of the smaller stages, yet 8 players are allowed on it no problem, but Orbital Gate Assault, which really feels like it should be compatible, isn't, which is probably because of all the stuff happening in the background. I doubt the Wii U could handle it. Anyway, 8-player mode is great, and on the smaller stages it can become difficult to track your character, but it shines in medium-to-large stages.

Duck Hunt

There are more unlockable collectibles than ever before. I specify 'collectibles' since there are fewer unlockable characters and stages here than there were in the 3DS version, and you know how I feel about that. I knocked out all the unlockable characters in a couple of hours, that shouldn't be a thing. Anyway, there are hundreds of trophies to collect, all of which look fantastic, as well as the music. There are about 480 music tracks in this game, and the soundtrack is quickly becoming my favourite thing about the Smash Bros. series. Each track is quality, and choosing the MyMusic settings is becoming more and more difficult with each instalment. The Challenge Board, which returns from Brawl and 3DS, sets out specific tasks to unlock things, and Challenges are another great inclusion from Brawl. While Melee never really told you how to unlock anything, Challenges set it out in a way where it doesn't outright tell you everything from the beginning, but it gives you enough to give you a starting point, which I love. These aren't the only unlockables, however, as each character now has 2 additional moves for each special attack command, and you can customise your fighters this way. This would have been a cool idea, especially adding in the new Equipment functionality. However, since there's no easy way to unlock custom special moves, and it's very easy to just keep unlocking the same move multiple times, it never felt worth it to put the time in and get them all, making the entire feature a little unnecessary.

Orbital Gate Assault

It doesn't help that the single-player modes are at their worst here. It's clear all of the effort went into the core gameplay, as the single-player modes suffer because of it. Classic Mode is unrecognisable, and now features you moving a token across a stone to select the fight to join, all of which are random 2-8 player battles on random stages, with additional elements like Metal battles or Giant battles or Horde battles rarely showing up to spice up the gameplay. It's the most repetitive Classic Mode by far, and I never felt encouraged to go through it with every character to unlock their trophies. Target Blast is the same, with the maps never changing for the fighters, meaning the only incentive to play it with everyone is to get a new high score with each fighter, which is something that wears thin very quickly. Even the new trophy collecting minigame is bland and repetitive. The mode that replaces Smash Run in this game is Smash Tour, a Mario Party style game where you move around a board collecting fighters and raising your stats before a final battle at the end. The mode takes roughly 15-30 minutes and it's not fun. Incredibly repetitive, even. Which is the key word here. Going through and unlocking every last thing in a game like Smash Bros. is always going to be repetitive, but the game should try to make it seem like it's not. Brawl disguised it fine. This game does not. It makes up for it, however, by being the most fun Smash game to play for its core multiplayer gameplay. I have so many fond memories of battles with my friends in this game, it's probably the Smash game I've put the most time into over the years. It's got the best multiplayer content, but some of the worst single-player content.

Mewtwo in Master Fortress

In the end, I'd prefer they get the key multiplayer gameplay right, which is why Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (2014) still shines as a Smash game. With Ultimate literally right around the corner, I don't see myself going back to this game anytime soon, but it was fun while it lasted. 8.5/10.

Next... the big one. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. This one might take me a while to get done.

Off the Cuff Plays Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (2014)

You might think that I'd be reviewing the 3DS and the Wii U versions of this game together, since they share the same roster and gameplay mechanics. But, really, that's all they have in common, and Mr. Sakurai himself considers them to be different games, so that's how I handle it in the reviewing process. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (2014) is the first, and so far only, handheld instalment in the Super Smash Bros. series, which comes with both pros and cons, but we'll get there. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS is a 2D crossover fighting game developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd, published by Nintendo and directed by Masahiro Sakurai.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (2014)

Right off the bat, the best thing about this game is the roster. Even before DLC, this roster is fantastic. All of the returning characters feel like they have a good reason to be there, and the majority of them have been given enough tweaks to make them feel revamped from the previous game, but not so many that they feel completely different to how they do in previous games. In terms of the newcomers, this feels like the strongest batch yet. There's a solid balance of characters that feel like they should be there (such as Greninja, Palutena and Little Mac), characters that are there specifically for fan service (such as Mega Man, Rosalina and Pac-Man) and characters that are bizarre and really shouldn't fit but somehow do (like Villager, Wii Fit Trainer and Duck Hunt Duo). The DLC fighters are also all worthy inclusions, with returning favourites Mewtwo, Lucas and Roy, and 3rd-party characters Ryu, Cloud and Bayonetta. Cloud specifically is a huge deal, and I remember being stunned for an hour after seeing that announced. Speaking of which, this isn't necessarily related to the game, but I just love the way they chose to announce newcomers in this game, with each one getting their own special CGI trailer. These were always so hype, and I'm glad they returned for the Ultimate reveals.

