What are you playing now?

[Tawmis]

Smash Bros Ultimate. Bought it on New Year's Eve and have been enjoying it ever since. Managed to get it brand new sealed from a guy selling it privately for $70 (retail is $79.96 and after tax it's $90.36). So exchanged some gift card money for that and used another gift card to get the Nintendo Switch Online service so I could play with brother who lives in Texas and my sister. Having a great time with that.

So ... I got it for the Switch... what's the appeal? I am sure I am not understanding it (because everyone loves it) - but it just seems like a complicated fighting game?

[MusicallyInspired]

Most of the appeal is the immense crossover of so many game franchises into one big party game. I've been a fan since I first heard about it being originally developed for the N64. Just the thought of so many crossovers got us excited and wondering at the possibilities. My brother and I went to Blockbuster the very morning it released in 1999 and rented it and unlocked everything that week. It was just crazy to play a game with Link fighting Mario and Donkey Kong fighting Kirby or having them all fight together at the same time and play on their various themed stages with all of their music faithfully represented. You can use Link's sword spin attack! Kirby can suck up an opponent to copy their special attack abilities (that was the coolest part, honestly). In what other game can you duke it out between Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog on a Green Hill Zone stage with Sonic 1's music (or a selection of awesome new remixes) playing in the background?? Or Ryu from Street Fighter and Link from The Legend of Zelda? Bayonetta and Pikachu and Princess Peach and Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy 7? It's like if Guybrush Threepwood met Roger Wilco in a game. It was a lot like the Cartoon All Stars anti-drug PSA cartoon back in the 80s (90s?). Everyone wanted to see all their favourite characters on screen together and it was super cool (even if that story itself was cringe lol). Like Star Wars, Smash Bros is more like a big event you don't want to miss. It almost doesn't matter that there wouldn't be much special about it otherwise. But that's not true either...

Unlike Cartoon All Stars, though, the game is just plain fun. It's less like a traditional fighting game in that you don't compete to drain the opponents health bar (well, you can, there's an option to do a traditional "Stamina Match"), but instead the goal is to launch your opponents off the screen. You attack them and the more damage you rack up on them the higher their "launch rate" and are easier to get kicked off screen. Also unlike traditional fighting games, each character has different abilities and movesets, but the controls are the same for everybody. No unique button combinations for each character's special moves. A is always a standard attack, A+Direction is always a "smash attack", B is always a character's special move, B+Up is always an upward-jumping special attack, etc, etc. So it's a lot more approachable and easier to pick up than your Mortal Kombats, Street Fighters, and Tekkens.

In my opinion it is the single best party game ever made. You'll have the most fun with it in a group of people. But there is a myriad of game modes for single player as well, but most all involve fighting. But with so many customizable rulesets, special conditions, game-altering mechanics, and more...it's a majorly packed game to say the least. 75 total characters and 103 franchise-themed stages with 5 more each on the way. In particular, Classic Mode Solo offers a traditional "totem pole" arrangement of fighters for you to defeat until you get to the final boss. The cool thing in Smash Ultimate is that each opponent is catered to whatever character you're playing as and is all themed (for the most part, as much as it can) to that character's game franchise. For some characters, the final boss is even unique and hearkens back to one of that character's bosses from a game in their catalogue. And just the attention to detail for each of the characters from different franchises is almost unbelievable in their movements, attacks, taunts, items, game modes, etc....

So anyway, that's the appeal. But I grew up with it right from the beginning. Each game in the series has just gotten better and better. It used to be a "Nintendo all star" game, but then when Brawl came out for the Wii they introduced Snake from Metal Gear Solid, Sonic the Hedgehog, and more and everybody lost their minds because from that point on all bets were off. I can see how it doesn't really mean much to some people, though. But to sum up, the main draw of the game is crossovers and party fun.

[Tawmis]

To be clear; I was not meaning to indicate there was no appeal. It's just everyone talks about it so much. And when I got it, my first thought was, "It's like a big Nintendo cross over, meets Mortal Kombat."

The problem (for me, so far - I barely played it 15 minutes before I took it out to try another game) - is it moves very, very, very fast. I can barely figure out where I am before I am plunged off the side of the screen or the ground just gives out beneath me.

