Where Else Can You Hit Pikachu With an Umbrella?
This game is one of the highest selling points for the GameCube. It features classic Nintendo characters, some good old fashion 2D brawling and nonstop fun. I admit, this has to be one of the most fun games that I've played in a while. With a massive character selection and colorful environments, it's a very appealing game. It is however, a fighting game, and this is where some glaring flaws come in.
Like I said, this is a fighting game, the point being to 'smash' your opponent off the screen. This is done by building up your opponents damage percent. This is one feature that truly innovates. Instead of the standard life gauges, SSB:M uses a percent. Every time you damage your opponent, their damage percent will increase. This is will make him more vulnerable to being smashed off the screen. You'll have to be creative in your method of dispatching, since they won't be done in easily. You can, however, hit them just right and they'll fly off the screen with no trouble at all.
The character selection is fantastic. You've got Mario, Luigi, Link, Yoshi, Bowser, Kirby, Donkey Kong and many, many more. you've got to unlock some of them, which adds to the replay value, which I'll discuss later. It's unfortunate that all of the movesets are the same for every character. Pressing 'A' allows you to do a short range combo, and 'b' let's you fire projectiles of some sort. For instance, Link will shoot his bow, Mario will wave a flag and Samus will fire her cannon. It's fun to see everyones moves, but it eventually grows stale. Items are dropped every once in a while, which adds to fight. You can use healing items, bombs, barrels, umbrella's and even the Pokeballs to battle your opponents with.
First of all, this game is gorgeous. The characters are bright and vibrant, and the stages are full of color and very inviting. They are all very unique, and you'll definitely keep coming back until you see them all. The attacks are also very good looking, with beautiful explosions at just about every impact. The stages are 2D, which allows for a greater attention to detail and overall fun. The stages themselves are very unique, from Hyrule Castle, to the Mushroom Kingdom, to atop Fox's fighter jet and even an F-Zero race track.
There are tons of modes to be had, but they all offer basically the same challenge. While most of your fun will be had in the standard matches, I enjoyed the classic side-scrolling adventures best. You can take any character and bring them through classic landscapes. It reminds me what it was like to be a kid playing Super Mario Bros. again. You can participate in home run derbies, survival modes and other modes found in just about every fighting game out there. Truth be told, you'll need three others play to enjoy this game to the fullest extent. Single player is all right at best, but a four man death match between Link, Samus, Mario and Donkey Kong is something else all together. You'll see what I mean.
This is a fantastic looking game, but the single player suffers from repetition. If you have four controllers and a few friends, this will likely keep you up all night. But despite this, it should still have a single player mode that can capture and keep your attention.
Final Score: 7/10