Remember when you were younger? Ok, good well dig further. Remember when you had your Nes and maybe even your Sega Master System? You'd go to the store and buy a game that you had no idea about. It just sounded cool or you
just wanted a new game to play so anything would do. But as it turns out, the game was either good or great and you have fond memories of it to this day. From this practice (and I know we all did it) there became a term known as "sleeper hit". This came about from little to no advertising, no name recognition, or from the game being so weird that no one thought of playing it. Well folks I think Smash Bros. is a modern day sleeper hit!

Ok now let's begin. Smash Bros.contains a good many of your favorite Nintendo good guys. It has of course Mario, Link (my fav.), Pikachu, Fox
Mcloud, Samus Aran (yes!), Donkey Kong, Kirby, and Yoshi immediately playable. With some playtime you can unlock Captain Falcon (F-Zero),
Jigglypuff (a loveable pokemon), Luigi (a loveable sidekick), and Ness (this one stumped me but he's from a SNES RPG called Earthbound). First off Smash Bros. is considered a fighting game but I think it may be a little different. You see, there are no fireball motions, no charge for 2 seconds
then push forward motions, no hit this and this at the same time while holding one hand behind your back while jumping up and down motions. Smash Bros. is an all-out fast paced action game that happens to have fighting game elements in it.

The gameplay is where it differs from other fighters. The object in Smash Brothers is not to kill your opponent by depleting all his energy. The
object is to knock your opponent off of the level by increasing his damage percentage. To aid you in this task there are various, and I do mean various items that will appear randomly or not so randomy throughout the course of the fight. Sound weird? Well it is at first but let me explain. You start off with 0% damage and as you are hit and thrown you take on more and more damage. Once you hit around 90-100 depending on the character, you are more easily thrown or knocked off the level. All of the main characters have their own level. Each level is a 2.5-D representation of the characters world. For
instance Fox's level is the Great Fox, his ship from the Star Fox games. You're fighting on the top of his ship trying to knock each other off. While you're doing this an R-wing flies by trying to shoot you, items are being strewn about for you to use against each other and space debris is floating all around. This seems to be the norm for most levels. You fight and the environment plays tricks on you to add to the excitement. And oh yeah one other little thing I forgot to mention is that it doesn't have to be 1-on-1.
It can be 1-on-1-on-1-on-1! That's four people trying to kill each other at the same time! Here's how the control works: Analog- movement, C-Buttons-Jump, A- primary weapon attacks, B- projectile or alternate attacks, Z-shields, and R- to throw. Now I know the controls sound simple but it all works very well.

The graphics are good for the most part. The characters are fully 3D and look exactly like they're supposed to. When I say they're good for the most part I mean that the Link in Smash Bros. isn't made of as many polygons as he
is in Zelda, but really does it matter? The levels are 2.5-D as I said and what the means is that they scroll and move like a 2-D level but they're
made of polygons so they aren't flat. The weapons and effects range from hilarious to really cool. Like when you knock someone straight into the air, if they are damaged enough they'll keep going and you'll see them fly off
into the background until finally they disappear with a *ting*. Great stuff! Not really much else to say about the graphic except that they fit the game to a tee.

The sound is more good stuff. The theme music for each characters game is played on their respective levels. It was great to groove to the old Zelda theme, or reminisce on Samus's Metroid theme. The sound effects for the weapons are sometimes weird. For example there's a Light Saber in the game but it sounds nothing like a light saber or a saber period actually. I'm not sure why the sounds are different from the Japanese version but it really doesn't make a difference in how the game's played. But all in all
the sounds really seem to fit or add to the game.

I've spoken of the game mainly as a multiplayer affair and that's because honestly I think that's what the developers intended it to be. The
one player game is cool two or three times but it's basically the same every time. If you're looking for a one player fighter then look elsewhere but multiplayer wise it's one of the elite. It has quite a few options for the
multiplayer. You can select from many modes of play like Team Battle, Stock Play (stock is how many men you have), and Timed Play, and you can mix and match those any way you like. There's also an option you can earn to set
which items and weapons will be available during the fights.

And finally, the game is just fun! No matter what you take from this review I want you to know that the game is just plain out and out shout
about fun! It's one of the few game I can lose at and still admit that I had a good time. The best parts of the game are in the gameplay and that's what it's all about.

Now to recap. The pros are that it's extremely fun, the characters are well known and represented well, and as a multiplayer game it's hard to beat. The cons are that the one player game isn't much to talk about, the sounds in some spots could be better, and next time I want some bad guys : ) Well in reading this review I hope that you understand that it's not your normal fighting game but it's a fresh take on the fighting genre. As I said if it's one player you're looking for you wanna look elsewhere but if you got a few friends then go buy it now!

Overall: 9.5