When Mario enters the Ring....
Written: Aug 02 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Multiplayer mayhem, a shell of a lot more fun than any other tournament fighter!
Cons: Nothing major; there is however a limited number of characters and arenas
The Bottom Line: There has never been a tournament fighter like this one!
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| Stratadrake's Full Review: Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 64 |
This is quite an imaginative game. From the initial TV advertisements with Yoshi, Mario, Pikachu, and Kirby beating each other up to the tune of the Beatle's "So Happy Together", that tells you almost everything you need to know about Super Smash Brothers. At first glance, Super Smash Brothers may seem just like "another tournament fighter" game, except with a Nintendo spin. However, take Super Smash Brothers for a real spin, and you'll discover exactly what makes it so different.
The concept of Super Smash Brothers is simple. As the general rule-of-thumb for any tournament-fighter game goes, you don't need a storyline. And, if you watch the introduction to the game, it'll tell you all you need to know about the story. Quite simply, there is none! It's more like how you'd invite a friend over to play with G.I. Joe or Transformers action figures--it's a great way to declare war without harming anyone. After a few first weeks having an N64, I purchased Super Smash Brothers from the local Fred Meyer's on this idea--pure, simple, harmless, Fun.
Personal Tilt: + 4 of 5
When I give myself a +4 personal tilt, this means, quite frankly, that I like Super Smash Brothers. A lot. As far as I've checked, I've spent perhaps 100+ total hours in its multiplayer arenas, killing time by knocking the other opponents out of the arena. I don't think I have ever found any other tournament fighter that can quite compare to it in terms of enjoyment--not even Bandai's Gundam Battle Assault.
Graphics: 8 of 10
Technical Merit: 3 of 5
Cinematics: 5 of 5
Super Smash Brother's graphics deliver a high bang for their buck. The character models, while simpler than in Mario 64, Zelda 64, and other N64 games, deliver the same fluidity that you'd expect to find. Each of the twelve (8 default, 4 secret) playable characters is highly recognizable, and when you choose your character, you can even change their outfit to one of four different color schemes (of which my favorites are Fox's green uniform and Link's Zora Tunic).
One reason why Smash Brother's character models look so fluid is not just because of their animation, but also because they were constructed using the "soft-skin" technique (rather than "hard-skin" techniques), which allows their textures to "flex" and move as they do. Whenever you pause the game, the camera zooms in on your fighter in the arena, and you can use the Control Stick to examine them up close. You'll find few, if any, flaws in the character designs looking up close at them.
Slowdown is a usual demerit. However, in the midst of a four-human-players free for all, with one player blowing fire from a Fire Flower, a second player firing the Laser Rifle from halfway away, a third player grabbing the Invincibility Star, and a fourth player releasing Charizard from a Pokéball---well, in short, slowdown is to be expected. Combat is frantic, and with frequent items dropped down from the sky for any players to use, the action can get intense. REALLY intense. So, "slowdown happens". Unlike in some PSX and older games, though, slowdown happens in stages and not all at once. Older games generally slow down to half speed if there's too much action. Super Smash Brothers is different; the game slows down marginally (to about 75% normal), and if the action is still too intense, it'll increment in further stages of slowdown (such as 2/3 and 50% speed). If you're playing one-on-one, you'll rarely notice any sort of slowdown, but in a four-player arena, the game plays at 3/4 speed about 3/4 of the time. Fortunately, considering all the said action that can take place at once, you'll hardly notice the slowdown--and the few extra microseconds it gives you may be just enough to pull off your next move and catch your opponents off guard.
Aside from techncial issues, though...Super Smash Brother's graphics are extremely capable. The arenas are composed of pure 3D with occasional 2D sprite backdrops (such as the flowers in Dream Land or the Saffron City Pokémon). The visual effects are quite good as well. The lightsaber powerup leaves a nice blur when swung (as does, to a lesser degree, Link's sword), Mario's fireballs leave falling embers in their wake, Fox's blaster produces smoke when it fires, and up close, nothing is more electrifying than Pikachu's Thunder technique.
