Added: 25.11.2014 2:15 | 9 views | 0 comments

In some respects, Smash for Wii U is the same game released on the 3DS two months ago: it has the same characters, same premise, and same reverence for gaming history. The fundamental difference is in the depth of the experience. The Wii U Smash has tighter controls, better action, more options for single- and multiplayer, more remixes of classic Nintendo songs, more stages, more customization, stage builders--the list goes on. The Wii U version is the definitive Smash Bros. experience.

At its most basic level, Smash Bros. is what you’d get if you built a game on the premise of settling the classic question, “I wonder who’d win in a fight: Mario or Link?” You and your opponents choose whichever character you like from Nintendo’s staggering roster of 49 fighters and enter the fray. Damage works in a unique and slightly obtuse way. In stark contrast with most fighting games, you don’t have a limited pool of health that depletes as you take damage. Instead, your health counts upwards, and the more hits you take, the further you're sent flying when hit again. The goal of any given match is to knock your opponents off the stage and prevent them from safely returning.

This series presents a challenge unique to the Smash Bros. series: recovery. If you are simply knocked from a platform or fall off by accident, it’s usually easy enough to make it back. Every character has at least two jump moves, and almost all of them have an additional emergency technique for covering large distances. Mindlessly knocking around opponents rarely clinches you a victory. Depending upon how well your opponent can predict your movements, it’s entirely possible and often advised to trick adversaries into falling off the stage for an easy knockout. The amazing depth and variety of this system is at the heart of Smash, and its marriage of the ridiculous and the serious, and the casual and the competitive, is what sets it apart from other adversarial games.

The disparity between the portable and console versions of the game is both immediately apparent and stunning, and making the jump to the Wii U version is freeing. On the pint-sized 3DS, some characters are clearly more comfortable to control than others; given the Wii U’s option to use seven different kinds of controllers, most Smash enthusiasts can immediately and competently play as just about anyone. If you struggled to use Mega Man to his fullest potential on the 3DS, you will enjoy the ease with which you can guide him now. Everyone from Samus to Wii Fit Trainer, Villager to Mario, responds with impressive ease.

Each time you select someone with whom you’re unfamiliar, it’s like being given a brand-new toolbox. You won’t know how to use every move immediately, but they all have a purpose. Your role is to learn when and where to use each skill. As with competitive martial arts, much of the match relies on carefully watching your opponent, maintaining your own balance, and being constantly ready to punish a mistake. At every step in the process, you have some degree of control.

That focus on fine control dovetails perfectly with many of Smash Bros.' new mechanics. Ledge guarding, a staple in Smash 64, Melee, and Brawl, has been removed. This pushes a lot of the combat off the stage, requiring stronger aerial play. While most moves also knock foes farther than they used to, each character generally only has two or three solid "killing moves." That means that knockouts require substantially more skill to execute cleanly, which in turn, translates into a distinct cut between high-level and low-level players. These changes benefit everyone. Casual players are able to survive much longer than they may be used to, making sure they aren’t left out of the game entirely. Professional-level brawlers still have the skill set necessary to dominate the less experienced, but cheap kills amongst one another are less common. This tight balance helps satisfy every kind of fan, without cheapening the experience for any one group. This philosophy defines Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Everyone from Samus to Wii Fit Trainer, Villager to Mario, responds with impressive ease.

In that vein, Yoshi’s Wooly World, Kalos Pokemon League, and Mushroom Kingdom U are standouts. They all have new stage hazards like flaming pillars, or a pool that makes your fighter metallic, or a guy that tries to stuff you in a sack and jump off the level, resulting in an instant death. All of these stages are wonderfully rendered and keep multiplayer matches from losing their luster even after countless hours, though you can always use the Wii U gamepad to create your own levels if you seek even more diversity. There are too many restrictions on size and too few tools available, but drawing ridiculous levels with the touchpad more than makes up for the limitations. Disappointingly, you can’t conduct eight-player matches on custom stages, which is a missed opportunity for even crazier play.

