Super Smash Bros. Wii U First Look

It was late January,1999. We drove out to a local import shop to pick up this odd mascot fighter for the Nintendo 64, Nintendo All-Star Dairantou Smash Brothers. The US release was still a good three months away, but as fighting game fans we couldn’t wait for a Nintendo mascot fighter. We started off playing single player, and it was okay, but not amazing. We quickly moved on to battling against each other in a one-on-one match. It was better than single player, but still not riveting fun. Soon after, another friend arrived and we played a three-player free-for-all. It was a lot more fun, but when a fourth arrived and we had a full four-player free-for-all battle, we knew an addiction had begun.

For the next two months, we had a group of at least five or six people playing Nintendo All-Star Dairantou Smash Brothers almost every night until 6AM. Some of our friends didn’t even own a Nintendo 64, but they bought their own controllers just to get in on the fun without having to borrow one. Soon after, the US version hit and became one of the best selling games for the Nintendo 64. Fast-forward a few more years to the release of Melee on the GameCube, eventually Brawl on the Wii and, now, we eagerly await Super Smash Bros. Wii U.

While the competitive scene has a soft spot in our hearts when it comes to Smash, we’ve always favored four-player free-for-all matches (something frowned upon by the competitive community). When Brawl released, the competitive scene was split because it was clear that Brawl was not designed with competition in mind. A lot of what made Melee so competitive was removed in Brawl, and random factors such as tripping were introduced.

In Super Smash Bros. Wii U, Nintendo is looking to find a happy median between the casual players and the competitive crews. Gone are the random trips, slow speed, and floaty jumps of Brawl. The game speed sits squarely between Melee and Brawl, and many of the random factors have been removed. In addition, character customization has been introduced, Final Smashes are still included, and each character has multiple taunts.

Speaking of characters, while the entire roster is far from being known, the returning characters so far include Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Samus, Link, Pikachu, Fox McCloud, Kirby, Pit, and Captain Olimar. New characters so far include a villager from Animal Crossing, the Wii Fit Trainer, and Mega Man (on loan from Capcom). It’s a safe bet to assume we’ll see more guest characters, and it will interesting to see if Sonic or Solid Snake return from Brawl.

While we haven’t had a lot of time with early builds of the game, the returning characters have all some changes and adjustments. Bowser has probably seen the biggest change. He now stands taller than he used to and has a slew of new attacks that seem to represent a faster style of play. In addition, Pit has a few new weapons from Kid Icarus: Uprising, and Samus has a new look from Metroid: Other M. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that every character has seen some adjustments in one way or another, but the extent of the adjustments is what we’re waiting to hear about. If Bowser has seen significant improvement, will the other big characters such as Donkey Kong and King Dedede also be sped up? Will King Dedede even be included this time around? These are all questions we hope to have answered sooner rather than later, but the wait continues.

In a game like Smash Brothers, the stages play almost as big a role as the characters. The Battlefield stage has returned, which always served as a neutral grounds of sorts. We’ve also seen quite a few new stages, namely a new stage based on Animal Crossing, a Wii Fit stage, and a stage from Wily’s Castle for the three new characters, plus the Skyloft from Zelda: Skyward Sword, a boxing ring from Punch-Out!! a new stage based on Pilotwings, and the Garden of Hope from Pikmin 3.

We’re still waiting to get a really good look at Smash Wii U, but for now, we’ll have to be content with the information we have. Hopefully as the 2014 release date approaches we’ll find out more about the title, and the 3DS version as well. In the meantime, we’ll just have to continue playing free-for-all battles into the early hours of the morning!