Soundtrack: 9 of 10
Music: 4 of 5
Sound FX: 5 of 5
The Super Smash Bros. soundtrack is outstanding. Each of the eleven (eight multiplayer, two single-player, one secret) combat arenas has its own unique combat tune, and the eight MP (Multi-Player) arenas have background musics that match the games they came from. Princess Peach's Castle has the Mario theme song playing in its background; Saffron City plays the Pokémon Theme Song, and Kongo Jungle's background music was taken straight from Donkey Kong Country 1. Fans of the Metroid series will recognize the old Metroid theme song from the original, as well Zelda fans rejoice at hearing the Zelda theme song (strangely absent from Ocarina of Time), and there is even the SMB1 original theme song (beepy sounds included) thrown into one particular arena! Players of Star Fox 64, Kirby, and Yoshi's Story will also recognize the background music from those arenas, so in a way, this ia the déja vu of background musics.
The sound FX are quite capable as well. Each character has their own "voice" sound effects, such as Link's assorted combat jeers and shouts, Mario's own yells, Pikachu's one-word vocabulary, and more. Perhaps the funniest sound FX is the scream Luigi makes if you knock him off the top of the arena, followed closely by (again) Pikachu's one-word vocabulary if you knock him off the top of the arena.
Gameplay: 10 of 10
Controls: 5 of 5
Mechanics: 5 of 5
If you think Super Smash Brothers is just another typical tournament fighter, think again; it is anything but. I remember seeing an amusement-park ride on a film. I don't remember its name, but it's the one with a large spinning disc, and after people climb on top of it, it starts to spin at increasingly faster speeds until everyone (except maybe one person in the dead-center) gets blown off by centrifugal force, landing on its surrounding mat--it's kinda like a playground's merry-go-round, minus the handrails, being spun ever faster by a strong person. Super Smash Brothers is best compared to this, and I'll explain why.
Super Smash Brothers does away with the "TKO" in every other tournament fighter. You can not "knock out" an opponent simply by inflicting damage on them. Instead, the rules are unique: The last player standing in the arena wins. Doesn't sound very unique, does it? But there's more; there's much much more. You'll be told this outright if you leave the game at the Title Screen long enough for it to begin its "How to Play" demo.
In Super Smash Brothers, you do have health meters. Well, actually, no, these aren't health meters, they're actually damage meters. Instead of calculating how much damage your character can endure, Super Smash Brothers measures the damage you've received during the match. The damage meters have no upper limit; hence, you can receive an unlimited amount of damage and still be in fighting shape (on occasion, I have seen up to 500% damage inflicted without a KO) . No matter how much damage you receive during a match, you can take another blow, as long as you abide by the one important rule: you must stay in the ring. Get knocked out of the arena, and you're out, no matter how much (or how little) damage you've received during the match. Instead of "knocking out" your opponents, the goal is to knock them off; and the term for this, although a KO, is actually "Knock-Off" . With the right techniques and timing, you can literally knock-off an opponent with a single blow (I have done this before), or at other times, you may inflict up to 600% damage and more without being able to score a knock-off.
What, then, does the number on the damage meter do? Taking damage during a match makes it more likely that you'll be knocked off. Simply put, the higher the number on your character's damage meter (i.e., the more damaged they are), the further you fly when you are struck by an opponent's technique. At 100%, you'll get knocked approximately twice as far as at 0% damage. At 200% damage, you'll be knocked even farther (about 3x normal). And any higher than that...suffice it to say that you usually won't be able to recover from being knocked that far out of the arena.
How do you protect yourself against taking damage? This is where the controls come into play--and Super Smash Brothers couldn't make the controls any easier. The Control Stick moves your character at one of three speeds--walk, run, and sprint. Depending on how quickly you tilt the Control Stick, your character will move at the appropriate pace. Slam it in one direction to sprint; merely "tilt" it in that direction to walk slowly.
The blue A button unleashes a hand-to-hand attack, and depending on how you move the Control Stick when you press the button, your character will perform anything from a weak, quick attack to a powerful SMASH attack that can deliver up to 20% in a single blow. The green B button delivers your character's special attacks. Pressing B by itself will usually result in your character throwing some sort of projectile (Mario fireballs, Link's boomerang, etc.) . The character's projectiles very in power, range, and rate of attack depending on whom you choose.
