(Game review sources I looked at for reference, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate and Pokemon Black/White respectively).
Super Smash Brothers Ultimate (Game Review 1):
Super Smash Brothers Ultimate is the 5th installment in the Super Smash Brothers franchise, coming to the Nintendo Switch with more content then any of the past games. I'll be using 5 categories to review and analyse this and the following game.
Gameplay - Super Smash Brothers Ultimate comes in 3 gamemodes (timed, stock and stamina battles) but always follows the basic principle of fighting other characters, whether they be CPU or human players. You must use your large arsenal of attacks and specials in order to either smash them off the screen or deplete their stamina to 0 (in stamina battles only). With a roster of over 70 characters (and more DLC fighters yet to be announced at the time of writing), there are countless moves and matchups to keep every fight interesting. Casual gamers will enjoy the availability of a simple and fun time whilst core gamers will like the complex move tech that comes with each and every character, showing off their skills in the game's competitive scene. All in all, the gameplay is amazing.
Story/Narrative - Although Super Smash Brothers Ultimate may not be as story driven as the past title 'Super Smash Brothers Brawl' (for the Wii) with it's game mode 'Subspace Emissary', it does have an adventure mode revolving around the game's new Spirits mode called 'World Of Light'. The plot for World Of Light is simple but by no means bad. It consists of all the fighters coming face to face with Galeem, the Lord Of Light. All the fighters try and fight off the beams of light, but only Kirby escapes, drifting off into the premise of this adventure mode. You must collect spirits to power up your fighters along with freeing them in battle to defeat Galeem and later on Darkhon, the Lord Of Darkness. The story implementation was like I previously said, good, but it was also very lackluster because it lacked a lot of what made the previous story mode great, cutscenes. Many argue that cutscenes in surplus amounts make a game bad, but when a games comes around featuring characters from all over the gaming world, seeing them interact with one another in the same place would have really helped to highlight Super Smash Brothers Ultimate's original intentions, to have many characters in the same game. Aside from that criticism, Ultimate's World Of Light had great narrative.
Graphics - Super Smash Brothers Ultimate runs at 1080p resolution on TVs and 720p when played in the Nintendo Switch handheld mode. It always however, runs at a solid 60fps meaning gameplay is very pleasing to the eye in all circumstances. The game itself is a 2D fighting game with 3D assets. The cutscenes in World Of Light are very nicely rendered, making me further wish there was just more of it.
Sound - The game of course has means to adjust sound on a technical level, the adjustments allowing for the removal and adjustment of SFX, voices and music. On a less technical level, Super Smash Bros Ultimate has had a lot of effort poured into it to ensure the game sounds amazing. One of the obvious factors of this is the fact that all of the fighters in the game bring along many of their own songs from their own OSTs. This game has 887 music tracks which you can listen to at your leisure in the Sounds menu. Alongside this immense number is just how much voice acting has been done concerning all the characters, alongside the fact these voices had to be translated across 10 more languages and as a result, the sound is possibly one of my favorite parts of the game.
Similar Games - Super Smash Bros Ultimate in it's most simple form is just a 2D view fighter. As a result of this, it compares drastically to the likes of games such as Street Fighter and Skullgirls in terms of gameplay, although this game has a lot more going for it then it's gameplay. It compares somewhat to games like Overwatch and League Of Legends following their competitive backgrounds.
Pokemon Black/White Version (Game Review 2):
Pokemon Black/White is the 5th generation in the Pokemon franchise and the second last game using 2D sprites as an oppose to the now 3D assets (The follow up sequels, Pokemon Black/White 2 were the last). Pokemon Black and Pokemon White separate games with subtle differences concerning locations and the spawn chances of certain Pokemon but I'll be referring to them as one collective entry, including the multitude of things present in both games.
Gameplay - Pokemon Black/White takes place in two main areas, the in-game world and the battle screen. The in-game world consists of many areas to explore within the games setting, you progress through the story, battle multiple trainers and catch Pokemon on the way to add them to your team, you can have 6 Pokemon on a team at one time alongside many more in the storage you find in Pokemon centers. Battles consist of using moves and items to help your Pokemon lower the opposing ones to 0hp. Battles can level up your Pokemon and also lets them evolve into more powerful version to make progression easier. This is a very repetitive battle style in turn-based RPGs but Pokemon makes it timeless everytime due to
the sheer amount of Pokemon and and type combinations there are.
Story/Narrative - In my personal opinion, Pokemon Black/White has the best storyline out of any predecessor or successor to date. It follows the journey of a Pokemon trainer who recently moved into Nuvema town. They choose a starter Pokemon like in any game and set out on a journey to become a Pokemon master alongside stopping the regions evil team, Team Plasma, who want to 'liberate Pokemon from their trainers'. This was in fact a cover-up, Teams Plasma's leader, Ghetsis, wanted to be the only with control over Pokemon and use them to rule the world. The storyline was very well written and implemented to make what is my favorite game in the series.
Graphics - The graphics in this game is not the greatest but such can be expected from a game released in the period of 2011. Thinking from the perspective of someone whop understands when this game was developed, the sprites and in-game world models have a lot of charm to them.
Sound - The music in Pokemon Black/White is pretty mediocre all things considered. The battle themes for wild Pokemon and trainer battles were pretty standard for a Pokemon game. Late game themes such as N's Castle and the Ghetsis battle theme are exceptionally better and somewhat carry the game's soundtrack to be better as a whole.
Similar Games - Pokemon as a whole being a turn-based RPG means it can relate to a lot of games in that factor. Persona 5, the Final Fantasy Series and Earthbound are really good examples of turn-based RPGs with their own individuality. Catching and battling pokemon is a similar concept to Digimon.
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