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Thursday 21 February, 2008
GAMEPLAY
In the Single Player mode there are five skill levels to choose from ranging from very hard to very easy. Acknowledging the skill I have already accumulated playing the multiplayer mode of this game for so long with friends, I initiated the mode using the very hard setting. Next I was given the choice between starting with between one and five lives. This is a good feature because increasing and decreasing the level of difficulty and chances allowed during game play creates an increased challenge even once the player has completed all the levels. The player can also toggle a five minute time limit on or off, but cannot decrease it to raise the difficulty as you can with the very easy to very hard setting, or choice between number of lives.
There are eleven levels of characters to progress through with a few additional bonus stages along the way. The number of lives the player has left carries throughout the game until their depletion, during which the player may continue on with half his/her original score. On a few levels the player is forced to fight multiple nearly identical, easier-to-kill bad guys rather than one, larger more challenging opponent in addition to fighting on the team of a companion computer controlled player. This allows a varying fighting sequence although it requires little changing of strategy. Overall this game is fun, interesting, interactive and engaging. The storyline is simple and easy to follow and it manipulates the fighting structure of the game well to create various modes of game play
DESIGN
The best and most novel feature of this game is collection of classic characters from old, memorable Nintendo games. Who wouldn’t love to play a game in which the Mario Brothers or Donkey Kong can be used to beat up Pikachu, Kirby or Jigglypuff. The levels are fun and all have creative varying ways of making them diverse and individually memorable. The set up of game controls is interesting and enjoyable because each character features the same general construction of attacks and dodges (for example, the A button is always a light attack, the R button is always a grabbing move).
The way of tracking hit points is original to this game as a percentage of damage increases with each blow. The level of damage percentage before the character is killed varies from character to character, causing the player to choose between the benefits of additional strength at the cost of greater speed and agility. Overall, the most intriguing aspect of this game are all the elements which allow the player to relate to the characters and find his/her own favorite or attempt to diversify their playing ability with multiple characters.
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