Nintendo's hugely popular fighting series returns with a host of characters, stages, and customization options in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. As always, players take control of heroes and villains from across the gaming universe as they smash, brawl, and launch one another around stages based primarily on handheld games. The cast of characters includes series mainstays Mario, Kirby, and Pikachu, as well as Mega Man, Sonic, and the Wii Fit Trainer, and gamers can use Pok� Balls, Assist Trophies, and special items to help them in battle. In the Classic mode, solo gamers take control of characters and guide them along a variety of paths on an overworld map, and engage in one-on-one battles, team battles with the CPU filling out both sides, and matches where players must defeat waves of foes, or take down a whole team. Gamers can earn gold, trophies, and custom parts by winning matches, and they can use gold to up the intensity level before future matches and earn larger rewards. Single players can also take on three stadium-based mini-games, with gamers trying to knock Sandbag as far as possible in Home-Run Contest, defeating as many opponents as they can in Multi-Man Smash, or launch a ticking bomb at targets in the Target Blast mode. Multiplayer action remains a huge part of the Super Smash Bros. experience, with up to four random players competing online in the For Fun and For Glory modes. For Fun matches include all items and take place on randomly selected stages, while the For Glory mode takes place only on flat Final Destination stages, with no items appearing. Gamers can also customize their rules as they battle only buddies in the With Friends mode, and 3DS gamers get the labyrinth-exploring Smash Run mode. In Smash Run, players have five minutes to head into playing fields to explore, battle enemies, and collect power-ups. When time expires, gamers take their collecting power-ups and boosts into traditional battles.