Elf Blood

Well, it’s been a political past month, and I’m sure I’ve bored you all to tears with my soap-boxing, so today I thought I’d present to you my favourite bits from this week’s latest release: Smash Bros. 3DS version!

I’ve been incredibly excited for this release for a wee while, now – I loved Smash Bros., but as I’ve never owned an Nintendo home console (’twas always Gameboys for me!) I haven’t had the chance to play the game outside of friends’ houses. With Smash Bros. 4, they haven’t done anything fancy, and I think that’s for the best. There’s a smash run mode, and a few minigames, but the main focus is on the good old-fashioned melée, and that’s as it should be, I feel!

I’ve not unlocked all the secret characters yet, and I’m avoiding spoilers on them, but of the newcomer characters I’ve played so far, I have to say I’m pretty impressed! Here’s my breakdown:

Newcomer: Wii Fit Trainer – So yeah, this was a pretty unusual choice for inclusion, but the Wii Fit Trainer makes up for her sheer oddness by being a good, all-round fighting choice. She has some good close-range attacks, so she’s excellent for people who like to play beatdown strategies. Projectiles are probably where she’s weakest; her main projectile attack is a charged orb, which is wide enough and quick enough to charge to use like you would a regular hadouken, with the added benefit that a fully charged orb will heal you! Her other projectile attack is a headed football, where she jumps up and knocks a football forward and downward. That’s pretty tricky to aim. The main attraction for me is that the Wii Fit Trainer can boost her stats and heal herself with her B-down move – it leaves you motionless and exposed, but if you time your button-press right you can enhance her performance to a noticeable degree!

Newcomer: Animal Crossing Villager – Another oddball choice, and an even stranger character to play, the Villager falls squarely into the trap class of fighting characters. The villager functions as a decent general fighter, but his b-down special is something else indeed. First combo plants a seed; second combo waters the seed, causing a tree to sprout upwards and do damage to any enemy standing nearby. Third, fourth, and fifth combos cause the Villager to chop at the tree with an axe. An unlucky enemy can get in-between the tree and the axe, causing them to take a fair whack of damage – a REALLY unlucky enemy can stand in the path of the falling tree for MASSIVE DAMAGE. What’s particularly charming is that the Villager’s attacks aren’t really aggressive moves – for the most part, it all seems like the Villager is just going about their everyday life, and just HAPPENS to drop a plantpot on their enemy…

I’m still particularly enamoured of a couple of the classic characters, of course. Marth is fantastic as always due to his brilliant counter-mechanic, which is always hilarious to break out in a match versus your mates. And I just can’t get enough of Kirby. HE’S JUST SO GODSDAMN ADORABLE.

Anyone else playing the new Smash Bros.? What’s your opinion of the newcomers? What are your favourite fighters, overall?

See you all on Friday!

M.