Give your favourite Nintendo characters an epic spanking in the most bizarre fighting game you've ever seen.
Martin Kitts

Ever wondered who would win in a fight between Mario and Yoshi? Have you lain awake at night, pondering the relative merits of Pikachu's thunderflash and Link's hookshot? Probably not, but one look at Super Smash Bros should be enough to persuade you that you can't live another minute without finding out.

It's a brilliant concept. Nintendo are the proud owners of some of the world's most instantly recognisable videogame characters, and a beat 'em up with such an all-star cast could hardly fail to grab our attention. And not only does it have great looks and a winning personality, but Smash Bros is fantastic fun to play. It doesn't have hundreds of special moves, combos, counters or any of the other things that you'd find in most fighting games - it's incredibly simple and strikingly original.

The characters possess a handful of signature moves from their respective games, plus a range of punches and kicks. Weapons such as lightsabres and guns fall from the sky, and the aim of the game is to inflict sufficient damage on your opponent to enable you to knock him off the edge of the platform-based levels. Special attacks are activated simply by pressing B together with a joystick direction, while A fires any weapon you might be holding or performs an unarmed attack. It's fast and furious, and the lack of complicated moves means that just a few minutes with any character is enough to learn just about everything he can do.