Super Smash Brothers Brawl will definitely be remembered as one of the nonpareil games out on the market
This latest offering in the Smash Brothers series begins the exciting introduction of characters like Kirby's Meta Knight, Mario's opposite, Wario and Fire Emblem's Ike. But wait there's more; this Smash Brothers is different from the last because of new surprising guest characters including Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog, and more so jaw dropping, Metal Gear's Solid Snake. Plus Smash Brothers have plenty more characters to discover and unlock, but more on that later.
Perhaps the most breath taking difference in Super Smash Brothers Brawl is that the visuals and sound are almost ten times of that on Smash Brothers Melee. It truly is a wonder too considering the minor changes in hardware but now the graphics go as far as being able to see the small details on Mario's dungarees or the magnificent shading of Samus Aran's power suit. Or the brilliance of Brawl's new soundtrack which features the sumptuous, hair raising and grand orchestral theme tune.
The new stages too sport this drastically improved visual and audio style but that isn't even the best of it as the stages are more lively then ever before with such noticeable features in each stage such as fights going on in the background or the surroundings reacting to the environments of each stage.
For example, the new Ice Climbers stage features a rolling ice berg that transcends across strong obstacles. Just the sheer power of the waves splashing against the stage is marvellous. But much like Smash Brothers, these action intensive stages aren't only there for show but rather as a gameplay element in Smash Brothers addictive, fast paced combat.
What make Smash Brothers special as a fighter is how simple it is to pick up and how easy it is to master. Each character has a unique set of commands. There are four ways of playing Super Smash Brother in terms of controls. You can use the Wii Classic Controller, the Gamecube Controller; The Wii Mote flipped side-ways and the general purpose Wiimote and nunchuck combo. The aim of the game is to defeat your foes by increasing their chances (in %) of being kicked off the stage. You do this by beating the hell out of them!
On all controls, you have a button for attacking generally, a button for using special attacks, a jump button and a shield button. By pressing in certain directions and combing either attack or special attack you're able to do different moves and they vary based on what character you play as. For example, with Mario if you press left with special attack you perform a cape slap, which fans of the series may remember from Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo, or if Samus, you'll launch a missile, as seen on Super Metroid. You can also grab opponents or do a charge attack (by holding a direction and pressing attack) which harms the enemies. It is even possible to do air combos with enough practice!
So as you can see, it's not complex or combo intensive like on other fighters. But the key to Smash Brothers is being able to use these combinations correctly and knowing when and where to initiate your attacks. This precision in attacks makes the whole difference between winning and losing. And other moves like grabs and charge attacks can make moving stages like the ice climbers level mentioned earlier a whole lot harder to concentrate on. This pressure of concentration can't be more intensified though without mentioning the items on offer in Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
Brawl, much thanks to its diverse Nintendo history, features many items from the franchises based in its game. These items randomly appear across the level and can normally be picked up with a tap of the attack button when nearby it. For example; you can pick up and throw Pokémon balls at your enemies. The Poke ball releases a real Pokémon monster (different each time) that'll attack your enemies or support your battle (e.g. moving the stage focus elsewhere).
New items include the Assist Trophies that'll provide you with a partner that aids your fight for a short period of time. These assist characters can range from Little Mac of Punch-Out! To Grey Fox of Metal Gear Solid and are a real benefit to the fight. Of course these items appear randomly and add to the wackiness and random luck on the levels of Brawl. The most beneficial item of the entire Brawl game has to be the Smash Ball which appears the least during matches. It floats around the stage and can only be obtained by beating it a couple of times unlike the rest of the items in the game.
Once the smash ball is captured, you can perform your Final Smash by pressing special. Depending on what character you play as, your final smash will then perform a devastating attack against your opposition. The Smash Ball really changes the outcome of matches in most cases and can cause a sore loser of the match to become the winner of it. Of course some final smash attacks are better than others but we'll get to that later.
For a fighting game, Smash Brothers Brawl features a high number of game modes that are separated through multiplayer play (group) and (solo). The group modes consist of the battle mode just explained although rules can be twisted in that they play differently to the standard brawl. For example, you can have a timed game with the highest score as victor when it ends or a last man standing match where you all have the same number of lives and the last player who still has lives is the winner.
In group battle you can also apply to the rules what items are allowed or disallowed during play, suiting to your preference of the game. So say if you believe the smash ball makes the game too easy then you can remove it from play during the game with your friends. Group battle also enables you to add AI enemies to the game if you have a short number of people playing with you and their difficulty can be adjusted very precisely due to the amount on scale per AI.
This group battle mode can also be modified to play using teams, handicap games of 1-3 or 1-2 and special melee can add to the frenzy by allowing sudden death fights or perhaps giant fights. You can also play a tournament rotation mode with up to sixteen players if you want to find out who is the best. In any case, the possibilities are endless.
