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Tuesday 15 January, 2008
Jonathan Rodgers
CS 80K
Gamelog #1
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Entry #1
SUMMARY
In the game Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Nintendo Gamecube, up to four players fight against each other using a variety of attack moves to gain the highest score and ultimately win the game. In order to accumulate a score, players must attack another player to give them damage. As each player’s damage increases, they become more and more susceptible to being knocked off by a blow from another player. If a player is knocked off, one point is subtracted from their score. If a player knocks off another player, one point is added to their score. The player with the highest score at the end of a set time limit is announced the winner of the game. There is also a one-player format in which a player competes in a series of battles until meeting a final boss. Players may unlock new stages for multiplayer battles, as well as new characters, by playing one-player mode.
GAMEPLAY
I’ve been playing this game for a few years, and I still play it very frequently, and enjoy it more and more every time! This game always poses a new challenge for me, as it is a party style game, I end up playing with many different players, each with their own playing style. This forces me to change my techniques in order to adapt to my varying opponents’ attacks causing me to rarely lose interest in the game.
The characters are all taken from old and new video games made by Nintendo, such as Mario and Luigi, and Link, from “The Legend of Zelda.” In addition, each character has it’s own strong points, allowing me to master each different characters attacks to use against other characters, giving the game a very strategic element. The game moves at a pretty fast pace, to keep the action up, but never gets uncomfortable or too fast for me to follow, allowing the game to be fun and interesting under any state of mind. Although, in my opinion, the multiplayer mode is more fun, the artificial intelligence poses enough of a challenge so that in case all of my friends are passed out, I can continue to play the game solo.
Entry #2
GAMEPLAY
During this session, I mainly played the one-player version of “Super Smash Bros. Melee.” There are two choices of one-player gameplay, classic, and adventure. In classic mode, a player must complete twelve “Melee” battles against a computer player, the last of which, the player must defeat “Giant Bowser,” a formidable achievement, to complete the stage. If classic mode is completed using every character available to player, a new character is unlocked. To unlock more characters, the player must accomplish various other achievements. After only a half hour of play, I was able to unlock two more characters, and found myself playing frantically to unlock more! This mode forced me to use every different character, each with their own attacks. This kept the game interesting by creating a different game experience each time I would play. In adventure mode, the player must complete “Melee” battles as well as participate in mini-games with its own set of rules. Adventure matches last a great deal longer than classic battles, and I didn’t find the mini-games to be as exciting as the “Melee” battle, so I didn’t spend too much time playing this mode, although it is crucial to unlocking new characters. Overall I think this game is very fun and was able to keep my attention for over two hours, a feat in itself! This game will remain as one of my favorite video games to date, and I don’t think I’ll ever lose interest in it!
DESIGN
The design of this game is very innovative. In most games, the playing screen is usually divided into pieces for each individual playing the game. However, in Super Smash Bros, the zoom of the camera is adjusted to accommodate the growing or diminishing distance between characters. It provides enough space to clearly see each character and the available playing field. It also gives a clean, organize look to the playing screen. The time limit and the damage counters are both clearly visible, and make it possible to glance at the time left in a match, without losing track of the gameplay. The Playing fields are all different, and each offer a variety of obstacles to avoid. Some playing fields are small forcing players to constantly confront each other. Others are larger in size giving matches a more strategic element. Some playing fields are dark and spooky, as others are light and uplifting, all continuing the theme of classic Nintendo releases. The characters are all colorful 3D representations of once “flat” Nintendo characters. They are very detailed and give the player an entire visual experience in itself. Players will never get bored checking out the colorful scenery and backgrounds found throughout the game experience! An interesting touch was that the “C-Stick” function on the Gamecube controller gives players the ability to tilt menu screens to create a very cool 3D effect. I still don’t quite understand the purpose, but it was a neat touch on an already spectacular video game!
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