I never understood how people could call Smash Bros. a "button masher" if they've played the game. Among fighting game purists (elitists), the topics regarding Smash Bros. are always controversial. But to say that the games take no skill and can be one by button mashing is just silly. A button masher in Smash Bros. will get nowhere. A button masher in Street Fighter could actually beat someone.

In Street Fighter, and most other fighting games, the game makes you automatically face your opponent. So you can just look away from the screen and press buttons, and you'll hit your opponent eventually...maybe even pull off some super combos or special moves with your random button presses.

Do this in Smash Bros., your opponent will just jump over your head and you'll continue to attack the direction he was previously in. So you're just hitting air, and then your opponent smashes you from behind. You're flying off the stage. You're mashing buttons, so you can't recover. Maybe you accidentally use up your third jump through your mashing. Uh-oh. You fell of the stage. You lose.

This blog post was inspired by an IGN Insider podcast, where some guy was dissing both Smash Bros. and Devil May Cry with the "button masher" argument. Oooh, you know that'll piss me off. He bragged about being able to clear a room in DMC4 by just mashing the sword button without even looking at the screen. He claims he never got hit or anything. I find that hard to believe unless he was playing on Easy Automatic, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was. I understand that these guys are not pro gamers, so they can't be expected to master the games they review, but to dis a game like that without acknowledging the higher difficulties is just stupid.

The guy also claimed Smash Bros. is "superficial" fun. Yeah, I don't like this guy. IGN Insider hasn't really been worth the subscription fee. :\

The rest of the IGN guys are still cool...for now.