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Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Review

Super Smash Bros. is a game series that is beloved by many, and is a hot seller for Nintendo. How could it not be? The concept is genius: take a bunch of Nintendo’s All-Stars (and some characters no one cares about or third-party characters) and put them in a fighting game. The concept led to awesome crossovers; you could have Mario fight Link, you could have Peach fight Bowser, and, at least since Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii, you could finally have Mario fight Sonic! The concept was so cool, that it has generated so much revenue for Nintendo, and fans everywhere love every game in the series. So, when Super Smash Bros. 4 was announced at E3 2013, everyone was hyped. Not only was it coming out on the then-recent Wii U, it was also getting a portable version for the 3DS. Not only that, but Villager from Animal Crossing and even Mega Man were joining the fray. Over the next year and a half, there were many character announcements, leaks, fake leaks, and chaotic events leading up to the release of both versions. The 3DS version came out on October 3, 2014, and the one I’m reviewing today, the Wii U version, came out on November 21, 2014. Why the long wait for a review? Because I wanted to wait for all the DLC characters and amiibo to be released, but since the last amiibo aren’t coming out until next year, I will review it now. Also, I haven’t unlocked everything yet, as there’s a lot of content in this game, so don’t expect me to talk about all the unlockables and whatnot. Okay?

If you’re looking for a gripping story in this game, then you won’t find it here. These games don’t have a story because they don’t really need one at all. (Except for Brawl’s story mode which barely had a story anyway.) The main draw of the game is the gameplay, of course, which is very different from other fighting games. You have to beat up your opponent(s) to raise their percentage, and hit them with something strong once it reaches a high number. This style, while radically different from most fighting games, I think is better. It requires more planning and strategy to successfully knock out your opponents. Plus, I think it’s just more fun. The game has multiple different ways to play if you’d like, which include Timed Matches, Stock Battles, Stamina Smash (if you want to have it play similar to regular fighting games), and… Coin Battles. (Get money and beat people up to get their money.) These add a lot of variety to the game, and each is fun in their own way. As for characters, there’s a lot of them. There are 58 characters in the game, including the 8 unlockable characters or the 7 DLC characters! The stage amount isn’t lacking either, with a total of 55 stages, including 6 unlockable stages and 9 DLC stages! If you eventually get tired of fighting, then there’s a boatload of extra content, including but not limited to, Classic Mode (fight many opponents and then fight Master Hand, Crazy Hand, and Master Core), All-Star Mode (fight every character in the game in reverse chronological order from when they debuted with limited health pickups), Master and Crazy Orders (Master Orders has you beating challenges to get items, and Crazy Orders has you beating challenges to earn items, and then defeating Crazy Hand to keep them), Smash Tour (a rather lackluster board game thing), Trophy Rush (destroy blocks and raise the rush meter to get coins, trophies and custom parts), and many more! There’s so many options to choose from, that sometimes I’m too overwhelmed by options! You can create your own levels, earn trophies, create fighters based on your Miis, beat challenges to get gold and exclusive items that get progressively harder, and did I mention there’s an online mode with even more options too? Most of these modes are fine, Classic Mode and All-Star Mode are challenging and fun, Master and Crazy Orders are fun but fair, and Trophy Rush is surprisingly a ton of fun. However, Smash Tour is a different story. It’s like a screwed up Monopoly game. You have to get fighters on a map, and stuff happens, I think? Sometimes there’s a fight, while other times nothing happens. I don’t get it at all. Aside from that bad mode, the other ones have provided me great fun. I haven’t even gotten close to beating all of the challenges, and I don’t plan to anytime soon. (Beat “Kirby’s Crazy Appetite”, one of the hardest events in Smash Bros. history on hard mode? No thanks!)

The gameplay is perfect. All the controls work exactly as they should, and add to the gameplay if you can do more complex movements. The gameplay is very adaptable to play, even if you’ve never played it before. A to attack, B to special attack, X, Y or Control Stick Up to jump, L and R to shield, dodge, and grab, ZL and ZR to grab as well, Control Stick to move, Right Stick to smash attack, and D-Pad to taunt. Even if you aren’t very good at video games, you should be able to play this game very easily without trouble. I’ve been able to do some really fancy combos and whatnot just with this simple control scheme, and if you’re more advanced at video games than most others, you won’t feel like your skills are being handicapped, as they will fit any style of play.

Did I mention the amiibo functionality yet? amiibo are these collectible figurines that also double as cool extras for certain Nintendo games. The amiibo craze started right when Super Smash Bros. for Wii U was released, and the amiibo let you train whoever you scan in to be the most advanced fighter around. It’s an extremely fun addition, especially since you can basically be the Mickey Goldmill of your amiibo. They can fight with other people too, and they can be trained up to level 50, though they’ll still silently learn afterwards anyway. Let me tell you, my Mario amiibo is better at the game than I am, and I trained the dang thing! After battles, the amiibo will also give you coins or custom parts after you save its data. These are a nice optional part of this game that doesn’t feel mandatory or rushed.

Graphics and sound are also key factors in a game, and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is definitely no exception. The graphics in this game are beautiful, thanks to the consistent 1080p60fps gameplay. And by consistent, I mean consistent, as in the game almost never drops in frames, unless you pause and zoom in on a fancy graphical effect, or if something is happening on screen that is pushing the Wii U’s limits, which rarely happens. Even the stages like Duck Hunt or characters like Mr. Game & Watch, which are intentionally made to look low-quality, still look really good. The sound, oh, do I need to say anything? The sound effects are very satisfying to listen to, (especially if you connect a hit on the Home-Run Bat) and add that extra crunch to hits. The music, good Lord, the music. These are some of the best compositions I’ve ever listened to, with over 400 pieces to listen to, 336 at the start, and 101 unlockable songs. In total, they stuffed 437 songs into this one game! And people say that Undertale has an impressive amount of songs; this game came out a year before that one! Granted, the songs in Undertale are by one guy--nevermind, I digress. The songs don’t betray the quality over quantity trope either, each one is fantastic! I’m impressed that they put so many songs in this installment, let alone made each of them amazing. The music fits the stages perfectly, and you can listen to them on their own as well.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is altogether, a great time for all, from newbies to completionists out there. The gameplay is amazing, the controls are perfect, the graphics are beautiful, the sounds and music is great, and the content is staggering. I have almost no complaints with this installment, (the ones I do have regard Smash Tour and the event “Kirby’s Crazy Appetite”) so I will give it a 10/10 with a rating of outstanding!

10/10

Outstanding