Level One: Super Smash Bros WiiU and 3DS

If you've never herd of Super Smash Brothers then you're not a fan of Nintendo, simple as. It's an exceptionally fun fighting game that was pretty much ripped off by a few other games (Namely, CN Punch Time Explosion and Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, both of which are trash in comparison). The general idea is you pick a character from a 30-strong roster of Nintendo's most iconic characters (and a few other, stranger inclusions like Pac-Man) and pummel your enemies until you can whack them off the edge of the screen for a K.O. there are no health bars, just taking damage makes your character lighter and so easier to hit off the stage. Smash brothers has a huge fanbase as well as a brilliant competitive scene across both the Gamecube's 'Melee' game and the Wii's 'Brawl' so naturally when I saw the new installment available to play (and in a tournament, no less!) I had to give it a few (hundred) goes.

I feel like when Nintendo decided the Animal Crossing Villager should be in the game they were thinking 'Fuck it, if Phoenix Wright can be in a fighting game, why not?"

Though I heard the character rosters for both versions would be the same on release, the ones available on the day differed slightly for some reason; Toon Link on the 3DS and regular Link on the WiiU, Rosalina & Luma on the WiiU and Little Mac on the 3DS, but I won't go too much into that.
I'll be honest from what I've seen I do like the new characters, though the power of Little Mac I definitely question, same with Wii Fit Trainer though she is a fun addition, other characters have had changes that can be clearly be defined as buffs or nerfs or a change to their Final Smashes. I'm proud to say that what I have seen so far makes me very excited for its final release.

The decision to release the game on the 3DS is also an interesting one, I'll be honest, playing on that tiny screen makes it very difficult to see what's going on and winning a 3DS match could probably be put down more to luck or at least who has the best 20/20 vision, the question is, is that worth enduring for an earlier release date or the ability to play Smash Bros on the go? Totally! Especially if you're a proud 3DS XL owner and have that massive screen to play around on. On the other hand the WiiU version I can only define as pure beauty. It looks lovely, everything flows well and you can clearly see everything that's going on, not to mention just how mind-blowing the graphics and the slickness of the HUD look now. Sure, it plays just the same as every Smash Bros game, but where Brawl was a quality time sink in a fancy mansion when it came out, Smash Bros WiiU is a solid 24 carat golden time sink that shoots pure rainbows into your face when you peer inside it even for a little bit.

Yep... That's it. no, no, you need to get closer to be able to play the game properly! Just try not to fall into the hole where the screen should be, that's how the 3D works on this you know!

Anyway since my experience with the game was all in regards to very small bracketed tournaments I'll go ahead and talk about my run. The preliminary round was a simple 2 minute free-for-all with 4 players on the 3DS, which made it quite hard considering the stuff I've already mentioned, I'll be honest I wasn't really sure what was going on, all I knew is that the crowd watching let out a huge 'NO!' when Little Mac who seemed to clearly be leading was killed by Sheik, interestingly enough when the two minutes was up nobody had any idea who had won, and rightfully so, the match became a 4 man Sudden Death, which starts you at 300% damage and pretty much anything that isn't a bloody weak projectile will have you killed. regardless I'm still confused as to what happened, all I remember is grabbing Little Mac, punching him a few times and having no idea how to throw him away, some of the crowd were shouting "Toon Link throw him!" and I had no idea how, eventually he broke free cause I held him too long but that's when my spamming the A button stopped being grapple punches and became a killing blow. I have no idea what happened to the other two but I'm sure at least one was alive at the time...

8 people qualified for each tournament, split into two four player Semi-Finals which were 5 minute 4 stock (lives) free-for-alls. to get into the final, you needed to be first or second place. the fight was unremarkable to say the least, it concluded in a Sudden Death again between me (now playing older Link because it was the WiiU version for the Finals and Semis) and this guy playing Kirby. He won, but I was through anyway so i didn't care.

When the final came around though it was a real surprise, same rules as the Semi-Finals, and clearly everyone had chosen their favorite characters, so in the end there were two Kirbys and Two Links. The game began, and it was all relatively even. The Kirby player from the first Semi-Final did lose his last life around halfway through the game though, and by the time the 30 second mark rolled in, a Smash Ball had appeared and everyone had one life remaining. Needless to say it became a bit of a scramble for the Smash Ball as it would almost certainly eradicate someone from the game if they were hit. The remaining Kirby got the Smash Ball... and he hit me. ten seconds to go and I fly off to the left corner after a barrage of glowy-swordy swings from Kirby and sit there shaking my controller and pushing the analog stick to the right so hard I wanted to rip the controller in two from the pressure. To the shock of everyone in the general vicinity and certainly the commentator, I survived by the skin of my tunic, and with a carefully timed Up B to dodge a last attack from the clearly flustered Kirby player I lived to fight another day in yet another nerve-wracking Sudden Death.

Even to this very day I fail to understand how I survived this move. Thank you God.

Two Links and a Kirby spawn into the Battlefield. All three jump into the air, one stays where he is, one moves to the left, and one to the right. With a clever use of shield the Kirby lands a superb forward Smash Attack onto one of the Links, blasting him out of the game. 'Right, only one left then!' Did the Kirby player think this to himself? Probably not, as no sooner had the first Link been wiped out, the second Link, on the other side of the map, had pulled out a bomb with Down B, and tossed it in their direction, that Link was me, and Kirby was no more.

Considering I won a copy of the game on 3DS when it's released for this victory (which I won't deny probably happened because I channeled all my good luck for the month into that one half hour feeling I was about to collapse from breathing too hard), I will probably never forget this tournament and I just wish it was on video for me to watch over and over again for me to actually make sense of what happened. Regardless, it is probably the single most epic event in my gaming history.

And if you are reading this O' Valiant Kirby player... I am truly sorry for all the luck I had on that fateful day, and for leaving you probably feeling saltier than a bag of my Dad's fish & chips.

TL;DR: I am the luckiest bastard to have played this game yet. Deal with it.