2160: Smash It

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Super Smash Bros. really has become something rather marvellous: a kind of interactive “museum” of gaming, wrapped in an incredibly accessible but surprisingly deep fighting game shell.

I mention this because I grabbed the new Cloud Strife DLC for the game earlier and have spent a bit of time getting to know the new character. I like him a great deal; his moveset makes me very happy indeed, consisting almost entirely of Cloud’s iconic Limit Break moves from Final Fantasy VII, and he’s also a character I feel reasonably confident about how to use.

I’ve had mixed feeling about Super Smash Bros. over the years, partly because I’ve never been that good at it, and I have a friend who is very good at it, meaning it’s not always 100% fun to play it with other people. Ultimately, though, I’m pretty sure I’ve come down on the side of liking it, because it really is a game like no other: the combination of characters, backdrops, music and sly references to all manner of games, both new and old, is absolutely delightful, and the complete antithesis to the homogeneous nature of most triple-A games.

It’s also a damn good fighting game. A few weeks ago, out of curiosity, I read the beginning of an e-book about how to git gud at fighting games, since I’ve never really got my head around them. The book recommended learning to play using Street Fighter II, since that is the foundation on which most modern fighting games are built, but I was very surprised to discover that much of the advice contained therein very much applied to Super Smash Bros. I could feel myself playing better immediately after reading the book; it was the most obvious example of learning something new and then immediately putting it into practice that I’ve felt for a long time.

There are, of course, all manner of questions over whether Super Smash Bros. is balanced, whether it’s “casual” and whether it’s a “fighting game” by the traditional definition at all, since it’s so different to your average one-on-one fighter such as the Street Fighter series. But its accessibility — no complicated button commands to learn here, allowing you to focus on using the moves effectively rather than struggling to use them at all — is its best feature, allowing rookie fighting game players to jump in and go toe-to-toe reasonably confidently against veterans. Sure, they’ll almost certainly get obliterated — since despite how chaotic Super Smash Bros. looks for the most part, it’s a very technical game that is almost frightening to watch high-level play of — but, unlike many other fighting games, it probably won’t be for lack of knowledge of the mechanics. No special meters, no indecipherable jargon; all you really need to know is that you need to smack your opponents around a bit to increase their damage gauge, and the higher their damage gauge is, the further they’ll fly when you whack ’em with a Smash move, with your ultimate aim being to knock or lure them off any side of the level.

I don’t know if I’ll ever be any good at Smash Bros., particularly compared to people who really know what they’re doing with their favourite characters, but it’s a fun time, and probably the fighting game series I’ve had the most fun with over the years.

But anyway. My original thinking that prompted this post was looking at the character select screen for my copy of Super Smash Bros., which includes the base game plus the DLC for Ryu and Cloud Strife, from Street Fighter and Final Fantasy VII respectively. Super Smash Bros. already has an incredibly diverse roster that draws from series ranging from Super Mario to Metroid via Star Fox and F-Zero, but the really interesting thing that started to happen in the last few installments is the addition of third-party, non-Nintendo characters, beginning with Solid Snake from the Metal Gear games a while back, and in the newer Wii U version, everything from Pac-Man to the aforementioned Ryu and Cloud.

Back when I was a kid playing Super Mario World on my Super NES at home, I would never have predicted that one day I’d be playing a game in which Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man, Cloud Strife, Ryu and the fucking dog from Duck Hunt all feature; it’s kind of mind-blowing when you think about it, particularly if the horrible names Sega and Nintendo fans — including the press! — used to call each other are still fresh in your memory!

1785: Smashing Fun

After an enjoyable online session with one of my Final Fantasy XIV guildies the other night, I sat down to spend a bit more time with Super Smash Bros. for Wii U earlier today.

My hesitance to play that much until now has largely been due to the fact I hadn’t really picked a “main” — that is to say, a character I would generally play in preference to anyone else, given totally free choice. Maining a character involves learning their moves and the best situations in which to do them, and is a bit more effort than just bashing buttons and hoping for the best — a playstyle I’m not quite convinced I’m entirely beyond just yet.

