Screenshot by Erik Ridd

Playable fighters (L-R) Pac-Man, Mii FIghter, Sonic,, and Mario battle on the Omega version of the Golden Plains stage.

Since the beginning of video games, people have been asking one question, “who would win in a fight between Mario, Sonic and Pac-Man?” Many people have speculated as to which one of these three characters is the best, but now we have a way to answer this question: “Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo 3DS.”

“Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS” is a fighting game, where you can play as 48 different characters from various video game series and battle against other people. The character selection includes classic characters like Donkey Kong and Sonic, as well as new and more obscure characters like the “Xenoblade Chronicles’” protagonist, Shulk, and the Villager from “Animal Crossing.” Some of these characters are unlocked by battling. The goal of each match is to knock the other fighter off the screen, and each character has a wide range of attacks to do so. The majority of characters are balanced and play differently from the others, each having their own weight, skills and weaknesses. They also can have their moves and stats customized with unlockable items to fit specific play styles. The game also allows people to create their own fighters, called Mii Fighters, allowing anyone to join the game. Their names, appearances and abilities are created by the player.

In battles, there are a variety of items players can use and stages to play on. Many of these stages are fun and unique, but others have cheap gimmicks that ruin the experience. Scrolling stages tend to turn battling into contests of “who can run in the right direction the best,” and stages like the Gaur Plain have horrific layouts where most of the battles are spent trying not to fall off the few, small platforms. Luckily, most of the stages are good and pay homage to the games they come from. Omega versions of the stages are available, which turn each stage into a flat version of the stage. This allows you to see the scenery of a stage with gimmick-free battles. The items in the game are powerful and, for the most part, provide a fun and chaotic way to score knockouts.

The game modes are well done. Classic mode is better than the previous installments, allowing players to choose which challenges to do and offering a brutal final fight that truly tests players on harder difficulties. In All-Star mode, you fight all the characters with limited health restoring items, a well done challenge. Hit Smash, Home-Run Contest and the Multi-Man Smash are good mini-games, but their appeal wears off quickly. Playing online is another mode, but lag can become a serious issue if multiple devices are connected to the internet or the internet speed is slow.

Smash Run is the final mode. Players have five minutes to navigate a maze and fight Nintendo enemies and collect stat power-ups. Afterwards, the players fight a challenge with these stat upgrades. The maze part is good, but the challenge part can sometimes be awful. It can easily become one overpowered player destroying the others depending on the amount and type of power-ups each player collects The challenge is also random, so there is no way to prepare for it effectively if luck is not on your side.

The game’s visuals are well done, with each character and object detailed and polished. However, it is difficult to appreciate on the small 3DS screen. Screen size becomes an issue in four person battles, as the camera ends up zooming out so far that everyone looks like ants. The 3DS XL makes this problem a little less prominent, but it’s still there. The game’s music and sound effects are good, taking tracks from the different games the characters come from. When you close the 3DS while in the sound menu, you can even turn the 3DS into an MP3 player.

“Super Smash Bros for Nintendo 3DS” is by no means a perfect video game, but it is a smashing good time. It is at its most fun when playing with friends (even when said friends are way better at the game than you are) and creates endless amounts of fun, frustration and laughs.

Overall, I give the game an 8.5 out of 10.