As the sequel to the Gamecube’s biggest selling game, and the first triple-A Nintendo title to feature online play, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was always going to be massively hyped, especially with the announcement of two non-Nintendo characters for the first time in the series.
Brawl boasts an impressive 41 characters, and although admittedly a few of them are essentially clones of existing characters, it’s a pretty diverse selection with a wide range of fighting styles, each with their own pros and cons. Some have complained that the characters in this game are somewhat unbalanced, but I would contest that this always happens in fighting games, and Brawl is still pretty well balanced compared to many other games in the genre. New entrants to the series, amongst others, include Kirby’s rivals Meta Knight and Dedede, Olimar from the Pikmin series, Wario, Pit, a Pokémon Trainer who uses three different Pokémon rather than fighting himself, and of course the much-hyped third-party characters Snake and Sonic (the chance to have finally Mario and Sonic duke it out was always going to be huge). You’ve got to hand it to the developers, they’ve come up with a quite varied and interesting list of characters, some with rather odd gimmicks, and only a few clones amongst them.
There’s also plenty of new stages to try out, along with a few returning ones from Melee. I’m going to have be a bit subjective here, but while I think most of the stages are pretty good, I have to say that a few of them have some problems, e.g. New Pork City is too big, and any fight on Rumble Falls tends to end up with more platforming than actual fighting. Still, if you enjoy playing the game in the “wacky” style it’s kind of geared towards then you’ll probably like them. Some notable stages include Super Mario Sunshine’s Delfino Plaza, completely as it was in that game, an odd Warioware stage which rewards the player for performing some task when required, and a modern version of Super Mario Bros. World 1-1, which is apparently now a desert. There are plenty of other quirky levels to see, and the variation between them is quite nice.
The fighting system is kept nice and simple. There’s no less than four different control methods: Wiimote, Wiimote plus Nunchuk, Classic Controller or Gamecube controller. Chances are you’ll probably want the Gamecube controller though, as the other methods feel awkward and unnatural. As always, your objective is to wear down your opponent, then knock them out of the stage. Attacks never get more complicated than a button plus a direction, although certain moves tend to lend themselves to combos anyway. And as always, you can use throws and shields. An interesting new addition is the final smash: by breaking a ball that randomly appears sometimes a player will gain access to their most powerful move, which is different for every character (usually- Fox, Falco and Wolf, not content with already being clones, also use the same Landmaster final smash). They add a bit of spice to the fighting, giving things a bit more unpredictability and fun. But this simplicity is a double-edged sword. While it does make the game easier for people to pick up and play without having memorise huge combos and such, this essentially encourages button-bashing and projectile-spamming as well. However, despite this the game has enough depth that it’s not completely mindless.
Perhaps the best improvement over Melee is the introduction of online play, something which Nintendo neglected back on the Gamecube (and still tend to do now). Of course it’s loads of fun, but since this is a Nintendo game it was probably inevitable they wouldn't do it right. Matches can lag quite a bit during play thanks to Nintendo's ineptitude at online gaming (it's a miracle it's even in the game, given their bizarre aversion to it). You can brawl with friends or with random strangers, but so far I've been unable to play in a "with anyone" match, only with friends. For some inexplicable reason not only do you need annoying Friend Codes to play against others, you need different ones from their console’s number. I've never understood why Nintendo gave us Friend Codes for our consoles then give us new ones for each individual game, rather than keeping it clear and simple. The ability to voice chat would have been nice, but that’s probably expecting too much of mollycoddling Nintendo, afraid some kid might hear a naughty word… (I must admit I’m finding it difficult not to turn this into a review of Nintendo’s online gaming policies). Anyway, as well as brawling online you are able to spectate on random matches played around the world and bet on who the winner will be. It’s an okay feature, but it would have been better if we were able to spectate in friend’s matches.
Another nice improvement over Melee is a proper, fully fledged adventure mode, called the Subspace Emissary. Basically the world is being invaded by a bunch of bad guys who turn the world into ‘subspace’ and set about turning some of our heroes into a statues, and obviously the rest of our heroes have to stop it. Cue lots of platforming/fighting action. While the plot lacks depth, the interactions of various characters from Nintendo’s history (and Solid Snake) is interesting to see, and there’s at least a bit of characterisation despite the lack of voice acting. Sadly the gameplay in this mode tends to be somewhat dull and repetitive, consisting of beating up wave after wave of the same old goons and not really getting the chance to play off each characters strengths like it could have. In particular it could have done without the Great Maze, which retreads a load of previously visited areas into a vaguely Metroid-esque layout, but without the ingenuity of Metroid’s level design.
In terms of looks, Brawl has some of the best graphics seen so far on the Wii, presumably aided by the fact that this game makes use of a dual-layered disc. In particular the FMV scenes in the Subspace Emissary are gorgeously detailed. The juxtaposition of different graphical styles for some characters can be a little jarring- the realistically drawn Snake looks quite odd next to cartoonish-looking Yoshi, for example- but overall the characters are very well animated and the stages look cool.
The music selection in this game is incredible. There's hundreds of contributions from all the series involved, some new versions and some in their original form. I could complain they picked the wrong ones from the Metroid series, but that's just me nitpicking. The starting line-up of music itself is quite impressive, and there's loads more tracks to be unlocked, either by randomly collecting them during matches, or by completing specific objectives.
In fact the amount of things to do in this game is mind boggling. Aside from basic brawling, training, classic mode and the Subspace Emissary, other modes on offer include events (complete specific challenges), 10/100 man brawl, endless brawl, boss rush, target smashing, stadium (hit a sandbag with a bat as far as you can), a stage builder, and even the chance to play demos of old classics from the Virtual Console. And on top of all that, there’s loads of stickers and trophies to collect- stickers can improve your characters’ stats in the Subspace Emissary, while trophies, as ever, do nothing. In basic Brawl there’s also a huge degree of customisation when it comes to matches that puts most other console games to shame, allowing you to fight with all sorts of different rules (for example, the player is able to individual turn on or off each type of item).
The stage builder mode is new to the series, and like it says on the tin it lets you create your own stages. You have to unlock extra parts before you can really do anything interesting with it, but in the right hands it can be the source of some cool stages. There is the option to play a new custom stage online every day, but whatever reason they’re only available for one day. The Masterpieces are a neat little addition, allowing us to sample a few of the character's old games, and making them pretty good for those who have not played them before. While I'm not here to review those games, I'll just say that they're a fairly good selection, but many of the demos are a bit too short.
This game will probably mean more to long-time fans of Nintendo games than it will to newcomers, but it’s one that anyone can pick up and enjoy. Nintendo have gone all out with this game, putting in references to some of their most obscure Japan-only games and including a huge library of music from their games. There’s so much stuff to do and to unlock it’s incredible, this game can easily last a player for weeks. Whether playing on your own or with friends it’s hard not to enjoy it.
Linear Mode
