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 Luigi vs. Bowser |  Mario vs. Donkey Kong |  Link vs. Dark Link |  Pikachu vs. Charizard |
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The phenom that began esports as we know it comes to the New Nintendo 3DS! Well... and the old 3DS as well, I suppose. But you won't like it on there. Buy our new handheld, pretty please?
Okay, that was a lot of sarcasm. But, what do you want? It's Super Smash Bros.; nothing about it has changed dramatically since ye olde Nintendus LXIV. But the release dates for this game and the New Nintendo 3DS are suspiciously close together. While I'm not going so far as to suggest that Smash 4 was supposed to be the N3DS's killer-app (especially considering Nintendo of America was not planning to release it, claiming it was too similar to the 3DS and would confuse people), I am going to say that, in all probability, the developers were briefed on the new, memory-expanded 3DS hardware, optimising code for it and adding exclusive features. Not like gameplay abilities— "play on the New Nintendo 3DS to unlock XYZ new character"— but more along the lines of using the C-stick in the same way as Brawl.
The Smash Bros series and I didn't part on the best of terms the last time I played. My last encounter with a Smash game was Brawl on Wii, probably around about 2014. I guess, it wasn't the game's fault, it was all the depressing stuff happening in my life at the time. Shortly thereafter, I got a new TV to replace the my old stereo CRT and I couldn't play Wii games on it because of analogue signal lag. Well, I mean, the picture would display, but there was, like, half a second between buttonpresses and action on the game screen. I'd had Smash 4 in my datahoard for about 3 years and, once I jailbroke my 3DS last year, I decided I should get around to at least trying it out. It's taken me a while, but I think I've finally warmed up to it. I was so out-of-practise during my first fight (Fire Mario vs. Wario Mario) that I self-destructed twice and was KO'd once. My button action is still a little clumsy, and I'm not prepared to blame the equipment for that. Admittedly, the 3DS has stiffer button action than I'm accustomed to, but I've been playing other games with no difficulty for the past 13 months, so we can safely call it a skill issue.
A word to the wise: if the silicone grip comes off the circle pad, as it is prone to do in this game, just leave it off. The plastic disk is quite large enough for your thumb and you'll perform better if you're not constantly thinking about it. It's a design fault that causes it to come off in the first place, and as far as I know, there's no glue that will stick it back on.
5/10, would recommend, but only with potentially deal-breaking reservations. First, I would only recommend this for people with jailbroken New Nintendo 3DS or some variant thereof, for the following reasons. Relative to game performance; this game will run on the standard 3DS, but its tremendous processor footprint will drain the battery twice as fast as other games, even with 3D mode turned off. It will also forbid access to the Home menu anywhere except the title screen; since you can't get back to the Home menu without ending the game, its HUD includes your nickname, the clock, and the system's battery indicator. All of this is mitigated by the greater CPU speed and RAM on the New 3DS. The elephant in the room, and the reason why I'm recommending jailbreaking your system first, is online functionality. Smash 4 on both platforms got its global multiplayer permanently switched off in April of 2024 when Nintendo pulled the plug on Nintendo Network. While local multiplayer over NFC still works, there is no available alternative for global fights so far as I know, but the Pretendo Network team are working on it. While there's a certain 0% chance that Nintendo will ever reopen the official channels, jailbreaking your system will allow you to use the Pretendo Network to play online once it is capable of doing so. Also, with no way to add money to the eShop (because there's no eShop to add money to), the game's entire roster of DLC is locked out. Jailbroken systems can use the DLC archive file from No-Intro to get around this problem and get access to characters like Ryu and Lucas.
Even if it were still possible to play online multiplayer, 3DS as a concept is still a major stumbling block for this game. As a matter of record, Smash 4 was also available, in more or less the same form, for Wii U, which is a television-based console with inherent multiplayer properties. If it comes down to it, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is the superior choice. That having been said, there's nothing wrong with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, this game's immediate predecessor. So, don't rush away to get a Wii U just for this game, when you can play Brawl on Dolphin or your jailbroken Wii instead and make it easy on yourself.
