Super Smash Bros. for 3DS Review

October 5th, 2014 by

smash-bros-3ds

Developer: Sora Ltd.
Publisher: Nintendo
Genre: Fighting
Players: 1-4 locally (multi-card), 1-4 online
Console: Nintendo 3DS
Hours Played: ~30 hours
Progress: Unlocked all characters and stages, played Smash Run a few times, played about an hour of online multiplayer matches, finished about 3/4 of the second page of challenges

Super Smash Brothers is hands-down my favourite series of video games. Excellent, approachable mechanics and just the right blend of skill, fun and competition are hallmarks of each game in the series. The sound foundation of its gameplay coupled with the mind-blowing awesomeness of having all of your favourite Nintendo characters together in a single game make each new game release an unparalleled event in the worldwide video gaming community. The prospect of being able to take the latest version of Smash Bros. around with you was equal parts exciting and terrifying when the 3DS/Wii U version pair was announced — you’d be able to take one of the very best party games on the go with you, but would the proposed character parity between the versions hold the Wii U back from reaching its full potential? It turns out that both of these feelings were justified to some degree, so does the first portable Smash Bros. game live up to its series illustrious reputation or does it tarnish Smash Bros.’ once pristine name and foreshadow problems with this year’s Wii U release? Read on to find out how smashing our time with the game has been.

Since there are probably specific aspects you’re wondering about in Smash Bros. 3DS I’ve separated the review into convenient segments:

Graphics

Smash Bros 3DS is easily one of the best-looking and best-performing 3DS games made to date. The sheer amount of action that can occur on screen at once without dropping a single frame is an astounding achievement by the development team. Non-essential elements like Assist Trophy and Pokeball item characters run at 30 fps as opposed to the rest of the game’s unwavering 60 fps, but in the heat of the action you rarely notice it. Strong art direction make up for the 3DS’ lack of power in comparison to the Wii U by maintaining the essence of cross platform stages even when they need to have their appearance somewhat simplified.

While impressive on almost all fronts, the 3DS line’s screen sizes and resolution prevent the game from reaching its true graphical potential. First, I’m well aware that this is not going to improve any time soon, but the 3DS’ sub-watch resolution of 400px x 240px really doesn’t cut it in the modern age of HiDPI — this lack of resolution is particularly egregious when you’re trying to see what’s going on during a heated Smash Bros. battle on a regular 3DS. The 3DSXL, while increasing the pixellation issue twofold, offers the superior portable Smash Bros. experience just by nature of its physically larger screens.

Sound

Sound is unfortunately the place where Smash Bros. has suffered the worst because of its transition to portability.  While there are some really nice new compositional takes on many of the game series’ most popular tracks, they were all mercilessly compressed to bring down the game’s file size. Coming from the aural revolution that was Smash Bros. Brawl to the tinny and anemic sound on the 3DS is bound to disappoint many fans — especially those playing with headphones. The announcer, character voices, and general sound effects seem to have emerged generally unscathed, but if anything this serves to further highlight the music’s over compression. I think most people would have accepted a larger download size for the game in exchange for better quality sound.

Controls

Controls were at the very top of most people’s concerns lists when Smash Bros. 3DS was first announced. A 3DS does not really look like a GameCube controller after all, so how could it possibly control Smash Bros. properly? The unfortunate answer is that it does only just barely passably. For movement, the Circle Pad performs just fine, but mashing it around for Smash attacks is very unreliable and this not only holds the gamer back in regular Vs. battles, but also makes the minigames like the Home Run Challenge and Target Blast nightmarish with many characters. Much of this could have been alleviated by supporting the Circle Pad Pro (and may yet be alleviated by the new 3DS/3DS XL units whenever they decide to come out in North America), but Nintendo had to shut down every non-essential feature in the 3DS just to get the game running at its current (admittedly great) speed and they say they couldn’t spare the extra 5% processing overhead needed to run them via the IR port. The answer to this would of course be immediately apparent to anyone who has even seen electronic devices — plug the blasted thing directly into the system or use a proper wireless connection. Why Nintendo felt the need to make a peripheral that connects using a decades old obsolete method that even slows the system down is beyond me, but the fact remains that that peripheral could have made a big difference for early Smash Bros. 3DS players.

Game Modes

There are quite a decent amount of things to do in Smash Bros. 3DS aside from the standard battles. Between Classic, All-Star, Multi-Man Smash, Target Blast, Home-Run Contest, Trophy Rush, Smash Run, and the StreetPass Enabled sumo-like StreetSmash, you definitely get your money’s worth for playability. Standout modes include the Classic mode that branches like Find Mii between battles and All-Star mode where you battle sets of characters in chronological order of their initial release. Smash Run, which is exclusive to the 3DS version and the de facto replacement for Brawl’s Subspace Emissary story mode, does fall pretty flat overall, though.  While the concept of navigating a huge map battling enemies from all of the various game series is an excellent idea, most of them are far too resilient and instead of blasting through them you usually spend your time being pummeled into the ground watching notices about how the CPU players are curing cancer and exponentially bulking up their stats.  A couple more maps and much weaker enemies would do Smash Run a world of good, but in its present state it’s not likely to become your new favourite.

Of note are also the hundreds of collectibles and customizations that can be applied to characters to not only alter their Attack/Defense/Speed stats, but also change out their special moves. The character customization in Smash Bros. 3DS is unprecedented and between the custom parts and trophies you can acquire you’ll be playing for weeks before you even start to approach a full collection.

Character Selection

With so many excellent characters and enemies over the years to choose from, no one is ever going to be fully satisfied with Smash Bros.’ roster. Two out of three of my most wanted characters (Mega Man and Pac-Man) managed to make it and even though my poor Bomberman whose inclusion I root for every year is still waiting in the wings, it’s hard to complain too badly about the diverse and expansive roster in Smash Bros. for 3DS. Some fairly egregious clone characters like Dr. Mario and Dark Pit did still manage to make the cut, even at the expense of fan favourite characters like MewTwo and the sadly retired Ice Climbers, but with lovely surprises like Duck Hunt and Bowser Jr./Koopalings in its pocket Smash Bros. 3DS still manages to edge ever closer to having the ultimate Smash roster. You may well cry over the loss of Wolf or Lucas if you had questionable clone-y tastes in main characters, but with so many other new options you’ll likely be distracted away from your grief soon enough.

Online Multiplayer

While the previous installment of Smash Bros. did technically feature online play, it was usually too laggy and too hard to get into to even merit a second thought.  Smash Bros. 3DS’ online gameplay, at least in our experience, was certainly on another level.  While not quite as rock solid as the online featured in Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros. 3DS performs admirably online by putting you into matches, loading super quickly, and steering clear of the worst of lag unless you’re in a heated battle with people across the world on crappy connections. My pre-release online battles were with Japanese players and the worst I ever got was about a 0.75s delay between my input and my character movement, the vast majority of them went without a hitch, which is a very impressive feat for such a small machine with relatively dated Internet capabilities.

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A review copy of the game was provided to us by its publisher.