For my 50th Review in Lemmy's Land, I wanted to choose a game I know and love... and this was my choice, a classic, N64 fighting game, between twelve of Nintendo's all-time greats. There were so many complaints about the character choices that Nintendo had to completely switch things up in its sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, on the GameCube. That's not to say that the characters in the original were bad choices, or that all the new characters to the sequel were good choices. Anyway, this game has been made almost
completely obsolete by its sequel, and it has somewhat been forgotten.

By this 50th time of me saying this, you'd better know this Review is on a 0-4 star scale! 0 is very poor, and 4 is excellent.

Graphics: ***

For the time, the graphics were very good. In fact, they were a lot better than everyone says they were. The playable characters were 3D and very nice-looking, while the levels gave the feel of wherever they were based. However, the items were made very poorly. Most of them were sprites with no third dimension whatsoever, meaning that you saw the same image at any angle you could possibly view it at. The explosions were very fake, too, a big complaint by many people. Still, I think that the graphics were good enough for this game, and they were good for the N64.

Sound: ***

This game had great music. That's because it included music from all kinds of classic games, like Mario, Yoshi, DK, Metroid, Zelda, etc. Unfortunately, the sound effects were less than spectacular, and a few of the voices were poor, namely Jigglypuff and Link. The announcer's voice, however, is a good one, so this game was able to get over that hurdle that usually hurts lots of games. Overall, the sound ends up good.

Difficulty: **1/2

This is one of those games where you set the difficulty, meaning the game is only as difficult as you want to be. Trying to unlock Ness is near-impossible, except if you're a Game Shark cheater like me. Captain Falcon is somewhat hard to beat, too, but I did beat him on my first try. The Break the Targets game is where the real difficulty sets in, along with the Board the Platforms game. All in all, the game's difficulty is just above-average.

Characters: no stars

I've skipped this section for a while now, but it's especially important in this game. The twelve characters are Mario, DK, Luigi, Yoshi, Jigglypuff, Pikachu, Ness, Captain Falcon, Samus, Link, Fox, and Kirby. Not that these are all bad choices, but for the most part, the character selection stinks. How is Jigglypuff one of the top twelve Nintendo characters up to this time? How does Ness make it over Bowser? Sorry, but even the
Melee selection is an improvement. The Melee selection still needs to be fixed, but this selection was the pits.

Items: ****

These were the items that saved the game from the Smash attack problem you'll see later. The items
ranged from a lightsaber to a ray gun to a bat to a paper fan to a Bob-omb to a motion sensor mine to Troopa shells. These items made this game good. Seriously, without these items, the game might
have been mediocre, and definitely not as fun. Since the Smash attacks didn't help that much, and some
characters had poor selection of special attacks, the items were an escape route for them. Jigglypuff turned
strong by grabbing a Home Run Bat and floating after her opponents. Link could get out of a bad situation
by grabbing the Hammer and smashing the place down. Even the Melee items couldn't match these, as the Ray Gun turned weak in Melee. These items are excellent, to say the least.

Controls: ***1/2

The game-makers did an excellent job with the controls to this one. The Smash attacks are simple to use: just tap the Control Stick really fast for a Smash attack and hold the Control Stick for a strong attack (these
are both used in conjunction with A). The shield is perfect with Z, the L button taunts (Kirby loses his
stolen skill with L, too), R is the awesome grab, B in conjuction with the Control Stick is a special attack, any C button is jump, rolling is Z with A, and the Control Stick obviously moves the player. I only wish that they had the Smash B attack (B Left or Right) like in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and that the L button was easier to hit, because I like to taunt.

Jumping: ***

The jumping is made very easy in this game, and I like that. The double-jump is easy too, but the triple-jump is most difficult of all to learn. I'm not saying they're hard, actually. They just take a little while to learn. Also, I like the span of the jumps, and how different characters jump differently. Some difficulty and confusion dealing with jumping after being hit makes me push this ranking down a star from a perfect rating.

Smash Attacks (without items): 1/2

This is something this game failed at. First of all, the Smash attacks (without items) are not very powerful. You can't rely on them to take out your opponents. Second of all, your Smashes half the time miss their correct target. Third of all, they come out too soon. I like the Melee system of charging them up, of course, but if you could at least hold the button for a second just to get more accuracy, then I'd be happy with it. At least there are Smash attacks and not just the basic attacks.

Special Attacks (B button): **1/2

This all depends on who you're using. With DK, you've got a powerful lineup of moves that should give you a
win. With Captain Falcon, you'll be on your way to victory every time if you Falcon Punch. But with Jigglypuff, you won't be able to do much else than put others to sleep and fall asleep (though falling asleep can be deadly to opponents if are nearby). Link's lineup of moves turns him into an even weaker weakling than he already is, but he's got the best Smash attacks in the game. All in all, the Special Moves end up above-average.

Shielding: *1/2

Well, I don't shield myself often (except against the Master Hand), so I really don't care about this. Yeah,
that's a great attitude to have for my 50th Review. Sorry, but shielding just wasn't useful enough, and the shields ran out quickly. It was a good addition, though.

Rolling: ***

Now this was the good alternative to shielding. Instead of jumping inside a bubble, roll underneath your opponent or below something that's in your way. It's not all-powerful nor perfect, but it works. Try it.

Break the Targets: **1/2

The Break the Targets mode required some quick thinking in midair, as you had to think of which move to use. Most of the time, though, you'd only have to do a couple of midair hits where you'd either hit it or have to start over. Sometimes it's not difficult enough, while other times, like in Yoshi's case, it's WAY too difficult! All in all, I'd say this is above-average.

Board the Platforms: **1/2

This was a test of jumping skills. I liked this as well, but sometimes there were cases where they were
near-impossible (case in point: Jigglypuff). I wished they would have brought this back as well as the Break
the Targets mode for Melee.

Vs. Mode: ****

This, of course, is the best part of this game. Playing against computers of your choice of skill level or in a battle of up to four live players is the most fun this game gets. I can't say much more about how great this part of the game is.

1-P Mode: *1/2

This is probably the most boring part of this game. Sure, playing against computers is the "real" part of this game, but it's sure not that much fun, nor do the levels have any originality at all, besides the Fighting Polygon and Master Hand levels. I'm more complaining about the lack of a different type of 1-P game here than the game itself. I thought of my own "Event Matches" back when this game was hot, way before the Event Matches surfaced in Melee. This game could have had them, but didn't. Still, this mode wasn't THAT bad. By the way, I used a GameShark, and now I can't play this stage with anyone but Mario, even without the GameShark in. Ah, the rewards of using an unauthorized device.

Replayability: **1/2

All the replayability comes in the form of Vs. Mode battles. However, all the other modes aren't that replayable, except 1-P Mode in different skill levels. Due to the different computer skill levels, this game
gets an above-average replayability rating.

Fun Factor!: ****

Do I still put that exclamation point here? I guess so, even after 50 of these Reviews. About the Fun Factor, the rating speaks for itself. This is one of the most fun games on the N64, especially with live opponents.

OVERALL: ***

This is a good game, and it's worth your money if you have an N64. I like this game a lot, and although Melee
beats this game in almost every imaginable way, this one was still good for its time. Favorite characters?
For this game, here is my order:

#1 Kirby
#2 DK
#3 Captain Falcon
#4 Pikachu
#5 Luigi

Since it's my 50th Review, I just want to give a little bit of useless info: For those of you who wonder whether my Reviews changed from last year to this year, here's the answer: my average Review in 2001 received ***, while my average Review in 2002 receives **. Anyway, thank you for sitting through all this game talk for so long, and you won't see another Review from me until... next update, of course.

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