Smash Bros., Again

I remember staring at that old tube TV in my room, four of us crammed in front of it playing Super Smash Bros. like it was the only thing that mattered. I was always Sheik—unbeatable, or so I thought. That was years ago. Childhood, basically, though I was already old enough to know I was living through something good.

Nintendo’s bringing it back. A new Smash Bros. is hitting the 3DS next week, with a Wii U version coming later. Over fifty characters, all the Nintendo standbys—Mario, Link, Zelda, Pikachu—plus hidden ones you’d unlock by grinding through the single-player modes. It’s the same formula that always worked: pick your fighter, pick your stage, bash the other person until they fly off the screen.

The new version has this amiibo thing, where you can scan those little figurines into the Wii U version and they fight alongside you. Gimmick or not, I get the appeal. These games have always been about the characters, about muscle memory and muscle testing each other.

I’m not sure I have the time to sink into this the way I did as a kid. But knowing it exists, knowing I could pick up a 3DS and have that same feeling again—that’s something. The game hasn’t changed what it does. And what it does still works.