A bit of play with Zero Suit Samus (of Metroid series fame) against my friend the other night as well as today has me thinking that she’ll be a solid choice, however. She’s a speedy character, and I’m a fan of being able to quickly dodge out of the way of trouble, and her moves are all pretty easy to understand. She has a medium-range projectile attack, a slightly shorter range electric whip jobby plus a few satisfying combos, uppercuts and the like. Her dashing regular attack is a powerful kneebutt to the chest (or face for the shorter characters) which is simple enough to understand, and in modes such as Multi-Man Smash, where your opponents are significantly weaker than normal but come in much greater numbers, this is more than enough to send your foes flying into the distance for a satisfying knockout.

I got in some good practice with Zero Suit Samus (distinguished from her fully armoured counterpart) in the Multi-Man Smash modes, which I cleared for the first time with her, as well as the arcade-style All-Star Mode, which sees you fighting your way through Nintendo (and guest) characters from throughout the ages in reverse chronological order, beginning with recent additions to the roster such as Wii Fit Trainer and working all the way back to classic characters like Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U really is a somewhat daunting package when you first pick it up, much like its predecessors. The sheer wealth of different ways to play is bewildering and baffling at first, but it won’t take long for you to find your favourite modes — and, pleasingly, there’s no obligation to play the modes you don’t particularly enjoy, since most of the unlockables can be obtained in several different ways ranging from simply playing a certain number of matches to completing specific modes or achievements. Today I unlocked a couple of extra characters, including Mr. Game and Watch — the poorly animated silhouetted figure from Nintendo’s early ’80s LCD game-clocks, complete with bip-bip-boop sound effects — and R.O.B., the ill-fated plastic robot that would supposedly “play” with you on the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System on games like Gyromite. (Turns out he’s much better at fighting than he is at wielding a controller.)

I’ve enjoyed the Smash Bros. games over the years, but I wouldn’t say they’ve been absolute favourites. This latest installment, however, is proving to be an addictive little beast, and I’m looking forward to learning more about how to take my game to the next level. Then one day, I might be able to actually beat my friend Tim, who is frustratingly and irritatingly good at it, assuming you let him play as his mains (inevitably, as a Zelda fan, he mains Link and Ganondorf.) In the meantime, however, I’ll be continuing to grapple with Zero Suit Samus until I’ve got that flying knee timing just so.

1777: Rivalry With an Inanimate Object

One of the most peculiar things about the new Wii U version of Super Smash Bros. is the compatibility with the “Amiibo” figurines that are sold separately.

During the run-up to release, I’d misunderstood their reason for existence, assuming them to be a means of effectively customising an individual fighter to your liking, then being able to take it around to a friend’s house and use your own custom character in multiplayer battles.

I had my concerns about this; any time you introduce an element of customisation to something — particularly if said customisation involves “growth” of power and abilities — you run the risk of giving an unfair advantage to anyone with the customisations, and a disadvantage to anyone playing with stock characters. I had a vision of someone coming over with a level 50 Amiibo and repeatedly kicking my arse with it, not necessarily because they were actually any good with the character, but because they’d simply levelled it up enough.

I needn’t have worried, because Amiibos don’t work like that. What they do instead is provide you with a computer-controlled opponent that plays alongside you, learns over time and levels up its abilities, gradually becoming stronger and more powerful. You can customise it by feeding it equipment and choosing the special moves it is able to use, and level it up simply by allowing it to participate in games — be it as an opponent in a free-for-all multiplayer battle (you can even go one-on-one against it) or as a teammate in cooperative or team-based modes.

What’s interesting about this is that because there’s a physical object involved as well as persistence — after you’ve finished a play session, you write the data back to the Amiibo simply by plopping it on your GamePad for a moment — there’s a much stronger relationship between you and this small lump of plastic. I’d even go so far as to say you may well develop a kind of rivalry.

