To say the game has been highly anticipated would be an understatement, so when I found out that Nintendo was releasing a demo for Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 3DS I was very excited. Sure, the demo only features a mesely five fighters. Yes, there is only one stage to battle on in the demo. True, there is a limit to the number of times that the demo can be booted up before it expires.

But getting to play Super Smash Bros. before the North American release, which is just over two weeks away now, I’ll gladly take these limitations.

It’s time to Smash.

As I said above the demo is limited to five characters. You can choose Mario, Link, Pikachu, Mega Man or the Villager from Animal Crossing. The Villager is actually like four in one itself, with each of the four “colours or skins” actually being a different village from Animal Crossing itself. Mario has a nice choice oc skins as well, with the default colour scheme, fire Mario colours, Ice Mario colours with the fourth being Wario’s colours.

The characters in the demo really handle well, with the various attacks not too complicated to get a handle on while also being more than just single button presses. They are pretty balanced and no one character is vastly superior to the other. You won’t be handicapped if you use a smaller character.

The Villager can hold his own with Link.

The game really looks great as well. From the screenshots it’s hard to really tell, especially on a large computer monitor. But on the 3DS screen the characters and game look great, especially in 3D.

If you have played previous games in the series from the past you won’t be let down with the newest game. It’s hard to believe that the last game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, was released for the Wii back in 2008!

Check out the demo right now in the 3DS eShop. The full game will be available in stores and the eShop on October 3rd.