Why people love Smash Bros
In case you missed it (but let’s be
honest, if you’re reading this you didn’t), Nintendo announced recently that
the next game in the Super Smash Bros. series
would be coming to Nintendo Switch. Like everyone else, I freaked out when I
saw the reveal, and while details are scarce right now, it got me super hyped
for E3 to see what the game is truly going to be like.
Smash
Bros is a rarity in that even the lead-up to the game’s release is a blast.
I remember checking the Brawl Dojo
website every morning when I was a kid to see what new info director Masahiro
Sakurai would drop that day. Whenever a new fighter was revealed they would be
all I could think about that day, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I woke up
and saw Sonic the Hedgehog’s big blue face plastered on the “New Characters”
section on that one special morning. Similarly I got super excited every time a
new bit of info was dropped in the months leading up to Smash 4’s release, as the internet speculated on what characters
would show up next.
With the internet hotly debating the
same classic topic of who will and won’t make it into this new game (I’ll have
a list of my picks soon!), it got me thinking: what makes Smash Bros so special in that every time a new game is announced it
turns into a year-long event of sorts?
I think there are two reasons why.
First of all, Smash is the only real
game nowadays that allows you to fight as characters from different franchises
in one single package.
I mean, unless you count PlayStation All-Stars, but…nah.
Smash’s
roster appeals to everybody, regardless of what your favourite Nintendo
franchises are. Everyone from Mario to unorthodox third-party surprise guests
like Snake and Bayonetta are welcome, so you’re sure to find a favourite
somewhere. The unpredictability of the roster announcements are also primarily
what makes the pre-release material so much fun to follow. You never know who’s
coming next, making it all the more exciting to follow along as Nintendo slowly
peels the curtain back.
But what really makes Smash such a fan-favourite for me is how
accessible it is when compared to other fighting games. It takes a real pro to
get the most out of Street Fighter or
Tekken, but anyone can pick up a
controller and figure out how to play Smash
Bros. The controls are super easy to learn, and while skilled players can
do some insane stuff, it’s the type of game that anyone from any background can
pick up and play.
At the end of the day Smash Bros is a game that brings us
together, despite being a game where you kick the crap out of your friends.
There’s nothing better than a bit of friendly competition when all your friends
gather together to play a few matches. In a way Brawl and Smash 4’s awful
online modes help bring friends closer together because you kinda have to be in
the same room as the people you wanna play with to really get a match going.
Seriously though, Nintendo, you’ve
gotta fix the online in Smash for
Switch. Give us Splatoon 2 quality
servers. They’re not perfect but they’re a damn sight better than the laggy
mess 4 was whenever anything happened
on the screen ever.
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