While waiting in line to play Splatoon at E3 this year a Nintendo rep approached me and offered a ticket to go watch a Smash Bros tournament that would be taking place later that day. Looking at the giant competitive event, and the enormous amount of demo stations for Smash Bros littering the show floor, I finally got the sense that Nintendo had actually come to understand what they had on their hands with Smash. For some time the company has been resistant to embracing the competitive side of the game, instead insisting that it’s actually a “super fun party game” and doing their best to ruin whatever tournament legs the game had, even initially attempting to stop Melee from playing at EVO 2013.
This is a company that’s resistant and slow to change, the company that still somehow has “friend codes” in use for online play. I don’t expect them to make great strides overnight, but Smash 4 is an excellent step forward and I feel really comfortable saying that it’s the best game in the series to date. It has the best roster, give or take a few favorites, and removes a lot of the bizarre ideas introduced in Brawl to keep the game “casual” (I’m sure you’re really going to miss all that random tripping). You can read Jay’s review of the 3DS iteration of the game here, and most of what he has to say still applies to the Wii U release so I’ll try to just focus on the differences.
The first thing you’ll notice when starting up Super Smash Bros For Wii U is how god damned gorgeous it looks. The game runs at a native 1080p resolution along with the ever elusive 60fps to match. The game already looks great on the 3DS but it’s downright incredible here, and is definitely one of the best looking games on the Wii U.
Perhaps the biggest addition to the Wii U version is Smash Tour, which effectively serves as a replacement for the 3DS’ unique game mode, Smash Run. Smash Tour puts you and three other players into a board game of sorts where you’ll roll each turn, move spaces, and collect items, stat upgrades, and new characters to fight with. Unlike Smash Run you don’t get to choose your character, instead you’ll be forced to battle with whatever you find on the board. Bumping into another player will trigger a 4 way battle or contest and whoever comes in second place will surrender their character to the winner. The game mode serves as an interesting diversion, and a great way to entertain four experienced players, but newer players may find frustration in not being able to choose their fighters, while more competitive players may take issue with the somewhat random nature of the mode.
Okay, so maybe you miss Smash Run, and maybe Smash Tour isn’t quite good enough to fill up the void it leaves behind, but let’s talk about the game’s other enormous addition: 8 Player Smash. Yes that’s right, if the stars align and you find yourself in possession of four GameCube controllers, and a hodge podge collection of Wii accessories or 3DS’ (which can be used as controllers) then you and 7 other friends can jump into the most chaotic game of Smash Bros you’ve ever played. If you were wondering whether or not 8 people playing Smash Bros actually works I can safely say it does provided you have the screen real estate. On a 55 inch TV, it gets kind of hard to keep track of the action. I had the opportunity to play a few times on a much larger projector setup and found that to be a bit more manageable. To get the most out of 8 players I’d highly recommend playing with stock lives so that screen size is less of a problem as the game progresses.
Chaos aside your other biggest issue with playing 8 player smash might be a mechanical one. Since its release the Gamecube adapters and new edition controllers have been all but impossible to find at retail. Not necessarily a strike against the game, but it’s very hard to believe Nintendo didn’t anticipate that the items would be hot sellers. Even with these setbacks the mode is a blast to play and something I hope is here to stay with the series.
Classic mode has undergone a cosmetic revamp that has you moving your character in statue form around a board to pick your battles. Your choices are a little more varied than the paths presented in the 3DS’ classic mode and you may run into a few more surprises, but ultimately everything pretty much plays out the same way.
There are plenty of other game modes unique to the Wii U version. There’s Special Orders and Event Mode which both provide you with pre-arranged challenges that you can complete for prizes, and I didn’t even touch the stage builder which makes great use of the Wii U gamepad. There’s still tons more beyond that, this Smash Bros is filled with more content than ever before.
The Wii U version does have some of the annoying issues that plagued the 3DS as well. If you play with a custom control set you better be ready to select it every time you change a game mode back out to the menu. I would very frequently forget to select my layout and have to exit out of a mode shortly after starting just to ensure I could actually control it. Issues like this rarely pop up as anything more than minor annoyances though.
It’s been weeks now since I picked up Smash Bros For Wii U and I haven’t touched my 3DS version since. While I admire that Nintendo fit even a fraction of the Smash Bros experience into a handheld, the Wii U definitely feels like the superior way to play. If you have it on the 3DS, I’d absolutely suggest plopping down the cash to purchase it again.