Online multiplayer is an unfortunate stain on an otherwise stellar game. Lag in online Smash Bros. matches is hugely variable. Some online games chug along at a mere five frames or fewer per second or less, rendering the game completely unplayable. Others are almost as smooth as if you were playing locally. Playing with friends with solid Internet connections may help, but even so, there’s no knowing how any given match might perform. Online play is extremely hit-or-miss, with the misses being absolutely maddening.

Poor internet functionality is, thankfully, a blight on an otherwise incredible game. Between the Masterpiece Collections, which are short demos of the classic games that inspired Smash Bros., the many fighters and stages, the deep character customization for fine-tuning your fighters to suit your play style, and the extensive screenshot editing tools, there’s just so much to do. With the Wii U release, Smash Bros. has fully realized its goals. There’s something here for nearly everyone--from young to old, from novice to expert--presented almost without compromise. Super Smash Bros. Wii U invites everyone to join in its undiluted, joyous celebration of the broad community that Nintendo has built over the past forty years.

Added: 24.11.2014 23:17 | 1 views | 0 comments

Speakeasy is a fighting game based on a cross-country underground fisticuffs tournament in the time of Prohibition, populated entirely by Al Hirschfeld caricatures of actual notable figures from the era, where the winner gets access to the last barrels of legitimate hooch in America to do with what they will.

I am so, so sorry that I had to tell you that. I'm sorry because that is the only accurate description that one can give to the game, and because the description probably put a beautiful picture in your head of a wild, cel-shaded fracas, scored by the likes of Jelly Roll Morton and George Gershwin, of super moves involving Tommy guns, of the typically meaningless fighting game timer counting down to government raids, of flapper girls milling about in backgrounds, of final bosses living in Great Gatsby opulence, and of being able to replay great matches in the style of silent pictures. I apologize because I am going to have to sweep all those wonderful ideas away and tell you what Speakeasy actually is: a glorified game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

I apologize because Speakeasy is, quite simply, a waste.

The core of Speakeasy's gameplay is that you pick your character, each character stands on opposite sides of the stage, and upon the word “Fight!” you can either attack using X, block using Square, or fake out your opponent using Circle. Matches are one-hit kills, and in the main gameplay mode, you can only press each button once. If your attack connects, your opponent's head pops off and you win. If you both try to attack at the same time, there's an Injustice-style quick-time minigame when the fighters meet in the middle that determines the winner.

These mechanics might have found a reasonable home on mobile platforms, but having it be PS4 exclusive is like using an orbital laser to heat up a Hot Pocket. It's a game prime for bite-sized bursts of fun while waiting to do something else. There's the thin trappings of strategy here, where split-second timing to beat your opponent to the punch is key, and having the ability to fake out opponents is a nifty twist, though that's as far as the game's strategy really goes, and all it really does is raise the game, in fleeting moments, from being just Rock, Paper, Scissors to Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.

There's no meat on Speakeasy's bones. There is no single-player mode and no online matchmaking, so unless you can find another person to play with, it's useless as even a fleeting diversion. There are a few different modes allowing you to press each button two or three times instead, a three-person tag mode, and options for tournaments, but this isn't the kind of game that lends itself to that level of obsession and competition, especially when actual Rock, Paper, Scissors is free, and you can probably reward each other with real-world snacks instead of a pathetic selection of fancy hats for your 100th win.

Speakeasy being just a simple, ignorable bad game could be accepted, but the fact that it had to drag a fantastic premise down with it is criminal. Every time the character selection screen pops up is a tragedy in motion: The cast of playable characters includes easily recognizable caricatures of Nicolas Tesla, Amelia Earhart, and Charlie Chaplin, but it also aims for appropriate historical deep cuts, like a stern, hatchet-wielding effigy of Carrie Nation. The cast is rounded out by a brickhouse giant, old-style mustachioed boxer and a black jazz trumpeter. It's a cast of characters that you never see in any fighting game, and the likelihood of it ever happening again is slim. Each character only has about five animations apiece, with no voice acting, each controls identically, and virtually none of the personality you'd assume from seeing these characters on sight is present. It's basically no different from when old-school gamers had to lay cellophane over TVs to pretend that the bounding lights on their screens were something else. It was silly in the 70s. It’s unthinkable now.

