Great game with some balance issues.
Easily one of the best reasons to own a Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl really shows off some of the Wii's capabilities but by no means its potential. The game makes no usage of the Wii motes motion sensing capability which we all know is the main selling point of the system. This may not come as a dissapointment however, as Smash Bros. has always been touted on tight controls that probably would not have translated well if you had to swing your controller to swing the Home Run bat.
My main issues with this installment of Smash Bros. are the incredibly imbalanced super smash moves. You can easily choose to turn these moves off, but if you do you will quickly feel like you are simply playing Smash Bros. Melee and not its predecessor. Pikachu's super smash for instance turns him into a ball of electricity with limited control. This smash is rather useless, its easily dodged and even when you time your A presses to add an extra jolt right on top of a character, it will only smash them if they have sustained a very large amount of damage before hand. Jigglypuff's super smash causes him to inflate to a size that fills about half of the stage. The main problem with this move is that he inflates so slowly any hope of pinning a character into a dangerous situtation is easily lost. Moves from Ike, Zelda, Link and some others are one shot moves, if you miss your target (good players will roll to avoid them) you won't get any KOs from using them.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, moves like the Star Fox character's land masters, or Sonic's Super Sonic are unbelievably powerful and nearly impossible to dodge. If you use Fox, Falco or Wolf's land master, you can glide high into the air when people land on your tank to lift them out of bounds with 0% damage. This can be abused to no end, and you can often smash four to five people before it wears off.
The game also features a slightly repetitive story mode (playable by one or two players) that also gives the game a decent bit of replay value. This is also the easiest way in the game to unlock every character so playing through it at least once is highly recommended. The game is great, the graphics are clean, the sound is good, and the stages vary from downright hilarious to incredibly frustrating. If you own a Wii, and you enjoy Pokemon, Nintendo Platformers, or simply well executed fighting games buying this is really a no brainer for you.
