"A good start to an awesome series of games."

This game was awesome when it first came out, and it is still great to this day. However, since Melee's been out for a long time, and Smash Bros. Revolution is on its way, I don't think a lot of people play it; they've probably moved on, which I understand. It's still a fun game, though. I myself still play it a lot, as do quite a few people I know. But enough about that. Time for the ratings.

Graphics

Very good graphics, considering when the game came out. At the time, the graphics were practically flawless. Now, they might not be, but they're still quite good. The characters were all done well so that you could have fun while playing with good characters as well. Well done on the graphics.

There were also the graphics for the projectile attack graphics, which, surprisingly, were also well done. I must say, when I first played the game, I didn't expect that much out of them, but I was deadly surprised at how well done they were.

Sound/Music

This was also very well done. For each level, there was a theme with it, that came straight out of the game that it came from. For example, the Metroid theme came with the Metroid stage, and the Legend of Zelda theme with the Hyrule stage, etc.

The character voices were also done well. You didn't get many irritating voices from them, and they all sounded relatively like they should have. They aren't perfect, but you can't expect perfection, can you?

Story

Obviously, there's no story. There's a small part to it in 1 Player mode where you fight the Master Hand, which leads you to think that the characters are all just toys in a toy box.

The characters all have different stories behind them in their respective games, but I won't go into detail there; they can be covered in the reviews for the respective games.

Replay Value

Obviously, the replay value is a perfect 10/10. It's a game that was made mainly for the Multiplayer section of it. You can have up to four people knocking the stuffing out of each other, each with a character with its own skills and abilities... Ah, good times, good times...

Back to the review. The replay value for 1 player mode may not have been all that great, but obviously, Multiplayer makes up for it. Nintendo did well here.

There's also the Practice Mode and the Bonus Areas. In Practice Mode, you can get better with whatever character you are working with. The Bonus Areas are the Break the Targets and Board the Platforms. They are used, not only to get better with them, but to unlock characters, so it is recommended that you go here before you get too addicted to Vs Mode.

Gameplay

Ah, yes, Gameplay. As I said in an above section, you get different characters from other games, each with its own ability from that game (e.g. Mario with his jumping abilities from Super Mario, and the many other Mario games; Link and his sword from Legend of Zelda; Pikachu with its electric powers from Pokemon; etc).

There are eight characters that you start off with, along with four secret characters, totalling to twelve Smash characters. You can use any single one o them for 1 Player Mode.

In 1 Player mode, you must clear several stages with the main characters, as well as some bonus stages (Board the Platforms, Break the Targets, Race to the Finish). Each stage is harder than the last, and some of them have a little extra to it, such as many of the one character, or a giant version of the character. Then you get the sub-boss level and the boss level, which are each both fun and slightly difficult (depending on what level difficulty you're on, but it can be hard on all of them if you're only just starting to play).

Then comes Vs Mode (Multiplayer), the highlight of this game. You can have up to four people, and then you can beat the hell out of each other. You can also use items (also taken straight from other games, or just made for this game, such as the Beam Sword and the Barrel). There are eight stages, as well as a bonus stage. Each stage represents one of the characters.

There's a funny trick to this as well: Each stage's position in the selection screen (not including the bonus stage) is in the same position as its character in the character selection screen. I have yet to know if Nintendo intended on this or not when they made this game, but they most likely did.

Difficulty Level

It's not a very hard game, to tell you the truth. The only thing that this would apply to is A) the 1 player mode, and B) the computer players in Vs Mode. Neither are overly challenging, but you should have fun with it, no matter what the level of difficulty.

Overall:

Graphics - 8/10
Sound/Music - 9/10
Story - 7/10
Replay Value - 10/10
Gameplay - 8/10
Difficulty Level - 6/10

Total (not average): 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/08/06