Battlefield

The gameplay for the core Smash battles feels like the most refined in the series, and this holds true for the Wii U version, too. It's faster than Brawl, but not nearly as quick as Melee, and it's a good balance between the two, especially for handheld play. This is the perfect game speed for translating Smash to a smaller screen, which is true for the stages as well. There's nothing to the scale of Temple or New Pork City, but there's still a decent amount of variety on display here. There are even a few stages that are among my favourites in the entire series, like Rainbow Road, Mute City SNES and Arena Ferox. Vertical scrolling stages have been abandoned, which is a good thing, since they were consistently the worst stages ever. The art direction is also an upgrade. They went for a more cartoony style, which just works so much better for Smash. The characters that previously benefitted from the more realistic style (mainly the Fire Emblem characters) have adopted a more 'anime' style, and it works a lot better. The colours just pop a lot more in this game, and they've even taken the art style in a different direction from the Wii U version. The characters all have distinct black lines around them, helping them to stand out against the backdrops, and it just looks great. I'm glad this didn't translate to the Wii U version, but for handheld, it works out great.

Rainbow Road

Speaking of the 3DS, one of the great things about this game is the way they were able to transfer Smash over to a handheld system without compromising too much of what makes Smash Bros. Smash Bros. Granted, there were a few sacrifices here and there, the Ice Climbers sadly had to be abandoned since they didn't work on the system, but overall it works really well. The game runs at a solid 60 frames-per-second, or at least the player characters do. Some background elements or non-playable characters run at 30, which does keep the game running smooth, but overall the developers did an amazing job of making sure the game runs smoothly 100% of the time. Using the 3DS system as a Smash Bros. controller takes a bit of getting used to, but it's far from unplayable. In fact, once I'd gotten accustomed to the control scheme (made easier by the fact that you can customise your control layout) I really liked it, and I found myself on many an occasion using the 3DS as a controller in the Wii U version of the game, which is a thing you can do and it blows my mind that that's a thing.

Gerudo Valley

Sadly, where the core gameplay doesn't quite suffer from the port across to a handheld system, the amount of content on offer is somewhat lacking. There's not that much music, at least when compared to Brawl, and especially when compared to Brawl there are a lot of modes that were dropped without any replacements. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does make it feel like half a game. Classic Mode is stripped back a little, there's no Stage Builder, no Break the Targets mode, there's just less game here. There's an exclusive mode called Smash Run, which is fun once you learn how it works, but it's not much fun to play over and over again with every character, like the game asks you to do. It takes a long time to play with barely any variation and not a lot of rewards on offer. I think the thing that I'm the most disappointed about is the number of unlockables in general. This is the Smash game you'll be playing the most by yourself, especially when compared to the other instalments, so it makes sense to offer a lot of unlockable content to work away at. There are 10 (out of 50+) unlockable characters, and even less stages to unlock. This never made sense to me. Go all or nothing. Unlocking the entire roster, especially one this big, should feel like I've gone on a truly immense journey, and I should feel a true sense of accomplishment by the end. Unlocking the full roster in this game didn't make me feel any sense of pride, accomplishment, or anything. It just felt like I finished the game's job for it, which is a little wrong.

Zero Suit Samus vs Master Core

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (2014) is definitely a stripped-back title, but one I'm glad exists. The core gameplay and roster is enough for me to really enjoy it, even if the single-player content is a little lacking. 8.5/10.

