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All of your favorite Nintendo characters have come together to
answer the question: who is king of the Nintendo hill? The format
can aptly be described as Super Mario Kart meets Mortal Kombat,
which makes for an odd, yet addictive game. The object is to
throw, punch, smash, or blast your nents off the edge of the
beautifully rendered, themed arenas. Numerous power-ups, weapons,
and surprises help or hinder the melee. Your eventual goal is to
fight your way through to a bizarre final boss character. Victory
in this battle rewards you with another character to play, such
as the scene-stealing Pokémon, Jigglypuff.
From Star Fox's laser pistol to Link's hook , each
character's trademark special abilities are utilized to knock one
another off the screen. The game does a great job balancing the
characters' widely differing powers so that no one character has
an insurable advantage. The sound and animations are also
dead-on: Donkey Kong is a huge, cartoonish ape, while Link is
much more detailed and realistic. And Pikachu's famous thunder
shock attack is accompanied by a fearsome yell of "PIKA!"
Unlike most fighting games, Super Smash Bros. allows you to team
up with a computer partner and take on other teams in both single
and multiplayer modes. But the most fun is had when four human
players play in a battle royale. The game quickly becomes a scene
of incredibly fun chaos: picture Mario beating up on Luigi, while
Donkey Kong is chased by a scampering, sledgehammer-wielding
Pikachu. It's the perfect party game. --Hugh Arnold
Pros:
* Great characters: Mario, Luigi, Pikachu, Kirby, Donkey Kong,
Link, Star Fox, Yoshi, and more
* Simple gameplay
* Computer partner option
* Colorful arenas
Cons:* Limited number of arenas
From the Manufacturer
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Super Smash Brospits Nintendo's biggest stars against each other
in an all-out slugfest. Delivering fast-paced fighting action
which is easy to learn and tough to master, this game features
new moves, never-before seen battle arenas, and a fresh arsenal
of special items. They've raced cars, they've thrown a party, and
now Nintendo's cast of characters is taking its competitive
spirit someplace it's never been before: the ring!
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Review
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It's an idea so simple, it makes you wonder why it took so long
to happen: Take all your top-notch characters and toss them all
into one game. In this case, the characters are Nintendo's, and
the game is a new spin on your typical fighting game. The result
is Super Smash Bros., a fighter that is easy enough for anyone to
pick up, yet it has enough multiplayer appeal to stay interesting
for a good long time.
The characters are, of course, what makes this game interesting.
All the characters that have made Nintendo what it is today are
represented, including Mario, Link, Samus Aran, Donkey Kong, and
Pikachu. There are eight characters to choose from initially, and
four more hidden characters to unlock. The game's backgrounds
also reflect the various characters' natural envirornments: The
Starfox stage is complete with buzzing Arwings, while Link's
stage looks somewhat like a castle. The game's music is also
pretty amazing, with tunes lifted directly from past games. So
you'll hear the Legend of Zelda overworld theme, the world-famous
Super Mario Bros. tune, and other littlepieces of incidental
music, like the SMB star music and the Donkey Kong hammer tune.
The look and sounds of the game really give it a "greatest hits"
type of feel. The sound effects have been changed a bit from the
Japanese version (the energy doesn't sound like a
lightsaber anymore, and some of the speech has been changed), but
not enough to really matter.
The game's object is pretty simple. Each stage hangs in the
middle of nowhere, and you must knock all the other characters
off the level to win. But it's not as easy to knock the fighters
off as you might think: The characters can double jump, and
several have attacks that can also be used to shoot upward.,
However, the more damage you inflict on fighters, the easier it
is to send them flying. While you can rely on your standard
arsenal of punches, kicks, and special moves to do damage, you
can also pick up occasional items that randomly appear on the
level. Items range from simple bats, s, and s to the more
exotic Donkey Kong hammer and Pokeball, which spits out a random
Pokemon whenever you use it.
Two-player battles are fun and all, but the game's real charm
comes out in four-player mode. In any of the multiplayer games,
you can either set a time limit or give players a certain number
of lives to expend. Graphically, Smash Bros. does pretty well.
Each character moves pretty nicely and looks about as good as
you'd expect. Characters that have previously appeared on the N64
look about the same as they do in their own games. Samus Aran,
who makes her first N64 appearance in this game, looks OK,
although she is a little on the blocky side.
The game is extremely simple to learn and reasonably easy to
master. The one-player game won't exactly last a long time,
unless you count the time you have to spend unlocking all four of
the hidden characters. So, if you've got a crew of friends ready
to pick a Nintendo character and throw down, then Super Smash
Bros. is definitely worth a purchase. --Jeff Gerstmann
--Copyright ©1999 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
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