A quick and satisfying rush through six battles, with a bonus stage and ending with a boss fight. The layout of lead-up fights is unique to every fighter, offering all kinds of interesting and humorous scenarios. And there are a bunch of potential boss fights possible depending on the current fighter. The classic Super Smash Bros. bosses return—Crazy Hand and Master Hand. There’s Bowser (and Giga Bowser!), chief baddie of Mario’s world. There’s Mario…if you’re playing as Bowser! Monster Hunter’s Rathalos is a potential boss, and Kirby’s foe Marx, and the Belmonts’ immortal nemesis Dracula! Galleom returns from the Subspace Emissary mode of Super Smash Bros .Brawl. Ganon’s here to face off against various Links. And there are interesting cross-franchise matchups, like Bayonetta facing off against Palutena. The list goes on and on.
All the variety provides plenty of reason to tackle Classic Mode with many fighters, not to mention the scoring challenge. When starting Classic Mode you can choose your Intensity, basically difficulty, 2.0 by default. Increasing it pumps up the difficulty of CPU enemies, but also increases the potential points earned. Winning battles quickly and without taking damage will earn great scores; losing and being forced to spend a Ticket or Gold to continue is ruinous for chasing high scores.
Winning stages cleanly without continuing earns big gains in Intensity. The difficulty goes up the better you do and so do the rewards. Many Challenges are unlocked by accomplishing various things in Classic Mode, some involving various Intensity challenges, others with things like piling up KOs on Pokémon or Fire Emblem fighters.
Persevering in Classic Mode earns bragging rights for high score, along with Gold, and plenty of items and spirits for Adventure Mode. If you haven’t unlocked all the fighters, each Classic Mode playthrough affords one more crack at a new brawler.