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Saturday 26 January, 2008
Gameplay 2:
For my second game session, I played free-for-all mode in multiplayer mode with 3 other players. We set the amount of lives, or stock to 5 lives, and played multiple games. We all stuck with our favorite characters throughout the session. I used Fox, and my friends used Link, Donkey Kong, and Pikachu. We only used items the first game, restricting them to only bob-ombs, mines, pokeballs, beam swords, and home run bats.
In the first fight, I stayed in the fray and got killed very quickly, despite dealing much damage. Playing in the fray was fun, but chaotic, as sometimes losing control of the situation with one other player can be due to another character getting in the way. One highlight of this fight was that the person playing Donkey Kong grabbed the Pikachu and committing suicide by jumping off the edge of the stage, killing both the Pikachu and himself. A good player can avoid this happening to them by dodging out of the way of Donkey Kong’s grabs or by avoiding being near the edge of the stage in general.
The next stage we played on, I found some of the other players to be very good competition for myself. The Link would beat me when we fought each other, while the other players were on the other side of the map because the player had very good timing, thus his success was based on his skill with the game and its controls.
Ultimately in the this 4 player mode, standing off in the corner out of the fray, and being an opportunist will frequently lead to victory. The other players fight and kill each other while the opportunistic player takes little to no damage, becoming advantageous for him or her. I could ultimately win the games if I played more defensively and out of the fray, because I would have a balanced or more likely chance for victory in the final clash between the two last players.
Design:
I found the overall experience of playing Super Smash Brothers to be enjoyable. It is a very exciting multiplayer game, and proved to be socially a more constructive activity than destructive. I was able to get along with the other players, and appreciate their well timed and well placed attacks, instead of trash talking them. Furthermore, recognizing characters, items, and levels of other games is fun because players can experience more of the characters of these popular worlds by battling against other all stars in a game that uses the worlds old Nintendo games as the basis for the look and feel of the game.
However, there are some frustrating parts of the game. There is a lack of multiplayer levels without environmental hazards to interfere with players fighting other players. For purely recreational purposes such hazards can be entertaining, but in a more serious matchup being knocked off the map by an environmental hazard is annoying.
Also, throws from grabs are very powerful in this game, making all the other moves of the characters less useful, thus leading to less variation of options for successful play style. On some maps, the distance of a single throw can toss a player off the map, thus expending a life, which a normal quick attack, comparable to that of a melee grab, would produce much less of a knock back effect. So whereas it is frustrating to be repeatedly grabbed and thrown off the edge of the screen, it is also very satisfying to become skilled enough with throws, to implement them against other players.
Basically, the challenge offered in multiplayer super smash brothers is overcoming the skill level of the other human players to knock them off the screen. Having success with this challenge was enjoyable for me, and improving at the game by improving the timing of my attacks and by understanding all the characters' moves and how to respond was also fun.
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