Entry 2- Super Smash Bros review

    Welcome back friends to another game review! Before we begin this week's review I would like  to thank those who left feedback on my previous review. Any advice or opinions on my posts and their content are more than welcome as I am always looking to improve my work and make my content enjoyable for everyone. Without further adieu we shall begin today's review. Now today we will be talking about a  very important game that has led to one of the most iconic franchises of all time. Today's review will be Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo 64.

    Now I am sure many of you are at least somewhat familiar with the name Super Smash Brothers, as it is one of the most successful gaming series of all time. The most recent entry, Super Smash Bros Ultimate on Nintendo Switch is played by millions to this day competitively and recreationally. The Second entry in the series Super Smash Bros Melee on GameCube is also a favorite amongst the competitive fighting game scene as well, even over 20 years later. For those who are somehow not familiar with the series,  I will give a quick history lesson. The series was created by Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai, who was working on a fighting game known as Dragon King, with generic mannequin characters originally. He got the idea to use beloved Nintendo characters in the game instead to help its success and got help from Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto to make this possible. The first entry in the series was eventually released for the Nintendo 64 in 1999 and became one of the must have games for the system. Of course since this is the first game in the series most people regard it as the one that has aged the most. The real question is if their  claims are accurate or not? Let's take a look.

    First, lets take a look at the graphics and levels. The Nintendo 64 in general, while still regarded as a classic console today, definitely aged while 3D graphics have improved and become more high quality nowadays. For 1999 the 3D models of the characters are not bad, but other games at the time had much more detail to them, especially when you compare games that were coming out on the Sony PlayStation, a console with less power than the 64. The levels and characters are all based on various Nintendo franchises including: Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Pokemon, Mother, Metroid, F-zero and Star Fox. The characters do look like how they are supposed to look which does the job fine enough. Personally one of my favorite aspects of the designs are the fighting polygon team that consists of polygonal models from earlier designs. As for the arenas you fight on, they are very faithful adaptations of the various stages from these games and they are fantastic to play on, with the fan favorite being Kirby's Dreamland.

    Next, lets talk about the music, while the original pieces made for the game are fantastic on their own, the main feature of the soundtrack is the several remixes of classic Nintendo songs from these various franchises. Going back to Kirby's Dreamland, this stage's theme is often regarded as the most well known rendition of the iconic song even today, at one point they were popular in the YouTube Poop scene as there would be remixes of it with various memes thrown in there.

    Now for the plot and the gameplay, There is no direct mention of a plot within the game but the iconic intro shows a gloved hand known as Master Hand taking out various Nintendo dolls and playing with them like a child would. Theory has it that the whole game is meant to be part of a child's imagination, which if canon is such a unique and charming idea for a fighting game that I really admire. The gameplay was also very big for the time due to being one of the few fighting games to not focus on complex button combinations like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Tekken. This helped make the game more appealing for newcomers and non professional players, as well as easy access for families and friends to enjoy together. While the 12 character roster is definitely a far cry from Ultimate's 89 character cast, it is still very memorable for being the first 3D appearance for quite a few characters as well as giving the more obscure franchises at the time Like F-Zero and Mother attention, which would help build up a bigger fanbase for them. The multiplayer aspect is always fun when me, my sister and our friends play rounds together. While the game is great in that regard, Single player is rather lacking. There is an adventure mode where you play against CPUs and do bonus stages before fighting Master Hand at the end. This can be done in less than 7 minutes if you are really good, and unlike later entries, all the NPCS stay the same regardless of what character you choose. Overall, the gameplay mechanics are not too difficult to pick up, in fact its one of the easier games in the series, but NPCS can go up to level 9 if you want to practice your skills and endurance, but otherwise the competition is more casual this time around. There is a competitive scene for the game, however it is smaller compared to melee and Ultimate due to those games putting more focus on competition while this one is more so about, simply picking a character, stage and go nuts. It is simplistic but sometimes simplistic is just what one needs to enjoy a game.

    Combining all of these aspects together, now its time to answer the question: Is the game still worth playing today? In my opinion yes, for a handful of reasons. Nostalgia aside, the game is a great starting entry for a then new franchise that would become an important part of gaming history. I would not call it the best entry in the series, but it is still fun to pop in with friends if you just want a simple and quick fighting game experience. I recommend giving it a look if you want to see how the series got its start or for a revisit to relive childhood memories. Just make sure you have others to play it with to keep it fresh. I give it an overall 8/10, a classic that deserves all the respect even with the series being improved afterwards. If you do not have an n64 the game is also playable through virtual console for the Wii and Wii u as well as online emulators.

    Thanks again for joining me for this week's review, join me next week for another look at some gaming greats. Until then, keep on gaming mates, Iron Pearl out!