Mad melee

If there’s one resounding feeling in all of these features, it’s a ludicrous passion for all things Nintendo. Where else will you find such a violent collision of so many cherished titles?

This, believe it or not, is what happens when one pumped-up plumber decides to unleash flaming fury on an elf, a fox and a fatty…

Other insane moves allow fighters to call for help. Pit - the winged hero of Kid Icarus - unleashes an army of winged centurions onto his fellow mascots. How very unsporting. Playing as the Pokémon trainer you can partner up Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard for one almighty Poké-bombardment. We choose you!

Brawl with all

A massive online push sees traditional four-player fights now able to be fought online. You’ll need friend codes as with other Nintendo games, but the prospect of enjoying a four player punch up at any time we want is pretty exciting.

One nice touch: as you wait to connect with pals you can open a can of practice whoop-ass onto a friendly sandbag. Poor fella, what’d he ever do to deserve it?

Since the Wii doesn’t support voice chat, you can instead pre-program a selection of battle cries to summon mid-fight with a button press, resulting in the rather odd sight of giant speech bubbles spewing out trash talk. Who’d have thought Donkey Kong spoke such good English?