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Super Smash Bros. Brawl: one to remember
(by Caleb Rumley - March 26, 2008)
Nintendo has been steadily hyping gamers for the release of Super Smash Brothers Brawl for what seems like ages. Gamers waited through several delays, but the day finally arrived. Millions of gamers eagerly snapped up their copies of Brawl. Could it possibly meet the high expectations that everyone had given it? Now that I’ve played it for a few weeks, I can honestly say it has fulfilled all of the hype around it by creating an all around amazing gaming experience.
Brawl is one of the biggest games out for the Wii, and the sheer amount of content inside its one disc is just amazing. There are over 30 characters ranging from every possible Nintendo game, and even a few from outside the realm of Nintendo. Brawl seems to be very well balanced as a fighting game, and very few of the characters are “clones” that were so common in Melee.
Sakurai and the talented gang at Nintendo have crafted a single-player experience that is almost as good as the multiplayer. The newest addition is the Subspace Emissary mode, which serves as the game’s main adventure mode.
Subspace Emissary is a bit of a mixed bag – I like the level based gameplay, but the story is lame and contrived. And in typical Nintendo style, there’s no speech – so that limits most communication in the game to basically grunts. But on top of the new Subspace mode, Classic, Event Match, and All Star modes return to round out the single player experience.
But of course, what everyone really wants to play in Brawl are the epic multiplayer matches. With even more items, characters, and stages than ever before, the game just never gets stale. Action is always fast-paced and exciting, even if there are some gameplay changes that take some getting used to.
First of all, the action is much more aerial-based. As a general rule, all characters have much stronger recoveries and can get back to the stages with ease. The action is still fast, but seems just a hair slower than Melee. Another new addition is the Smash Ball – which, when broken open by a character, gives them the power to unleash a Final Smash. Different characters have different Final Smashes, but unfortunately some are much stronger than others.
I also enjoyed the 40+ new stages, but some of them are almost too interactive. In a few stages, enemies pop up to blast you out of the Brawl or the entire stage just flips upside down. Another let down is the Masterpiece mode, where you can play games that the characters come from. However the time limits on the demos are just ridiculous – how could you possibly have just three minutes to play Super Mario World?
Like Melee, Trophies are back and in full force. There are at least 500 trophies in the game, and each of them has interesting descriptions and looks really sharp. There are also collectible stickers, of which there are hundreds and come from every game imaginable.
Smash Bros. Brawl is the game you’ve been waiting for – it’s just amazing. I’ve been playing it constantly since it released, and it’s definitely one of the best games on the Wii right now. The cartoony action is intense and exciting, and it just never really gets old. Smash Bros. Brawl gets a 9.5 out of 10, and I highly recommend it to anyone with a Wii.
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