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dtonys's Super Smash Brothers (N64)
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| [January 25, 2008 11:33:01 PM]
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SUPER SMASH BROTHERS
LOG#2
GAMEPLAY: Although the 1P mode of Smash Bros gets stale somewhat quickly, the versus mode gives Smash Brothers 64 infinite replay value, as playing against other people (and even playing against bots) gives the player the ability to create a large variety of different scenarios. Smash Bros has been about the multi-player battles, and playing against another person never gets old. Versus mode comes in many modes. In Time Mode, the character who kills the most wins. In stock mode, each character gets a given amount of lives, and whoever is left living wins. Items, when are various weapons/recovery items/bombs, can be set to spawn from none to very high, and you can even customize which items can be turned on and off.
The best thing about versus mode is that it can be pure, utter, chaos. With 4 players and items turned on, you have no idea who is going to come out on top. With bombs, pokeballs, koopa shells, guns, recovery hearts, and weapons spawning in random places around the map, if a player who is behind gets the right weapons, they can turn the game around and win. If the infamous giant hammer spawns, whoever picks it up first goes into a giant hammer frenzy. The music changes into circus music, and every player left tries to desperately get away from this overpowered giant hammer that deals massive damage and knockback. As one can imagine, the downside to items is that victory is not necesarrily determined by skill. The upside is that players of different skill levels all have the opportunity to win if the items go their way.
While playing with other people is the most fun, you can also fight against bots to improve your skill. The AI ranges from 1-9, and is a very good fight until you find and exploit its weaknesses. Nevertheless, I was content playing against the bots so that I would become good enough to beat my friends.
DESIGN: Smash Bros. succeeds where other fighters fail in its brilliant design. The problem with Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Soul Caliber, etc is that it requires players to memorize complex button inputs and combos. It expects the player to spend countless hours memorizing difficult special attacks, and these games like to boast their complicated fighting and blocking maneuvers. The complexity is bad because it turns off most new players, and even those like me spend hours learning the mechanics get frustrated with useless combos and unbalanced characters.
Smash bros's fighting system is so simple I can explain it right now. A = normal attack, B = special attack, yellow buttons = jump, L/R = sheild, and trigger = grab. There are no confusing combos to memorize and no advanced dodging/countering systems to learn. The attacks are designed in a very intuitive way, because they are based on how hard you hit the control stick. Tilting the control stick while hitting A will produce a weak yet fast attack. Smashing the control stick while hitting A will produce a powerful smash attack, useful for finishing off opponents. The air and on the ground, you can attack in any direction just by using the control stick. B attacks are special attacks, such as projectiles, which are especially unique to each character. Although the system is simple, it takes much practice to master Smash Bros. Shields Block Attacks, Grabs beat Shields, and Attacks beat Grabs. Knowing when to do what is key.
Furthermore, the fighters in Smash Bros are surprisingly balanced. The powerful Donkey Kong is hampered by slow movement and a giant hitbox, while the small fox has weaker attacks but greater speed. Link has great range and a plethora of projectiles, but has a horrible recovery. No characters are overpowered (not even Kirby!), some are simply harder to master. Spamming projectiles doesn't work due to the layout of the stages, and also using projectiles leaves one vulnerable to attack. Overall, compared to most fighting games, Smash Bros provides fair, balanced gameplay with any character. Although SSB might not have as much content as other fighters, its revolutionary gameplay lead it and its sequel to become instant Nintendo classics.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Jan 25th, 2008 at 23:42:09.
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| [January 25, 2008 10:39:14 PM]
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SUPER SMASH BROS. 64
LOG #1
SUMMARY: Super Smash Brothers is a 1-4 player fighting game in which players try to knock each other of the fighting stage. The fighters are all based on classic Nintendo games, and the stages take place in areas of their respective games.
GAMEPLAY: The gameplay for Smash Bros is wildly different from most fighting games. Most fighting games feature two fighters, with health bars, fighting until one or the other runs out of health. The stages are small, and rarely play a very important role in the fighting (other than ring outs, which sometimes result in an instant defeat). Fighters such as, Tekken, Soul Caliber, Virtua Fighter, Dead or Alive, etc, all fall into this category, and so the gameplay mechanics of Super Smash Bros make it essentially an entirely different genre. Each stage in smash brothers is usually a huge island, that is, there is a stage with bottomless pits on either side. Instead of inflicting damage, hits raise a hit %, which causes the player to fly farther when hit. Since the object of the game is to send the player flying off the screen, the object early on is to get the opponent to a high percentage.
In 1P mode, you choose a character and go through a series of challenges, facing various Nintendo characters on their respective stages. 1P mode is very fun, because in addition to the one on one battles, you get to play some special instances. You fight against th Mario Brothers, Giant Donkey Kong, a team of Kirbys, a team of Yoshis, and a mysterious giant hand. Sometimes you even team up with an AI teammate. In between the battles are fun little challenges, such as Breaking all Targets in a stage in a certain time, or racing past obstacles to a finish line. These challenges are a good break from the fighting, and are not required to continue (they just give you more points). Overall, 1P mode is incredibly fun on the first play through, yet interesting enough that you will want to beat it with all the characters at least once.
However, the 1P mode is beaten very quickly, and with each playthough lasting 10-20 minutes, you are done with the single player game very fast. In addition, the 1P story mode is the same no matter which character you choose, and has no story to it. The only reason to continue with 1P after the initial play is to unlock the secret characters and stages, and thus once that is accomplished the 1P mode does not offer much.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 25th, 2008 at 23:42:45.
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dtonys's Super Smash Brothers (N64)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Friday 25 January, 2008
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