Reviews
A multitude of variables including dozens of Nintendo-themed stages, endless supplies of rule-changing items, and the best character roster in the series yet adds great depth and longevity to Super Smash Bros. Brawl's gameplay. The online component works well despite some omissions, and with fun inclusions like the story mode, sticker and trophy collecting, and custom stage-building, there is nearly a bottomless well of activities in Brawl. It's needless to say that the game will be played feverously up until the next title in the series and anyone who was even remotely touched by Nintendo in their lifetime would find something to enjoy in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
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Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series presents an interesting juxtaposition. As a casual fighter featuring some of Nintendo's biggest and best-selling franchises, it's ironic that Smash Bros's popularity can overshadow even the characters represented in it. Though the situation may seem strange, its appeal to the Nintendo faithful is anything but. The roughly six years since Super Smash Bros. Melee have done nothing but keep anticipation and expectations high for the next installment and the result--Super Smash Bros. Brawl--will not disappoint.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl can be compressed to a single rule: to knock your opponents off the sides of the screen. You accomplish this by beating your opponents to a pulp to raise their damage percentage. The higher their percentage, the farther they fly, best done with the namesake smash attack. It's really that simple. But just because the concept is simple doesn't mean it's simple in practice.
Like its two forebears, Brawl's biggest draw is its four-player multiplayer. While on the surface Brawl may not look too different, a closer look reveals a huge expansion of options. A record 35 characters are selectable, spanning Nintendo greats like Mario and Kirby to lesser-knowns like Mother 3's Lucas. However, the more notable addition to the roster is that of Metal Gear's Solid Snake and Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog, who fit surprisingly well within the rest of the all-Nintendo cast.
To match number of characters, there are a few dozen stages to select from, the vast majority of which include interactive elements that make each stage resemble a playground more than a standard fighting environment. For example, the recreation of the 75M stage from the original Donkey Kong features numerous elevators, ladders, and a giant, pixelated Donkey Kong who throws springs, which not surprisingly, are very dangerous when hit. Add in a huge list of variable-changing items like ray guns, explosives, and the all-important Smash Balls which enable character-specific finishing moves and you'll never encounter the same match twice.
When the standard environments aren't enough, Brawl also offers the option to create custom stages. While the options are limited to three stage sizes, three backgrounds, and only a small number of blocks and other architectural variables, it's still a great option that will spark the minds of the creative. Created stages can also be sent to friends online, but unfortunately cannot be used in online multiplayer.
The biggest addition to multiplayer is without a doubt the online component. Though you have to enter Brawl-specific friend codes, doing so grants you access to the best online experience Brawl offers, allowing you to play with as many characters, stages, and options as you have unlocked in the offline game. However, Brawl doesn't include the standard features of most online games: leaderboards and voice chat You can play with random opponents, but this option limits you to two-minute matches. The matches aren't always lag-free but for the most part the game runs smoothly - an impressive feat considering the intense four-player action occurring online. Overall, online battling is a great addition to the game's value, even if it may be a little bare bones.
However, multiplayer is only part of Brawl's deluge of content. Brawl retains the standard single-player modes of the series' past, such as classic mode, which best mirrors the single-player stage progression of classic fighting games. The biggest addition to single-player content is the Subspace Emissary, a massive and optional co-operative story mode that builds on the adventure mode from Super Smash Bros. Melee and runs with it. Featuring a ridiculous story that barely manages to tie all these Nintendo characters together, the Subspace Emissary most resembles a 2D side-scroller of the past, only with the Smash Bros. rule-set. It is lengthy at about eight to ten hours, but at some points it can be repetitive and difficult, though frustration won't last long in light of a fair continue system.
Brawl maintains the franchise's simple control premise. All character moves are tied to one button each for special moves and normal attacks. Pressing either up, forward, or down in conjunction with one of these will result in character specific specials with the special move button and the smash attacks with the normal attack button. Smash Bros. does not wear the complexities of other move-based fighters like Street Fighter or Tekken but comparing it to those straight fighters is not entirely fair in respect to its less serious atmosphere of random items and non-static stages, which are essential to the experience.
Brawl also features four different controller options. You can use the Wii Remote, the Wii Remote plus the nunchuk, the Classic Controller, or a GameCube controller. The latter is definitely the best choice as not only will it be a natural fit for series regulars who have spent the last 6 years playing Melee but most of the other control types have issues, especially the Wii Remote due to its lack of having a sufficient button count to be a well-rounded choice. Nonetheless, it is possible to play with all of them, which is a testament to how fundamentally simple the game is.
While the graphics are only marginally better than Melee's,
Brawl still sports some great visuals. Star Fox's Lylat Cruise stage, set on a
space cruiser speeding through a detailed vista of asteroids and ships straight
out of Star Wars, is especially impressive – even more so considering that it
and the rest of the stages feature no slowdown. As heavy as the action can get,
the game runs at a silky 60 frames per second. However, sometimes the graphics
can be a distraction. It is all too easy in a particularly hectic fight to lose
sight of your character. This can be exacerbated in stages like Earthbound's
Super Smash Bros. has never sounded better than it does in Brawl. Sure, the sound effects are fine if not recycled from the previous games and feature appropriate nods to low-fi Nintendo cues past and present, but the true treasure is in its gaggle of music. Arranged by notable industry composers like Kingdom Hearts' Yoko Shimomura, No More Heroes' Masafumi Takada, and with a main theme composed by Final Fantasy maestro Nobuo Uematsu, Brawl's soundtrack features over 200 tracks from a sizeable chunk of Nintendo's back catalog. A feature called My Music also allows you to customize the frequency of what tracks you want to hear. Sadly, tracks are tied to specific stages, so you will not be able to use Solid Snake's theme on a Mario universe stage, for example. Though it's hardly a deal-breaker, this lack of customization is disappointing in a game overflowing with personalization options.
Brawl's biggest snag is that getting maximum enjoyment from it will require prerequisite knowledge and experience with Nintendo's characters and history. If the understanding of the absurd gravity of Link fighting Fox McCloud amidst the sewers of the original Mario Bros. game is lost, then these characters might as well be anyone else. Brawl has no shame in flaunting its appeal as a Nintendo self-promoter.
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