Super Smash Bros.

Nintendo calls it a star-studded slam-fest and that pretty well sums it up! It's a tournament fighting game involving the stars from different Nintendo worlds. In our house, we normally avoid console fighting games like the plague! However my sons (9 and 11) traded games with a friend for a month and brought Super Smash Bros. home. Their comment was "It's just toys, they don't really get hurt", and it has generated a great deal of family discussion about violence in games :-).

The game can be played single player or with up to 4 in multiplayer mode. My kids liked multiplayer mode so much that they used birthday money and savings to purchase extra game controllers so that they could play with their friends! Each player can choose amongst 8 characters to start with: Mario, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Samus, Pikachu, Yoshi, Link and Fox McCloud. There are 4 more secret characters, that you gain access to through success in play: Luigi, Jigglypuff, Capt. Falcon and Ness.

Each character has different fighting abilities. My kids' favorites are Kirby and Pikachu and they went through a long litany for me of exactly what all the different buttons do when they are fighting - I wish they would memorize their homework this well!! Pikachu apparently has a great head butt, a bouncing thunder shock that looks like a slinky, and a great flip tail whip (in Alan's opinion). Kirby has great punches, can turn into a brick, can copy opponents' moves, and has some of the best combo moves in the game (according to Kevin). This is all Greek to me!>

There is apparently a story behind the game - the toys are all trying to free themselves from their creator and become normal toys, and have to win tournaments to gain their freedom. Single player mode involves a succession of tournaments in 13 zones (8 of them the universes of the 8 main characters) starting at Link's Castle. The objective is to beat each of the other characters on its home ground, that is Link in his castle or Yoshi in Yoshi Land.

A toy wins a tournament by knocking the other character out of the ring or making it fall. Individual battles reminded me of a very fast 'rock-paper-scissor' game as each character has a variety of moves to choose from, and the combination of each fighter's moves determines the outcome. Yes, there is some strategy involved in picking characters and moves that can win in the different environments and there are Nintendo Tips for each character's battle moves, and how to succeed in the different battle zones.

Multiplayer games can be played for a set time or by assigning (up to 99) lives to the players, in which case play continues until only one player remains. There can be up to 4 human and game players (the latter can be set at 9 levels of difficulty). There are 7 levels of multiplayer tournaments. It can be played in teams, for example human players in a team versus machine characters. Observing 4 kids play in this mode is very much like watching an old-fashioned pillow fight - they seem to find the whole thing hilarious! Various power-ups fall randomly from the sky, including a Fire Flower (that shoots fire), Hearts to heal damage, and Stars (which give temporary invincibility).

I have very mixed feelings about this game! Its focus is a bunch of characters thumping each other. Are we encouraging violence by letting kids play the game, or giving them a cathartic outlet for aggression? It has provided HUGE entertainment value to my children, with impressive staying power, and does have a multiplayer mode. While the kids' characters are fighting each other in this mode, the players are also telling each other how they feel about it! Some times this has led to arguments such as "Why are you all always picking on me?".

I would not recommend any violent game for younger children. Older ones will find this game tremendous fun. Trade that off against your own views on fighting games. If you do buy this one for your kids, watch the time they spend on it (it seems to be very addictive!) and be prepared for interventions when game play overflows into kids getting mad at each other. These can always be used as learning opportunities :-).