Ultimately, everything about Speakeasy comes down to a leitmotif of “____ is too good for this game.” The PS4 is more powerful than the game deserves. The premise is more than the game needs. The characters are too perfect just to be squandered on punching characters' heads off. The game was better when it was just Rock, Paper, Scissors. The price is more than the game is worth. And your time is better spent doing something else.

Added: 24.11.2014 23:17 | 0 views | 0 comments

Speakeasy is a fighting game based on a cross-country underground fisticuffs tournament in the time of Prohibition, populated entirely by Al Hirschfeld caricatures of actual notable figures from the era, where the winner gets access to the last barrels of legitimate hooch in America to do with what they will.

I am so, so sorry that I had to tell you that. I'm sorry because that is the only accurate description that one can give to the game, and because the description probably put a beautiful picture in your head of a wild, cel-shaded fracas, scored by the likes of Jelly Roll Morton and George Gershwin, of super moves involving Tommy guns, of the typically meaningless fighting game timer counting down to government raids, of flapper girls milling about in backgrounds, of final bosses living in Great Gatsby opulence, and of being able to replay great matches in the style of silent pictures. I apologize because I am going to have to sweep all those wonderful ideas away and tell you what Speakeasy actually is: a glorified game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

I apologize because Speakeasy is, quite simply, a waste.

The core of Speakeasy's gameplay is that you pick your character, each character stands on opposite sides of the stage, and upon the word “Fight!” you can either attack using X, block using Square, or fake out your opponent using Circle. Matches are one-hit kills, and in the main gameplay mode, you can only press each button once. If your attack connects, your opponent's head pops off and you win. If you both try to attack at the same time, there's an Injustice-style quick-time minigame when the fighters meet in the middle that determines the winner.

These mechanics might have found a reasonable home on mobile platforms, but having it be PS4 exclusive is like using an orbital laser to heat up a Hot Pocket. It's a game prime for bite-sized bursts of fun while waiting to do something else. There's the thin trappings of strategy here, where split-second timing to beat your opponent to the punch is key, and having the ability to fake out opponents is a nifty twist, though that's as far as the game's strategy really goes, and all it really does is raise the game, in fleeting moments, from being just Rock, Paper, Scissors to Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots.

There's no meat on Speakeasy's bones. There is no single-player mode and no online matchmaking, so unless you can find another person to play with, it's useless as even a fleeting diversion. There are a few different modes allowing you to press each button two or three times instead, a three-person tag mode, and options for tournaments, but this isn't the kind of game that lends itself to that level of obsession and competition, especially when actual Rock, Paper, Scissors is free, and you can probably reward each other with real-world snacks instead of a pathetic selection of fancy hats for your 100th win.

Speakeasy being just a simple, ignorable bad game could be accepted, but the fact that it had to drag a fantastic premise down with it is criminal. Every time the character selection screen pops up is a tragedy in motion: The cast of playable characters includes easily recognizable caricatures of Nicolas Tesla, Amelia Earhart, and Charlie Chaplin, but it also aims for appropriate historical deep cuts, like a stern, hatchet-wielding effigy of Carrie Nation. The cast is rounded out by a brickhouse giant, old-style mustachioed boxer and a black jazz trumpeter. It's a cast of characters that you never see in any fighting game, and the likelihood of it ever happening again is slim. Each character only has about five animations apiece, with no voice acting, each controls identically, and virtually none of the personality you'd assume from seeing these characters on sight is present. It's basically no different from when old-school gamers had to lay cellophane over TVs to pretend that the bounding lights on their screens were something else. It was silly in the 70s. It’s unthinkable now.

Ultimately, everything about Speakeasy comes down to a leitmotif of “____ is too good for this game.” The PS4 is more powerful than the game deserves. The premise is more than the game needs. The characters are too perfect just to be squandered on punching characters' heads off. The game was better when it was just Rock, Paper, Scissors. The price is more than the game is worth. And your time is better spent doing something else.