Masahiro Sakurai and his team have done it again! Super Smash Bros. is a fighting game series in which Nintendo’s best and brightest duke it out in a battle of the best. Instead of a traditional health meter, damage is accumulated as a percentage and attacks have a better chance of knocking you off the stage. The series has gained great popularity since its 1999 debut on the Nintendo 64, and now it’s back and bigger than ever. I previously reviewed the 3DS version back when it first came out in October and also wrote a preview for this version. And after waiting since last year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), the game we have all been waiting for has finally come! Smash Bros. for Wii U improves on almost every aspect of the 3DS version and, despite some discrepancies, has become the definitive smash experience.

All of the improved mechanics that I wrote about in the 3DS version are kept the same in this version. The gameplay strikes a great balance between casual and competitive play; accessible while providing a deep combat system allowing for many ways to combo opponents and adapt to new situations. This is great since many fans were disappointed with the more casual mechanics of the previous entry, Brawl, while others praised this change in focus. However, high level play techniques such as wave-dashing and L-canceling do not return, which might upset fans of Melee, the more combat focused entry on the GameCube. But there are some new techniques that fans have come up with such as turn-dashing, as even some from Brawl, such as the reverse aerial rush (RAR), that are very useful in this version. Personally, I can’t even begin to think about pulling off the impressive maneuvers that high level players can perform. Despite that, I still like to be somewhat competitive when I play, so the mechanics in this version are perfect for me.

The visuals run at a crisp 1080p and stages are much larger, varied, and detailed. Even though textures look better in some stages than others, it’s still a massive improvement over the 3DS version overall. Everything runs at a constant 60 frames per second while on the 3DS version, only the characters and stages ran at 60 fps while the characters from assist trophies and Pokeballs ran at 30 fps. I didn’t experience any slowdown at all during gameplay. The only part where I experienced lag was, oddly enough, while I was panning the camera when the game was paused. Simply put, this is the best the series has ever looked.

By far the biggest improvement over the 3DS version is the use of the GameCube controller. That’s right, the game supports the use of a GameCube controller adapter allowing for the use of GameCube controllers. Playing with the GameCube controller is the definitive way to play any Smash Bros. game. Not only is it the most comfortable and familiar way to play, but having the c-stick for easy access to smash attacks is a huge plus. If you don’t have a GameCube controller, the next best option is the Wii U pro controller; it has a similar shape but the second analog stick used for smash attacks is positioned on top of the attack buttons instead of at the bottom and the L and R buttons are smaller. You can also play the game on the gamepad’s screen if someone else is watching TV, but the wider controller is a lot less comfortable and heavier than other options. Playing with the Wii Remote is by far the worst option, just imagine playing smash with your DVD remote. Though, if you have a nunchuck, you can attach it to your Wiimote for much better playability.

Classic mode has received a massive change from its previous incarnations. You still progress through a linear set of challenges leading up to a final confrontation with a boss, but the way in which this mechanic is presented is much different. You start out on a board with several groupings of other fighters over a random stage. You then move your fighter to a grouping and fight all of the challengers within that group. The more fighters in a group, the better rewards you get. This mode seems daunting at first, but it’s not too hard to get a grasp of once you play it. The risk versus reward aspect is much stronger than in the 3DS version, which simply had you go down branching pathways. And you can raise the difficulty to get more items at a higher entry cost to raise the quality and quantity of rewards just like in the 3DS version too.

Event mode, a feature that was missing from the 3DS version, makes its return. Event mode functions much the same way as it did in previous entries in the series; you go through a set of varied challenges with varying requirements for beating them. You might be doing everything from fighting as the fastest character in the game alongside other fast characters in a match at twice the speed, to swallowing up six people with Pac-Man’s final smash, to defending the Skyworld stage from being destroyed by three Ganondorfs of varying sizes. Most challenges can range from relatively simple to daunting and challenging. And each challenge has a secondary objective that earns you an extra reward, such as finishing the challenge on medium difficulty within 45 seconds. The events are presented as a flowchart with branches forming as you complete stages. You can choose to list the events normally just like in previous entries, but the flowchart style adds a higher sense of agency and progression that makes the experience all the more addicting.

A mode exclusive to Smash Bros. for Wii U is the Special Orders. This mode is split into two modes, Master Orders and Crazy Orders. Master Orders has you pay coins to complete different challenges, such as beating an enemy in under two minutes while you both are wearing rocket belts. As expected, you get better prizes if you complete harder and more expensive challenges. Crazy orders has you spending money or using a pass as an entry fee and then tasking you with completing the same kinds of challenges in Master Orders only you don’t heal damage in-between matches and you have an overall time limit of ten minutes that is used up for each subsequent challenge. Prizes get better as you complete increasingly harder challenges. But if you fail a challenge or run out of time, then you lose most of your rewards. If you decide to forgo fighting a match and decide to instead face Crazy Hand, then you win all of your rewards if you manage to beat him. As you can see, Crazy Orders is a much more compelling mode than Master Orders as the risk/reward system increases as you go on. This is a mode that I will be going back to time and time again.

