Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (Part 2)

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

I have a lot to talk about, so let’s get right into it.

THE STAGES

Be ready to... Melee! Er... Brawl! Dammit, what do we say this time?

One of the defining features of Smash is the number of stages taking inspiration from the various franchises represented in the roster. Ever since Smash 64, we’ve had stages of all kinds. And, to be fair, a great stage can add a little something extra to a battle. A bad stage is the kind where too much goes on at once, to the point where you’re left wondering if it isn’t the stage trying to kill the players, rather than players killing each other.

An ever-changing stage, inspired by a software
on a past console? Sure.

Smash 3DS was designed to feature more elements of handheld Nintendo games (mostly when it comes to stages), while Smash Wii U displays more elements inspired by console games. As an example, Smash 3DS has stages inspired by Tomodachi Life, Find Mii, PictoChat, Super Mario 3D Land (obviously), Dream Land (a trip through Kirby’s first game on the Game Boy), Living Room (Nintendogs), Golden Plains (inspired by New Super Mario Bros. 2) or the Spirit Train (from The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks). Due to the wildly different selection of stages, cross-platform play between both versions is unfortunately impossible.

I should be fighting, but dammit, the puppy in the background is too cute.

Just like fighters, there’s a handful of DLC stages; those are the same for both versions, and three of those are from the very first Smash game. Both versions also include a couple stages from both Melee and Brawl. We have classics such as Battlefield and Final Destination, and most franchises get decent representation as well.

Here’s my gripe with Smash 4’s stages, however: Save for a handful of exceptions, almost every stage has gimmicks. Wouldn’t be so bad, you’d think; a lot of past stages from Smash 64 to Brawl had gimmicks. However, they went really overboard this time. In addition to the usual (platforms and obstacles passing by or moving around), the devs at Sora Ltd. have included scrolling stages, constantly-changing stages, stage bosses, NPCs or extra effects. New stages with a restrained number of gimmicks are the exception, not the rule. Even stages returning from past Smash games aren't safe from this. Thankfully, some new stages are pretty restrained as far as gimmicks go.

3D Land changes a lot throughout - so many hazards all over.

Scrolling stages means that you must always be moving, and be aware of the various tricks the stage may play. There were scrolling stages before, sure, but never that many. Those can be pretty annoying, especially because many contain points of no return where, if you can’t catch up with the others, you’re dead. 3D Land, Mushroomy Kingdom, Dream Land are such examples. Stages that change constantly have features that can swap in and out, forcing players to adapt to new terrain and platforms. Wouldn’t be so bad if they only had changing platforms (which some do have only that), but sometimes they come with an array of hazards that can come in at any moment.

Did I say that I hate Yellow Devil yet?
'Cause I do. I fucking hate Yellow Devil.

Stage bosses and NPCs are a new mechanic of Smash 4; on some stages, a boss or non-playable character may often appear and influence the fight. Examples of bosses include Yellow Devil in Wily’s Castle and the Dark Emperor in Find Mii. Thankfully, those are the only two – Smash for Wii U ditches the Dark Emperor (since he’s from a handheld series), but adds Ridley from Metroid and Metal Face from Xenoblade Chronicles as bosses on the Pyrosphere and Gaur Plain, respectively. (Smash 3DS does have Gaur Plain as a stage, but Metal Face can’t appear there.) NPCs range from characters that can affect the stage (like Kotake and Koume in Gerudo Valley), act as enemies (the ghosts in Pac-Maze), attack fighters (the Pokémon in the Unova Pokémon League), or at their worst, become additional fighters that join the team of whoever gets to them first (like those fucking Flying Men from the Magicant stage). While I can accept that they’re an additional reference to the games these stages came from, many either halt the battle or become an extremely bothersome hazard.

Magicant. See that bird guy on the top right?
It can become an extra fighter. Uninvited.

Some stages have fun extra effects, though; Golden Plains sees a fighter turn golden if they collect 100 coins, and fighters can play along killing birds in Duck Hunt. I’ll also always enjoy the microgames popping up in the WarioWare, Inc. stage.

No Items! Fox Only! Omega Version!

Reminder that none of these hazards can be turned off in single-player modes, so if a stage decides to piss you off during Classic or All-Stars, well, there isn’t much you can do. In multiplayer modes, however, it’s possible to toggle the Omega version of a stage, which… just transforms it into a flat surface, no platforms, no gimmicks, nothing, à la Final Destination. I wished it was possible to only remove some gimmicks from stages, but much like items, it’s “all or nothing”. Either you play the stage with all of its annoyances, or with everything taken out, even any sort of interesting terrain layout.

So, a lot of good stage ideas, many awesome winks to franchises (first- or third-party), I just wished they had shown some restraint on stage hazards as these can really take over the fight and take away the enjoyment. There is such a thing as "too much".

STREETSMASH

Gonna go over this one quickly. Like a lot of 3DS games, Smash has functionalities that tie in with the StreetPass software installed on the console. StreetPass allows players carrying their console around to “meet” other players’ Miis, adding them to a sort of “people you know” list. Smash 3DS took that idea and created a mini-game out of it. You and up to 11 other players can participate to a sort of Token Smash. The characters are tokens, they can move around the board and attack the other players’ tokens. Like Smash moves in regular battles, it’s possible to charge up an attack that will then knock opponent tokens further away. The goal is simple: Knock all of the other tokens off the board, into the surrounding pits. Of course, you need to build up to having 2 to 12 players at once on the board by going out and meeting people. And once the match is over, well, gotta meet people again in order to play some more.

In short:

-It’s a sweet little mini-game, though its relevance to the series is pretty limited.

-It’s the fastest way of making money (since in-game currency is required to buy trophies, play Trophy Rush or increase the difficulty of the Classic Mode), but only when playing against opponents met on StreetPass.

