Bask in greatness. Period.
This review was originally posted March 15th 2008 on my Gamespot profile.
Super Smash Bros. BrawlSuper smash bros came on the scene in spring of '99. It is a fighting/brawler that pitted Nintendo characters in with each other to duke it out. It was intentionally a pet project for Nintendo to see how people reacted it got good scores and was praised by fans. So in 2001 after the Gamecube was released. Super Smash Bros Melee was released. The reaction was explosive making it the top most selling Gamecube game of all time and One of the fastest selling Nintendo game of all time. The Game was just plain fun that simple.
Then Nintendo announced Super Smash Bros Brawl in January of 07… and People demanded it.
Most people have been waiting for this game for month's heck maybe even years since Melee was released. Although it got delayed twice it finally was released. They begged for online, they begged for new characters and game modes.
Nintendo delivered with flying colors.
If you have been playing since the first game you will notice the drastic change of speed from SSB (Super smash bros.) to SSBM (Super Smash Bros Melee) A lot of people said that it was a little to fast. So in Brawl they reduced the speed but not so much that it comes to slow for Melee vets, although I played hours upon hours on Melee it took a little time to get used to the change in speed. Think of the speed as this SSB-Slow (for these 3 games) SSBM- Fast, and SSBB- As Medium and perfected
The most notable new feature they have added is the ability to have 4 controller types.
Melee vets will probably end up just using the good ol' reliable. The Gamecube controller it remained unchanged and fine tuned. For newcomers they might think the Gamecube controller is a little archaic for a brand spanking new Wii game. The other 3 controller types are the Wiimote turned sideways. Wiimote + Nunchuck attachment and the Classic controller. The Wiimote sideways is one of the best controller types with the simple interface. The only problem with it is the basic controller layout is the B button is the shield and it will feel awkward since the B button is made for the Wiimote turned Vertical. No need to worry though this time around you can customize your controller by assigning button layouts! Back to the controllers.
The wiimote and nunchuck attachment is probably the craziest one I have seen. The button layout is pretty good and you even have the ability to shake the wiimote to do Smash attacks which can be toggled on and off. The Classic controller is probably people who are used to the gamecube controllers second best being that the button assignment is the same but, remember that the classic is based off of the SNES controller there for the A button is off to the side rather than being in the middle like the cubes. Its easy to get used to though.
As for the roster, I will not spoil any characters for you but I will say this for a fighting-party game the roster is staggering after everything is done with you should have a grand total of 35 characters. Rivaling Street Fighter and Tekken games. If you want to get technical there is 39 characters if you count every form. The thing this time around is there are no clones of characters (different character same moves as another character) There were a lot of clones in Melee. This time around that is not a factor with all the characters having different move sets, although some characters are similar but, hey what fighting game does not have at least two similar characters. Also this time around there are no overpowered or underpowered characters balancing out the character list.
Before I jump into gameplay. Final Smashes are the new thing. If you beat the crap out of this floating ball that appears (you will know when you see it) you are able to use a Final Smash for that character by pressing the Special Button without moving the control stick. It gives you a burst of power that usually renders the opposition in pain and chaos usually causing devastating results.
As for gameplay options Solo mode classic has been revamped by having mostly fights "Race to the finish" and "Collect the trophies" mini games have been removed giving you 2 target test 9 fights and then a final fight with the infamous Master Hand. Adventure mode is now the most important gameplay element. Last time is was just a watered down platformer with lots of elements, that could easily be finished like classic mode giving you a feeling like "That was an adventure?" That I would call being lazy. This time however it is really long involving all the characters, story elements, and allows you to unlock almost all of the characters playing through it. Normally for anyone it could take you up to 8 hours to finish. Although near the end of Adventure can be quite annoying. They give you a maze and make you go through every stage and every boss over again. Other than that its great.
Stadium mode is basically the same except now all the modes are 2 player :P. Homerun Contest, Multi-man Brawl(used to be Multi-man Melee but the title of the game is different folks!), and Target Test. Homerun is now…well brutally easy for the fact that there is now a barrier around the place where you whack the sandbag and then pick up the bat and smack as far as you can. So now that the bag can't fall of the little platform you start on you can hit a bunch of times time it just right so when time runs out when you hit it with the bat so you don't have to break through the barrier when it goes down so you get further distance. Multi-man is the same. Nothing has changed except now after you beat all of the now called Alloys instead of wire frames you fight a clone of yourself at the end. Target Test now has 5 levels for the 5 difficulties in the game. The only thing now is that everyone's layout for the levels are all the same unlike melee when they had different layouts for the targets for all the charcters. Event matches are the same except there is 10 less than the last game although now you also have co-op event matches for 2 people. As for group mode (Versus) it is the same except that now Special Brawls are totally customizable. Now you can have that Metal Bunny hood super sudden death you always wanted.
The Vault- Basically the storage facility for brawl. Where your trophies are kept. You can also make a diorama for all your trophies. Stickers are used in Adventure Mode to power up your characters and they are also displayed here. Coin Launcher has now replaced the lottery mode from last year and instead it's a shooting game where you shoot the trophies and stickers with coins to obtain them, more fun than it sounds trust me. Masterpieces is something that will just make you say "awe" this place lets you have a trial of games past that are available for download on the Wii shop channel. Note though, all of the games featured are timed not complete that level and its over. Not all of the games from the Wii-shop are on brawl of course only games involving the characters that are in Brawl. There is also a newly added Stage Builder *gasp* You can now create your own stages. You can sit there for hours trying to make some diabolical trap based stage but, your options are limited compared to other games with stage builders. Screenshots can now be taken at anytime during a pause screen making photo's easier to take. Album in the vault is where you can see all of your screenshots. Replays are also a nice new addition which you can take after most matches. They are also displayed here in the Vault.
You can also send replays and screenshots to friends on your friends list over Nintendo Wifi connection!
Online is kind of touch and go sometimes if you are not playing with friends. You can have up to 64 friends on your friends list which is probably the largest amount of friends I have seen you can have for a Nintendo Wifi Connection game. You can do basic things online. With Anyone- Random people that just pop into a match. You can Brawl, Team Battle or a new added feature for online only which is you can be Spectator in spectator mode. Which not only allows you to sit back and watch a match but allows you to bet your coins on who will win and if you character(s) that you bet on win you get the jackpot of how ever many coins you put in. With friends options are much more diverse allowing you to team up with a buddy and do multi-man brawl together, and team up to do Homerun contest together. (you can also do 2 player multi-man and 2 player homerun offline as well). Lag online is rare…extremely rare unless your connection is just garbage.
That's basically everything about Brawl I had to say. With so much content every Wii owner should own this game. Some people bought Wii's just for this game. If you have a wii and don't have this game. Buy it. Buy it Now. This game is just a Prime example of time and perfection will do for you.
5/5
