Super Smash Bros Wii U Review

Super Smash Bros Wii U Screenshot 1

Super Smash Bros has been a long established series for Nintendo starting out on the Nintendo sixty four. It pits Nintendo’s most loved characters against each other in a manic fight, using their special powers, various items from Nintendo games, set to music and backgrounds from various Nintendo games. Years later, the fourth iterations are here. The question is how far it has come, the answer is a long, long way! gave this website a quick preview/review for the 3DS version, I never managed do a full review, new babies can eat up time like nothing else, I will just be concentrating on the Wii U version for this one, the 3DS version is a great portable version, however the Wii U is just so much more to look at!

For at least a year and a half Sakurai and his team have been building hype for this game, creating an event of monumental proportions, I covered the hype in my 3DS demo review, so I will keep this brief, lets just say it was relentless, informative and funny, making the game seem so near and yet so far at times. I want to concentrate on the game itself.

Super Smash Bros Wii U Screenshot 3

This is the first Smash Bros to be in HD and boy does it show. The fine details, the animation, everything is superb. In turn, the sound and the music are simply perfect, the voice acting, everything. Some of the songs are call backs to earlier games; The Donkey Kong Rap and The Kappin’s Song from Animal Crossing are jus the tip of the iceberg for highlights for me. These two things are excellent, this is one of the best presented games I have played overall and that is just the start!

The character roster is huge, fifty different characters, maybe about five clones, the rest having a huge variety of play strategies, each having various strengths and weaknesses. Mario is the main man, he is perfectly balanced, but put him in the ring with Little Mac and he’s at a severe disadvantage, Little Mac is a ground brawler, again, if you put them in a level like Yoshi’s Woolly World, Little Mac is doomed, he can’t jump anything like our plumbing hero. Character highlights for me are Bowser, huge, powerful and not as slow as he should be, he’s a real danger in this game. Captain Falcon is quick, powerful, his Falcon punch still rocks, it’s hard to find fault with him. Although Pit from Kid Icarus, is faster, can shoot arrows, fly, has a powerful dash punch, a match for anyone too. I could play this game for hours but that is not the review and still I haven’t even mentioned Duck Hunt, Bowser Junior, Villager or King Dedede, all great fun to play as. These are probably my favourites, but that’s a bold statement, Yoshi, Rosalina seem to be the most popular within the hard-core circles at the moment, they just aren’t for me.

Layered upon the great roster is the vast amount of play modes on offer, classic mode, All Star Mode and Event Mode play as the used to or as expected to. There is also Stadium Mode with the various challenges like the classic baseball bat challenge or the new target smash, in which you hit a bomb into an area to try to explode as many targets to accumulate the highest score you can, a sort of Nintendo version of Angry Birds, yet it’s worth pointing out this is just a tiny part of the game. Master and Crazy orders add a different kind of challenge also. With the compulsion to collect the trophies you can get with money you earn playing the game, and online games you can have makes this is a very addictive game too.

Super Smash Bros Wii U Screenshot 2

A quick world about Amiibos, I got a Yoshi Amiibo at the same time as the game. Basically they are plastic figurines with computer chips in the base, you can put them on the game pad and it brings up a customisable version of the character to be a fighter in the game. They are able to be trained up, their moves can be customised, it is very cool, I have levelled up my Yoshi to about level forty and he can give me a good hard match. I am keen to see what else Nintendo can do with these things across different games, I hope they can build on this and make them essential and rewarding.

As if you couldn’t tell, I love this game, it is Sakurai and Nintendo’s love letter to gaming history and yet is a highly refined fighting game, copied but never beaten. This iteration is the strongest yet, I will be playing this for years to come and cannot think of better value for money. Easily this is about true gaming, I am excited about getting to play it tonight even. Yes this is my first ten out of ten and game of the year, I haven’t even talked about everything, but my time is tight so I need to go. I will leave saying one thing, this is the reason to get a Wii U, if you don’t you’re missing out, you will not play anything like this anywhere else and it is a game of pure excellence and love!

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo Wii U code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.

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