Next, it's Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Off the Cuff Plays Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)

Brawl is better than Melee. Well, that ought to give this review some attention. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008) is the game in the franchise that the competitive community hates. That certainly isn't the same thing as 'the entire Smash Bros. community hates this game', but they're the ones who yell the loudest, so they're the ones who get heard the most. I really need to stop making these reviews all about my attitude towards the Smash Bros. competitive scene. Anyway, this is the best Smash Bros. game up to this point. Let's see how much the internet ends up putting me on blast for this one. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a 2D fighting game developed by Game Arts and Sora Ltd, published by Nintendo and directed by Masahiro Sakurai.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)

Let me begin with the easy stuff. Visually, this game is incredibly distinct from the previous. They went for a more realistic, for lack of a better word, look, which does help to distinguish it from Melee, but it's not what I'd call the best fit for a game like this. It still looks fine, great even, but it's not my favourite route the art direction could have taken. While it works for some characters, like the Fire Emblem cast or Snake, a lot of the characters that are designed to be more cartoony just don't match up. It's not like they're ugly, or don't hold up as well, it's just that the new art style doesn't suit them quite as well. On the other side of the presentation angle, the one thing everyone is in agreement about is the soundtrack. The music in this game is divine, and the library has lengthened considerably from Melee. While each stage in Melee had 1, maybe 2, music tracks, some stages in this game have upwards of 10, and you can toggle how likely each track is to appear using the MyMusic feature. This is easily one of the best additions to Brawl, and I'm so happy this has become a staple of the franchise.

Snake

The roster has been given an upheaval. While in Melee there were 26 different choices, there are now 37, and they've trimmed the fat a little as well. There were 5 cuts made from the previous game, and I agree with 80% of them. Losing Mewtwo was a little weird, but if they could only have 4 Pokemon slots, it does make the most sense. The new characters in this game all feel so incredibly unique and distinct from each other, it's actually really impressive how much variety exists here. I mentioned that the best newcomers in Melee were the ones that felt like they'd pulled their abilities and attributes straight from their home series, and that's certainly the case again here. Pokemon Trainer has you cycling between 3 different Pokemon, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, mid-battle, Olimar has a focus on Pikmin management, Sonic's all about speed, Snake's about stealth and using carefully laid traps to get the job done. The inclusion of 3rd-party franchises is also great to see, as it opens the door to endless possibilities for the future of the series. The new stages are also very unique, and there are some classics here, like Halberd, Frigate Orpheon, Delfino Plaza and Shadow Moses Island. There are also a couple that should never be touched with a 10-foot pole, like Rumble Falls and Mario Bros., but the good far outweigh the bad. At the very least, each stage truly feels faithful to its source material, and it's fair to say this Smash team are getting a lot better at translating these unique worlds into Smash.

Halberd

The core Smash gameplay is... slower, but that's a good thing, despite what you've heard on the internet. Melee was just so fast and technical that it made it slightly unappealing to a casual audience, so Brawl slows things down. Sure, even for my tastes, it might be just a little bit too slow, but I'll take 'a little too slow' over 'far too fast' any day of the week. For a party game, it's first-and-foremost about accessibility, especially for being released on the Wii. I don't care that it's not as competitive, it wasn't designed to be. It's a party game. The additions to the core gameplay go beyond speed, as well. There are new items called Assist Trophies, which summon additional CPU character to the battlefield to temporarily lend a hand to whoever summoned them. These range from well-known characters like Shadow and Nintendog to more obscure picks like Barbara the Bat and Helirin. These are a genius way to add more characters to the game without overloading the roster, and none of them are so overpowered that they overstay their welcome and draw ALL focus from the fight. The biggest change to the gameplay is the introduction of 'Final Smashes', which are 'finisher' moves a character can pull off once they break open the Smash Ball. I love this idea, and whenever that Smash Ball appears, the tone of a battle changes instantly, but in the best way possible. My only real gripe is that not all Final Smashes are created equal. Some characters, like Marth and Ness, have really overpowered Final Smashes, while others, like Luigi, Peach and Donkey Kong, have Final Smashes that are so ineffective they might as well not have one. It would be a few years before the Smash series would find a better balance between the Final Smashes, and they still haven't got it perfect, but for the debut of this concept, it was a great success.

