Let's get ready to Rumble!
This time Smash Bros. has it's largest character roster ever, with a total of 35 playable characters with only a few clones present this time around. Which is a great improvement from the clone fest that was Smash Bros. Melee. Alongside all of the Nintendo favourites this time we have 3rd Party characters making their first appearance in a Smash Bros. game, we get Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Series and Sonic the Hedgehog. Of course this finally gives us the opportunity to find out who is better Sonic or Mario and this time not at the bloody Olympic games. The thing that really shocked me is how balanced all of these characters are, nobody is ridiculously overpowered which that all the battles seem so much more fair, if I was to have one complaint about them it would be that some characters moves can be too easily spammed and this can be quite frustrating as it removes some of the fun from proceedings. One of the problems surrounding the characters is that 14 of them have to be unlocked before you can play as them and while this does extend the life of the single player mode it is very annoying when your friends want to play as Sonic and you still haven't unlocked him in the bore-fest that is the Subspace Emissary mode.
On to the modes and there certainly is a lot to do in Smash Bros. and the thing that most people will go to first is the Subspace Emissary mode. Now some fans will say that there never was an adventure mode in the other Smash Bros. games so this is a bonus but if it is a bonus it's a pretty crappy one as the Subspace Emissary is boring. First off though lets get the praise out of the way, the Cut scenes are beautiful and can be quite funny to watch, it gives you the chance to play as all the characters so you can learn their move sets and the Boss Battles are entertaining. The main problem with the mode is how repetitive it is, and if any of you played Sakurais' early Kirby platformers you'll know they were fairly uninspired games, so why allow him to see over this. All of the levels are pretty much the same with a different backdrops so you just run and jump from door to door until the end of the level that's it, there is never any innovation, no difficult parts and the enemies obviously want to get killed considering how easy they are to beat. On top of that the controls don't lend themselves to platforming and it all feels to fiddly, like it was an afterthought. On top of that when you finally get to the last part of the game after 7 hours of monotony it tells you to do it all again and by this point I was losing the will to live. Re-tracing your steps is never a good idea in Video Games it gives the impression that the Design Team have run out of ideas, it's one of the things that annoys me about Metroid, the reason Devil May Cry 4 isn't brilliant and why I can't be arsed to finish Silent Hill 4. This game is no different and the only reason I did it was because I wanted to unlock Sonic the freakin' Hedgehog is that such a crime Sakurai!
Still the game is still chock full of less tedious modes such as Classic, Sandbag, Multi-man Brawl, Boss Battles, Coin Launcher, Regular Brawl and many more that it makes up for the Subspace Emissary.
The other great thing about this game is how much there is to collect you have Trophies and Stickers of various Nintendo characters some of which are quite obscure which only die-hard gamers would remember and some of them are taken from the Elite Beat Agents which automatically makes it Epic! As well as that you have music to unlock from all the characters series, including some really great tunes that you may have forgotten along with all the classic stuff, it all adds up to a truly fantastic soundtrack. There are Bonus Stages to unlock as well to fight on, all set in places from characters games that you will remember with unique obstacles and challenges to avoid while you are fighting. So to unlock everything would take 100 hours of gameplay, probably a lot more.
The Gameplay itself is flawless as it has been since the N64 original with pretty much all characters having a unique moveset and style of fighting so you have Strength, speed, All-round, Good Specials, Good Recovery etc. all to take into account to choose a fighter that suits your style of play. One of the smarter ideas was to have 4 ways of controlling the game including Wiimote on it's side NES style, Wiimote and Nunchuck, Classic Controller and Gamecube controller for those of you have become accustomed to it. This been a fighting game means that anybody can jump in and start Button Mashing and have a good time but there is a lot of depth to the controls for more experienced players to get to grips with. One of the new additions to the fights are the Assist trophies which when used summons a character from a past Nintendo game to help you from Excitebike to Nintendogs to Advance Wars pretty much everyone makes an appearance. Add these to the massive amount of items and Pokeballs you can use and the game is filled with Fan Service. The big new addition though is the Final Smash where you break open a Smash Ball and unleash a special attack that will destroy any opponents in your way and these can be real game winners so everyone rushes towards it.
The main aspect of Smash Bros. has always been it's Multi-Player Brawls and this doesn't disappoint with a regular 4 man Brawl, 32 man Tournaments, a clever rotation mode and the opportunity to change the rules to the way you want them means that the Multi-Player mode is as addictive as ever and a great way to have fun with your friends (and then lose them when you keep spamming Pikachus' Thunder!) Also on the Multi-Player front this is the First Smash Bros. game to include Wi-Fi play and to be honest it is a bit of a disappointment, first off friend codes are still annoying and make it awkward to play with your friends, the whole thing feels a bit basic with none of the depth of Living Room Multi-Player and it can get quite laggy which in a high speed game like Smash Bros. is very annoying. Plus after the Rankings system put in place for Mario Kart Wii it is a huge disappointment as none of that is available giving you little incentive to play.
A quick round-up of the other aspects of the game include some, nice colourful graphics which are very detailed especially on the Stages, a stage Builder that is pretty good although custom stages can't be played online, absolutely tons of challenges to play through and even some VERY short trial demos of some great past games available on the Virtual Console.
So overall I would highly recommend Smash Bros. Brawl just to be able to bask in the Nintendo Glory of it all and kick Marios' head in while your at it. The game all hardcore Nintendo fans should buy.
Pros
+ Flawless Gameplay with lots of hidden depth
+ Fantastic Soundtrack to reminisce to
+ Perfectly Balanced Characters to play as
+ So much to do and unlock, you'll be playing 100's of hours with friends or alone
Cons
- Boring Single Player Adventure mode
- Poor Wi-Fi Multiplayer
- Minor annoying niggles
Overall
A few problems stop this from been Perfect.
9/10