A key portent to this game’s fun factor is the character roster, naturally, and while some characters were nerfed, and some were buffed, the game is surprisingly well-balanced now. There’s a total of 35 characters to play as in this game, 21 of which you’ll start off with, and while I personally can’t come to terms with some of the heavy fellows, I have not heard any instances of some characters being clearly overpowered or utterly useless. Many complain about the inclusion of some characters, or the exclusion of others, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. This roster definitely works, to a degree that I didn’t think it would be able to, and that’s a huge plus.

Lastly, stages and items need to be addressed. Items are kind of interesting this time around, as some of them seem needlessly overpowered, such as the Bumper, while others are less than useful, especially a couple of Assist Trophies. This isn’t a general problem, as most of the items work nicely, but let’s say it’s good that there’s an Item Switch again. Stages this time around come in two flavors, which I hereby dub static and dynamic. Static stages are the ones with flatter terrain and less hazards, where fighting is your only concern, while dynamic stages throw odd terrains or odd hazards at you to contend with. There’s about a 50/50 split here, with something to please everyone; a huge bonus is an unlockable Random Stage Switch, which lets you choose which stages can be chosen if you hit Random - a big plus in a group of stages as varied as this.

One of the two major new additions is the Subspace Emissary, the story-driven, side-scrolling adventure mode that brings a new kind of gameplay to the Smash Bros. series. While the story is nothing that will wow you, the presentation is good and the whole setup is highly enjoyable overall. Stages come in many shapes and styles, and beating down stamina-based enemies doesn’t get old for quite a while, surprisingly. The whole thing will probably last you eight or so hours, longer if you go for 100% completion. The addition of co-op play to this mode was brilliant, as the ability to bring a buddy along definitely makes the game a lot more enjoyable/manageable. I have two problems with it, though: 1) forced side-scrolling is far too slow and boring, and 2) the final stage is nothing but artificial game-lengthening, and may frustrate players.