Thursday 18 January, 2007

"Haha, owned!"

"Dammit that move is cheap!"

"Play to win."

"You just say that because you're using Kirby!"

That conversation should be familiar to anyone who plays Super Smash Brothers with frequency. The ability to start arguments and shouting matches among good friends is the mark of a great competitive game, and Super Smash Brothers is no exception. With an easy learning curve, strong casual and competitive play, and an easy to learn system of moves and combos, SSB is one of the strongest competitive games to be released on any console system.

The structure of the game is such that any bad player can pick up a controller and probably do some damage. The movement is simple but fast-paced and rewards quick reflexes and agressiveness. At the same time, the control system seperates good players from bad ones, as bad players will stick almost entirely to their character's special moves (B-activated) without ever realizing how powerful the simple A-activated attacks really are. As a player learns the power of the A-attacks in combos with the special moves they improve and are able to compete against tougher opponents. At the same time, new players can beat on each other with the B attacks and have a great time doing it - they won't become frustrated or feel like they can't do anything, because the B attacks are relatively strong when used on their own.

The health system in SSB is a nice innovation that really makes the game. As a character takes hits their 'percentage' rises higher and higher (I'm not sure why percentage is used since it can easily go beyond 100), and the higher their percentage the easier they are to knock around. A life is lost when a character is knocked off the stage, which can usually only be done at a relatively high percentage due to the large number of movement and jumping options available. This creates a situation where some moves are good at building percentages and others are good at smashing people around. Players have to use a variety of moves to consistently get kills, rather than relying on a single attack as is the case in some 2D fighting games.

Unfortunately, this excellent framework is marred by weak balance. At the higher levels of the game there are only a few characters really worth running, and one in particular (Kirby) dominates mid-level play. On the plus side, all the characters are useful to new players and you can play your favorite character in casual games without feeling too handicapped by it.

This is a game I've had a fair amount of experience with, and playing today was no different. I went in with my usual Kirby and won every match against various opponents on the floor. Later I switched to Luigi (a weak character, but one I enjoy playing) and started losing pretty consistently. While I've dropped most other Nintendo 64 games by the wayside long ago, this is one that I can always come back to and enjoy - the sign of a true classic.

Peace,
-Squidget

Well said, well said. I never really thought about how the B and A buttons actually single-handedly make the game easy to pick up yet still interesting for veterans. After you mentioned that, I realized that your comment really IS true. New players tend to stick to B, which is simple, but effective in lower play. Once the smash is learned, things change dramatically. Very interesting. Oh man I love Kirby. Too bad he got super omega tom hanks nuked in Melee. Quite the tragedy. Oh well. We always have Brawl.

You know, now that I think about it, I seem to recall having some very heated matches between my friend (Mario) and I (Kirby). Though the battles were always close, he won nearly every time. Now I have a very similar situation. Whenever we play on my floor (Melee) I almost always dominate with Yoshi, but when my friend comes to town, I get spanked by Shiek almost every time. Some things never change lol.