It may have been a long time coming, but Smash is finally here and it was totally worth the wait. The horsepower of the Wii U is put to great use, not only allowing for crisp 1080p visuals at 60fps, but also eight player brawls that make older iterations look about as tame as a bingo game at Grandma's house. Series creator Masahiro Sakurai has listened to fans criticisms of Brawl. Tripping has been eradicated and Brawl's annoying, slow floaty feeling being replaced with an unparalleled sense of speed. Brawl's single-player Subspace Emissary mode has also faced the chop in favour of a more traditional single-player Smash experience (complete with fights against Crazy and Master hand), challenges and mini-games. There's a ton of content here and the vast majority of it is really well done. Similarly, Brawl's ridiculously painful online mode has been replaced with a competent - if not perfect - online system. Players can choose to play For Fun (with all the weapons, Smash Balls and crazy rules they desire) or For Glory (no weapons, Final Destination Stages only). Getting online is a pretty painless process; lag sometimes rears its ugly head, but it never escalates to Brawl proportions where matches turn into an unplayable slideshow. Overall, it's a dramatic improvement. So it's clear that Smash gets a lot of things right, but sadly not everything in the game is perfect. The new multiplayer mode Smash Tour attempts to turn Smash into a Mario Party-esque board game. It sounds like a fun concept in theory, but the reality of it is incredibly boring in comparison to the rest of what's on offer. Super Smash Bros. is a game packed with so much content it's ridiculous value for money. The single-player offerings are fun enough, but the multi-player is predictably where it really shines, making it a game that Nintendo fans will keep coming back to for years and decades to come. Are you happy with your Wii U? What's your favourite game on the system? Sound off in the comments!
