Game:

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (2014)

Duration: 17:28

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1

Sorry, I've got nothing blue for you, though...

The thing about Smash Bros. (and Mario Kart, incidentally) ...and, well, any multiplayer-heavy game is that it takes me a LONG time to actually come up with footage... then to edit that footage... then to upload that footage... then to let that footage process... then to describe that footage. Who's got time for that when Smash (or Kart) is afoot?! (Then there's also the matter of the fact that I'm still trying to dig myself out from under a legendary backlog of multiplayer footage as it is. I AM TOTALLY UNAPOLOGETIC ABOUT THIS.)

So, anyway, I figure the "realest" expression of the raw experience I could come up with in the thick of things would be a live stream... but you know how I feel about those. I also wasn't going to be at liberty on this particular occasion to do that kind of thing anyway... so what'm I supposed to do? NOT play? Pfft, you're funny. (But seriously, that's not funny.)

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So what I decided to do was play Classic straight out of the box, no digging around through the game for anything. This is my raw and unfiltered experience... for better or worse.

Of course, I didn't bring aboard all those Miis for nothing, so I guess there's at least something slightly uniquely adulterated about this whole situation. I personally find that the Mii Brawler is unsurprisingly the easiest to use overall, but I'd be willing to bet the Mii Gunner is the one with the most overall potential. The Mii Swordfighter... ... ...I'm just not very good with that one, even with all the room I've got to grow with the Gunner.

Actually, one place where I probably SHOULD have done some digging first was the Controls... because I'd forgotten that the very first thing I did on 3DS was tweak the settings until I was happy. For some reason, the default controls just don't agree with me like they probably ought to. I mean, I can't see any reason WHY they shouldn't, but they just don't... so part of this is pretty much an exact replication of my experience with the 3DS version until I dug out the controls to set them up to my arbitrary liking.

Well, not QUITE that bad, because I had it really rough on the 3DS game... but I think that can be attributed to a number of factors. Specifically, I got the fool idea in my head to take one of the most complex new characters (Robin) out for my first run, so I had my brain tied up in knots trying to figure out a whole new set of normal, smash, and special moves while also fighting with a layer of mental translation of the controls to my fingers to the game so that I would move the way I wanted even if it wasn't automatic.

Also, the Master Core has seriously been toned down from the 3DS version... but it's also pretty likely that the higher levels will be all the more brutal... what with the super extra final form that Nintendo teased us with on that "50 facts" of Smash Wii U video not that long ago. As such, I think it's probably a blessing in disguise that I was too poor with my starting Coins value to play on any higher Intensity just yet...

After all, I've never played a Smash Bros. battle with more than four players at once (and THOSE already get pretty intense), the whole board-based mechanic is brand new to me, and the whole Rival mechanic churns out some pretty skillful opponents (for computer players, anyway), as it turns out.

Overall, I really like the effect, because it keeps things always changing... the biggest problem with Classic Mode most of the time is how after awhile you're basically going through the same motions with little variations that don't really make things seem all that special each step of the way. Plus all the extra-combatant Smash matches will probably keep me forcibly engaged, or else bad things will surely happen.

Playing on higher intensities also seems to create a bigger risk-reward tradeoff than in the 3DS game... and, of course, the "two stocks per stage" thing instead of somewhere between 1 and 5 as in the older games makes the task seem more stage-to-stage "fair" while the element of difficulty seems less "fake" and based exclusively on sheer handicap. (That ind of thing's been saved for Special Orders, I think... which, as MOSTLY one-off experiences strung along together, is a much more suitable place to seek them.)

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