I don't see the party fun part though? Because the most you can have is two players? If you could have 4 or 8 players, then I could see more of the party vibe to it.

(And maybe you can, and I don't know how?)

And that's another thing - why do they put the SWITCH games in a big case, when the game itself is as big as a quarter - and then NO EFFING INSTRUCTIONS in ANY of the games? I get you can go into the settings and control, and they're saving paper or whatever - but for example, I had no idea A is a Standard attack, A+Direction is always a Smash Attack - I was literally just button mashing.

[JasefWisener]

You can have any number of players from 1-8, so it's great for parties. There are also tournament modes that you can use for 2v2 brackets of up to (at least) 32 people.

[Datadog]

I don't see the party fun part though? Because the most you can have is two players? If you could have 4 or 8 players, then I could see more of the party vibe to it.

It's definitely 4 people and up! (Although I can't imagine 32 people - I'll have to Youtube that immediately after this.)

Smash games are a REALLY fun party game. The chaos is part of the appeal, since they apply the fighting aspect of "Mortal Kombat" to a Mario platformer. But you really need to play with other people in the same room to make the most of it. One-player Smash isn't really fun. At my last company, I used to play with a lunchtime Smash crew, who'd take their Wii into the boardroom at noon and play it on the big TV. About 12 of us would take rotations on the four controllers and the whole game would just be us smacking each other around in ridiculous ways.

[MusicallyInspired]

You can add more players on the bottom right in the fighter select screen.

There's a how-to-play video in the game. It'll play automatically if you leave the menu on and don't do anything for a minute or so. Or you can locate it in the video section and play it manually. There's also a tips and tricks section in the menu.

Also, if you think this is fast, you should play Smash Bros Melee.

[Tawmis]

You can add more players on the bottom right in the fighter select screen.
There's a how-to-play video in the game. It'll play automatically if you leave the menu on and don't do anything for a minute or so. Or you can locate it in the video section and play it manually. There's also a tips and tricks section in the menu.

I will check those out, to see if that helps me wrap my brain around it.

I miss the day of printed instructions...

[MusicallyInspired]

I also miss manuals.

[BBP]

Still torturing myself with the AIVD puzzle... one of the questions refers to Game of Thrones. Not familiar with that.

[Datadog]

I started up "Dragon Age: Inquisition" last week. Kinda disappointed that my long-archived DA2 save-game doesn't import, but thankfully, I remembered most of my choices when setting up my new game in EA's "Keep" website (seriously, though - how would we ever play these games without an internet connection?)

I was a Warrior in DA1, and Mage in DA2, so a Rogue seemed like the way to go in DA3. I've been having fun turning invisible and jumping up mountains, but had to eventually google a guide to get around some difficulty spikes. Turns out I've been playing the game wrong and it's 100% fine to leave the Hinterlands without completing it. So that's a load off my back. I will go back to get that dragon, though.

[Semi-Happy Partygoer]

After finally completing Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos a year or so ago, I'm now making my way through the sequel, Guardians of Destiny. This is another one I first tried as a kid but never completed, partly because I was intimidated by games with combat. But I've now gotten farther than I ever did before, so maybe I'll finally see it through.

[Tawmis]

Friend of mine let me borrow Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which was pretty amazing. I returned it to him after one day, because I play on eventually getting it.

[MusicallyInspired]

Good man. Breath of the Wild is amazing. But while it's the most impressive Zelda game I've played in a long time, my favourite is still Twilight Princess. I do miss the classical linear dungeon approach. But I love BOTW.

[Rath Darkblade]

I just finished playing Neverwinter Nights 2 on GOG. I like the story, better than NWN1 vanilla (although the ending's a bit of a let-down and reminds me a lot of the ending of NWN1 vanilla).

The characters are also pretty much stock standard, except for the dwarf fighter who wants to be a monk. To be honest, I never troubled myself about that quest because by the time you can actually finish it, he is much more useful as a fighter!

[Semi-Happy Partygoer]

After finally completing Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos a year or so ago, I'm now making my way through the sequel, Guardians of Destiny. This is another one I first tried as a kid but never completed, partly because I was intimidated by games with combat. But I've now gotten farther than I ever did before, so maybe I'll finally see it through.

And I completed it today! Nice to have finally finished something that's been left dangling since 2002 for me. Now I'll have to try the "evil" path.