Multiplayer Modes

While a strong single player game is always nice, Super Smash Brothers has always been about the multiplayer modes. SSBM recognizes that fully, and has several new modes of play available for you and your friends.

- Standard Battle

Just like the battle modes in the original SSB. You can choose either stock (each character has a certain number of lives) or time (most kills in a set period of time) modes. You can either go at it in a complete free for all, or divide the players into teams. Also, you can decide upon certain handicaps for certain players to either make the battle easier or more difficult. Any slots not occupied by a human character can be taken by a computer player, which you can vary the skill level of. Many of these features are found in the other modes of battle, as well.

- Coin Mode

One of the new multiplayer modes in SSBM, Coin Mode has you beating your opponents until cash comes out. Depending upon how much damage you do with a hit, a certain number of coins will spout out of your foe. Gold coins are worth 10 points, silver is worth 5, and copper is worth 1. If you're knocked off the course, half of your coin total will shoot onto the stage for other characters to fight over. If you've got more than 200 coins, getting knocked off will cut you back down to 100. Whoever has the most coins by the end of the match is the winner.

- Evaluation Mode

In this particular mode, it's all a matter of skill. Depending upon the moves you use and the actions you perform, you are awarded points. Just like the bonus points attainable in the Classic Mode. Whoever attains the highest number of points before the clock runs out is declared the winner. Some of the things you get points for include the number of backwards attacks, the number of meteor smashes, a high hit rate, a lot of successful throws, and a high kill count. As you can see, the person who does the most damage isn't always guaranteed to win in this mode.

- Tournament Battle

This mode allows you to set up a tournament tree so many many people can get in on a game of SSBM. Most useful at parties, you can have each player enter their name and choose a character before the battles begin, and then the game will randomly generate an elimination tree. Depending upon who wins each battle, players will be eliminated until only two remain. For the insanely overzealous, this mode allows you to enter up to 64 players. If you've got way too many friends, this is the mode for you.

- Special Modes

There are many options you can set to alter a battle significantly. You can change the game speed, the character sizes, and many other things. Here's what we know of so far.

  • Camera mode: Player 4 controls the camera while players 1-3 duke it out.
  • Physical strength mode: You no longer try to build up percentages, but instead try to wear down the opponent's HP (hit points). Similar to the Master Hand fight in the original SSB.
  • Sudden death: Everyone starts with 300% damage.
  • Large characters: Everyone is more than twice their normal size. If you acquire the super mushroom item, you grow even larger.
  • Tiny characters: Everyone is incredibly small, and has high-pitched voices to match.
  • Invisible characters: All you see is a slight distortion in the background to represent where a character is. Makes for some very hectic battles.
  • Fixed screen: The camera zooms out to show the whole arena, and doesn't scroll at all.
  • 1-button fighting: All buttons except for the A button and the control stick are disabled, requiring opponents to rely solely on physical attacks.
  • Fast/Slow mode: You can either speed up or slow down the battle speed.