PAX PRIME 2014: Hands-On with Super Smash Bros. Brawl for 3DS

t's no secret that Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. is eagerly being awaited by legions of Nintendo faithful, both on 3DS and Wii U. Every new announcement is followed with a fury of excited tweets, forum exchanges and general giddiness, and Nintendo is giving the gamers the goods with the debut of a new game mode: Smash Run. We got a chance to go hands-on with the very latest in the Smash lineup with Super Smash Bros. for 3DS here at PAX 2014 to get a closer look at this new mode of play.

Smash Run, in many ways, harkens back to the Deep Space Emissary from Smash Bros. Brawl, which saw release to the Wii back in 2008. Players take control of a character of their choosing in a side-scrolling gauntlet governed by a time limit. With 5 minutes that at your disposal, the object of this initial phase is to defeat as many enemies as possible while collecting power up tokens left behind as they are pounded into oblivion. These tokens will boost a host of attributes, such as power, speed, defense and so forth. These stages are rather large and have all kinds of multi-layered platforming sections full of enemy opposition to have at, which, in turn, allows for higher stat boosting.

When your time is up, all of these pickups will boost your overall stats which are applied to a standard-style smash match at the end of the run. Of course, the better your stats, the higher than chances of your success. All in all, Smash Run comes off as a fast-paced mode that's pretty much perfect for on-the-go Smash antics, thanks to its short time limits and fast-paced action.

The end phase also gave us the chance to get a feel for the core gameplay as well and... uh, it's definitely Smash Bros., all right. For my session, I chose Mega Man (naturally) but found him to be kind of sluggish and a little obtuse to use, ending with a tied 3rd defeat. Using abilities like the Leaf Shield, Metal Blade, Slash Cutter, Air Shooter and so many more nostalgic Robot Master attacks from one of my all-time favorite game series was still a Mega-blast.

There were a couple of things that felt a little bothersome about Super Smash Bros. for 3DS though. Much like PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale's Vita counterpart, the characters onscreen are tiny. Really tiny, actually. This can lead to some confusion, especially if competing characters are the same color – say, Mega Man and Sonic, as the case was with me. In addition, both the 3DS XL's micro-switched D-pad and Circle Pad felt less than optimal for doing what needed doing done. Hopefully, the 2DS's rubber contacts makes for a better feeling input. Of course, this is specific to the hardware being used, meaning the game itself is pretty ace.

Basically, its issues are pretty tiny in the grand scheme of things, so longtime fans and new players will surely dig Super Smash Bros. for 3DS!

Comments

[DazzleSazzle]

"Every new announcement is followed with a furry f excited tweets"

good grammar, wow, so well done

[Press Pause Radio]

Oops, sorry about that! Consider the typo now fixed! Thanks for the heads up!