Nintendo’s next iteration of the popular Super Smash Bros. fighting game is coming to the Nintendo 3DS handheld this summer, and then several months later to the Wii U.
Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai announced the news during Nintendo’s 35-minute streaming presentation Tuesday night. Sakurai highlighted the differences between the two platform’s versions, and unveiled new features and characters.
Both versions of Super Smash Bros. will feature online play. Users can play with their friends through Miiverse, Nintendo’s social network, or via random online matches. The online matches are broken down into two types: “for fun” in which the stage selection is random and items have been turned on, and “for glory” in which items are turned off, the only stage is the featureless “Final Destination” and all stats are recorded.
Nintendo will focus more heavily on an online code of conduct for matches, where players can be banned for abandoning matches, self-destructing, bullying other players, cheating and other unsportsmanlike conduct. All online matches will also be tied to a player’s Nintendo network ID, a recently implemented identity across the Wii U and 3DS. There will also be online matchmaking based on skill level.
Sakurai revealed new characters in Super Smash Bros., as well. Previously, Samus, the heroine in action-adventure game Metroid, would transform into Zero Suit Samus at certain points in the match; now Zero Suit Samus has become a standalone character with more powerful rocket boots. The same was done for Princess Zelda’s transformation into Sheik; the two are now separate characters. Pokemon Charizard is coming back as a character, instead of being attached to the Pokemon Trainer character, and Pokemon X and Y starter Greninja is joining the fray.
The 3DS version of Super Smash Bros. also includes a mode called “Smash Run,” where up to four players spend five minutes running through a dungeon to beat up enemies, and grab power-ups. Those power ups act as temporary ability modifiers that remain in effect for the next portion of “Smash Run,” when the players compete against each other in a fight.
While Nintendo didn’t reveal specific release dates or a full roster of characters for either version of Super Smash Bros., we will likely get more information at E3 in June.
