Super Smash Bros... 4? What the heck am I suppose to call this? (Super Smash Bros. Review)

In case you couldn't tell by particularly satirical review of Smash Bros. I don't think that this is the best game ever, and that the gods have rained mana down from heaven, and that everybody should just give this 10/10 and 9/10 across the board. I'm not usually so cynical about things, but I feel like that is sort of a reviewers job. Not to be harsh, but to give fair judgement to a product, not to OVER praise something that does in fact have many flaws. So many in fact that we would be here for hours...


...So here they are.

The Story:

Really? No. Just no. Skip to the gameplay.

Gameplay:

You know what I'm going to do things a bit differently this time around: You already now how the game plays because come on, its Smash Bros. So I will get rid of my categories, and instead focus on the things I like and dislike about the game.

First the things I dislike:

#1. Clone characters, branding, and under representation.

I have quite a few problems with the roster. First off is the clone characters. Dr. Mario, Lucina, and Dark Pit. These characters are taking up three spots on the roster when they really could just be alternate costumes for Mario, Marth, and Pit respectively.

Next is the Branding. This is Super Smash Bros. not Super Mario Bros! Why are there eleven Mario characters on the roster?! "But Vollmain, Donkey Kong, and Diddy Kong aren't from Mario." Maybe, but he sure invites them to Go-Karting, and Golfing a lot. It just feels stupid to me, I don't like Mario Bros. so elven whole characters on the roster are useless to me. Generally I feel like the max characters they should have from one game should be four at the max, five is a compromise, but you are seriously pushing it if you have more than six.

Now there is under representation. Characters like Shulk and, Little Mac. Sure you could say that since those to are both new characters they can only add one character from their games. Fine, but what about Captain Falcon, and Samus? They've been around since the first game, why don't they have more characters from those games? And you can't tell me that there isn't anyone they could add, because F-zero games have rosters with over thirty characters.

Nintendo seriously split Zero Suit Samus, and Samus into two different characters, just so they wouldn't have to add any other characters from Metroid. 

Now I get that it would be impossible to make a roster that pleases everybody, but at least they could try a little harder. Smash Bros. takes characters from tons of Nintendo, and 3rd party companies. But it feels like a disservice that they aren't pulling from all most any of the lesser known titles. Do me a favor, Google a list of every Nintendo franchises, and a list that they and all of their affiliates have made. Once you do you'll understand my pain.

#2 Lack of good single player options on the WiiU.

While Smash Bros. is a primarily multiplayer experience, you can't always play with other people. So it is a shame that the majority of the single player options seem worthless to me. All star mode, one of my favorite modes from past Smash iterations is too easy. To compensate for the new no continue version of the mode, all of the enemy fighters go flying with almost no effort, making the whole mode boring.

There are also these weird mini games, which I don't really care for.

But the worst offender is Smash Tour. Not only is it not explained well, its not fun. The idea is certainly novel: travel around the map collecting stat boosts, characters, and power ups, which you will use in several battles ending in a climactic showdown. But it feels so random, you really don't have much control over where new characters appear, and you can have a huge stock of characters, which can then be stolen by your friend right before the final battle. And it always ends with one player having over eight characters, meaning that everyone else can't stand a chance.

#3 Stages.

Most of the stages are dumb moving stages that nauseate me. That isn't fun. Oh and Pac-Land, Mario Galaxy are stupid and I'm never playing them again.

#4 Tired gameplay.

Now this is just my opinion, and should not in any way affect your perception of this game. I just feel like this series is tired, and not really that much fun anymore. But I also felt this way back in the days of Brawl I'm just tired of it. Don't get me wrong it can still be fun to play when you have a big group, but this definitely not a game I want to play just for the sake of playing it.

Okay now for the good stuff.

#1 The new characters.

All of the new characters with the exception of Loser unIntelligent characTer That Loves Macaroni And Cheese, are well designed and all add something unique to the series. And even though I don't like the dog he is pretty cool too.

#2 Master and Crazy Orders, and Smash Run.

Even though a good majority of the single player offerings in the Wii U version are lacking, Master Orders and Crazy Orders are awesome. In Master Orders you will be provided with a list of tickets, that represent different challenges of varying difficulties. Easy challenges cost less but give little rewards, while harder challenges cost more but give higher rewards for success.

Crazy Orders are interesting. You need to pay 5000 gold or a Crazy Orders Pass just to pick your character. You then attempt a series of challenges until you lose, or achieve victory. After completing at least one challenge you can fight Crazy hand. Win and you will gain all of the rewards you earned in the challenges, lose and you could lose everything. In addition you will also have a 10 minute time limit.

I really like both of these modes because of the great risk reward systems. Risk losing everything by going another round, or fight Crazy hand?

Smash Run is the mode that is exclusive to the 3ds, and it is glorious! Up to 4 players travel around a map fighting enemies from different Nintendo franchises, and collecting stat bonuses.

After 5 minutes everyone competes in one of many different events such as; normal smash, a race, or multi man smash. This is by far my favorite mode in the game, because of how awesome it is.

#3 8-player smash.

8-player smash is a crazy wild ride, and makes this party game even more of a party. Sure sometimes it may be hard to keep track of yourself in the ensuing chaos, but even then its still a blast. Love this mode.

#4 Stages.

While I didn't like most of the moving stages, I did think that a lot of the other stages did add some really cool mechanics. Just look up Gamer and Jungle Hijinx to see what I mean.

#5 Online play.

Online works this time. YAY!!!

#6 MUSIC!

This game has something like over 400 songs in it. You can even listen to them in game. It's so good.

Verdict and Final Thoughts:

Even with all the flaws this game has I still can't bring myself to hate this game. Because I actually really like it, I just want it to be the best that it could have been, but that won't happen so thats why I point out the flaws that the game has. It is one of the best games on the Wii U and 3ds, and you should probably buy it if you haven't already. I'm giving it eight out of ten stars. Smash Bros is "Awesome!"

Have fun.