Super Smash Brothers - Nintendo 3DS

If you're into fighting games like Street Fighter, or just a veteran Smash bros. player this is a must-have game on the Nintendo 3ds; the flagship game(The type of game that you can literally buy a system just to have).Graphics - 5/5All of the visuals in the game are seamless: from the items, assist trophies, pokemon, to the final smashes and lush level designs. All(I mean all) of the characters were designed with love and care that you become attached to them--Even the weird ones such as unlockable characters or characters like Pacman are designed in such a way that they find a home in the Smash brothers universe. There are no glitchy graphics and the hit boxes are very accurate. Even the Mii fighter charcter is integrated well (although I wish you could of been able to use them on online modes as well).Gameplay 4/5There are many game modes to choose from. Most of them are worth playing especially Smash Run, Classic Mode and Online modes. There are many game modes where you are able to collect trophies and other valuable items such as alterations of characters' moves and other customizable items to create custom versions of characters. A drawback however is you cannot use these custom items (and Mii Fighter) on most (if not all) of the online smash modes. Another drawback from the online modes is that you are at the mercy of players who tend to have a terrible wifi connection. But when all players have good connectivity, that's where the fun begins!All of the mechnics are balanced in this game, where as characters like Bowser or Lucario felt uncomfortably slow in Smash Bros. Brawl, now get a slight speed boost. Lucario's extreme speed move actually hits players, which is a welcomed feature. Characters such as Sheik, Peach, and Zero Suit Samus are slightly stronger as well. Overall many characters have moves that are simply different or edited from Smash Bros. Brawl in which many are welcomed. Other features removed from Brawl such as characters simply tripping or ledge hogging(players grabbing on a ledge before you got on a ledge in order to kill you) makes for a game that is more competitve rather than having cheap tactics and random slip ups.Apparently the 3ds version will also allow you to link it with the Wii U version and also allow for a free download of a recently announced character, Mewtwo in spring if you have both versions. So that's also a big thumbs up.Music - 5/5This game has some of the greatest soundtracks in video game history. You get to hear the Green Hill song from Sonic 1 while you're winding up a forward smash punch with Sonic to knock out a defensless floating Mario who just used his recovery up special. You got a game with a multitude of very talented composers such as "Tales of" Series - Motoi Sakuraba, Final Fantasy XIII - Masashi Hamauzu, Kingdom Hearts series - Yoko Shimomura, and plenty more. If you played any of the games in those series, you won't be disappointed as far as the music goes. Although there are some silly songs lol -- yet those songs fit the context of the levels and are still composed with great care.Sound Effects and Voices - 4.5/5The sound effects are very good at times while some of the sounds are cheap. Such as a beam blast from Samus beam shouldn't sound like a toy laser gun lol. Perhaps it was to compensate for handheld systems semi-poor frequency response in the low end of the sound spectrum (in other words sounds such as bass). Most of the voice actors are good and fit the characters. However some of the voice actors, such as the one for Sonic from Brawl were preferred(in my personal preference).Controls - 4/5Surprisingly for a game that's been on consoles (per say) that's been brought to a handheld, the button response is amazing. It definitely takes getting used to but it is fairly accurate. It's still can use some tweaks however, because when you want to use a up recovery with Greninja, sometimes you catch yourself using his shadow sneak--the difference between you winning the match and your opponent laughing at you for missing the ledge and you falling to your oblivion. You have the freedom of changing most of your controls, which is neat. But there's only so much you should change, because the control layout is standard from the other Smash Bros; replacing the C buttons of the previous consoles with X and Y. If you use the small 3ds(like me) you start to feel the strain on your fingers around 1-2hr+ of playing the game so maybe a bigger 3ds system would be reccomended.Final Thoughts:If you have a 3ds. Buy it; you're getting a video game console game on a handheld 10-20$ less than the console price. This game is actually worth more than the price, and has crazy replay value. Don't take my word for it lol, check interviews on Gamespot or IGN. If you don't have a 3ds and have a Wii U, then wait for/buy the Wii U version cuz it'll probably be just as good. But then again, you can't really plug in a Wii U in a long car ride/plane ride to another state/another country. Kids will definitely love it--you can't go wrong. Veterans will appreciate it. And I've been playing Super Smash Bros. since the very first one on Nintendo 64 and I have to say, it's come a long way. It's just as fun as the ones on consoles. So like I said in the beginning of the review, it's worth buying the handheld system for and I can see it being played by many people for years to come. Pure greatness.

I've spent a few hours with this game as of me writing this, and what can I say but man, this is a fun fun game. I wasn't previously a big fan of the Smash Bros series, mainly because I wasn't good at it and because I never had an N64 or Gamecube. Being a big fan of the 3DS though, this is the perfect chance for me to try it out in full finally. The game looks fantastic, and has tons of ways to play. The classic mode is a fun way to kill time while being introduced to the many characters that started it all. The local multiplayer so far with a few friends is flawless, and I've had a couple of online bouts that may or may not have gone well.GraphicsThe game runs at a very smooth 60 frames per second, even in it's 3D mode. And I normally don't play my games in 3D mode, but with this game the effect is very subtle and comes out looking very crisp. It's very quick action and it doesn't lag once. The cinematic final move scenes are awesome to watch even though they sometimes take a bit of time. I'm using the standard sized 3DS, which at times can be difficult to make out. However, I've tried the demo on the XL version, and it is levels above the tiny screen.GameplayBeing new to Smash Bros, this is a total first time impression on my part. The gameplay grows on you, and fast. When I first started playing the CPU was too much for me to handle. A few battles in, and I started to win more consistently. However, in classic mode you can choose how difficult you want the gameplay with higher difficulty giving better rewards, for all those experienced players out there. That is currently a challenge for me. Some reports stated that analog sticks were being broken due to the nature of the gameplay, but so far I haven't found myself overly abusing it. No more than any other game anyhow. The only hiccup I've had so far was the fact that I'm still finding it difficult to pick up items. I might be too close to them or too far, but many a time I've missed it by just a millisecond after trying super hard to grab it. Also, this might just be me, but using x and y to jump felt a bit odd and took some getting used to.Pros- Smooth graphics running at 60fps- Huge character list, plus the hidden set of characters- Tons upon tons of unlockables, such as trophies and new abilities- Variety in gameplay modes will keep you entertained for a while- Massive amount of items to use and unlock during battle- Some items can be super fun to use (Nintendog)- The ability to customize your characters move set, which is new to the series.Cons- That annoying "GO" image that takes up the entire screen when the match starts. Precious seconds count.- With a smaller screen, you sometimes lose your character in all the action. This happens even more so with 4 characters at once. This might be more of a problem on the smaller 3DS.- A little hard to grab items at times.OverallThis is a solid game. And that's coming from someone that came into the whole Smash Bros thing thinking that he was going to hate it. It's easy to overlook the flaws in this because it's really just a fun game no matter what level of game mode you're looking for. From single player, to local multiplayer, to online multiplayer and street pass it's got you covered.