The combat is all very smooth and familiar, and feels like a return to an old friend. But, when placing this combat into the intensely long Subspace Emissary mode, it doesn’t quite mesh. The mode is a combination of side-scrolling platforming action and boss battles. These segments are intermingled with some genuinely entertaining cinematics, in which all the characters of the Smash Bros. Universe are brought together to fight a common foe. The antics of the characters on screen is always fun to watch, but this mode drags on, especially towards the end, where you are forced to traipse about a giant configuration of levels to fight all the bosses of the mode over once again. This in itself takes a whole hour or so, which caps off the whole experience at around 6 hours. The good part of all this is that this mode has the option of being co-op, which means that the boredom can be remedied with a friend to talk to the whole time.

The classic adventure mode returns here, complete with the pretty trophy at the end. The trophy acquisition through the whole game is sort of a fun mini-game in itself, as they will pop in mid fight or during a Subspace level causing you grief as you struggle to get to it before it disappears. While these are merely pretty to look at, the addition of stickers to the whole mess makes this a whole new experience. With these you can up the different attack attributes of your characters during the Subspace mode, or if they fly in during battle you can immediately add them to your stats, if only for the current battle.

The game now features a fully fledged online battle mode, but it suffers from massive lag and the annoying friend code system that Nintendo loves so much. It is a much better idea to just invite your friends over to play, because this is just too much of a hassle to put up with.

The biggest addition to anything though, is the smash ball which will fly in and cause a whole new ruckus. If you strike these enough you are given the ability to perform your character’s final smash attack. These range from the modest, Princess Peach, to the absolutely ridiculous, Captain Falcon. These do add a whole new flavor to battle, as you will suddenly rush to the smash ball to prevent any opposition from getting it and unleashing it on you. The other big factor in battle is the pieces of the dragoon which you can collect to unleash it on the enemies. If aimed right, this can be an instant kill to anyone in the way, which adds a whole new flair to the battle.

Finally, the battle also has the addition of assist trophies, which unleash different characters from games related to the characters participating in battle. These can be a minor help, to making it impossible to fight because a damn yellow lab is licking the entire screen.

But the beauty of this game is that with all of these new additions, it doesn’t lose its soul. This is still the lighthearted fighting game that everyone and their best friend knows and loves to play. This is definitely a must buy for anyone out there that loves to have fun. So go now, cause I still have some beat-downs to shell out.