Plus, bonus impressions on the 2014 Play Nintendo Tour!

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to head over to Irvine Spectrum (near Los Angeles) to play some Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. Irvine is the final stop for the 2014 Play Nintendo Tour, which features a wide variety of different games and activities for children and adults alike. I will save my impressions on the Tour itself for the end of this post, but first let us get straight into some Smash impressions.

Luckily for my friends and I, the line for Super Smash Bros. was unexpectedly short. Every time we finished a match, we would loop back around to the start of the line where we basically waited a few seconds before the next 3DS station opened up. Thus, I was able to get several rounds of Smash in as well as one round of Smash Run.

For those of you who are somehow unfamiliar with the Super Smash Bros. games, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS is the fourth official installment of Nintendo’s mascot fighter franchise that originated in 1999 on the Nintendo 64. Unlike traditional fighting games, the goal of Smash Bros. is to knock the other players out of the stage; the more damage you deal to an opponent, the easier it is to launch them out of the screen.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS is the first handheld iteration of Smash Bros., and thus it felt immediately obvious that some sacrifice had to be made with the controls. Having played hundreds of hours of Super Smash Bros. Brawl on Wii, the lack of a second analog stick and Z-triggers threw me completely off guard, and I had to focus my mind on timing Smash attacks and grabs without the traditional shortcuts that the other games afforded. I am sure most hardcore Smash players would tell me that I should never use the second analog stick anyways, but I digress. I did find myself wishing for a 3DS with a second analog stick built into it though…

Nevertheless, I was very surprised by how well the game performed despite running on an arguably underpowered device. The frame rate was very smooth and the visuals looked surprisingly crisp, especially with the 3D on (though the 3D effect was a bit underwhelming; I played several rounds forgetting to turn the 3D on, which rarely happens in most other titles). Unfortunately, the smaller screen does make it more difficult to follow the action, especially with all of the changes series producer Masahiro Sakurai made to make battles more colorful. Multiple times I lost track of my characters, though only once did it actually lead me to my death.

In my first round, I played as Mega Man on Tortimer’s Island from Animal Crossing: New Leaf. I did not want to choose Mega Man, but the person before me forgot to exit out of the game, and so I was stuck with a clunky blue robot dude that most definitely did not fit my play style. Needless to say, I lost pretty badly, but I quickly got over that since it was, in fact, the first time I had played the new Smash Bros. game.

I decided to stick with my main from Brawl, Toon Link, in my second round. Of course, I had to choose the Spirit Tracks level to fit the theme (though unfortunately I had not brought with me my earphones; that Spirit Tracks arrangement is beautiful!). Things went a lot better this time around, even though I still did not win.

Next up was Wii Fit Trainer. Before I began, the representative in charge of our booth decided to show me an advanced technique that he called the “dash (tilt?) cancel smash,” or something like that. Basically, it involves dashing in one direction, then quickly turning around and immediately following up with a powerful smash attack. I asked the representative if this was a new feature, since I had never heard or seen this before. He told me that this indeed was a new move for Super Smash Bros. on Nintendo 3DS and Wii U.

I did not have much luck with Wii Fit Trainer either; the lack of powerful close-range attacks at her disposal drove me crazy – in that sense, she almost feels like another Jigglypuff. Thankfully, my fourth round proved to be a success when I chose to play as Greninja, the new Pokémon character from Pokémon X and Pokémon Y. Greninja immediately felt great; his quick movement and long-range melee attacks made for some really fanciful smashing, and he is certainly a character that I desire to master once the full game comes out.

I decided to spend my fifth time at the booth playing a round of Smash Run. Smash Run is a new mode exclusive to the 3DS version of Smash Bros., and is reminiscent of the City Mode found in another one of Sakurai’s games: Kirby’s Air Ride. The premise is that each player spends five minutes rummaging through a huge map defeating enemies and collecting stat upgrades such as power, speed, defense, jump, etc. before heading into a free-for-all smash round with those upgraded stats intact. I chose to play as Little Mac from the Punch-Out series for this one, and for much of the Smash Run I suffered. Little Mac has very poor maneuverability in the air, and so traversing the large map felt like battle between me and the game. Thankfully, things turned out pretty well in the end; I managed to get 7 KO’s during the final smash fight, absolutely destroying all of my opponents. A lot of people have claimed that Smash Run felt a bit too long, but I found the length to be just right.

For my final round, I decided to try out Villager from Animal Crossing, and just for kicks I also went ahead and set every computer player’s level to 9. I pretty much got obliterated.

Overall, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS was exactly what I thought it would be. There are inherent problems with playing the game on a 3DS, but aside from that it is still a Super Smash Bros. game worthy of any gamer’s attention. Even though I was not able to play the Wii U version to make a fair comparison, I would say that the 3DS game is very solid and will certainly satisfy those who wish to take Smash Bros. on the go.

But enough of Smash Bros. Now, let us talk a bit about the Play Nintendo Tour. Originally, my friends and I decided to take the short drive to Irvine Spectrum in order to play a few rounds of the new Smash Bros., but we ended up staying there for much longer than anticipated. As with all Nintendo events, huge stage props were scattered throughout the event area, and every ten seconds another photo would be shot from one of our phones because our fandom for this stuff is just way too damn high.

Here are some shots of our shenanigans. Needless to say, we had a couple of really awkward moments with the staff, but it was totally worth it.

We rounded off the event with a little scavenger hunt of sorts. The goal was to run around in the little event area and find staff members who would give us stickers for accomplishing certain tasks. After completing all six of them, we had a shot of winning a Nintendo-themed plush doll from a crane machine. Obviously, none of us won (those crane games are always rigged), but we all did get a neat-looking postcard.

Overall, the Play Nintendo Tour was much more fun than I had expected. We basically came for Smash, but stayed for everything else. Surprisingly, there was practically no line for anything. We spent the whole two hours being random and ridiculous, to the point where I am pretty sure we were some sort of safety hazard because of all the kids in the area. But who can blame us? Nintendo is Nintendo, and it brings the child out of all of us.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS releases on September 13 in Japan and October 2 in Europe and North America.