Single Player Modes

One of the criticisms of the original SSB was that the single-player portion of the game was weak. You could only play through the same gauntlet of battles so many times before losing your mind. Luckily, SSBM has a ton of different single-player modes that are sure to occupy even the most friendless gamers for some time.

- Classic Mode

Just like the original. You choose your character and fight through a sequence of increasingly difficult battles. Sometimes you'll fight against a single opponent, and other times you'll fight against squadrons of weaker enemies. Unlike in the original SSB, where your opponents were always predetermined, you'll end up fighting a random assortment of characters in a completely random order. Get to the end of the gauntlet, battle the heretofore unknown boss, and you win. Depending upon how well you did, you will be awarded a point total at the end of the gauntlet. These points can earn you coins, which can in turn be exchanged for trophies in the Gallery Mode. This is talked about in more detail in the "Additional Features" section of this article.

As you fight against the enemies in Classic Mode, you will come across three bonus stages. The first is the Break the Targets game from the original SSB, and is highlighted below. The second involves you using your attacks to knock trophies that are dropped from a device into another device. Seems a bit odd, but it probably requires quite a bit of timing to pull off. It's also possible that the trophies you collect will become available in the Gallery mode. The last mode seems to be a variation on the Race to the Finish mode in the original SSB. Depending upon how fast you work your way through a maze of pipes and corridors, you are awarded a point total. The only one of these three bonus games that can be played outside of the Classic Mode is the Break the Targets game.

- Adventure Mode

Depressed that you'll most likely never see another Nintendo side-scroller on a console again? Well wait until you give this mode a whirl. You choose your character and go through various Nintendo-themed side-scrolling levels, such as the Mushroom Kingdom or Hyrule, and fight off the denizens of that particular location. At various points in each level, you'll find yourself pitted against more prominent enemies, like Mario or Link. Check out the "Levels" section of this feature for more examples.

- Event Mode

The Event Mode is a series of increasingly difficult challenges. For example, Level 7 requires you to beat Pikachu using only Pokmon attacks. Level 12 gives you only 7 seconds in which to defeat Captain Falcon. In addition, some challenges are character specific. Yoshi has a level where he's carrying an egg, and you have to keep it safe from attack for a certain amount of time. Like in other modes, the whole idea here is to best your previous scores. And when you beat every level, who knows what you'll unlock?

- Training Mode

Just like in the original SSB, the Training Mode lets you hone your skills against a computer opponent. Naturally, there a quite a deal of enhancements. As you try out your moves, several figures are displayed on the screen, such as the number of combo hits and the amount of damage done. When you pause the game, the configuration menu will pop up. You'll have several options to choose from.

  • Speed: You can decide whether you want the game to run at normal speed, or a variety of slower speeds.
  • Item: You can choose any item in the game, and the computer will provide you with it.
  • CP Number: You can choose the number of computer players that you will be fighting against
  • CP Movement: You can choose whether the computer players will stand still, evade, attack, or whatnot. You can also let other human players control them.
  • CP Damage: You can decide how much damage you do to the computer players.
  • Camera: You can decide on a normal camera angle, a zoomed in one, or one that is modified on the fly by a human player.

- Break the Targets

Just like in the original SSB, your main objective is to break all of the targets as quickly as possible. You can pause the game to see the entire area, and plan which targets you want to take out first. Unlike in the original SSB, though, pausing the game doesn't stop the clock. So you can't take too much time to plan your path.

- Home Run Contest

This is one of the odder modes in SSBM. You choose your character and face off against an adorable punching bag. In the amount of time allotted, you have to beat the bag up as much as you possibly can, and then wallop it as far as possible. It's like a deranged version of shot-put. Depending upon how high you get its percentage before time runs out, you can knock it farther and farther. You're trying to beat your best distance.

- 100 Man Spar

This mode pits you against a revamped version of the Fighting Polygon Team from the original SSB. Gone are the blocky polygons of old, replaced by slick wire-frame people. The objective is to kill 100 of them as fast as possible. As you can see from the screens, you can fight up to 5 of them at once, unlike in the original SSB, where 3 was the limit. The options menu allows you to choose between a variety of modes. You can fight against 10 of them, 100 of them, fight for 3 minutes, fight for 15 minutes, fight endlessly, or play in a "no mercy" fight. In this mode, you fight against the highest level AI with no items. You always fight in the same stage, which is very similar to the one in the original SSB.