My second hour of gameplay did not offer me anything new or interesting. I was unable to even consider playing it in single player mode as the social aspect is the only redeeming characteristic I can discern. I can see on a variety of different levels why it might be interesting, engaging, even addicting, but for some reason it just does not stick with me. I have grown fairly competent and rarely come in last place, but every minute of gameplay moves like an eternity. In the second hour I tried several new characters including Kirby, Seamus, and Donkey Kong but none of these choices seemed to give me a competitive advantage. In the end I chose to stay with Link so I could focus my energy on developing my skills with one character instead of sucking with everyone. My increased skill offered me little in the way of entertainment value, I just died less. I have been able to pin down my biggest complaints about this game and they all stem from the annoying tone of the game. But I could get over this if only the game were more satisfying. When I play this game I have no emotional attachment to the outcome. I really don’t care if I win or lose because there are too many wins and losses per second of gameplay to have any kind of investment in the result of the net match. Oh well, hopefully I won’t have to play this game for a while.
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Super Smash Brothers has always been one of those games that everyone loves except for me. Sometimes it seems as though my entire life, or at least a large and significant portion of it, has been spent trying to not play Super Smash Brothers. Whenever it comes up, I always remember all the reading I have to do and skip out. But when I saw it on the classics list, I could run no longer. It was time once and for all to settle my unexplained and certainly unexplored dislike for this game everyone else seems to think is something amazing. The first thing I don’t like about the game are its characters. Sure, individually most of them are reasonably loveable, but something about having all those characters from different games come together is just really irritating. I have always been turned off by video games I perceive to be too “cute.” I know this is not very rational, but it is the truth. The way all these characters move, look, and attack is extremely childish and meaningless to me. But I promised myself I would try to enjoy myself, so I puckered up and selected “Link,” who I suppose is the coolest character. He is also good because he can throw his sword or pull enemies in close before smashing them off the many little island arenas that plague the game. I figured out the controls easily enough, there are only 5 different move options not counting special moves, but found using them to great effect to be extremely difficult. This game is clearly a game of emergence, the very fact that it has characters from all Nintendo’s different games proves this fact. There is absolutely no storyline whatsoever. I suppose I may have perceived this wrong, especially since I was playing in multiplayer mode, but the game set up does not leave any real room for story. The game play is quite frantic and overwhelming. In any given round there are four little characters running around blowing up, powering up, and jumping. The levels are very simple in layout, and the goal is to kick other characters off the island level or to kill them. Wins are extremely unsatisfying because the opponent you just crushed returns to the arena almost instantly. The categorizing quality, “easy to learn, difficult to master,” really applies to this game and I have a sneaking suspicion that I am blowing it off too easily because I feel like I have learned everything there is to know about it already just because I can do some of the attacks. Hopefully my second hour of game play will be more fruitful.
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