It sounds odd, but it’s absolutely true. Andie and I were playing some multiplayer earlier, and we had the Amiibo as a third player for a while — although I took it out for a bit when she started winning pretty much every match. After Andie stopped playing, I brought the Amiibo back in for some one-on-one battles, and it’s actually been a lot of fun trying to figure out how to beat her, because as she’s levelled — a process which is pretty quick up until about level 30 or so — she’s gradually become better and better at playing, and is now a rather challenging opponent that I can still beat, but who certainly doesn’t go down without a fight. Victories against her feel somehow more meaningful than a battle against random computer opponents.

While I’m not sure how much the Amiibos add to the experience as a whole — I’m interested to take mine over to my friend’s house to bring her into his game and see how that works — they’re an interesting little twist, and the figurines themselves are attractive and eminently collectible. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll collect them, but they’re inexpensive and decent quality, so I’m not ruling out maybe a couple more, particularly if a Shulk one decides to make an appearance any time soon…

1776: SMAAASH

Not realising that Black Friday has apparently become A Thing over here, I went into town to pick up a copy of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U earlier. It took over half an hour of queueing in Game to pick up a copy, but at least I didn’t get to the front of the line and find there were none left. (I didn’t get a Gamecube controller adapter, though; stupid “preorders only” rule.)

Most of you reading this probably know what Super Smash Bros. is, but on the offchance you don’t, it’s become one of Nintendo’s flagship series over the years thanks to it essentially being a disc full of Nintendo fangasms. It’s sort of a fighting game — though nowhere near as technically demanding as more traditional fighting games — that stars a wide variety of characters either from Nintendo’s own lineup or from games that have appeared on Nintendo consoles at some point or another, as well as one or two special guests.

I’ve been playing a bit of the new game this evening and like its predecessors, it appears to be a lot of fun, if somewhat overwhelming in terms of the sheer number of different things available to do. There’s a straightforward Smash battle, Classic Mode, All-Star Mode, Events Mode, Stadium Mode, online and probably several others I’ve forgotten, each of which are subdivided into various other things and most of which can be played either solo or with friends. Some can be played cooperatively with a partner against the computer, others are purely competitive. The most extreme multiplayer offering the new game has is an utterly chaotic 8-player mode in which it’s nigh-impossible to tell what the fuck is going on, but it’s an enjoyable sort of nonsense nonetheless.

There are some interesting additions, too. The ability to create your own fighter using any of the Miis on your Wii U console makes for some entertaining possibilities, particularly since they’re customisable with three different fighting styles, selectable (and unlockable) special moves, equipment, costumes and headgear. The Amiibo functionality, where you can use small figurines to communicate with the game via the Near-Field Communication panel on the Gamepad, is fun, too, and not quite what I expected; rather than your Amiibo containing a fighter than you personally use, it instead acts as more of a sort of virtual pet that you can feed equipment to (don’t think too hard about how that works), customise the special moves of and gradually level up by allowing it to participate alongside you in battle. Because the figurine itself holds data, you can then take it to a friend’s house and bring your Amiibo into their game, too, so they can face off against the fighter you’ve been training up to be an unstoppable killing machine.

I’m really happy to see slightly lesser-known games such as Xenoblade Chronicles getting headline character love, too. Xenoblade’s protagonist Shulk is an enjoyable, interesting character to play as, and the Xenoblade stage is challenging and cool-looking. (Plus it features recurring villain Metal Face showing up to cause mischief throughout, which is a lot of fun.) It sure makes me pretty hungry to see the new Xenoblade game in action on Wii U, though…

Aside from that, the customisation of the game has never been better. You can tinker around with how frequently items appear, which music plays in which stage and how often and even switch levels to a stripped-down, simplified “Omega Mode” (essentially little more than a floating platform) for a true test of your skill without environmental hazards being a pain. There’s even an online mode — “For Glory” — where you play without items on Omega stages, and I have a feeling this is where the true Super Smash Bros. legends will learn to shine.

It’s unfortunate that none of my friends are around this weekend as I was hoping to have a good session of local multiplayer with them. Still, I shall console myself with the vast amount of other content in the game — and perhaps attempt to give some online friends a kicking — and smile as the Wii U once again shows that it has some of the most enjoyable, most interesting and most polished games in all of the “next” generation of console hardware.