After three titles and 15 years of epic gameplay, the Super Smash Brothers series is one that needs no introduction. So, when Nintendo announced that the latest title would be released on the Nintendo 3DS, many fans feared that the series simply wouldn’t translate well to a handheld title. Thankfully, I’m happy to say that these worries are unfounded, as the latest installment proves that Smash is a series that is as flexible as it is fun.
Offering a staggering 51 playable characters, and more modes to choose from than ever before, Super Smash Bros. 3DS undoubtedly lives up to the high standards set by the titles before it. What makes the game so compelling is the clever feedback loop the game employs. The more you play, the more characters you unlock and the more characters you unlock, the more stages and items are made available. This give-and-take system of play keeps players coming back again and again. More so than any other title, Smash 3DS offers the most replayability and variety of any title before it.
This is seen in the many ways Smash 3DS allows you to play. For example, classic mode is back with the added twist of allowing players the ability to choose between several battle options, allowing players enough freedom to make the experience feel fresh. Alongside this, the ability to create custom characters – based on one’s Mii avatar – pushes players to keep playing, as there are a variety of moves and abilities for the player to unlock along the way.
Gameplay wise, the success of Smash 3DS depends on how you are approaching the game. Fans looking for a pick up and play party game will be happy to find that Smash 3DS offers a wide variety of new characters, and items that will make it easy to enjoy each and every match you play. However, if you are a fan of the competitive Smash scene, you might be a little disappointed.
Amongst competitive players Super Smash Bros. Melee is often seen as the kind of gold standard for competitive play. The combination of speed, advanced techniques, and ever-evolving strategy options make Melee nearly unmatched in quality. With this in mind, Smash 3DS simply cannot compete with the high skill ceiling that Melee offers. This isn’t to say that Smash 3DS can’t be played competitively, but various changes to the physics engine still make it the inferior choice.
Still, the game is a huge improvement over the previous title Smash Brawl. By speeding up gameplay and removing the horror that was randomized tripping, Smash 3DS offers a more exciting fighting experience.
Unfortunately, the game makes few unfortunate changes that hinder it from becoming the next best competitive title. Specifically, the decision to remove “edge-hogging” single-handedly wiped out an entire aspect of the game that made Super Smash Bros. so exciting. While some may be happy to see this strategy removed, fans looking for a competitive title will definitely be disappointed.
What holds back Smash 3DS the most is the quality of online play. I can’t explain how frustrating it is to still have issues regarding lag, matchmaking, and other aspects of online play in 2014. Too often I found myself playing against an opponent with unbelievable amounts of latency, making me wonder why I was ever matched with them in the first place. While the system is certainly an improvement over past efforts – particularly in the variety of modes it offers – it’s disappointing to see Nintendo continue to struggle to keep up with a system many consoles perfected age ago.
Despite these flaws, Smash 3DS is still incredibly enjoyable, offering more than enough content to keep a player coming back for more time and time again.
Like many fans anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new Legend of Zelda game on the Wii U, the announcement of a hybrid of Dynasty Warriors and The Legend of Zelda definitely piqued my interest. This hybrid – aptly named Hyrule Warriors – was introduced with a series of exciting video teasers that showcased both the interesting gameplay and seemingly endless graphical fan service that many fans of The Legend of Zelda were looking for. Unfortunately, having worked my way through much of its ten-hour story, I can safely say that Hyrule Warriors doesn’t go much deeper than that.
For those familiar with both series, Hyrule Warriors is much more aligned to the gameplay that Dynasty Warriors offers, meaning that fans looking for the traditional complex puzzles and dungeons the Zelda series offers are looking in the wrong place. Instead, Hyrule Warriors allows players to enter vast battlefields fighting off swarms of enemies as a hero that has the power to single-handedly turn the tide of a battle. Each of the 13 playable characters has a wide variety of moves, offering a lot of selection.
Where the game sticks closer to the Zelda series is in its story. From the start, characters are barely introduced, making it seem like the creators are deliberately marketing this to fans familiar with the long-standing series. However, even though the game seems to work under the impression that fans are familiar with the universe, it sticks to some tired tropes found in previous titles. If the game is intended for Zelda fans, why bother hiding the identity of the character Sheik, if this secret has been revealed time and time again? These kinds of conflicts hinder the player’s immersion into the story, making the story alone not compelling enough for fans to want to push through the whole single player campaign.
Thankfully, the many rewarding aspects of the gameplay are enough to keep fans moving through each level. With a variety of character options and the ability to customize their move set through the discovery of items and materials, Hyrule Warriors does a good job of motivating players to explore each level to the best of their ability. Graphically, the game truly feels like it takes advantage of the high definition capabilities the Wii U offers. Fans of the series will be delighted to find their favourite characters have been modelled brilliantly, making you eager to test each of them out.
Still, this doesn’t mean the game is without flaws. Despite the variety of characters, it is clear that some did not receive as much attention as others. Thanks to poorly chosen move animations, characters like Midna are frustrating to play with, as you are required to watch lengthy combo animations for even the simplest of attacks, making battling enemies particularly tedious. Moreover, the targeting system when fighting often felt cluttered if there were several higher profile enemies on screen, further slowing down the adventure.
Alongside these flaws, the game does a poor job of laying out your objectives, often offering key pieces of textual advice beneath flashes of lights and colours during an attack animation, or simply forgetting to describe the objective all together. Too often I found myself running around a level trying to understand a goal that would have been simple, had it been explained clearly.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of Hyrule Warriors was the difficulty. The game offers easy, medium and hard modes, but the hard mode simply feels redundant. Rather than offering a challenge, all it does is make every enemy have more health. This only makes each battle feel tedious, rather than more challenging, boring the player more and more after each encounter. This leaves little challenge for advanced players, making the experience simpler and simpler as you go along.
Upon finishing Hyrule Warriors I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a good time. The game offered a hack-and-slash adventure that appealed to my love of the Legend of Zelda series. Unfortunately, due to both the poorly thought out story and frustrating game mechanics, I found myself too often wasting my time and energy. Minor changes could have made Hyrule Warriors great, but every poor design choice I encountered had me feeling otherwise. If you’re a fan of either of Zelda or the Warriors series, give Hyrule Warriors a chance, but for those who aren’t it isn’t worth the price of admission.
