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When Eurogamer asked me if I'd be interested in sampling the new Super Smash Bros, my response was a resounding yes. I've always approached the series with a more casual mentality than most other fighting games, not because I don't appreciate the technical nuances of L-cancelling and wave-dashing in Super Smash Bros Melee, but because Smash has always been something I've enjoyed with a broad range of friends. When you take a game like Street Fighter to a certain level, you invariably reach a point where similarly skilled opponents are the only way to go - either that or wear a blindfold and pick random.There's a part of me that's reluctant to walk that path with the new Smash. It's the kind of game that's going to mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The Smash community holds Melee in high regard because of how much freedom the fighting system offers, while Brawl, a comparatively more scripted fighting game, is a celebration of all things Nintendo and the only standalone fighting game to sell over 10 million copies. For the new Smash to please everyone would be nothing short of miraculous, but if there's one thing that's sure to displease many, it's that the 3DS version is landing before the Wii U.
When I first heard about this, I was adamant that I'd wait for the home console release. Anyone who's played a four-player Smash battle on one of the larger stages - be it Melee's Temple or Brawl's New Pork City - knows how hectic the game can be. Smash is all about bouncing across the screen at a blistering pace and the thought of shrinking that momentum down to the 3DS screen just doesn't sit right. Thankfully, the reality is much more forgiving. It would be a stretch to call Super Smash Bros a natural fit for the 3DS, but I suspect that even if the Wii U version had been on hand for a direction comparison (it wasn't), this portable brawler wouldn't have felt superfluous.
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