Nintendo’s campaign of heavy hitters continues for the Wii U this year. First we had Mario Kart 8, and just a couple weeks ago Bayonetta 2 touched down to rave reviews. Now comes the long awaited return of Smash Bros. to the home console. While there are many more 3DSes out there already playing the handheld version of game, the big N is hoping this will entice many of its fledgling gamers back to its living room offerings. If Super Smash Bros. for Wii U fails to do that, it’s certainly no fault of the developers, who have put together the most comprehensive version of the fighter yet.

Unfortunately this edition of Smash Bros. does away with any pretense of a story, with director Masahiro Sakurai disavowing cutscenes because of people spoiling them on YouTube (really?) and thus axing the Subspace Emissary mode that was introduced in Brawl. This leaves a somewhat lackluster “Classic” mode for single players which consists of a series of decisions of which random battles to take on until reaching Master Hand. It’s all over too quickly for my taste, but then again with how many times you’ll be replaying it to unlock characters and items that’s probably a good thing. The nice part is you can scale up or down the difficulty using a wager mode similar to Kid Icarus: Uprising, with the more you risk resulting in greater rewards if you survive.

But enough about what’s old, there’s plenty of new things to do in Smash Bros., like creating personal fighters with your Miis! To be honest, this feels like the real meat of the game, as not only can you customize your appearance, you can also level up, tweak stats with upgrades, and configure your own moves and fighting style (Brawler, Swordfighter, and Gunner). I had a blast playing the game with my Mii, and once you work on it enough it can be quite powerful compared to the standard cast. I can see this being a real point of contention between friends as they compete to create and test the strongest Miis against each other. Less compelling is the new Amiibo figure functionality, which expands the same leveling up and move customization ideas to Nintendo’s new physical collectibles. Once you scan your Amiibo into the game with your Wii U gamepad and give it a name as well as select a skin for it, you don’t get to play as that character. Instead, you get to watch the AI play it for you (and wreak all sorts of havoc either upon you or the other fighters if you team up with it, which was my preference). I did not understand the appeal of this at first, but the concept seems to be to level up these characters and pit them against your friends much like Pokemon, which is neat I guess but not what I was expecting after playing Skylanders recently. At least the Amiibos themselves are detailed and cool enough to consider buying just for display purposes! It should be noted that neither custom fighters nor Amiibos can be used in online modes, which is a bit of a bummer though understandable.

Other new modes include Target Smash and Trophy Rush, the former of which is sort of like Angry Birds except you punch and kick a ticking time bomb into a position to do the most damage instead of slingshot it there. The latter mode is simply a contest of smashing crates efficiently enough to unlock new trophies and customization items. Exclusive to the Wii U version is the ability to play with up to 8 people offline on the larger stages in the game, as well as the option to play some of the modes in co-op. Other Wii U exclusive modes include Smash Tours, Special Orders, and Event Mode. Smash Tours is kind of a weird amalgamation of Smash Bros. and Mario Party, with a board game type format where every space you move on the map is an opportunity to upgrade your character or mess with the other places. Battles begin when two players land on the same spot of the map. I didn’t get the appeal of playing this mode in single player as it was quite confusing to follow, but with a party of folks I could see this getting quite contentious! Special Orders is basically a challenge mode where again risk and reward increase proportionately, while Event Mode puts you in specific scenarios where you must defeat certain characters in a given amount of time or without getting smashed. If that weren’t all enough there’s still Special Smash for all the custom rules you desire, as well as Stage Builder and Photo Modes where you can create to your heart’s content.

The cast of this game is larger than ever at 52 total at launch, and the stages have multiplied to a similar extent as well, featuring just about any Nintendo game you can think of, and many third party titles as well. Hardcore gamers are especially catered to in the multiplayer modes, with the ability to play “For Glory” and limit battles to “Omega” stages which have only a single platform and none of the crazy hazards or items that “unfairly” wipe you out. Personally I’m all about playing “For Fun” but it’s a really nice touch that should make the new Smash Bros. a tournament favorite. Everything in this game looks and sounds as authentic as possible. The same amount of love and attention has been given to the new outsiders like Mega Man and Pac Man as all of the classic Nintendo favorites. This game is just pure fan service for the senses and brings to life all of those childhood arguments about which of our video game heroes would win in a fight, and it does all at a smooth framerate and high definition.

I’m not sure you really need a review to tell you whether or not to buy this game, but in case it was ever in doubt, Smash Bros. for Wii U is an absolute must have if you own the system for it, and if you don’t, it’ll seriously make you consider buying one. While the lack of a real campaign hampers some of its appeal for single player, the game still offers so many modes, so many characters, heck, just so much depth that it’s more than worth the price of entry for everyone.

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