Super Smash Bros. for 3DS Preview

Every Smash Bros release brings a tonne of hype many months before the game is released and this time is no different.

For the first time, Smash Bros lands on the 3DS in October and Nintendo have blessed their loyal fans with a demo to tide them over until then.

The Smash Bros 3DS demo allows users to play as one of five characters from the full game on one stage. As a demo goes, it's quite generous and a little restricting all at the same time. Bouts are up to four characters and can be enjoyed with friends on a local network but none of the options can be changed, so you're stuck with two minute fights where the highest points total wins.

Characters available are Mario, Link, Pikachu, Villager and Mega Man. Mario, Link and Pikachu have had minor changes to some of their attacks (for example, Link's Up+B sword spin can now be charged) but they aren't too different. Mega Man, one of the new additions to the series has a variety of advanced attacks that will take a little getting used to, and the Villager from Animal Crossing uses close range attacks as well as a few possibly overpowered moves such as pocketing items for later use and considerably large range horizontal and vertical stage saving moves. Expect both these characters to be used quite a lot online.

Smash Bros continues to flourish even on the small handheld's screens. The game is so well polished that you are never struggling to make out items or characters, even the smallest ones. Unsurprisingly, it could also be considered the best looking 3DS game to date. Pausing the game mid-bout to scan the screen can verify that claim with textures and animations looking very crisp.

At the beginning of every stage a game tip pops up giving us a taster of what to expect in the full version, with a list of these tips displayed in the main menu for you to browse through. As it stands, you can't actually filter these tips as you randomly flick through them, but one hopes this will be something that is implemented in the full version for reference on items and character moves.

This taster of the 3DS version of the hit Nintendo brawler is sure to get the most eager fans drooling with excitement, this one included. I don't remember ever sinking more than five hours game time on a demo alone, which is sure to be a gauge to how much of my time will be consumed by Smash Bros for 3DS when it's released.