Marth's Critical Hit

I would spend this final paragraph going over the additional modes returning from Melee, like Classic Mode and All-Star Mode, or new additions, like Stage Builder and Stickers, but there's really only one thing worth talking about from here: The Subspace Emissary. This is Brawl's replacement for Adventure Mode, and boy is it a replacement. It's a full-blown story campaign with fully animated cutscenes, over 10 hours of gameplay and a true crossover in which all the characters on this roster exist in the same universe. There's never a justification as to how this can be, and because the cutscenes aren't voice-acted, they don't do a fantastic job of telling you what's going on and why, but that doesn't really matter, because the cutscenes do a fine enough job of letting you know where everyone is at any given moment, so it's functional. As for the gameplay, it's 80% side-scrolling platforming segments with beat-em-up horde battles, and 20% Smash battles with unique conditions. The Smash battles also include boss encounters with characters like Petey Piranha and Rayquaza, and these elements work fantastically, but this mode suffers from one major setback. The main platforming just isn't that fun. It's fine, but you can really tell the game wasn't designed around it. It's just not as fun as the regular battles, and it's clear that this was worked on by a different team than the crew who worked on the core Smash gameplay, because it was. It 100% was. And, it wouldn't be that much of a problem if the levels were unique and interesting, but there are probably about 7 or 8 level types and aesthetics which constantly repeat across all 30+ levels, which doesn't help me stay invested. Most of the time, however, Subspace Emissary is too ambitious for me to worry about any of that stuff. The fact that it tells a semi-coherent story with all these characters and all these worlds, and it still manages to find a way to keep me hooked enough for the plot twists to carry the weight they do, that's just a great mode, and its ambition well and truly pays off.

Tabuu

And that's a key word to describe Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008) - ambitious. If Melee took everything that made the first game great and made it better, this game... doesn't quite do the same to everything in Melee, but it does it in the right areas. Enough for it to well and truly stand out over the previous instalment. It does its job, and when it gets it right, it gets it REALLY right. 9/10.

Next, it's Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.

Off the Cuff Plays Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001)

Oh boy, I'm ready to take some heat for this one. After the original Super Smash Bros. game was such an overwhelming success, work began on a sequel almost immediately, and the new game was completed in just 13 months. And while the end result is remarkable, it does kind of show in some areas. Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001) is a far from perfect game, despite what the majority of the internet would say about it, and there are times when I truly despise this game and how much it gets crammed down my throat by the Smash community. That doesn't mean it's bad, far from it, it just means it's not perfect. Let me explain. I feel like I should explain. I'm gonna explain. Super Smash Bros. Melee is a 2D crossover fighting game developed by HAL Laboratory, published by Nintendo and directed by Masahiro Sakurai.

Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001)

Right off the bat, I don't want it to sound like I have some kind of blinding hatred for this game. In fact, in more than one way, I'm in awe of it. I'm impressed by what this production crew did in such a short time, taking all of what made the first game good, losing what didn't and just making everything bigger. There's more characters, more stages, more items, more game modes, more everything. The game also looks really impressive, especially for what it is and when it came out. It was the early days of the Gamecube, and this is certainly a nice showcase for what it can do. The game loads nice and quick, even with the more technical fighters and stages. Whereas in the first game each stage felt very similar in terms of gameplay, here no stage feels exactly alike, and when they do there's enough of an aesthetic difference that it doesn't matter. There are stages that move around you, stages that take you different places, stages that introduce hazards that are specifically trying to kill you. They don't always necessarily make for the fairest fight on paper, but from this point onwards a key part of Smash Bros. would be adapting to the stage as well as to the player you're fighting. It also helps each stage feel a little more faithful to the world they came from, except for Poke Floats which is just a mess.

Poke Floats

Moving on to what may be this game's strongest feature: the single player content. Talk about a dramatic rise in quality. There is so much to do in this game, and Melee introduces features that would become staples of the Smash Bros. franchise moving forward. 1P Game returns in the form of Classic Mode, which has received a massive overhaul. Rather than the path being exactly the same every time you play, this time while the types of battles remain the same in each round, the fighters you battle are randomised, meaning that every time you play Classic Mode, it will be a different configuration, which is a nice incentive to keep people playing it. The other two main single-player modes are All-Star Mode, in which you fight a series of battles against every character in the roster without losing a life, and Adventure Mode, which sees you traversing a set path of side-scrolling levels and Smash battles from various franchises, and both a fairly fleshed out and well-executed. There are also a wide variety of smaller minigames, including Target Smash from the previous game, Event Battles which see you taking on a series of battles with certain conditions to either make it more difficult or emulate certain scenarios, Home-Run Contest, which sees you wailing on a Sandbag before whamming it with a Baseball Bat and seeing how far it'll fly, Multi-Man Melee where you fight wireframe opponents under certain conditions... there's just so much single-player content here, and the best part is how they incentivise you to keep playing it. Pretty much all of the single player modes let you unlock collectible trophies, which are like figurines of various characters from Nintendo history. Not only are these very well-made, so to speak, but each offers information about the character in question with a short paragraph of information, so the trophies also serve as an encyclopaedia of Nintendo knowledge. In a world before the internet became such a massive thing, this was a brilliant idea to get people in the know about some great games people might never have heard of before, including for the playable characters themselves.

