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Jan 12th, 2007 at 02:13:55 - Super Smash Brothers Melee (GC) |
Round 2.
SSBM is a multiplayer that is very easy to pick up for beginners. One can learn the controls easily in about a couple minutes or so and dive into the action. Getting used to running, jumping, blocking, and dodging can easily be picked up as well. However over the years of this game being out, many players around the world, have discovered many other techniques that make this game "...hard to master"
Every time I play this game I come across new moves and strategies to combat other characters. Unlike many fighting games, this one is unique in its sense that all characters have not only their own special moves, but physical attributes as well. From experience, I have come across differences in weight, speed, and jumping in every character. An easy example of this is the Light and quick Pikachu versus the slow and bulky Bowser. The way each character varies with attributes gives balance to the game and makes them unique.
Weight effects how fast you fall when your knocked away and falling down. It also effects how easy it is for an opponent to juggle you(linking attacks to form combos to build up opponents’ percentile). Speed obviously determines how fast you run across the screen while jumping effects how high you can jump. When you pick a character, these stats don't show up when you put your cursor on them. However, once you play different characters, you will quickly notice how different characters vary from one another.
SSBM is all about adapting. With many stages, characters, items, and play styles, you have to always think of a plan of attack on the move. This is what can make the game hard to master. Levels vary from flat planes to heavy platform jumping which can be good and bad for the way you play. Either way you have to adjust to your surroundings while utilizing your skills and items(if you have the option on) on the battlefield. Items can effect the battle a lot of times as well. Some weapons will do more damage then normal attacks and after pulling off a combo you can throw them(just like any item) at your opponent for even more damage. Some items like Mr. Saturn are weak and are just useful to be thrown. Others like food and hearts will lower your percent. One of the many favorites is the old baseball bat that will knock an opponent off in one hit, if you can connect with it.
As a Sheik player, my main focus in battles is combos. I'm having a good day if I can catch any of my opponents off guard at low percents, and take them past 70+% with one combo alone making them almost close to be knocked off. With smart players my strings get cut short a lot. Another thing that foils my plans is when players interfere with me and another person fighting. I will forever be trying to forget the way of fighting many people at once. No matter how nimble Sheik with her fast attacks and above average speed can be at times, the minute she gets hit, things can turn bad quick. I was experiencing this a lot today when trying to get back into playing again.
Tuan as usual chose Samus while Mike continued to cook his boiled eggs with Yoshi. It wouldn't matter what stage we would choose. I would chase after Yoshi and would miss it many times only to get a big reward of a huge charged beam from Samus, to the face. I despise Samus. I'm still trying to figure out ways to beat that girl ha-ha. Not only is she hard to combo since she is so light, but also she finds many ways to escape which end up with me running into an exploding bomb. However over time I began to notice that she sometimes has just as much problem with crowd control as me so...this is where Yoshi comes in. Sometimes I would engage Yoshi only to slowly lure it towards Samus in which I would even flee from the seen, having them duke it out for a good minute or so. Call it an act of cowardice but it would work very nicely. Even if both would catch on to what I was doing and try to follow me, having Samus running around is way better than letting her sit around from afar and shooting her big beams. The key was to let the two beat each other up a little so they become easy to knock back leaving a me with more time to focus on one enemy at a time. In most instances, I would try to eliminate Samus first due to the fact that she honestly annoys me the most. This leaves the tricky Yoshi left for tough battles. Kick straight, Yoshi rolls around. Break dance kick, Yoshi still rolls around. It was obvious I would have to rethink how I fight against this creature. The way Mike plays Yoshi, seems like he jumps in low with a quick poke kick to get a upper hand and ready for combo position. These little pokes that he would start with are what I decided to do as well. Instead of trying to stand and attack from every angle, I instead started moving around a whole a lot more to try and keep him guessing of where I am going to begin my attack. Sometimes he would charge to me and I'll start running away myself but instantly come back with a quick tap back to his direction. Sometimes I would repeat this over and over to confuse him and even Samus. This is one of my favorite moves which is called Wavedancing. It's pretty easy to pick up and use. It's great sometimes in faking out the enemy however today, Yoshi still was able to pick up on it and still poke me early enough to get a upper hand. I started landing a couple combos and even winning a couple matches towards the end of my session but Yoshi still continued to dominate most of the games. Mike switched to Mario and I had better luck against him sometimes then Yoshi. I remember one match on Corneria I was able to pull off a very nice combo by jumping in with a kick, followed by a down grab, 2 kick juggles, with another down grab, one more kick and a ending with my famous aerial spike. I won that match only to lose the next couple matches ha-ha.
