First things first. Smash Brothers was an absolutley brilliant concept  for a videogame( who would not want to see Link face off against lil Pikachu). And we can finally reveal that the game behind this concept is actually pretty good. No, GREAT.
 

     There may not be a million moves ( that will have all you Tekken purists hitting the Back button on your browser)
or characters who are so stereotyped it's funny, or any of the other things that people so often see in Beat-em-ups.
It's a celebration of all things Nintendo, drawing together characters that we all know and love and putting them in a game that is so well balanced, so fun to play, that it could only have come out of Nintendo.

The games principal is simple and yet incredibly innovative at the same time.
Points are scored for knocking opponents out of the arena rather than knocking them out.
However you still have to battle your opponent as the mored damage they take, the more susceptible
they are to flying miles into the air.

 However it is the game's addition of a four player  mode that makes it so incredibly good. It is a feature that works superbly ( although occasionly the camera does scale out a bit too much on the larger levels) and is great fun all the time. It ranks up there alongside other multiplayer greats such as Goldeneye or MarioKart (yes it really is that good!)

Graphics
     This game is not about graphics in the way that so many beat em ups tend to be these days ( 'realistc' blood and gore a la Mortal Kombat) but the graphics are nevertheless clean and crisp. The characters all appear well defined       ( even though there is a sligh drop in detail between these models and their game counterparts)  But overall the action is beautifully smooth and detailed, even when four people are battling it out!

Sound
     Nostalgic tunes ( yes even the overworld theme is back in jazzed up form) fit perfectly alongside the frantic fighting system. Great sound effects accompany what is already an impressive aural portfolio and a crowd that cries 'ooh' and 'aah' with every special move is the icing on the cake..

                                                       To Finish....

 Imndeed the only thing that we can see with Smash Brothers is that it hasn't been scheduled for a European release date yet. It would be the most heinous of crimes if this cracking little game never saw the light of day over here.
Especially seeing as one Shigeru Miyamoto is credited as being one of the games producers...

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