smash brothers

I'm largely done with video games these days, playing them mostly as art/culture/media, rather than entertainment/escapism/time sink. I'm either too busy or too smart or too full of shit, depending on how you look at it.

But this new smash brothers is something. Its got the same basic formula as ever, but:

a) its a great formula. Retro value, 4 players on a single screen, fast-paced, one-more-game gameplay, unpredictable turns of events at every turn.

b) this thing is PACKED. 35 characters, with only a handful of clones, 41 levels, tons of game modes, challenges, single player modes, cooperative play.
Sometimes you get something like portal that's a finely slice of originality. Sometimes you get something like smash brothers thats a giant heap of good content so well crafted and curated that it hardly matters that its been done.