The Captain Olimar trophy

The character roster itself... I have some issues with. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of really great characters here, with not only the entire roster from the previous game returning, but a lot of new inclusions. Some of these are obvious choices, like Peach and Bowser, but the really great ones are the ones that shake-up the gameplay in really inventive ways that fit the theme of the characters themselves. Zelda, for example, can transform into Sheik mid-match, mirroring the character in Ocarina of Time, but also offering a completely different playstyle. There are also some really off-the-wall picks here, which I don't mind. Characters like Ice Climbers and Marth and Mr. Game & Watch are just so inventive and crazy and they just work. The problem I have with a lot of fanmade rosters is that they never include the out-there characters that the franchise has had since Melee, and they all work here. What doesn't work, in my opinion, are the characters that are specifically there to pad out the roster. This is from the man himself, Mr. Sakurai. Due to the rushed development cycle of the game, they added in a bunch of characters that made use of assets already in the game, like Luigi and Jigglypuff from the previous. They're essentially clones of other characters in the roster, and I don't have an inherent problem with clone characters, they represent their own games and it's cool for fans to have them in. The problem here is the number of them. Young Link, Roy, Falco, Pichu, Dr. Mario... seriously? Dr. Mario? I'm fairly confident that 0% of people who played the original Smash Bros. were begging for Dr. Mario to be included. The main issue, however, is Ganondorf. They made him a clone of Captain Falcon because their models are slightly similar, I guess. The problem this presents is that Ganondorf now no longer feels like an accurate representation of the almighty holder of the Triforce of Power; he feels like Captain Falcon's slower, heavier fan. And they don't give him enough personality in his render or animations to counteract this. Essentially, due to all these filler characters, this game feels like it has the weakest roster of the series, even though it's objectively better than Smash Bros. 64's roster. For the size of the roster that it is, it's just the weakest roster, and it does dampen my enjoyment of the game just that little bit.

Pichu

But, let me just get to my biggest problem with this game, which happens to be the core gameplay itself. Let me clarify that the game is still fun and better than the original, but only by a little bit. The game is much, much... MUCH faster now, which speeds up the pace of the matches, but the problem is that for a newcomer to the series, or someone who's not as good at the game, it can be very hard to keep up with. It's just the least accessible of all the games for new players, which for a party game, isn't great. For a competitive game, it's great, but this is my other main issue with the game. Or, rather, the series. The competitive Smash community. I hate it. Oh, God, do I hate the competitive Smash Bros. scene. If it's officially organised by Nintendo, like at E3, fine. No worries with that. Anywhere else? No. They hold Melee in such a high regard because it's the most technical, but only because the rushed development cycle left in all the glitches that result in wavedashing and all the techniques the competitive community can't shut the f*** up about and keep screaming to the heavens for them to return. It's not technically Melee's fault that the community is like this, but a glitched game is an unfinished game, which means it's objectively worse than a polished game. I also just have less fun playing this one due to have fast it is. It's just too quick for its own good. It's one of my least favourite Smash games to play multiplayer, but one of my favourite to play alone.

Pikachu vs. Master Hand & Crazy Hand

Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001) is an overrated game saved by its incredibly in-depth single player content. It certainly doesn't deserve to be held aloft on a golden shrine as the pinnacle of gaming content like a disturbing amount of people do, but I can see why they do so. I don't like why they do, but I get it. As for me, it's a good game. Nothing much else. 8/10.

Next, it's the dark horse of the franchise: Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Off the Cuff Plays Super Smash Bros. (1999)

The newest instalment in the Super Smash Bros. franchise releases this week, and I for one cannot wait. In order to keep my hype in check, I figured I'd briefly revisit the previous games in the series, beginning with the original Super Smash Bros. (1999) for the Nintendo 64. I don't own a Nintendo 64, so I played this game on the Wii Virtual Console. Super Smash Bros. was developed by HAL Laboratory, published by Nintendo and directed by Masahiro Sakurai.

