Super Smash Bros 3DS demo - First Impressions

The latest installment of the Super Smash Bros series is coming to the 3DS in a little under 3 weeks. This week after a Treehouse Direct Nintendo released codes for Nintendo Club platinum members to get their hands on the demo for Super Smash Bros 3DS earlier than the general public. This demo allows players to try out three new and two old characters and get to fight it out alone or with friends on one stage.

In this demo you are allowed to play as Mario, Link and Pikachu as the veteran fighters returning and you are also able to play as Megaman and the Villager. The battles in the demo follow the rules of 2 minute timed matches and the available stage is Battlefield in both its normal form, where all items are on, and in its omega form, this means that it has no items and is just a flat stage like Final Destination.

The gameplay of Super Smash Bros 3DS is played not as fast as the gameplay of Melee but a lot faster than Brawl, this in between ground means that they have managed to find a good pace. The returning characters have almost the same move sets with some small changes such as Mario getting the use of FLUDD as a down B as well as Link's hop and smash on his running A. The new characters show good balance in their gameplay styles with both containing a good mix of short to long range moves. Outside of the battle you can move around the menu using either the analog stick or the directional pad and once you're in the character select screen you can move around a gloved hand as you do in all other iterations of Super Smash Bros.

The graphics of Super Smash Bros 3DS, while any still images may not look fantastic, once you have characters moving and fighting everything looks great. On the 3DS screen you are able to comfortable have the entire stage and the four fighters all within view while there is absolutely no drop in frame rate. On the bottom screen in the fights you can see each of the four participants of the fights accompanies with a portrait, their percentage and their names (this is also be where stock is displayed in the full retail version). The 3D of this game is also done extremely well, there is no frame drop and the "Sweet Spot" of the 3D seems more relaxed as it is easier to find. One fun addition is lightning effects when your character hit's another, or is hit, depending on your percentage that could be used to gauge your percentage without needing to look at the screen below.

Super Smash Bros 3DS audio is done extremely well as not only the background audio is clear and crisp but you can hear every sound that each of the characters makes from the swoosh of Pikachu's tail to the reminiscent mega buster as Megaman runs across the stage. For the time being the only background audio is from Battlefield and the main menu but at no point do you not instantly know that you are playing a Super Smash Bros game.

For the demo there is only local multiplayer using the same character previously mentioned as well as on the one stage. You can play with up to three of your friends who also have a copy of the demo.

For as much as there is in the demo there is also an incredible amount of things that are being withheld until the final game releases on October 3rd in both North America and Europe. Some of these things include more characters, more stages, new modes exclusive to the 3DS version of the game, a mode to test out different Nintendo themed music, streetpass modes as well as online multiplayer.

The public demo for Super Smash Bros 3DS will be available this Friday the 19th of September. When the full game is released come back here to check out my full review of the game!