Single player has always been a problem in Super Smash Brothers although Brawl has handled the issue far better than in the previous games of the series. The numbers of modes are much more varied this time around and solo is all-round a lot better. There is the classic mode – which has you play against a series of challengers similar to the older Smash Brothers games. There is Allstar mode and the unlockable battle mode where you have single life to beat a number of enemies in a survival style battle. And, of course as regular to Smash Brothers, there is Event Mode where you do up to 62 challenges in order to win trophies and stickers for the game, this mode can be played with a friend too co-operatively.
Another two modes that can be played with friends in solo mode, and have often been the attention of Smash Brothers during development, include Home-Run Contest and Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary. Home Run Contest has you beat a sandbag with a baseball bat and hit it as far as you can. In this mode you can have score competition against a friend and see who is better. Home Run Contest is a nice time waster during a break from the other modes in the game.
The Subspace Emissary on the other hand is a completely new adventure featuring beautiful CG-cut scenes and dozens of Nintendo franchise themed levels. It is overall a nice effort and plays like a traditional side-scrolling platformer mixed with a few puzzle elements and the fighting themes in Brawl of course. It can be played with a friend too.
The Subspace Emissary is an important mode as it's the easiest way to unlock many of the characters, trophies. Stickers and other obtainable goodies in Brawl's vault mode. However perhaps it isn't the most fun way either as the Sub Space Emissary can feel a chore.
The wi-fi modes in Brawl are arguably the most talked about feature of the game however and with good reason. At long last, Brawl players from around the world are allowed to play against each other due to the Wii's online capabilities. Or how about playing against your friends who can't play with you otherwise?
In friend mode, you're capable of doing this and you can also make your game more social thanks to nice additions of taunts and the speech bubbles on your name which you can include your favourite catch phrases once you've beaten your friends. You can also spectate matches if you want to see who is the better of your two mates and even bet on who will win using coins earned during play.
You can also play with strangers in random mode, it doesn't feature the social interactions of playing with friends and plays using the standard timed rules but otherwise it's the same game as you search for others who wish to fight as well. The time between matches lets you practice your skills on the sandbag of home run contest while you wait, which is cool.
Unfortunately however the Wi-fi is Brawl's weakest feature as nearly every game features lag in the form of input delays or even stuttering (at its worst) during play. And of course, the annoying friend codes are present in Brawl which is oh-so-necessary if you even wish to play with a friend.
Its even bad trying to communicate with friends during the game as there is little way of organising games via the Nintendo Wii and you'll often find yourself relying on third-party hardware and software in order to communicate your friends (i.e. a phone or web messenger). Although it's a problem that Nintendo need to solve rather than the developers it still proves to be a hindrance of the otherwise top notch playability of Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
Speaking of issues though, there are a few small glitches in Brawl that are sadly also exploited and still haven't been fixed by Nintendo. Some stages have been lazily put together and it shows. Although it is nice to see extras in the form of the melee stages, they haven't been updated and because of this they still feature the flaws like clearly weaker visuals sound and even obvious glitches (it is still possible to punch through the walls on some stages) which could've been solved during development.
A lot of the stages are also too small to play properly for a lot of the characters and this causes an unbalance in value between the characters because of this. Speaking of character balancing, the Final Smash attacks are actually better on some characters than others and I mean better, much better. Sonic's Final Smash proves this as he is able to transform into Super Sonic which not only makes him invincible for a short period of time but almost always capable of taking out the opposition on contact. If you compare Sonic's Final Smash to Donkey Kong, who only stuns players with his bongos in a small proximity from him, then there is a clear balance issue in Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
The game also has a few glitches of its own on certain stages which are often exploited online and still haven't seen any fixes what so ever. Smash Brothers Brawl offers a stage creator where you share stages with friends but this is soon to be dropped and normally plays in favour of one type of character anyway. The game also features long load times due to the developer's use of dual layer DVDs, similar to what Xbox 360 titles use. And of course, now that we've seen Sonic and Snake in Smash Brothers, we desperately want to see more guest characters like Mega Man, Bomberman or perhaps even Simon Belmot of the Castlevania series rather than more clone characters in the form of Lucas (Mother 3) and Star Wolf (Star Fox 64).
But overall, the vast majority of Super Smash Brothers Brawl is an entertaining medium. It is one of the most impassioned Nintendo Wii titles currently on the market and notable for not only vastly improving on most of the faults found with Super Smash Brothers Melee but successfully introducing guest characters to its cast of characters, and by doing, expanding its own audience in the process. It'll definitely be remembered as one of the nonpareil games out on the market because of this that hardcore Xbox 360 and PS3 owners will be missing out on.