A Smash Bros. demo hit the Japanese eShop. How is it?
The new Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS demo that hit the Japanese eShop features five playable characters on Battlefield and can be played up to 30 times. The five characters are Mario, Link, Pikachu, Mega Man, and the Villager.
The demo is basic, but at this point, it's exactly the right tease for the full game. It's nice being able to spend ample time and just dig deep into playing different characters and messing around. The more time I spend with the Villager, the more I like him (or her, depending on the costume). It's just a fun character, with amusing attacks. I still adore doing the side B attack where the Villager just hops on a gyroid and goes until the gyroid runs out of gas or explodes into an enemy.
I still don't like Mega Man that much, though both his up and down smash attacks seem potentially devastating. Just the way he controls is very stiff. Some people likely will be masterful with the Blue Bomber, but for me, I don't think I'll spend too much time trying to figure him out. However, for the first time ever in my playtime with the new Smash Bros., I finally got to land his Final Smash, which is a glorious bit of fan service with multiple Mega Men blowing the hell out of people.
I never played Mario too much, but he seems a lot faster than before. If Dr. Mario is indeed in this game (which seems likely given the leaks), I'd expect the Doctor to be slower and likely a little more powerful. Link is another character I never played much in past games, but I like Link more than before. His sword attacks seem more nimble, but that could just be because I've never really played as Link in past Smash Bros. games. Pikachu, who was one of my personal favorite in Melee, seems to be more like the Brawl version of the fighter.
From poking around the demo, I could see some other stages listed (but not playable), including ones based off of Xenoblade Chronicles and Pictochat. One really awesome thing I noticed is that it seems to remember your costume choice for each character, even when you completely quit out of the demo.
Unfortunately, we have no idea when this demo will hit North America. It'd be very cool if hits other regions later this week, maybe alongside the Nintendo Treehouse stream on Friday, but in my eyes, the more likely situation is that this hits the week before Smash Bros. comes out in North America. Even still, that is less than a month away. We're almost there.