GENRE
	Fighting
	DEVELOPER
	HAL
	PUBLISHER
	Nintendo
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-4
	CONTROLLER PAK
	yes
	RUMBLE PAK
	yes
	RAM PAK
	no
	BUY NOW AT

Since this game was brought to life, it has been shrouded in secrecy. Partly because HAL and Nintendo were remaining quiet about it, but also because nobody cared about it. "Happy are those who expect nothing, they won't be disappointed". I wasn't expecting anything from this game, but deep down I was hoping to be surprised, and I was.

HAL has always been known for their technical genius, ever since the first Kirby game arrived on the NES and Gameboy. Both looked superb, considering the power of the systems. Smash Brothers delivers clean and crisp visuals from the very start. There's a nice intro, the usual affair, showing off the various characters in their home land and then going head to head. This game incorporates the characters and settings from many different games that were worked on by many different people and somehow integrated them perfectly into the one game. The quality remains consistent across the board. Mario doesn't look inferior to Link and he doesn't look like he was "cut & paste" from Mario 64. That's not to say that he isn't the same old Mario, it's just that HAL have done an excellent job with the graphics, they've even put Nintendo's Motion Capture studio to good use. The game has a Hi-Res feel that is emphasized when you change to the close view. This view bring the camera right up next to the character. Surprisingly, instead of looking worse than the far off view from the blurry pixels you expect, the character looks better.

visuals

The backgrounds are well done, each authentic to each characters world. Mario is up above Peach's Castle, where you can look down and see the castle and the grounds from an aerial view and Donkey Kong is in the jungle with the rendered Palm tress and his wooden barrels that shoot you into the sky. They're original backgrounds, when it would have been so easy just rip off the in-game backdrops from previous games. Look out for the original Mario Bros. Castle background aswell.

audio

Again it's about an appreciation for the music from the original game's which the characters come from. It's nice to here a jazzed up Mario Bros. theme after so long. It's hard to decide on whether they took the easy way out, or wanted the original music to make the game more authentic. Either way, the music works well, if you could stand the cutesy Nintendo music to begin with. And they brought back the SNES Zelda theme that everybody wanted in Ocarina of Time. Other than that not much to say about the music because most of you would have heard it all before. The sound involves the usual thuds and cracks and the sound effects for the characters special moves like Mario's fireball. An odd touch is that there seems to be an audience in the game. You'll hear them cheering when you knock somebody off the side and cringing when you are hanging on a ledge for dead life. The cheering doesn't get annoying, especially in 4 player, because you won't even notice the cheering, you'll be doing it yourself!

gameplay

Smash Brothers has an unusual style of play, something you'd expect from the land of the rising sun. There is a whole desktop theme about the game. In the intro you see the characters coming alive on somebody's desk and when you die, you lie limp on the desk. If you continue, you come back to life and fight your way to the boss, an evil human hand. So right away there's something odd going on there... Initially, there's a choice of 8 characters - Mario, Yoshi, Link, Samus, Pikachu, Kirby, Fox and Donkey Kong. There are 4 secret characters, 2 of which you can unlock by finishing the game - Purin and Captain Falcon. The you have put in a little more work into getting the last 2 characters - Luigi and another character I'll leave as a surprise. It's great to see all our old friends in the game.Although, it would have been nice to see some more characters like Banjo and Goomba. The control method has been kept simple using A,B, R and Z buttons. A quick rundown:

A - Kick, punch or weapon
B - Special Weapon
R - Shield or throw
Z - Shield

There are no complicated combinations needed to do other special moves, they are just simple combinations of the above, like Up+B or Down+A. This keeps the game fast paced and accessible to everyone. At the same time, experienced players won't feel limited. Each character has his own special attack aswell as the standard punch/kick attack. Mario has fireballs, link has his boomerang and yoshi turns you into an egg, leaving you defenseless. Kirby has the most fun as he can swallow you up, spit you out and acquire your special power.

multiplayer

Starting off the single-player game, you work your way to the top starting with Link. Instead of the usual bout after bout against the selectable opponents, you face different challenges like the 2 on 2 fight against the Mario Bros., the 4 on 1 fight against the Giant Donkey Kong and the face-off with the Kirby team, each with a different stolen skill. There are also 3 bonus games. The first one involves running around a primitive platform level, destroying the targets within a set amount of time. The second game involves jumping on a number of special lit platforms within a given time. The two of these bonus games vary depending depending on which character you've chosen. The third bonus game requires you to reach the exit on the level, but there are various obstacles in your way. It's just another little innovation which sets this game apart from the competition. At this stage, since everything else about this game is so unusual, you must be wondering how you beat an opponent. Rest assured, it's not a simple matter of kicking the crap out of them until they fall on the ground. The purpose of the game is to knock the character out of the arena, either by throwing them off the platform of smashing them out of the arena. You have a damage meter, which rises each time you take a hit from your opponent. The higher the damage you've endured, the easier it is to be thrown out. You can easily throw people out of the arena by pressing R, but they won't go very far unless you've done some damage to them first. But once you've been thrown out of the ring, all is not lost. When you're thrown, you're throw high into the air, so you can pull back towards the platform and hope you land on it. Aswell as that, each character has a double jump (Kirby can almost fly), which they can use to get them closer to the platform, and finally, alot of players have an UP+B attack which propels them in the air. Once you've taken a very serious beating (with damage of 300%), the slightest touch sends you hurtling off the platform. But a hard smash will send you hurtling out of the arena. The default setting is 3 lives, so you have more than one chance. There ar, in addition, a selection of power ups like pikachu bombs, magic wands, light sabre's and over-sized hammers I know the play mechanics sound weird, but once you play it, all becomes clear.

I know this is getting long, so I won't dwell on the multiplayer action. Suffice is to say, it's brilliant!! Be it 2 player or 4 player, it delivers non-stop fun that'll have you cursing like you were playing GoldenEye. If anybody remembers the 4 player mode in Guardian Heroes, you'll have a rough idea of what it's like, but it's much better. In 4 player, it can get very frantic and even a little confusing at times, but you never get frustrated by it. There are 2 modes of play. Time mode and Stock mode. In time Mode you play for a certain time and whoever has lost the least number of lives wins. In stock mode you set a number of lives for each character and battle it out until there is one man standing.

overall

Nintendo of America were mad to consider not releasing this game in the US. Any doubts about it's quality should be cast out of your mind and if you were thinking of importing it, you should (There is very little japanese, just some character information and bonus information). It's fun, addictive and it's got a superb multi-player mode. It's a little short, so don't even think about playing it on easy.

8.6/10