Super Smash Bros.

Yes, I didn't get to experience the excitement the game probably brought when it was first released on the Nintendo 64 since I was born in 1998 and was spoiled with melee and the gamecube as my first smash game and console, but even so, I still managed to put a decent amount of hours into it after deciding to buy an N64 to see what the hype was about. I will start with the good. For it's time, the concept of smash bros was a genius idea, and when it came to pure party gameplay, the adventure mode and campaign, it was an instant innovative standout that laid the groundwork for all future smash games. No one can argue that the game wasn't cool to practically anyone who was a nintendo fan at the time, because it essentially took all the characters from beloved games and put them into one. It's also still played today competitively by the legendary Isai, (you can refer to the smash doc for that one), as well as Superboomfan, another legendary N64 top 5 player. There are still "coolest trick combo contests" at local and major tournaments too, which the game excels at because of it's very combo heavy gameplay. However, on that same note of gameplay mechanics and heavy combos in mind, let's get into the bad. The big issue with this game is that it's so easy to die and also perform infinite combos. The movement also feels much more boxy and laggy, and since any small hit holds so much weight, it's just hard to have much freedom to think outside of the box when you know the room for error is so little before you get killed by, most likely yoshi, in a few hits. I mean just look up a wizzrobe n64 set to see what I mean. This man will play yoshi and or pikachu, and will do like 8 infinite uptilts, one nair, into forward air and the opponent will be dead. I'm sure for him it's fun, but for the average player, or should i say, the average player who enjoys the creative and competitive gameplay of the multiplayer, it's a very underwhelming experience that feels more like a strategic puzzle game than a fast fighting game. Sure, it's not horrible, but it's not by any means fun after like 2 hours. I would say the classic, adventure, and events modes are much more rewarding. I'd up those numbers to a good 3-5 hours until boredom. Additionally, when we look at how Smash 64 measures up against future smash games, I'm sorry, but in my opinion, it doesn't compete. I might even put Smash 4 above this game if I had a gun to my head but honestly, maybe they'd have to shoot me because, NOTHING is worse than smash 4 (in my opinion). However, even though the game has underwhelming mechanics, like I said, it's not that awful and it did lay the groundwork for future smash games, and it's still played and watched competitively a shit ton more than smash 4 - I mean once the Zero acquisitions came out that game was toast but i mean it sucked anyway. So, while i didn't love the game, I'm going Im still going to give it a B-. I think it deserves it's flowers, but that's about it.