"But why not the original, or Brawl?"
"Quite simply, I don't have those games, so this is
the one I'm reviewing"
To answer a few similar questions over the last few
months of "Why this and why not that?" I have to point people to the
header of the website and the tagline, but most in particular "Leave
disappointed" In which case, you got what was offered.
The premise of the game is an interesting one, take a
whole bunch of Nintendo’s mascots, outfit them with platform game mechanics and
give them a myriad of attacks and moves, then up the ante by giving them
weapons, power-ups and other such pickups and let them go mental at each other
until either the time runs out or the last one is left standing.
Nintendo certainly know how to milk a game these days,
the initial starter roster featuring characters such as Mario, Fox, Pikachu,
Link, Peach, Bowser, Kirby, Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong and a LOT more, with
more becoming unlocked as the games continue and rounds are won and lost. The
final roster has a lot to offer and plenty of variation between distinct
characters, and variations of characters (Mario and Dr Mario, Fox and Falco).
The game presents as the ultimate party game, up to 4
players picking a character and systematically beating the shit out of each
other in a variety of levels from various franchises. Paying homage to a lot of
Nintendo’s history and structure of their games. Samus from Metroid appears and
a few of her levels too, serving mainly as a nod and short trip down memory
lane for the players that remember, or cared. The game can be customised fully
to permit specific items appearing in matches, or none at all, or just Pokémon
for a huge fight throwing god-knows-what at each other while creatures that fit
in a pocket wreck havoc on almost interplanetary scales of damage.
Each char has the rudimentary move set of attacking in 4
directions, jumps, double jumps (sometimes more), blocking with a bubble that
slowly fades, dodges in the air and along the ground, B-Moves in 4 directions
for more specifically suited attacks to the character (Mario’s cape, Bowser’s
flame throwing and shell spin etc), and 4 smash attacks where the player has to
press the direction AND attack at the same time for a harder hitting attack
that can be charged too. This is not counting moves that stack and build up,
counter attack moves, catch moves and grab/throw moves which alone give the
characters a huge variety of attacks and skills. Then they pick up a baseball
bat...
The aim of each fight is to knock the opponent out of the
area. You can beat on them, smack them around and slap the shit out of each
other until the cows come home, but the damage only increases the height and
distance they get knocked back. Hitting someone on 10% damage will knock them
back a little, hitting someone on 250% damage will likely launch them into the
stratosphere (though not always). Smash them off the sides, the top or the
bottom and you score the kill/point. Person with the most points at the end of
the timer, or if it's a life game, the last one standing, wins.
Some of the levels are static, while most of them are
themed from various characters and having changing aspects to the level. A
flying airship that travels across an arena, eternally looping Ice Mountains,
lava filling death pits, fighting across a race track, the choices and hazards
are huge for the game's possibilities, down to the final battle arena that's a
simple flat area with no platforms for those that like combat to be decided
upon fighting rather than avoiding unbiased hazards.
The single player mode gives people the choice to play
the adventure, which is a series of levels themed on various games such as
Mario with a level taken from the series with minor enemies within it, to the
duels with other characters and making your way towards harder and harder
challenges like Metal Characters, mazes to boost your collections and the final
battle with a large Bowser (and maybe Giga Bowser) or the Master Hand (and
Crazy Hand if you did fairly well), or even worse... a lot of the Game and
Watch nutcase characters.
Collectors will find trophies dotted around the games to
collect and unlock further things, other collectors will try to receive every
battle award from "Switzerland" where you never attack or get hit, to
the more elusive "No damage run" where you beat the whole game
without being hit even once.
The game doesn't stop there, with the single player
challenge mode, 50+ varying challenges that have players trying to fulfil
specific criteria while either choosing their character, or being dictated by
the computer/setup. Such as a Pokémon match where ONLY Pokémon moves will cause
damage and nothing from actual melee will work. To one-on-one duels to try and
unlock bonus characters.
Otherwise there's the sandbag that you have to launch
within 10 seconds to send it the furthest after beating it up. Or play
smash-the-ten targets.
The control system is incredibly responsive, reacting to
each twitch and flick of the analogues and button presses, making the
characters as nimble as your reactions. You rarely ever feel that the game has
stitched you up, but more that a loss or failure is down to the player rather
than the game's mechanics. (Except in sudden death... random bob-omb explosions).
Some of the levels are better designed than others, with combat taking a back
step while people JUST navigate the level and failure to do even that, will likely
result in a loss of life (if the fight waits that long).
The game seems to borrow a lot from Power Stone 2, with
the moving levels, 4 player chaos and multiple items, but like that game, it
also suffers from over congestion. 4 players on screen, each throwing a
pokeball, gives another 4 Pokémon on screen doing their moves and some of those
moves smother the screen in special effects, it's very easy for people to lose
track of their character and accidentally try to control the wrong one, and
walk themselves off the edge of the level. (Throw in 4 ice-climbers, leading to
8 characters on screen at once...).
Musically, Smash Brothers Melee comes with a huge accompaniment
of remixes from earlier titles tracks, be it from Metroid, F-Zero, Mario,
Kirby, Donkey Kong Country and many others, enough to be significant of a
change to warrant their inclusion, while also bringing a new flavour that will
remind the older players while being upbeat enough to be interesting to the
younger players.
Sadly, with the game's huge roster of characters, there's
a tier of skill and ability falling in place. Some characters will constantly
and consistently outshine and outperform other characters unless there's some
heavy luck based pickups doing well for those characters. Though if the
opponent is that high in tier, they should have no difficulty in navigating
around the attacks and going on to win the battle regardless of the other
character's ability and skills. It can get rather one-sided when you're competing
faster characters against slower characters or fast-fall characters (gravity
does what it wants here) with those that not only fall slowly, but can double,
triple, quadruple jump and more. But then, it's not about balance but more
about having fun and enjoying the game with the characters you like the most.
The game is the ultimate party game for platform
enthusiasts, perhaps not for beat-em-up hardcore nuts. The combat is a little
lacking in complexity when you compare it to games like Soul Calibur, Dead or
Alive (ignoring the excessive tittage), or even the Street Fighter games, those
looking for a more in-depth fighter will find this game coming short against
the competition in that regard. Having said that, with the right people this
game can become a huge boon to any gamers library of games, on its own though
there's the challenge of getting through the single player modes with their
difficulties, getting the fastest times but the game really comes into its own
with 2-3 friends round and going silly with the fighting.
It's also a great game for settling those pointless
playground fights of who'd win between Mario and Kirby, the answer is 'The Off
Button'
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