-There’s a Training mode allowing you to play without meeting people, though while it does give a few coins, it’s not nearly as much as when playing against other people met through StreetPass.

-You can edit your profile (have a message for other players, and pick a fighter to represent your token), view your statistics, or play a Tutorial to learn the game.

CHALLENGES

Image taken from this video.

What would a Smash game be nowadays without the Challenges? These boxes of achievements, broken by completing all sorts of tasks within the game (or by using the few obtainable hammers), containing any of the collectibles within that Smash edition. I loved its implementation in Brawl and thought it was a great idea (even though there’s a handful of Challenges I was never able to complete). I especially loved the freedom that came with it; early on, almost anything could open one of these boxes, and late into the game, you had the information on how to open every last one. I was hoping to avoid comparisons with previous or future games from the series, but I can say I was disappointed by the way the Challenges are set in Smash 3DS, compared to Brawl at least.

The Challenges are split in 3 sets of 35 boxes, totaling 105.

• The first box has very easy, introductory challenges (example: Beat Classic once; use a character’s Final Smash; play any mode a first time);
• The second one has intermediate challenges (example: Unlock all characters; inflict 100 K.O.s; Beat Mode X with 5 characters);
• And the last one has the challenges that are either difficult, tedious or time-consuming (example: Beat Mode X with all characters).

I want to do this! What is their secret?

With each set, you can earn three hammers, which are usable only within that set. Also, Set 2 only opens if you completed all of Set 1, and Set 3 only once you unlocked all characters and completed 25 challenges from Set 2. The trade-off is that once you unlock a new set, the challenges already cleared on it open instantly. Lastly, Sets 2 and 3 have a few boxes that can’t be broken by Golden Hammers.

I can once again imagine why the Challenges were made that way; splitting challenges by difficulty does make it easier to figure out what you can complete at one point of the game and what you can’t. I wished it was quicker to unlock the later sets, however.

SMASH RUN

After everyone spoiled the Heck out of Brawl’s “The Subspace Emissary”, Masahiro Sakurai expressed his opinion against creating another complex story or Adventure Mode for Smash 4, since it would just be spoiled once again by players. (As “World of Light” can attest, he would eventually go back on his word.)

That's the weirdest boat I have ever seen.

Gotta pick every single boost!

The alternatives? A Mario Party-inspired mode called Smash Tour for the Wii U version… and Smash Run for the 3DS version. Smash Run has a very simple concept: You pick a character, then you’re thrown into this gigantic platforming world filled to the brim with enemies, with a 5-minute timer ticking down. Your main task is to collect stat boosts, which is achieved by opening treasure chests, going through doors to complete challenges, and killing enemies. The six types of stat boosts increase the character’s attack, defense and speed, as well as their ability to jump and use objects or their special moves. Technically, you’re playing this mode against three opponents (human or CPUs, but you’re never going to run into them while venturing the map.

Enemies from all franchises are in there - even Mega Man!

After the five minutes have run out, all stat boosts collected by the characters are added to their stats, and then you’re thrown into a random one to two-minute challenge. The Smash Wiki lists 17 possible final challenges, most of which are regular Smash battles with special rules, though some are more like races. Free-for-all is the more common setup, but sometimes the four fighters may be split in two teams instead. You can’t focus on a single stat to boost while venturing Smash Run, as you can never tell what the final battle will be; you can be Bowser, one of the heaviest characters, and have to climb a tower. I’m pulling that example because it happened to me during gameplay, FML. You can have a somewhat decent run in the field, then do terrible in the final combat - yet that's where everything's decided. It also doesn’t help that, most of the time, the final fight will last only a minute, two at most, which is usually too short to really have a decent difference in results in that fight, frequently leading to Sudden Death matches among the leading fighters. Then, factor in items or stage hazards…

So our stats have changed - alright, but does it make
a difference in the long run?

Much of the gameplay in the first part will involve fighting your way around hordes upon hordes of enemies, which are attacking from all sides in large numbers. If you’re KO’d (which can happen if you’re thrown too far off-screen), you lose many of the stat boosts you've collected. Bigger enemies drop more loot, while some of the bonus challenges hidden behind floating doors in the arena will award massive amounts of boosts. Events such as boss monsters and new temporary hazards may appear in the arena, making things harder for everyone. In the arena, players may also come across goldor (found in chests along with more stat boosts), trophies or customization items.

Also of note, items have weight and each character has
a maximum amount of weight they can wear, and so all
characters have different carrying capacities.

Speaking of, customization is an option in every mode of the game, but it’s rarely as impactful as it is here – it’s all about gathering the most stat boosts, so you can choose to start Smash Run with a character already equipped with items that change its base stats. You’re encouraged to customize your characters with pieces of equipment before going through Smash Run, since some of these items are additional powers that can be activated. These items will otherwise only affect the fighter’s attack, defense and speed, increasing a stat and decreasing another.

To conclude, as a replacement for an Adventure Mode, this could have been a somewhat decent idea. Shorter, simpler, not at all lacking in references to the franchises of Nintendo. However, it’s got so many problems I can only play it with gritted teeth. Overwhelming swarms of enemies, many of which are either very strong, cumbersome, or have special attributes; completely random boost drops; completely random final battle; said final battle is frequently too short to really declare a winner outside of Sudden Death; I could go on and on, picking examples from my own playthrough. It could have been so much better with a couple tweaks to gameplay here or there, removing some annoyances, that sort of thing. But hey, it could have been worse – I keep hearing that Smash Tour, in the Wii U version, is even more despised!

In Part 3, the "Games & More": Classic, All-Stars. Stadium, Customization and Vault. ->