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Thursday 21 February, 2008
Entry #2:
GAMEPLAY
I’ve started to get some of the aspects of the game down. I can utilize attacks more effectively, dodging is second nature, and I’m having a great time. It’s the controllers are bulky and that makes it hard to pull of some moves, most notably dashing, but it’s something you get used to with time. I tried some of the single player features to practice, but that’s just as punishing. Who gets priority when two characters is beyond me, and I couldn’t seem to get the timing right for anything. There’s a training mode that allows you to slow the game speed down to a crawl, but after getting used to the normal speed, but this makes things worse. Jumping was a chore and I only got it right half the time. The single player game, which seems like a normal fighting game’s arcade mode, is just as difficult for me, even on easy mode. The game is difficult, but not unforgivably so, and thus I can overcome its obstacles.
DESIGN
The controls are simple, yet incredibly deep . The A button in conjunction with the analog stick create special attacks. The B button is your hand-to-hand attack button, and when the analog stick is flicked in a direction and then the A button is pressed, an opponent launching “smash” attack is unleashed. Then you have the Z button, which is guard. This creates an impenetrable shield around you that shrinks over time, making it finite. While shielded, you can flick the stick left or right to dodge or get behind your opponent, which leaves them open for an attack if you do it right. R button is grab, in which you take hold of an opponent to possibly use as a shield, then you can press R again to perform a high damage throw. Up and the C buttons are jump, and when pressed twice you can do a double jump. A triple jump is done by double jumping, then performing an “up-B” attack, which has an area of effect unique to each character, another aspect of gameplay that must be mastered.
While playing this game, my friends and I laughed and yelled at the screen numerous times (or maybe that was just me). The game is centered around the multiplayer experience, but some aspects about the “multiple” player game make this almost unplayable.
One reason is the SUPER crappy camera. SSB does its best to make sure that every player is visible on the screen at all times. The game accomplishes this by zooming the camera in when characters are close and panning out when they’re far away. Whoever thought this up needs shock therapy via Pikachu. The levels are designed on such epic scale that when two characters are on opposite sides of the map, they turn in to atoms not visible to the naked OBSERVATORY. This problem would be easily fixed if there was only some way of distinguishing between characters, such as a “1P” icon above an arrow. For the game’s sake, it does feature one such icon but it disappears at the most inopportune moments. Something like that needs to be present at ALL times in this game! That’s not the only reason the camera bites fire flower. The point of view is always centered between the two farthest players, but the game still tries to make your avatar discernable from anything else, so sometimes the game has to cut off the edges of the map. If you’re knocked away for whatever reason, but not K.O.ed, and you can’t see a platform, or yourself to save your live, you’re gonna want to suplex the cartridge.
I guess that’s the only thing that hinders the game…but it’s really, SUPER significant…
This game is SUPER time-based. You MUST nail the timing for your attacks, there’s NO room for error. You need to know when to attack and how. Pressing the guard button doesn’t result in an immediate shield, so THAT need to be timed. There’s another time delay when you’ve been knocked into the air and you have to wait before your character can recover. Like any game with combos, there’s a big delay between the end of one and when you can start another. This delay allows your opponent to recover, and, what do you know? You need to master more timing. But these are the rules that make the game playable, fun, and worthwhile, unlike the camera, which just decided it was gonna make its own rules…
So, once you’ve got all that down, the game is SUPER fun. Making you opponent fly off screen is such a gratifying thing that I enjoyed it even when I was the one garnering frequent flier miles. The game’s developers really hit the nail on the head with satisfying gameplay that makes you cheer for your self when you do well, and if you’re like me and you’re constantly blasting off at the speed of light, you still get to witness some SUPER pretty explosions…of yourself.
SUPER Smash Bros. is a SUPERfluous game with SUPER deep gameplay and SUPER easy to learn controls. Aside from the SUPER flawed camera, this game provides hours of SUPER fun for you and your SUPERb friends. However, if you’re turned off by SUPERficial timing based fighting systems, this may not be the game for you, but it’s SUPER rewarding if you master its SUPERior SUPERness………SUPER…
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