Ever since I got the Switch, multiplayer has never been a main priority. I have always been a more single player focused guy. However, with my Switch being the newest entertainment platform for parties, the need of new multiplayer games arises. I’ve already talked about Mario Kart, so this time around I’ll be talking about the latest iteration of Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros is basically Nintendo’s answers to games like Street Fighter. It’s a side scrolling fighter game where player sight for the most points or until they run out of lives. I always found the Smash series of games really unique because it brings characters from all of Nintendo’s games into one. You can play as the iconic or even the forgettable Ice Climbers. Smash Bros has even brought in character not directly licensed by Nintendo over the years, such as Sega’s Sonic the hedgehog or Capcom’s Ryu from street fighter. Since listing off every character would be boring, I’ll just be talking about my favourites. The first ever character I used in a round of Smash was Kirby. There were several reasons for this, the primary one was the game only gives you eight starting characters. Anyhow, the most defining characteristic of Kirby, in my opinion, is his recovery. Kirby is only one of two characters that can jump five times in the air consecutively. This works really well with Kirby’s down special, which turns him into a rock. It’s just really fun crushing your opponents and the added invincibility is also nice. The second character I would like to talk about is Lucina. Unlike Kirby, I had to unlock her through game play. However, once I did, it was really fun playing with her just like I use to on my 3DS. Finally, a character I didn’t expect to like playing was Samus. I think the reason for this was how easily I managed use the tactics from Kirby. Instead of turning into a rock, she turns into a ball that drops bombs. It actually surprised me how well I could use her. Overall, the roster of character is huge and I can’t wait to unlock all of them.
Besides the large amounts of character, I also want to talk about the differences from previous iterations. Since I don’t have a WiiU, I’ll be using the 3DS version as reference. The most notable difference was how the latest Smash Bros locked away a majority of characters. You start off with eight characters, Mario, Samus, Kirby, Fox, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, and Link. Like I mentioned earlier you need to unlock the remaining fighters by playing the game or going through the story. I originally found this quite strange but I guess Nintendo wanted people to actually play through the story this time around. Another difference is how the latest version got rid of the ability to alter your fighter. Instead, we got stickers. Instead of altering one specific character, it stickers just buff whatever character you are currently using. I didn’t find that this change affected me much and when ever we play, we usually just play without stickers. As for the story, I don’t really know what they changed seeing as I’ve never played the story in either game.
Overall, I really enjoy the latest version of Super Smash Bros. As one of the few game more than one player can join in, it’s played almost every time we have guests over. I was very fortunate my parents payed for the game because without them we would be stuck playing Mario Kart all day long, or Tetris (but nobody wants to play with me). I just hope to unlock all the characters soon.