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Tuesday 15 January, 2008
Summary:
Super Smash Brothers is a multi-player game for up to four people that combines many Nintendo icons with the objective of setting them against each other in various environments. The game can be set to a time limit or a battle to the death.
Gameplay:
Super Smash Brothers hooked me really quickly and brought me to a higher emotional state than I have previously experienced in a game. I found myself shouting at the game and the other player, all in good fun of course, and I became very tied to the outcome of the match. My opponent was a friend of mine who quickly became my mentor in the game, as he is much better than I am.
I found that as a beginner I needed to play as characters that were moderately fast and therefore moderately powerful. If I chose characters that were too fast I would fall off the edge of the playing field. However if I chose characters that were too slow I didn’t have enough time to evade attacks nor was I experienced enough to execute the careful planning that all slower attacks require.
The best part about this game is the combination of many of the Nintendo characters. For people like me whose gaming experience is limited to what little I have played in college, this game is like an overview of all of the characters. Players can learn how to use different characters all in one game. It is also interesting because it very directly pits characters that would not normally fight against each other, providing as a direct means of measuring strengths and weaknesses.
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Summary:
The second time I played Super Smash I realized that there is also an option that is a single player fighting game that becomes increasingly difficult with each level. Going through the levels is what allows the owner of the game to get new character and win trophies. This is as important a part of the game as the multi-player fighting.
Design:
The graphics in this game are very advanced. I watched some of the older games being played and there is a very noticeable difference between both the graphics and the music. Mario was in color but was only 2D and the music is more melodic than a series of mechanical beeps.
The conflict is more automatic because it is a multi-player game as opposed to a single level based game. The players create as much conflict as their competitiveness will allow.
As a beginner I found it difficult to master even basic moves in an immediately combative situation. There is a training mode but the game is most commonly played in melee mode which doesn’t allow for much learning through experience.
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