Smash Bros. is back hitting harder than ever.
What is the core basis of Super Smash Brothers Brawl? Nintendo characters kicking the crap out of each other, pretty simple right? Among the starting combatants going at it this time are classics such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, Zelda, Peach, Yoshi, Ice Climbers, and Bowser. New comers to the starting roster include Diddy Kong, Pit, Meta Knight, Pokemon Trainer, Ike, King Dedede, Wario, Olimar, and Lucas. Along with those there are 14 more characters to unlock, so no one will be at a loss at finding a favorite character. Within the 35 playable characters there are two not so secret third party characters from the likes of Konami and Sega.
Most characters all play differently, but unfortunately some characters are clones of others with slight differences between them. This is only true for some of the un-lockable characters, but all the starting characters are completely original with their move sets. Also, some characters are two in one. Samus can lose her power suit and become Zero Suit Samus, while Zelda can transform into Sheik. And in a special case, one character, the Pokemon Trainer, has control over three different pokemon, Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard.
Along with tons of characters, there are tons of stages as well. You have a pretty big selection of stages from the get go and have a lot more to unlock. Along with new stages to unlock, you can unlock a select few stages from Super Smash Bros. Melee as well.
The game play is more or less the same as Melee. You beat each other senseless until the damage meter on your opponent goes up to the point where a strong hit can send your opponent flying off the map. You standard Brawl where you just kick the crap out of your friends will be the standard way you play. This time around you can take your rivalries online and play your friends or random people. The bad thing about this is Nintendo's online service is just not up to par in today's internet age. We still have friend codes, there's no leader boards, no communication or anything like that. But when it comes down to it, it's SSB online so you can't complain too much.
Along with your standard Brawl there is now a full single player campaign entitled Subspace Emissary, which was penned by the writer of Final Fantasy VII. The story is about an army invading… Nintendo land? Consisting of weird looking enemies to say the least. Some big time Nintendo baddies team up to take out the good guys and in terms of Nintendo its pretty epic seeing all these characters in such dramatic situations. The play through pretty much consists of side scrolling through a level and once in a while you'll be thrown into a situation fight or a boss fight. If you don't have a lot of friends to play with, this will be the main mode that you unlock all the characters in.
In technical aspects the game looks, sounds, and plays great. The graphics are some of the best on the Wii, you can actually see texture in Mario's overalls! The orchestrated soundtrack is a who's who of video game composers with tons of composers contributing to the game. And play wise, well you've got options. You can play with only the wii remote held sideways which I do not recommended due to awkward use of the +/- buttons, the next best is using the Wiimote and nunchuck, which isn't bad but you can do better. Next you have the classic controller which works fine but it is in no comparison to the Gamecube controller, which is a proven fit for Super Smash Bros and has great rumble.
There are a ton of extras in the game as well. During single player mode you'll gather stickers, which are exactly what they sound like. They are all of characters/items from all the games represented within the game and can be used to power up your character in single player. Another thing to collect within the game is trophies which are like stickers, except 3D and don't do anything for you. There is a old timey arcade shooter in which you can use your coins to shoot down new trophies, it isn't that great but it's a nice distraction. At any point in the game you can take snapshots of your characters in order to view them later, send them to friends, or (I think) save them to an SD card and view them on your computer, don't quote me on that. Lastly, there is a (while meger) stage creator. While you won't be making the most technically flashy stages, you can make some pretty interesting creations, upload them to WiiConnect24 and if Nintendo likes your stage, they can let everyone know about it.
Overall, Super Smash Brothers brawl is an amazing game that you will be playing for however long you have your Wii and maybe till the next Nintendo console if it has Wii compatibility. It is almost everything you could want. Sure it would be nice to have Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, Roy, and Pichu back but 3 out of 4 of those would be very similar to exisisting characters. That being said, why can't all the characters have their own move set? And Nintendo, please get a better online service, is leader boards too much to ask for? All those negative things aside, they are minor and shouldn't deter anyone from the game which like I said, is AMAZING.