Now for some neat tricks. Press Up+B at the same time to perform an upwards special attack. For most characters, this is a jumping attack that can double as a lifesaver if you get knocked off (but unfortunately, your character can't do anything else until they land). Among the most fearsome Up+B attacks are Samus's Screw Attack, DK's tornado punch, and Link's Hylian Sword Spin. Also, press Down+B to perform a short-range special attack, that for most characters knocks any nearby opponents far away from them and inflicts the most damage of any single-attack combo (Fox's deflector shield is the most unique, if not most powerful, Down+B special, and Pikachu's Thunder is one of the most powerful).
Although you can press Upwards on the Control Stick to jump, you can also use any of the four C buttons to jump as well--this knowledge may save you if you get knocked off the side. All characters can "double-jump", meaning that they can jump twice in a row while in mid-air. Thus, if you get knocked off, a good single jump can get you back on course towards the arena, and the double jump will close the gap if you don't quite make it. If you follow a double-jump with the Up+B special, most characters (save for Yoshi) will end up doing a "triple jump", which can help you get back up even if the double-jump can't save you. Even if the triple-jump can't save you, you may be able to grab the edge of the arena and hoist yourself up--and that can be another lifesaver saving you from a potential KO.
And, of course, there's blocking. Press and hold the Z trigger button to put up a defensive barrier around your character that absorbs all damage. The barrier, however, doesn't last forever, so use it sparingly--although this barrier recharges while not in use, if you use it too often, it may break when you need it the most (with a trademarked "breaking glass" sound), leaving your character unable to move and open to attack. However, while defending, you can quickly tilt the Control Stick sideways to roll to one side...even rolling underneath an opponent and popping up right behind them!
The A button also doubles as the "grab/use item" button. To pick up and/or use an item, press the A button. However, if you press A while holding Z trigger, you can grapple onto an opponent and then toss them! Although this only inflicts about 10% damage, you can throw your opponent quite far, and you can even use them as a weapon this way. The grab/throw function can also be used to chuck whatever item your character is holding. Used up all 16 shots from the Ray Gun powerup? Then simply throw the gun itself at your opponent to cause one last bit of damage with it. Similarly, if you don't want to use an item, you can form an equally-effective strategy by throwing it at your opponents (some items are actually more powerful when thrown).
You can also throw your opponents and held items by pressing R. The shoulder R button performs both the Z and A buttons when pressed. Tap it, and you can grab/throw your opponents. Hold it down, and after a short grab, your character will defend themself ŕ la Z Trigger. This is a nice functionality, and a handy button if you're too busy attacking to remember about hitting Z.
And then there's taunting. It's a tough reach in the midst of combat, but if you press the L shoulder button, your character will perform a taunt that, while having no real use, can be used for fun and humor. If you play against the computer often, you'll notice that the computer players like to taunt you whenever they throw you for a large distance. This little feature helps make each character seem more "alive" than in a typical tournament fighter.
What would any game be without powerups? Super Smash Brothers boasts a huge array of familiar Nintendo character items. They either drop straight out of the sky, or come packaged in boxes, pill capsules (did somebody say Dr. Mario?), Yoshi eggs, or barrels! Pick up a container and throw it (preferably at an opponent) to reveal the item inside.
There are a large number of powerups, ranging from the simple & economical to the downright hilarious. They generally come in three varieties:
Clobbering Items
Clobbering Items are the things which augment your character's close-range or hand-to-hand abilities. The Fire Flower is an instant classic; the Lightsaber is both powerful, fast, and throwable (a definite force to be reckoned with); the Paper Fan seems under-appreciated with its weak power, but it is very rapidfire and can break through an opponent's shielding in a single SMASH attack; there is even a "Home-Run" baseball bat (no comments here, try it yourself!), and the most impressive weapon in this category is the good old-fashioned Smashing Hammer straight from the DK original (beepy music included) !
Projectile Items
Projectile Items are items specifically designed to be thrown. There is a star-shooting magic wand, a powerful Blaster Rifle, Koopa Shells of both green and red varieties, walking Bob-ombs (the most powerful), and Land Mines (the sneakiest). Bob-ombs and Land Mines are my personal favorite, because they can often KO an opponent in a single explosion! Item Containers (barrel, egg, crate, and pill) and every other weapon can also double as a projectile item (just press R shoulder button).
Novelty Items
Novelty Items are pure fun. Maxim Tomatos and Heart Containers repair damage received to your character, Fire Flowers launch short-range but lethal fire-breath, and who can forget the Starman powerup from Super Mario World, which makes the user totally invincible (music inclued) ?