All in all, I had a very fun time picking this fighter up again. There is always something new to learn, and techniques to master. I know I still have a while before I can be at a level Mike is at but I one day I will. I just hope that with the new SSBM Brawl that’s coming for the Wii, Nintendo keeps that character balance still all the characters. The game play balance and ever changing levels will always have players coming back for more.
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Jan 11th, 2007 at 04:17:01 - Super Smash Brothers Melee (GC) |
Wow.
It doesn't matter how many times you pick up this fighter. Every time, you will end up having loads of fun playing with your friends and/or the computer. I picked it up today after many months of playing and still had a ball. It is in my pinion, the best multiplayer fighter I have ever played. With the vast amount of characters, new modes, stages, music, and trophies to unlock, you will be coming back to this game lots of times. It's one of those games honestly, you buy a system for. When Gamecube first came out, there was really no game I wanted. However once SSBM came out, it was the only game I had for a long time.
"Easy to pick up, Hard to master." I've heard this many times and I truly agree. Anyone can pick this up and learn the basics in in a couple minutes or so. However there are also hidden techniques like shield grabbing, wave-dashing, wave-dancing, etc. for the hardcore players. I think that aspect alone is what makes this a great game. The fact that it's a game for any kind of player. Stages make it so that there are many ways you have to adapt to situations. It's not like Street Fighter where there is just a 2D plane and you master special moves in it. Not only must you master your favorite character's special moves, but also using weapons as well while jumping and running around the stages to fight your enemy. For example stages like Hyrule Temple and Corneria are flat plane that is suited for more quick close quarters combat. Other stages like Brinstar and Donkey Kong’s Jungle has you jumping around a lot which adds variety of combat to stages.
SSBM's music is beautiful. When you hop onto a stage, you are just bathed in the essence of that certain game when the stages theme comes on. I remember when I played this game for the first time with my friend Bruce, and F-Zero's Mute City came on, I nearly cried. To hear one of my favorite songs from Super Nintendo, be remixed back into a Gamecube game was seriously music to my ears. When you fight on a stage, it literally makes you feel as if your back in that world of that certain game. Most of the notable songs from the old games have been remixed celestially which I am sure many old fans of these games will love to hear.
There are many modes in the game so if you don’t have a couple friends to play with, there is always something you can do in the meantime. Besides, you will need to play some of the extra modes in the game to unlock secret characters faster anyways. Either way though, I am pretty sure you can unlock them all by playing many Vs. Matches against your friends. It was cool going to different friends houses, and seeing the different characters each of them had when the game first came out. A lot of it was because many of the unlockable characters weren't from N64, so it was very cool to see them in the Gamecube version. Not to mention trophies, that you can unlock through all the modes in the game where you can read tips on how to play a certain character. Other trophies have other characters from the same games like Birdo from Super Mario Bros. or Squirtle from Pokemon. They give historical information about where and when they appeared in what games. In addition to the classic Arcade mode where you fight the computer AI in stages, there is an addition of a new mode called Adventure which adds a different side to the usual 1 player game. You actually end up walking through stages like in Super Mario Bros. and Zelda while encountering certain enemies along the way. No matter if you choose Arcade, Adventure, or one of the new many event modes, you will end up having to take down the notorious Master Hand from the previous game. Now that I mention him, I will say he is not the final boss of the game. If you can get to the end in the event modes, you will find out what I mean.
Today after a long stressful day of classes, I came back to the dorms and me and two other buddies decided it was time to whip SSBM back out. To warm up, I used Link while my buddy Tuan used Samus, and lastly the feared Mike chose Yoshi meaning we were in for a heck of a match. We began on Corneria and I got beat up a lot. After trying to dodge the annoying Samus’ charge cannon and Yoshi tossing random eggs at me, I knew it was going to be some tough games. Samus isn't so bad to me because of the fact that she is slow in my opinion. What is tough however is when Yoshi comes after me and I can't hit it. Ill slash in front and Yoshi will spin around in his egg behind me. I'll do Link's spinning slash and Yoshi still will find a way to spin around it. This is also while Samus thinks she is too cute to fight and will blast me with her huge charge cannon from afar. In any case, it was real fun to pick the game back up after many months. Oh, and yes, Mike did when that match ha-ha but more to come later.
In the end, this game is as solid as it gets. It doesn't matter if your a casual gamer or a hardcore one. You will be back. I know I will. I don't know if I'll ever find a game as unique as this is. With the easy to pick up fighting system, beautiful remixed soundtrack, new modes, and all the unlockable content, you will always come back for more. The only reason this gets a 5 out of 5 is because 7 is not on the list.
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Naroku has been with GameLog for 17 years, 10 months, and 11 days |
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