Super Smash Bros. Wii U Review

Super Smash Bros. Wii U owes itself to Nintendo's long-lasting legacy of characters and universes. The game itself is a testament to the history of these franchises and seeing the amalgamation of characters on-screen is a grand spectacle, ever changing due to game’s willingness to have fun at every turn. Whether this entry, is the definitive highpoint for the series is unclear but it is a resounding success on almost every level, making it a must own title for the Wii U.

The core gameplay of Super Smash Bros. Wii U hasn't changed, you fight other franchises’ characters on stages from everywhere in the Nintendo universe and attempt to knock them from the screen. This is made easier by increasing your opponent’s damage rating making them more susceptible to attacks. Whilst this sounds familiar, the actual handling of characters is fantastic, the gameplay rests comfortably between the fast paced Melee and the sluggish Brawl. The game is never too hectic that you don't know what you're doing and you always feel in control of your fighter, expecting them to control the way you think they will. Indeed part of the fun comes from experimenting with the game’s huge roster which is the best the series has had to offer. All of the veteran fighters are there barring the Ice Climbers, the decision to omit these characters is a strange one that I still can't understand. Apart from this minor annoyance the game hosts a fighter for everyone. Some of my new favourites include Xenoblade Chronicles’  Shulk and the Pokemon Greninja, Shulk in particular has a unique special move that allows him to change his ability to suit a range of attributes allowing you to alter your play-style mid-match. It has to be said that Little Mac is a force to be reckoned with although I haven't found one fighter to be overpowered. The roster is surprisingly balanced and if a fighter is powerful in one area there's usually a weak point, such as Little Mac's disadvantage in the air and abysmal stage recovery. Third-party characters make an appearance as well, with the likes of newcomers Mega Man, Pac-Man and the returning Sonic. Scattered throughout the roster are the quirky characters such as Animal Crossing’s Villager and Wii Fit Trainer both of whom are quite difficult to use but effective in the right hands.

The gameplay is enhanced by the visuals, whilst they're not the best that the Wii U has to offer they are certainly stunning. Seeing the game in motion at 60fps is gorgeous to watch and provides spectacle only available through this type of game. The range of styles on offer is shown throughout the game’s many stages. I found the Yoshi's Wooly World to be charming and Starfox's Orbital Escape to be exhilarating, as it has players fighting atop Arwings and through space stations in an explosive battle. If all this isn't enough for you then there's always the option to create your own stages. The customisation options are limited, although the GamePad comes in handy when drawing platforms and ledges and I'm sure there will be some great designs in the Smash Bros. Community. My own attempts were far from amazing but it's fun and easy to use and I can easily see myself spending hours trying to perfect a custom level. Customisation can also be applied to existing fighters and of course Miis. The options for customisation are quite large and you can edit your fighters attributes with items, changing your speed, strength and defense, giving yourself advantages or disadvantages in battle. Miis are surprisingly fun to use and it's exciting when you gain new items to equip them with.

Amongst all these characters and stages Super Smash Bros. Wii U has a large selection of game modes for players to partake in. Replacing Brawl's Subspace Emissary are Classic Mode and All Star Mode. Classic Mode allows players to choose from a number of different fights that appear on a board/battlefield. You progress through a number of bouts which eventually culminates in a boss battle against Master Hand and Crazy Hand. A difficulty system is set in place originally seen in Kid Icarus on the 3DS, you can set the difficulty yourself which ranges from 0.0 to 9.0. It's a rewarding feature that tests you if you are unprepared for the level of difficulty you've chosen. All Star Mode pits players against a timeline of fighters going from the most recent franchises to the oldest. It's made more difficult due to the fact that any damage received stays with you and you only have a limited number of health revival items to use. Both of these modes are very enjoyable and can be especially testing if the level of difficulty is high. I regularly found myself in tense situations at the end of both modes, particularly Classic Mode which can end in a spectacular boss battle different to the aforementioned Master and Crazy Hands. The omission of a proper story mode might irk some fans but there are plenty of modes for players to enjoy and the game is certainly not lacking in content.

Other modes such as Events, Homerun Contest and Multi Man-Smash make a return, as does Target Blast, albeit in a different way that sees it resemble Angry Birds. Just like the 3DS version the game has a number of game modes exclusive to the Wii U. The most enjoyable of these has to be the new feature of 8 player battles, which ramps up the action considerably and turns stages into war zones. Before purchasing the game I watched a number of 8 player battles and I thought that this mode was going to be too hectic. Playing this mode however turned out to be excessively fun, smaller battles rage around the stages as fighters duke it out in every corner of the screen. This mode allows more tactical thought, as keeping an eye on other players health is key to nabbing a KO, sometimes you might be fighting two or more fighters at once, only to spot a high percentage player and go in for the kill. It's incredibly enjoyable and I found myself playing just one-more-round for substantial amounts of time. Unfortunately this mode can't be played online and is only accessible through certain larger stages and whilst most of these stages work, there are a number that are just too small to allow for such large scale mayhem. Perhaps the only mode that misses its mark is Smash Tour which is a mixture of board game and Smash battles. This mode is incredibly confusing and doesn't do well to explain itself. It has players collecting items and characters on a virtual board game which eventually culminates in a final Smash battle. This last battle can be considerably one-sided if you haven't collected enough characters which in doing so can be purely down to luck and your roll of the dice. There are numerous other modes too: Special Orders is a challenge where players spend coins to take on unique challenges, Trophy Rush has players smashing bricks against a time limit to collect as many trophies as possible and Masterpieces highlights small segments of classic Nintendo games. With all this is the inclusion of online play which is largely successful especially when compared to Brawl's efforts. Connecting to matches is easy and latency issues aren't too common resulting in a mostly smooth online experience.

With the launch Super Smash Bros. Wii U also came amiibo's, Nintendo's NFC capable figures that will correspond with a number of games. Using an amiibo in game is easy, you place the figure on the Gamepad and it soon recognises it and scans it into the game. I had fun training my figure (Fox of course) and seeing it advance in level. Eventually your amiibo will become powerful enough to take on high level opponents and will even mimic how you play, making each amiibo unique to itself. Whilst the amiibo functionality is fun it's by no means a game changer, instead providing a nice incentive to buy yourself an amiibo of your choice.

Super Smash Bros. Wii U is a celebration, a party for gamers where they can enjoy beating the crap out of their friends all in good fun. It's a nostalgia-fuelled trip that will likely keep players busy for months, and even if you unlock everything the game has to offer you'll come back for the Smash Battles. It's a game that belongs in every Wii U owners library and indeed the big screen, I could talk for hours about why Super Smash Bros. Wii U is a success but right now I've got to go and play an 8-Player Smash Battle.