By far the most interesting option is the inclusion of 8-player smash. If you can gather any combination of GameCube controllers, Wiimotes, Pro Controllers and the like, you can have up to 8 players playing at the same time without any lag whatsoever. However, playing a match with 4 players is chaotic enough, so having 8 players on the screen can get way too chaotic. And because of all of this disorder and the fact that you’re limited to playing on the larger stages, there’s nothing preventing you from staying at the far end of a stage waiting until everyone is already defeated or spamming projectiles. Some of the chaos might be negated if you decide to do a 4 on 4 team battle as long as you leave team attack off. This mode definitely feels more like a gimmick rather than a whole new way to play and I definitely don’t see this being utilized in high level tournaments. Nevertheless, I can see this being an oft utilized feature at parties, as it prevents anyone from becoming the 5th, 6th, 7th, or even 8th wheel.

An interesting addition to the game is the use of the new Amiibo figures. Smash Bros. for Wii U has by far the most involved use of the Skylanders-like figurines; players can scan them into the game by touching them to the gamepad and have them fight alongside your fighter in regular matches and even a few of the co-op modes. You can also train and grow Amiibos and battle them with friends. I got an Amiibo modeled after Link, which I affectionately nicknamed “Lonk”. The figures themselves are a lot cheaper looking and feeling than you would find from companies like Play Arts, but they’re decent looking enough to pass as collectibles and even have small details like the folds in Link’s tunic.

When playing with the Amiibo in-game, they actually learn and adopt your strategies and movement patterns. As I was training Lonk while playing as Link, I made sure to use my usual tactics of edge-guarding with projectiles and using the spin attack in the air to knock him up and out of the stage. And when I leveled him up to level 15, I noticed that Lonk was utilizing much more aerial attacks and projectiles in his combat. So the training mechanic does indeed work and I even developed a bit of a teacher/student relationship with Lonk in the process. So I’d say that this is much more than just a silly gimmick.

Another interesting mode returning from Brawl is the stage builder. But unlike Brawl where you place premade platforms in a grid, you draw on the gamepad to form platforms for fighters to stand on. This method adds a lot to the stage builder mode but also strips quite a bit away from its previous entry. First of all, it’s impossible to make a straight line unless you use the grid system and follow the points. And when you make a shape, you can’t change it. Meaning that if you make just one mistake, you have to hit undo and start all over. You can add to the original shape by making a new shape right next to it, but this is only if you’re shape if more rectangular and you’re using the grid system. You also cannot publish or even test your stage unless you have a big enough platform in the middle. Brawl’s stage builder had a much greater variety of intractable stage elements, like moving platforms and ice blocks, and moving premade platforms around the grid system feels much quicker and easier. The stage builder in Smash Bros. for Wii U, however, is limiting at best and frustrating at worst. This is the one aspect Brawl has over Smash Bros. for Wii U.

One aspect that Smash Bros. for Wii U has over Brawl, as well as the 3DS version, are the far better online capabilities. It takes much less time to get into a match than ever before. Lag during matches is also much rarer and when it does occur it’s barely noticeable. The only time I experienced a big freeze was at the very beginning of a match during the countdown, and it only lasted for two seconds. Even spectating matches are fun; you can bet money on who you think is going to win and even get prizes for betting on the correct players consecutively. Smash Bros. for Wii U is definitely the go to entry for online battles.

The final mode of interest is Smash Tour. Smash Tour works much in the same vein as Mario Party; you go around a board using items as you pick them up. Instead of trying to get stars, however, you have to collect stat boost much like in the 3DS version’s Smash Run. You also collect fighters to fight opponents in the various matches that occur. After completing all of the turns, you are thrust into a match in which you use your accumulated fighters as lives and try to get more knockouts than your opponents in five minutes. You can form some compelling strategies depending on your position on the board and the items at your disposal, such as warping the player away from a stat boosting checkpoint. And turns run at a fast pace with everyone moving and using items at the same time, assuring that no one is left waiting for someone to make their turn. This fast pace can potentially leave players with little time to form strategies, but you get used to it pretty quickly. Don’t play this mode by yourself; the AI for opponents is way too easy and you can’t make them any harder. This is a mode that is meant to be played at parties in the spirit of causing laughs and straining friendships.

We have come a long way from having just 12 characters and only four modes of play on the Nintendo 64, and yet, Smash for Wii U, as well as the 3DS version, still retains the pick up and play gameplay that allowed it to remain a fan favorite for many years. Even if you never played a fighting game before, you can still find enjoyment in the Smash Bros. series. And this might just be the version that most defines this spirit. Only a few problems with the more gimmicky aspects keep this game from reaching perfection and high level players might be more comfortable with Melee if they’re not interested in online matches. Never the less, this is one of the best games to come out this year and it more than justifies the purchase of a Wii U.

Rating: 9/10