Poké Balls
Although technically a projectile/novelty item, Poké Balls are a class all their own; you never know what kind of Pokémon you'll discover inside a Pokéball, and their effects vary. Charizard's firebreath is second only to the Fire Flower in power, Meowth's Pay Day is another force to reckon with, and Chansey drops free items onto the arena! Those with a nose for secrets may be lucky enough to spy Mew (the rare, 151st pokémon), and Clefairy's Metronome can--and does--perform any of the above.
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I already mentioned that Super Smash Brothers stars familiar Nintendo heroes, right? Here's a sampling:
Mario. Back once again, what would a Nintendo-made game be without the two plumbers? Mario carries some trademark Mario 64 moves and his good old-fashioned Fireball, but his true strengths are his combo-matic Up+B and Down+B special moves and his around-the-world throwing move.
Luigi. If you can endure all the bonus levels (hint hint), Luigi becomes unlockable. Lighter and faster than Mario, Luigi's B button attacks are similar to Mario's yet they contain their own strengths (namely a higher firepower for lack of combo-ability).
Yoshi. Available for play in four pastel colors (green, yellow, red, and blue), the egg-laying dinosaur is another recurring Nintendo character. He can swallow enemies (trapping them in Yoshi Eggs or spitting them back out) and his Down+B special does a lot of damage. Most fearsomely, though, is his aerial treadmill attack (down+A) which can combo for up to 50% damage; and Yoshi's taunt is one of the cutest in the game--"Yoshi!"
Link. Anothe hero from a well-known Nintendo series, Link is one of my most favorite characters. His Master Sword dishes out some serious damage (especially his aerial moves which come straight from Zelda 2: Adventures of Link) and he packs a stout inventory of trademarked Hylian tools like his boomerang, Bombs, and the ever-handy Hookshot.
Samus. This is Samus's only appearance on the N64, which is alone a good reason to get Super Smash Brothers. She comes with several trademarked moves, among which are the variable-strength Charge Shot, Screw Attack, and Grapple Beam.
Donkey Kong. Instead of coming from the DK original, this is the DK from Donkey Kong Country and DK64. Every one of his attacks is hand-to-hand, including a wind-up punch and the "Pound the Ground" move straight from DKC 1!
Kirby. HAL Laboratories, the team who gave us Kirby, is the team to be thanked for developing Super Smash Brothers, and Kirby is one tough cream puff. He can "fly", jumping six times in a row without touching ground, and his trademarked "Swallow" (B) attack makes him by far the most versatile of all characters--simply swallow an opponent with B, and Kirby gains the ability to use that opponent's regular B special (as indicated by the hat he puts on)--including Mario/Luigi fireballs, the Boomerang and Charge Shot, and more. Kirby's Stone ability is a smashing move (pun intended), also protecting him against virtually all damage, and a mean Final Cutter (his only natural projectile attack). Kirby's taunt also ranks among the cutest: he waves at the camera and says "Hiiiii!!!!"
Fox McCloud. Although better known as an Arwing Pilot, Fox has a great number of attacks at his disposal. His standard-issue laser gun packs a serious rapidfire, and his Arwing-style Deflector Shield can reflect every form of projectile attack or thrown item, sending them right back to the attacker!
Pikachu. Ya gotta love this little Pokémon mascot...the little mouse apparently must have thrown a birthday party before attending the Super Smash Bros. tournament, because Pikachu often comes to battle wearing a colored party hat! Pikachu boasts a wide array of electrical attacks (six in total) and his Thunder attack is a guaranteed shocker; but his Quick Attack special is the most useful because it can make him "teleport" from one location to another in the blink of an eye. Pikachu may be small, but he's even deadlier when holding a Clobbering item--if you've ever scored a "Triple Home Run" with Pikachu, nothing else is that impressive.
Pikachu also gets the gold medal for the cutest taunt: he waves at the camera, and says "P'ka pikaaa!!!" in the cutest of Pokémon voices. Indeed, Pikachu's one-word vocabulary, full of "Pika"s and "Chu"s, gives him the gold medal for the cutest voiceovers in the entire game.
There are three more hidden characters unlockable in Super Smash Brothers, but I won't go spoiling the surprise for you. One is easily unlockable the first time you beat single-player mode, but the other two require some special hunting--one secret character requires speed while the other one requires a perfect match (winning without being KO'd yourself) in almost every single-player round. These latter two in particular are the best of the lot in the secret-character department, so rest assured that if you find them you won't be disappointed.
