Bandicam 2014 09 10 06 31 15 419

3DS owners across Japan — as well as those international Nintendo fans dedicated enough to import Japanese hardware — are currently abandoning their friends, family, and careers while they get busy with the Super Smash Bros. demo that has just been released on the Japanese eShop.

Of course being a demo, many of the full game's features are greyed out, but even so this playable teaser still has more than enough to tide fans over until the official Japanese release on Saturday. There are five playable characters to master, with newcomers Mega Man and Animal Crossing's Villager standing alongside Smash veterans Mario, Link and Pikachu in this temporary roster.

Demo matches are fixed at two minutes in length on just a single stage, so it's a testament to the game's impeccable design that even with these restrictions in place the Super Smash Bros. 3DS teaser is a lot of fun, and we're sure many Japanese 3DS owners will be playing nothing else for the rest of the week.

Would you like to see this demo work its way onto the US and EU eShops? Were you hoping for a different demo character line up? Let us know in the comments section below.