After six years since the last entry in the series, many fans have been craving for a new Super Smash Bros. game. And with the recent release roughly over a week ago, many gamers are finally able to return to the beloved Nintendo brawler. The noticeable difference with this installment is that, instead of being released on an home entertainment console, it is the first entry to be played on a handheld, with the Wii U version being released on Nov. 21, 2014. Although the game is on the Nintendo 3DS, it still stacks pretty well compared to its predecessors.

With every new Smash Bros. game we are always wondering what new characters we can play, and the new Smash Bros. has nothing but variety with 15 new characters to play, bringing the total number of characters to 49 characters which is the largest roster a Smash Bros. game has ever had. Along with this, every returning character has been tweaked for the new game. There are some unique characters this time around with the long awaited Megaman, the well-known Pac-Man, along with others that need to be unlocked. There are only 12 characters that need to be unlocked so there are still a good amount of characters you can play before unlocking all of them. Along with the added character additions you can also make custom movesets for each character which is a fun addition.

When playing the game, there is many different things to do with the original Smash mode, the redesigned classic mode, All-Star mode, Stadium games, and the new Smash Run mode. Along with this there are three pages of challenges for you to complete, and you can play online to test your skills against other players. Even with the all of the things that the games offers I felt a bit bored with everything after playing each mode a few times. The modes were still fun to play, but it seems more like a task to play a particular mode rather than playing some of them for fun. After unlocking all of the characters, you will probably spend most of your time fighting others online.

The online portion of the game is separated into two categories, “For Fun” and “For Glory”. When playing online, you may notice a few things that are inconvenient–the first being that you may have trouble with the actual display of the game if you aren’t playing on a Nintendo 3ds XL model. I was playing on the oldest model of the 3DS and the screen was a bit small especially when playing “For Fun” since it involves 4 players on the screen and the camera may zoom out to fit all the characters. This wasn’t the most major problem, though, since it would only occur when playing on certain stages. The biggest problem, when playing online, is the lag that comes with most games. In both modes, there would be lag for most of the matches played, and everyone would experience it. Regardless of the lag from playing online, it was still fun playing online and fighting against random people and testing my skills.

When playing on “For Glory”, you get to choose what type of battle you would like to take part in. A 4-player smash game, a one vs. one battle or a two vs. two team battle comprise the game modes available. Regardless of which mode you play, all of your battle records are recorded which gives you statistics about your win percentage and you victories and losses. I mostly played one vs. one matches and was drawn into fighting random people. When playing one vs. one, I would experience occasional lag, but not as much as when I would play with four players. Also, the one vs. one matches would seem more intense since there is nothing else to distract you since you are fighting against one person who will really test your skills.

With this being the first Smash Bros. game on the 3DS, there are a bunch of pros and cons that come from this. First off you are now allowed to bring the game anywhere you want and can play it anywhere you want. This is great since you don’t have to be at home to play the game now. With the game being on the 3DS, there is no C-Stick like on the Nintendo GameCube controller, so there are no shortcut commands and everything has to be inputted manually. Overall, the screen is small for a Smash Bros. game and will definitely look better on the big screen.

In general, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS is an excellent game. It has plenty of modes to play even though you may forget some exist after a while. It is the first installment on a handheld so you can bring it anywhere and play. It is the largest and possibly best roster we have had and down to its core it is still the same game fans of the series know and love. Pick up a copy of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and start to Smash today.