Super Smash Bros. for Wii U Review

A bunch of friends cramped on the couch, the WaveBird controller receiver flickering on and off in the darkness of the entertainment unit, that undeniable click and clack of said GameCube controller triggers, too much cheap pizza and the lamest insults you’ve ever heard; that’s Super Smash Bros. in 2002 and now in 2014. While so many things have changed in the last half decade since the last Smash and the other half decade before that there’s one thing that remains the same, the sheer joy that Smash brings to you or a group of friends.

It feels weird to be receiving not just one, but two Super Smash Bros. games in the one year, even if perhaps the 3DS version of the game took some of the surprise out of the what we would ultimately get here on the Wii U version of the game. See, the Wii U version is setup to be the ultimate party game, even if you don’t like fighting games there’s enough here for anyone to get something out what Smash has to offer.

Super Smash Bros. is a living and growing Nintendo museum, you walk in and all your old friends are there; the classics like Mario and Luigi, Pikachu and Ness and the new team like Shulk, Wii Fit Trainer and Captain Olimar and Pikmin. Then there’s the out of towners with Mega Man, Sonic and Pac-Man and those guys who you never thought you’d ever see again, a dog with a duck on his back.

You know how to play Smash Bros., at its core it is a fighter but one with that difference. You hit someone, you hit them some more their percentage increases and thus the chances of them flying off the stage at an ever increasing rate. You can play by yourself, you can play with friends both far and abroad, locally up to 8 players can join in. The experience of 8-player smash will take you back to the first game, when you first played that 4-player game for the first time, it was confusing; you didn’t know what you were doing, where you were on the stage and sometimes you just straight up forgot which character you chose. 8-player smash brings that feeling back.

It’s not just flat out fighting either, the core of the game is used across many different modes to bring a smorgasbord of sub-games to play. Where the 3DS version of the game had Smash Run, the Wii U version has Smash Tour. It will be compared to Mario Party but it’s not really the same thing at all. Four fighters will roll a spinner to move around the board and pick up fighters and powers. Eventually you’ll fight with the powers and fighters collected, it works and it’s nice but we could have had Smash Run too.

If that’s not to your liking, you’ll want to tackle Event Mode either by yourself or with a friend. The mode throws up various scenarios for you to attempt and conquer. New to the series are Master Orders and Crazy Orders, the games’ final boss offering up a wealth of challenges to tackle. Master Orders allows you to select tasks in the form of tickets, if you’re successful you win the prizes. Crazy Orders is a lot harder and for the gamblers out there. You have 10 minutes to take on as many tickets possible, things get harder as they go along and eventually you’ll have to take on Crazy Hand – lose one and you lose it all.

Classic Mode has been remixed and the old ‘follow-the-path-to-the-end’ format has been switched up for a more simple choose who you want to battle on a board. It’s not any worse than the original, just a little more bland. All-Star Mode is back but in reverse chronological order, you have to beat the newbies first and work your way up to the veterans.

That’s all a diversion of course, Smash (the mode, not the game) is where the chunk of the game and it’s just as customisable as before. The roster again is huge like the 3DS version and the first few minutes of people scrambling to find their main or try out someone new across 50 fighters is exciting. The rules set and the items switch and frequency mean that you can try and tinker with the main game however you like and find a game that everyone can enjoy.

The game’s stages are a mixed bag, they’re mostly all beautiful but only a few of them are the ones you’ll be returning too. There’s a lot of old stages here too and the Omega maps are just plain boring. People want the consistency of Final Destination but I don’t think everyone just wants a boring old flat stage with no ledges to battle on. Not every map can support 8 players either, the huge maps outside of Battlefield are a little boring and perhaps a bit too sparse.

The Wii U version ships with a stage builder as well, it’s interesting that you can draw your own stages on the GamePad but the options for moving or editing terrain is limited. Even then you can’t share your stages just yet, you can’t export them to Miiverse or social networks they’re locked on the console you made them on – so what’s the point? Equally annoying is that screenshots can only be saved to an SD card, so you better have one of them installed.

Playing Smash Bros. locally with all your friends gathered around is arguably the best way to play the game, it always isn’t possible and thankfully for us this time Nintendo kind of got the online modes nailed down. The online setup and net-code in Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii was terrible, it just wasn’t even worth the time to even try.

This time around, for the most part things work flawlessly, even with the crap internet we have in Australia. Sure, sometimes it’ll stutter or skip a frame or that slash attack from Link just won’t connect but it’s never been as bad as to drop a game or be unplayable. Your mileage may vary but they seem to have got it this time around. Online can be either played ‘For Fun’ or ‘For Glory’. The former is good old fashioned party Smash and For Glory strips the game back to tournament levels with no items and Omega Form stages.

The opening intro of the Nintendo 64 game saw a hand pluck Nintendo toys out of a toy box and place them onto a table to fight each other. Now, 15 years later you can do this in real life thanks to amiibo. They’re a range of NFC-enabled figures that read on the Wii U GamePad and put a fighting partner into the game for you to train up and battle against. Your amiibo figure you put into the game will actually learn and adapt its battle style from you and eventually, possibly be able even defeat you – they’re harder than a level 9 CPU at times. You don’t need to buy an amiibo to enjoy Super Smash Bros., but it’s a nice diversion and if you’re a collector it will take you some time to train them all up. Once trained, you can write back to the amiibo figure and take your fighter to your friend’s house to help you out in a battle.

You’ll of course need the GamePad to use amiibo, thankfully for the rest of the game you can use pretty much any controller Nintendo has made in the last 15 years. The GameCube or WaveBird controllers need the Wii U GameCube Adapter of course but outside of that you can use the GamePad, Wii U Pro Controller, Wii Remote (by itself or with the Nunchuck and Classic Controller) or the Nintendo 3DS. You’ll need a copy of Super Smash Bros. for 3DS to use one however. You can use any combination of these controllers to get an 8 player smash going. Depending on which way you look at, it’s either a crazy good idea or Nintendo have no idea what they want to do with controllers anymore.

If the amount of content in the game doesn’t impress you, the game’s presentation and performance will blow you away. While we’ve enjoyed HD Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong HD games, it’s the first time we’ve seen many other characters and worlds in glorious and sharp high definition. The game also runs at a rock solid 60fps and as well at 1080p, Nintendo know how to push their little box to the extreme. Pause the game every so often, take a minute to soak in the detail in the characters and environments, you might miss it otherwise. At this point I’d also like to point some respect to Bandai Namco who’ve shown they can make a terrific and competent game, many were worried but look now!

The other really impressive part of Smash for sometime now has been the game’s soundtrack, like the game itself is an eclectic mix of themes. Theres brand new compositions, remixes of classic themes, medleys and enough returning content to make any other ‘Best of’ compilation cry to its mother. Each stage has a number of themes and even games that don’t have a stage or character are represented. I guarantee if there’s a Nintendo game you love, there’s at least one track you’ll enjoy from it here.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is an impressive game, not only because it’s a great and interesting fighter but for the chronological journey it takes you through over Nintendo’s and other game developers’ history. For crying out loud, Nintendo take better care of Mega Man than Capcom ever have in the last 10 years.

The perfect party game, infinitely replay-able, the reason to own a Wii U, approachable to casuals and in depth enough to suit the hardcore players. Pick a cliche, the game hits all of these on all levels. Forget about doing anything else this holiday season, your couch or your friends is the ultimate place to be. Make some memories and maybe in 15 years you’ll love the game as much as I do now.

Rating: 5/5