If only a few drawbacks didn't prevent this perfect 10 from... perfection.
The story mode here is the big win over the last title. A strong 20+ hour side-scrolling brawler with inventive story, dazzling cinematics, and large scale boss battles gave a big shot in the arm to a game whose only one-player mode until now pretty much WAS its multiplayer game. It also introduces the new characters in a fun way, teaching you how to play with every character in the game effectively along the way.
The level builder too was a great addition, though it often feels very limited, there is almost an intriguing challenge in finding a way to make an interesting level to play on with the short list of building blocks that you're offered.
Now like I said, this Smash SHOULD HAVE BEEN a perfect 10, but just a few "oopses" get in the way, and it just leaves you feeling like the problems should have been ironed out before this great title hit the shelf. The biggest complaint here arises when playing a 1 human vs. 3 computer player (non-team) brawl. If you will go ahead and set all the computers to level 9 and play on the huge hyrule level, you will quickly find that the computer opponents never seem to leave your side. Though they were perfectly programmed in Melee to attack one another when it was the most obvious advantage to them, they now clearly have an inclination to gang-bang the human player, and will quietly stroll all the way across the level at one another's sides to personally see to it that you never feel left out...of a beating. Now this is true for all stages, and all difficulty of computers, but a large stage and high level opponents will quickly reveal that it's not all in your head. That would have been an easy programming fix.
Another drawback is in the balance that was lost in adding Smash Balls. Now I'm a huge advocate of the smash ball itself, and there is nothing I like more than going Super-Wario on my friends five smash balls in a row, but when you watch Falco, Fox, or Wolf take about seven lives with one giant tank, then you see Peach put everyone to sleep and regain about 40% health after wandering around the level waiting for them to wake up, you start to wonder how this is really fair. Even great one-kill smashes like Marth, Mario, or Ike just don't really add up to Sonic's or the Star Foxers' massive Smash Balls. This wouldn't be such a huge detractor except for the fact that the great thing about Smash Brothers has always been that all the characters were totally different, and it took a lot to master each of their unique traits, BUT IT WAS ALWAYS BALANCED! Smash balls tend to destroy this wonderful balance when they almost added so much too it. Great idea, but missed the mark again.
The last thing I would like to add is that Peach, my favorite character from Super Smash Bros. Melee has been completely ruined and is almost unusable. Her downward smash has been completely soiled and is now useless. Unfortunately, it was one of her only reliable killing smash moves, leaving her with... turnips. Other characters have trouble getting a quick kill too, like Meta Knight, who I was very excited about until I found him to be crippled in comparison with power-additions like Pit.
It's a shame that these small things become such sore thumbs on a great game like Brawl. There is so much about this game that rises above every other game on the market, and it is by far still the best Wii title. But when you look at the problems now, and how they weren't present in the past renditions, you just have to wonder if the programmers didn't finish all their work because they were too busy playing Melee.