Super Smash Bros. Brawl

                Sora Ltd. - 2008 - Fighting

Hopefuly, "to end them all" doesn't stop it from another sequel.
Reviewed by Tony --- 3/30/08

    Super Smash Brothers is probably at that point in its life where it can pride itself as a key franchise to Nintendo.  The original was a flattering success, its sequel, Melee, was met with additional love, so when the GameCube made way for the next generation, there were more than just a few voices asking, "When's the next entry of Super Smash Brothers coming?"  Relatively early in the Wii's lifespan, was Nintendo's answer, with teaser videos, and months of agonizing weekly info releases as developement went along.  After an American delay of one month, Super Smash Brothers Brawl finally hit store shelves in early March, of which I was a pre-ordering, midnight-release attending customer, so I got to play it during the night while millions some of other poor, 10-year-old saps with parents not willing to stay up till midnight had to wait till later in the week to get it.  Nyah, nyah!

    The first stop in reviewing this game is going to end up being the Subspace Emissary, making Brawl just another one in the long line of fighting games that uses side-story adventure modes that I'm going to loathe for years to come.  What can I say, I expect a fighting game in my fighting games, not a quickie adventure mode that's mostly used as a collect/unlock quest.  Not like they could use all the extra disk space those things use up for, oh, I don't know, another character?  That being said, Subspace Emissary is just as aggravatingly linear as other fighting game adventure modes.  Half side-scrolling brawler, half platformer (there are levels that emulate elements of a few characters' games), it's very repetitive, fighting the same handful of enemies, and can still take upwards 10 hours to complete.  The story is about how the Brawlers' collective worlds, which actually are located on the same continent of a world, are being blown up into an alternate dimension known as "Subspace" by a mysterious figure.  Though you'll very likely see them coming, surprises, twists and deceits abound as a big-baddy-after-big-baddy tier unfolds, and the protagonists, all silent aside from grunts and battle cries, are teaming up, and heading out to put an end to it, so they can fight in peace once more... or something.  I don't know.  I guess the world of SSB is just one friendly spar after another.  For being the representation of the game's story, I was hoping for a little more than bad fanfiction.

    With that out of the way, we go back to the Classic Mode, simple fights that revolve around trying to rack up your opponent's damage percentage and smash them out of the arena.  And yes, your favorite "metal", "character team", and tag team fights are back, as are the trophies you love so well.  In addition, there are events and extra gameplay options such as Boss Battles, Home Run, and 10/100/Endless/Cruel-type matches, which range from laughably easy to head-to-the-wall hard.  With the game comes four different types of control set-ups, too, from just the Wiimote, which is relatively hard to play; the Wiimote/Classic Controller combination, if you feel that a Super Nintendo-type controller would be more suited to your comfort; Wiimote/Nunchuck combination, which is tough to get used to; and even the GameCube controller can be used for anyone who's more used to Melee's control setup.  If you don't like which buttons are mapped which actions for each control type, you can also change that if you want to, but you'll also have to change your controller setup to your saved account at the character selection screen every time.  Nothing much may be different from the past two games, but that's where the multiplayer comes into play, certainly the true bulk of the game's appeal.

    The game comes with 35 players in all (not including Samus's transformation to Zero Suit, or Zelda's transformation to Sheik), it's still the largest of SSB rosters to date, and to an extent, fulfilling my love of huge fighting game rosters; unfortunately, a few additions to the game are particularly shallow in terms of strategizing, and the inclusion of Sonic and Solid Snake feel more like it's pandering to fans of their series.  Even so, if that large roster doens't get your attention, it also has a large bevy of original stages which, to be honest, if they aren't Super Smash Brothers standards, are incredibly fun.  Still not enough for you?  How about some, if not all, stages from Melee?  Even if THAT doesn't happen to perk you up, how does potentially ENDLESS stages sound?  Because that can happen too, with the Stage Builder option.  The selection of parts may not be much, but clever minds can do a lot with a little.  My personal favorite, if you'll allow me to divulge, is a stage I made up called "The Enclosure", where blocks are placed all around the edges of the map, with the exception of two at the top.  You're intended to be placed at the bottom, where you're forced to rack up damage percentage, and hope your aim is well enough to knock your opponent out of the only two open blocks inside the pit.  Sure, dozens of kids have probably made their own "Enclosures" by now, but I made mine before I could see a version like it on the online stage-of-the-day download.

    Online, did I say?  You bet, though granted there's not a whole lot to write home about.  The daily downloads you get are for such things as snapshots, replays, and stages other people have made, and uploaded to be shared worldwide.  You can also play online brawls with complete strangers or 4 of up to 64 of your codable friends, or even 64 if you can talk 64 players with online capabilities to take part in the tournament of the century.  But here's where online goes downhill: not only is there no downloadables in the realm of new officially released stages, new characters, new items, new trophies, or the like, it takes away a bit of the glory of even being online, but the worst has yet to be said.  While the Brawl info-release site may have sang the game's praises of having low lag during a fight in the distance of Tokyo and Kyoto in Wi-Fi play, that's probably only as good as it's going to get.  Fights between friends of mine in neighboring states saw such a spike in lag, that it was useless trying to play for very long, and you will hear testimonials about it from a lot of other dissatisfied people.  A definite low point for the game, that a lot of people were looking forward to.

    The graphics aren't anything too special, especially considering a deflicker mode that makes the game look fuzzier, but it's more impressive than what naysayers will tell you to expect: a slightly improved version of Melee's graphics, and a sarcastic nod to the detail of the denim on Mario's overalls.  There is a substantial improvement in the looks of the characters and stages, but some stages and characters are too simple to see it.  When you've got Kirby fighting Pikachu in Final Destination or Yoshi's Island, you're not going to be blown away.  Try Snake and Link on Castle Siege or Bridge of Eldin, and it's looking a bit better.  If you're expecting to see the individual hairs on Donkey Kong wave around while he does a dash attack, it's not happening; but for what the game is, and that's a goofy, fun, little game that doesn't itself seriously, the graphics are just fine.

    If you're into music, well, there's definitely a LOT of that.  The game stacks up over 300 tracks, some meant for use in Subspace Emissary, but many of which are for use in stages during gameplay, you can choose which song you want to play in your created stage, and there's even an option to ratio which songs from a scoopful of series you want to hear on their respective stages.  The main theme, unforunately, is everywhere, the opening movie, the main menus, and in pretty much every track in Subspace Emissary, the kind of consistancy that might be a little TOO consistent, considering how many tracks there are.  The sound is crystal clear, and the effects add to the game's cartoony atmosphere.

    So unless you hate the game for the fact that graphics mean everything to you, that it's "Melee 1.5", or a jaded, biased Nintendo-hater in general, you're probably going to end up spending a LOT of time on this game.  With so much to unlock, so much to toy around with, and so much fun to be had with friends, off- and on-line, Super Smash Brothers Brawl may not entice you to delete your save just to unlock everything all over again, but it can still keep you entertained for a long, long time to come.

Story: 6
Gameplay: 10
Music and Sound: 10
Graphics: 9
Control: 8
Replayability: 10

Overall: 8.8