Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

Smash Bros. in your pocket? For a long time it sounded like an unattainable dream. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS from 2014, however, turned it into reality and for the first time brought Nintendo's everyone-against-everyone brawl to a portable console.

The principle remains unmistakable. Instead of removing lives, here the characters accumulate damage percentages, and the higher the percentage, the farther they fly off after the next hit, until they fly out of the arena. A giant roster of iconic heroes from Nintendo worlds as well as guest series enters the fights, and the chaos is multiplied by items falling from the sky and colorful arenas. The 3DS version also brought the exclusive Smash Run mode, in which players first wander through a labyrinth, collect upgrades and only then face off in a final duel.

Behind the game stand the studios Sora and Bandai Namco under the leadership of Masahiro Sakurai, the father of the entire series. A big challenge was to fit an extensive game onto a small screen while at the same time maintaining a smooth sixty frames per second for the fights themselves, which was achieved. On top of that, the game allowed a connection with the version for the Wii U, which came out shortly after it, so fans could transfer configured characters and add-ons between both platforms.

Culturally, it was a big event. For the first time, players could take Smash anywhere with them, and online battles as well as local multiplayer made the console a beloved companion for the road. Commercially, the game ranked among the best-selling titles of the 3DS and sold in many millions of copies.

Reviews were mostly very favorable. Critics marveled that such a complex and rich game fit onto a handheld console at all, and praised the number of characters, modes and the overall fun factor. Minor reservations were perhaps only directed at the smaller screen in some crowded arenas.

Why play it: The complete madness of the Smash Bros. brand, which for the first time you slip into your pocket and pull out anywhere and anytime.