Super Smash Bros. (1999)

Talking about the story of this game is a little unnecessary. There really is no story. The 'lore', if you could call it that, is that a little boy is playing with his Nintendo toys and imagining fights between them, which is honestly a genius way to get around the crossover paradox. Any attempt to justify how all of these different universes co-exist would be incredibly rushed, so keeping it simple was the right call. In this game, you can play as 12 different characters from 10 different Nintendo franchises in a fighter that feels very simple compared to other fighters. There are 2 attack buttons, one for regular attacks and one for special attacks which are more varied between fighters when compared to the regular attacks. Pressing each attack button in conjunction with the direction you push the control stick results in a different attack, and the control method is streamlined across all 12 characters. As opposed to traditional fighting games which require you to deplete your opponent's health bar, Super Smash Bros. requires you to rack up the damage on your opponent(s) enough that a strong enough attack will send them flying off the screen, resulting in a KO. If you are launched off the stage, but not far enough to KO you, you can attempt to recover with at least 2 jumps and an additional attack (the up-special attack) that usually assists in recovery.

The original 8 fighters

Simplifying the control scheme and fighting style was a great fit for this kind of game. Masahiro Sakurai always wanted to make a more accessible fighting game where you don't need to memorise a million different combos for 20 different characters. In fact, this was always Mr. Sakurai's intention even before the concept of a Nintendo crossover fighter existed. Adding classic Nintendo characters to the game was conceived midway through development to make the game more marketable, and it definitely worked. This game was a success even before it was put on sale. Nintendo fans had for years wondered who would win in a fight between Mario and Link, and this game answered those questions. On its own right, the gameplay is accessible, easy to learn and just plain fun. Compared to other instalments however, and I know it's unfair to do this but here we are, this is by far the slowest game in the series. Not necessarily that the characters move slow, but the gameplay is slow. I feel like it takes the longest to actually KO someone in this game, and matches tend to drag on a bit. For 1999, the game still looks fine, I guess, though I don't have much frame of reference for how Nintendo 64 games looked back then, and the music is great, with remixes from past Nintendo games serving as the soundtrack for individual stages.

Saffron City

Speaking of which, there are 9 different stages you can play on, each taking on a location from a different franchise. Peach's Castle, Yoshi's Island, Saffron City, each one looks incredibly distinct, and feels as though it was taken directly from the world of the games. The general gameplay in each stage feels very similar, and there are no real core differences, except for Mushroom Kingdom with the walk-off blast lines. You also have the option of adding in items that players can use during a match. These range from series-specific items like Super Mushrooms and Poke Balls to original items like Baseball Bats and Beam Swords. These items help add a lot of variety to a match, especially since the matches tend to drag on a bit in this game, as I said. Yeah, I'm repeating myself, but that's kind of where I'm at with this game. There's not a lot of game to talk about here beyond the core gameplay, and once you've gotten through that, you've basically played the game. There are 4 unlockable characters and 1 unlockable stage, and it's a nice challenge to figure out how to unlock them all, but once you've done so, that's really it. A good game for parties, but not a lot of longevity.

Mushroom Kingdom

Even the single-player content is somewhat lacking. There's a 1P mode which would later become known as Classic Mode in which you fight through multiple different fights with preset combinations on characters to battle, leading to a final boss fight against Master Hand, the long-running antagonist of the Super Smash Bros. series. While you can play this with all 12 characters, the path is the exact same with all of them, so once you've beaten it once, you have no real incentive to play it with everyone. It is short enough that it doesn't feel too repetitive if you do decide to play it with all the fighters, but the game doesn't really give you a reason to do so. You unlock the only unlockable stage by playing 1P mode with all 8 starter characters, but the game gives you no information to lead you down that path, so if you're not a fan of 1P mode, you could conceivably never unlock that stage. The truly great part of 1P mode is the two bonus levels that actually do vary the gameplay: Break the Targets and Board the Platforms. Each level type presents a unique layout depending on the character, and they do help you learn how to play each specific character. However, since you can access these bonus levels outside of the 1P Game, this further devalues the experience of replaying the 1P Game over and over. It's certainly not the weakest single-player content in Super Smash Bros. history, we'll get there, and I did play 1P Game with everyone, but someone who's not inclined to fully complete a game would likely play it once and not touch it again. That's not to say it's not fun. It's very fun, and that inherent enjoyability of the core gameplay is in part what saves it.

Mario vs. Master Hand

I'd probably say that Super Smash Bros. (1999) is a good, but dated game. It holds up the least by today's standards, however it's still a great game on its own and for its time. At the very least, it was a solid starting point for what was soon to be one of Nintendo's most popular franchises. 7.5/10

Next... oh, boy, I'm ready for the internet to hate me with this one. Super Smash Bros. Melee.