Finally we can pit Mario and Sonic against each other in a brawl and see who comes out on top in this great game.
* A good variety of characters. Both well known faces and obscure, all of which are fun to play.
* Numerous levels and a decently robust level creator to boot.
* Tonnes of unlockables.
* Attractive graphics.
* Excellent soundtrack.
Cons
* Short story mode.
* Perhaps TOO much to unlock?
Super Smash Brothers Brawl finally came out at the end of the last month down under and I've had plenty of time with it. Theres not a whole lot I can say that you haven't likely read.
It's a fighter that takes place on a 2D plane where the objective is to knock the other characters off screen with the aid of easy to learn special attacks, tonnes of unique items and the environments themselves
Super Smash Bros takes a whole host of Nintendo characters and even a couple of third party faces this time around and sets them up to battle. It's definitely as fun as it sounds.
First thing I'll address is the controls.
Theres a few control schemes.
Classic controller.
Gamecube Controller.
Wiimote Without Nunchuck.
Wiimote With Nunhuck.
I don't have a Classic Controller or a Gamecube Controller, so I can't really speak for those schemes. But the game works fine without them, despite what you might think.
It can take a little getting used to playing without the nunchuck, but it's perfectly doable.
With the Nunchuck would be my recommended scheme. Every things laid out perfect.
And as far as I've seen theres no stupid motion controls or 'waggling' to be seen.
Every things done with buttons.
Theres a story mode and it's decent while it lasts, but it wont last long.
It plays out as a simplified 2D platformer.
You play as various Nintendo characters and you're trying to defend the world from these evil Subspace dudes and the Nintendo villains who as far as I can tell are working with them.
Theres no voice over, there isn't even any textual conversations. Every things sort of mimed, relies heavily on visuals to convey the story. It works well enough, but I can't help but think it'd be better with a little conversation. At least between the characters that aren't mute.
I don't expect and wouldn't want Link to chime in with a lengthy dialogue, but Snake can speak.
Sonic can speak. Mario can. So they should.
There are a couple of characters you can unlock if you opt to go back through it, but all characters - with persistence - can be unlocked merely by brawling with a friend.
400 brawls if I recall right ought be enough to unlock everyone, which sounds like a lot but the games fun enough that that'll just fly by without you noticing.
Theres an awful lot you can unlock simply by playing, which is nice because theres so much to unlock that I doubt I could really be bothered going back to look for specific items.
The graphics are attractive and despite the characters having different graphical styles, them sharing the screen doesn't really feel off at all.
And the sound? It's all good.
Props have to be given to the music.
Tonnes of classic video game tunes to be found, some originals - some remixed - all awesome.
Flaws? The short story mode.
That's pretty forgivable considering how much there is to do outside of it, what with there being events - challenges - online brawling etc, but it could've been padded out a little more.
And perhaps the unlockables.
I personally like having a tonne of unlockables, even if know theres no way I'm going to be able to get every single trophy, sticker, piece of music, stage etc there is to get.
Completionists might feel it to be too much of a chore after a while though.
All in all the game is a hell of a lot of fun and it's so easy to pick up and play that it's worth a shot for anyone to try.