Super Smash Keyboards 8

Super Smash Keyboards 8 (大乱闘スマッシュキーボード８) is a 2011 2.5D arcade fighting game developed by Drillimation Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game was released in the arcades on December 11, 2010, followed by a release on home consoles on April 19, 2011. It is the eighth installment in the Super Smash Keyboards series. A deluxe edition of the game titled Super Smash Keyboards 8 Deluxe (大乱闘スマッシュキーボード８ＤＸ) was released in July 2013.

The game is said to be a reboot of the classic Super Smash Keyboards and incorporates a large number of characters from the first four installments, alongside new characters. Upon release, Super Smash Keyboards 8 received critical acclaim from critics, calling it the best in the series. The game was a critical and commercial success, selling more than two million copies in the first month of its home console release. Due to the game's incredibly violent content and large amounts of fanservice, the game was subject to censorship in multiple regions.

Gameplay
Principal gameplay involves one-on-one 2.5D style fighting. Super Smash Keyboards 8 uses a single two-dimensional fighting plane (at 60 frames per second), although characters are rendered in a three-dimensional fashion, intended to give depth and range to portrayals of various projectiles.

A new feature is the "super meter", which replaces the Aggressor bar in previous installments, which can be charged by various actions during battle such as performing special moves, getting blocked by the opponent, or getting hit by them. The super meter can be charged to three levels, each of them enabling a different action to be performed. At the first level, it can be used to deliver an enhanced version of one of the character's special attacks; two levels can be used to interrupt a combo attack, and the full three levels allow for the delivery of a special attack called an "X-ray move". The X-ray move unleashes a series of attacks during which the game provides a slow-motion view of the character being attacked alongside part of their clothes being torn off, and also includes sounds of their bones and organs being broken or ruptured.

Extra features include a story mode during which the player plays as multiple characters, a Fatality training mode (allowing players to practice executing finishing moves), the Challenge Tower, tag team fighting, and an online mode. The Challenge Tower mode is a single-player option that includes 300 specific challenges of various difficulties providing currency rewards upon completion; players have the option of using in-game currency to bypass other difficult challenges, completing them later. Among the various challenges are "Test Your Might" (rapidly pressing buttons and using specific timing to destroy blocks of varying difficulty), "Test Your Sight" (following an object hidden under a cup or skull and revealing the object after a shuffle), "Test Your Strike" (destroying a specific block in a stack) and "Test Your Luck" (fighting under certain conditions, such as no jumping). The four-player tag-team feature is an original feature, allowing two players to play together. During tag gameplay, two new types of attacks become available. The first of them is the "tag assist" attack, in which the off-screen character temporarily jumps in and performs certain attacks during the active character's combo. The other is the "tag combo", in which the active character performs a combo that is finished by the off-screen character as they enter the fight.

The online mode includes a "King of the Hill" option, where up to eight players can act as spectators and play the winner of a fight. Spectators may also rate the fights and use the "forum" to determine how to perform various combos or moves observed during a fight. A single-use online pass is also included with the game which is mandatory to access the online components. Online passes are also available from the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace, but can also be purchased at retailers. There is also a PlayStation 3-exclusive 3D display mode, for which 3D glasses are not necessary.

Characters
Super Smash Keyboards 8 has a total of 38 fighters, with 31 of them being veterans and 7 being newcomers. There is one console-exclusive fighter, but the other two can be put into the PC version via legitimate mods, but it cannot be used in online play.

Fighters in boldface denote starting fighters, fighters not in boldface mean they need to be unlocked. Twenty of the game's playable characters are available at the start, the other 16 need to be unlocked or purchased.

Reception
Super Smash Keyboards 8 received critical acclaim upon release, and currently holds a 95% on Metacritic based on 176 reviews. Critics called it one of the best games in the entire Super Smash Keyboards series, mainly as "a fitting reboot" and a "great game to relieve nostalgia with."

The gameplay was well-received by critics for its level of balance, violence, and fanservice.

Accolades
Super Smash Keyboards 8 received numerous game of the year awards upon release, and was nominated for two awards at the El Kadsre Game of the Year Awards, winning the Best Arcade Game award and earning a nomination for Best Game, but lost to Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

Controversy
Super Smash Keyboards 8 fell into controversy for one of its elements of fanservice, one cutscene in the game shows Tsukasa Hiiragi partially nude with thick cloth strips covering her breasts and buttocks. However, by using a cheat device on any version of the game, the player can unlock it as an alternate costume for Tsukasa. This caused outrage to parents, which led to parents sending requests to the ESRB to change its rating from Teen to Mature. Takajima refuted the claim that the costume was intended to be in the game but was left out in the final game. Drillimation had to issue an ISO update for the game which removed the offending costume.

Because of the game's violence and fanservice, this is the first Super Smash Keyboards game and third Drillimation game overall to receive a CERO D rating in Japan, rather than the usual CERO C ratings the series usually gets. There were numerous news reports of underage players in Japan having unsuccessful attempts to purchase the game at retailers. In El Kadsre and Australia, the game received an R15 rating, effectively banning sale to minors under 15 years of age unless they're accompanied by a parent or guardian. The game could not be released in South Korea and Germany for the same reason.