Replay Value: 9 of 10
Super Smash Bros. has two basic modes of play. Single Player mode enters you into a ten-stage tournament at one of five difficulty levels, challenging you to a match in each. Some enemies can be tough in this mode, but you have unlimited continues, so sooner or later, you'll win. The ending of Super Smash Bros.'s single-player tournament is somewhat anticlimactic, but considering the game's introductory sequence, is strangely fitting and appropriate. Subsequently, the only real reason to finish Single Player mode is to unlock the secret characters and secret arena.
Multi-Player, though, is where all the fun resides in Super Smash Brothers. You can pit any combination of two to four human and/or computer-controlled players against each other in either free-for-all or team play. This is one of the few multi-player games that allow you to watch the computer players fight it out, and it is also one of the few multi-player game where you can plug the controllers into any socket you please. For example, if you have two game controllers plugged in, Super Smash Bros. doesn't require them to be plugged into ports #1 and #2, you can plug them into ports #2 and #4 if you wish. The instant you plug a controller into the controller ports, that player's cursor icon displays on-screen and their character slot opens up for play. This is nice, making multi-player set-up feel a lot less like a "player 1 makes all decisions" affair and more like a "lobby" set-up where any of the players can agree upon who plays who.
There are also a few multi-player secrets to unlock. Play a lot of Multi-player rounds and you will unlock an "Item Switch" feature allowing you to ban the presence of certain items (like the Hammer) and specify how often you want them to appear. For example, if you want pokéballs to rain down one every 5 seconds, go right to the Item Switch and do so. Or if you don't want any items thrown in to help out the players, go do so.
Multi-player in Super Smash Bros. is best played with four participants, regardless of how many are human players or how many are computer players. The Smash Bros. computer players, like most tournament fighters, fight by the rules and grow steadily meaner as you adjust their level (up to nine). I find the most intense matches to be the ones I play against 3 Level 8~9 computer opponents, but likewise, when the computer opponents are notched up that far, they won't spend much time "goofing up" during battle and will attack you relentlessly.
Multi-player also features a number of options to set. You can set the game for timed battles, where everyone has unlimited lives and the winner is whomever scores the most KO's; or you can set it to "stock battles", where everyone has a set number of lives and the last character (or team) standing wins. For team play, you can also assign whether or not "friendly-fire" (being able to attack your teammates) is allowed; and for some interesting reason, when this is enabled for team-play, computer opponents of the same team throw random punches at each other whenever there should be nothing better for them to do. Human players can also be assigned handicaps to equalize play between all skill levels, and the game's "master damage level" can be set anywhere from 50% (half) to 200% (double). This "master damage level" is one of my favorite options; reduce the value to make all characters (human and computer) more "durable" and resilient during battle, increase the value to make all characters easier to knock off. My best bouts are played at about 75% damage level, roughly doubling the amount of damage you need to inflict on an enemy before you can easily knock them off.
Fun Factor: 9 of 10
As I have implied many times above, Super Smash Bros. is a surprisingly entertaining tournament fighter. In fact, no other tournament-fighter game comes close to Super Smash Bros.'s overall "fun factor". Super Smash Bros. is surprisingly "kid-friendly"; all the in-combat violence is dished out in a cartoony, quasi-Warner Bros. fashion, and there is absolutely no graphic content to spoil the younger viewers. No matter how much a game character is shocked, scorched, squashed, or otherwise knocked out of the arena, they come back for another round (and in the case of a KO, your character re-enters play from an airborne teleporter). This enhances the engine in Super Smash Bros. which says that no matter how bad things have gotten, you can survive them and come back for another go.
Now, with the imminent release of Nintendo's 128-bit system--the GameCube--Nintendo has similarly released news about a sequel to Super Smash Bros. for the GameCube. For those of you who can wait until November with the $200-plus necessary to purchase the new console and launch title, that wait will be well worth it.
And then, for the many of us who can't wait, it's high time to load up Super Smash Bros. on the N64 console, light up a multiplayer match against three friends (or computer opponents), and smash away.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Stratadrake
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Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 13 members
About Me:
A fond love of dragons, followed by Warzone 2100 the PC title
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