Collin Houldsworth

Nintendo released Super Smash Bros for 3DS in Japan on September 13th and in North America on October 3rd  in an attempt to tie fans of the series over until the long awaited Wii U version comes out. Super Smash Bros for 3DS is the first Super Smash Bros title to be released on a handheld and while some franchises fail at the transition to this level, Smash Bros made the jump quite smoothly because it gives the player large amounts of control on how the game is played.

 The shoulder buttons, L and R, and the face buttons, A, B, X, any Y, can be fully remapped making the switch from a Gamecube controller to a 3DS much easier; however, the circle pad can at times feel slightly imprecise. This is no fault of the game and is instead a limitation of the circle pad itself. Character outlines can also be changed making them either thicker or thinner to make it easier to see on the smaller 3DS screen.

 The character roster this time around offers 40 different characters and  7 clones, characters with a similar look and move set to another – the only difference being things such as one may faster or stronger. None of the 47 total characters feel significantly worse or better than others making the game fair for all players.

The game play in  Smash Bros hasn’t changed much keeping the same fun and hectic combat system that the previous games had however this iteration feels far more balanced for competitive fighting than its predecessor Super Smash Brothers Brawl. This is due to the characters being more balanced than they were in SSBB.

Every stage offers some kind of interesting hook that makes each fight different, such as the layout and stage hazards changing mid-fight keeping the fights fun and interesting. The game designers have also added a new game play mode called Omega mode. In Omega mode every stage becomes a one level platform without any places to jump to – keeping only the theme of the original stage.With the added Omega mode and improved character balance every player, whether a hardcore tournament player of just a simple casual gamer, can get what they want out of the game, it gives the best of both worlds.

 Nintendo has a history of having unstable online play and Super Smash Bros for 3DS is no exception. Local play plays fine as long as the players are in the same general area, while online connection can range from anything from fine and stable to there being so much impute lag that the game becomes completely unplayable.

Super Smash Bros for 3DS offers a variety of online game modes to satisfy any player, and the fact they offer tournament style game modes means that the online will have a following for quite some time. Smash Bros for 3DS is far better than Super Smash Bros Brawl however the Wii U version is adding tons of new content and improving on what’s already in the 3DS version so harcore fans may just want to wait till November 21 for the Wii U version.