El Kabong
01-04-2008, 01:34 PM
I couldn’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve been locked in a conversation about who would win in a fight: Spiderman or Batman? Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse? Tony the Tiger or that freaky little Lucky Charms leprechaun?
Well for nearly 10 years (that’s right, Smash Bros. debuted in 1999) the respectable folks at Nintendo have given us a way to make some of our deepest darkest fantasies a reality. The people like seeing mascots beating the piss out of each other, and the Super Smash Bros. series has delivered again, this time in the shape of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6051/4b6f392cccd8b7ecaf5.jpg
The formula is simple, and has remained relatively unchanged. Take the stars of a myriad of popular games, set them on a stage and let them unleash all hell. Each character has 8 attacks plus a grab. These are executed with either the A or B buttons, plus a direction on the joystick/control pad. Your goal is to rack up enough damage on the other player to “smash” them off the stage. This is facilitated by some handy chargeable “smash attacks”, performed by holding a direction and the A button. Also aiding you are items, which can be picked up and thrown. I’m not sure exactly how many there are, but I think it’s safe to say that there’s somewhere in the area of 4 billion of them, all with different (and usually pretty cool) effects. Many Smash Bros mainstays, such as the beam sword and home-run bat are still here, along with some great newbies, such as the Super Spicy Curry which causes your character to burst into flame for an extended period of time, or the Cracker Launcher, in essence a rocket launcher great for clearing stages of pesky opponents.
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/1842/5d8bda147d4cf2e6ph0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
And as far as characters go, you have a lot to choose from. Brawl marks a rather historic event, featuring fighters from some huge non-Nintendo franchises, such as Sonic and Solid Snake (who was apparently a shoe-in thanks to the persistent MGS creator Hideo Kajima). The diversity in play styles here is simply astounding. Nintendo has done a fantastic job of placing these characters directly from their original context and into the hectic, comically-violent world of Smash Bros. Playing as Sonic actually feels like the lovely platformers of yore, building momentum like a spiky blue freight train until you basically lose control. Except you’re in a very limited area, meaning every 2 seconds or so you double back and dive headlong back into the fray, hoping to give someone a good beating on this run across. The same dedication to the characters’ styles can be seen in almost every character (very notably Captain Olimar of Pikmin fame).
And here’s the greatest part! The characters are actually all very (dun dun dun DUNNN) BALANCED! That’s right. It is general consensus amongst my local Brawling community that you can be good enough with any character to beat anyone else. Obviously some of the less conventional characters are harder to get the knack for, but in the end Fox doesn’t always win because he’s faster than everyone.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3222/e41772cc524b941fqs9.jpg
While traditionally a multiplayer game, Brawl features a very beefed-up single player campaign known as the Subspace Emissary. While short (it should average about 7 or 8 hours), this mode has some of the most enjoyable cut-scenes of any game I’ve played. It does seem at times like the platforming levels are just filler for more glorious FMV-sequences, and without going into too much detail, I’ll just say the final level is one of the most (and only) frustratingly tedious experiences I’ve had with the series.
Present still are the countless ways to keep you playing: Event matches, multi-man brawls, break the targets and trophies, oh god, the trophies. If that’s not enough, take one look at the Challenges, and you’ll be busy for, quite possibly, the rest of your natural life. There are a huge variety of challenges, but most of them amount to nothing but doing ungodly amounts of video gaming (I personally unlocked the “Score 5000 combined KO’s in Brawls” last night).
And if you get bored with that, you could always hop online to play a few matches. Unfortunately we’re still stuck with Wii friend codes, and there seems to be some lag issues, but when you get sick of fighting a computer all the time and you’re lacking in the friend department, the service works as well as I had hoped it would.
There is really little bad to say about this game. I’m sure the biggest complaint it will get is how similar it is to Melee, but my question is this: what else do you want? They improved every aspect of the Smash Bros. formula without inherently changing the game, giving us the frantic fun of the previous instalments with a level of depth not before seen. My bottom line: If you own a Wii, you must own this game.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/279/eb0245bd4df740fbqv1.jpg
Report Card
A-
+ It's Smash Bros.!
+ Better fighting
+ More Characters
+ Will keep you playing until the end of time
- Sort of weak online
Well for nearly 10 years (that’s right, Smash Bros. debuted in 1999) the respectable folks at Nintendo have given us a way to make some of our deepest darkest fantasies a reality. The people like seeing mascots beating the piss out of each other, and the Super Smash Bros. series has delivered again, this time in the shape of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/6051/4b6f392cccd8b7ecaf5.jpg
The formula is simple, and has remained relatively unchanged. Take the stars of a myriad of popular games, set them on a stage and let them unleash all hell. Each character has 8 attacks plus a grab. These are executed with either the A or B buttons, plus a direction on the joystick/control pad. Your goal is to rack up enough damage on the other player to “smash” them off the stage. This is facilitated by some handy chargeable “smash attacks”, performed by holding a direction and the A button. Also aiding you are items, which can be picked up and thrown. I’m not sure exactly how many there are, but I think it’s safe to say that there’s somewhere in the area of 4 billion of them, all with different (and usually pretty cool) effects. Many Smash Bros mainstays, such as the beam sword and home-run bat are still here, along with some great newbies, such as the Super Spicy Curry which causes your character to burst into flame for an extended period of time, or the Cracker Launcher, in essence a rocket launcher great for clearing stages of pesky opponents.
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/1842/5d8bda147d4cf2e6ph0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
And as far as characters go, you have a lot to choose from. Brawl marks a rather historic event, featuring fighters from some huge non-Nintendo franchises, such as Sonic and Solid Snake (who was apparently a shoe-in thanks to the persistent MGS creator Hideo Kajima). The diversity in play styles here is simply astounding. Nintendo has done a fantastic job of placing these characters directly from their original context and into the hectic, comically-violent world of Smash Bros. Playing as Sonic actually feels like the lovely platformers of yore, building momentum like a spiky blue freight train until you basically lose control. Except you’re in a very limited area, meaning every 2 seconds or so you double back and dive headlong back into the fray, hoping to give someone a good beating on this run across. The same dedication to the characters’ styles can be seen in almost every character (very notably Captain Olimar of Pikmin fame).
And here’s the greatest part! The characters are actually all very (dun dun dun DUNNN) BALANCED! That’s right. It is general consensus amongst my local Brawling community that you can be good enough with any character to beat anyone else. Obviously some of the less conventional characters are harder to get the knack for, but in the end Fox doesn’t always win because he’s faster than everyone.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/3222/e41772cc524b941fqs9.jpg
While traditionally a multiplayer game, Brawl features a very beefed-up single player campaign known as the Subspace Emissary. While short (it should average about 7 or 8 hours), this mode has some of the most enjoyable cut-scenes of any game I’ve played. It does seem at times like the platforming levels are just filler for more glorious FMV-sequences, and without going into too much detail, I’ll just say the final level is one of the most (and only) frustratingly tedious experiences I’ve had with the series.
Present still are the countless ways to keep you playing: Event matches, multi-man brawls, break the targets and trophies, oh god, the trophies. If that’s not enough, take one look at the Challenges, and you’ll be busy for, quite possibly, the rest of your natural life. There are a huge variety of challenges, but most of them amount to nothing but doing ungodly amounts of video gaming (I personally unlocked the “Score 5000 combined KO’s in Brawls” last night).
And if you get bored with that, you could always hop online to play a few matches. Unfortunately we’re still stuck with Wii friend codes, and there seems to be some lag issues, but when you get sick of fighting a computer all the time and you’re lacking in the friend department, the service works as well as I had hoped it would.
There is really little bad to say about this game. I’m sure the biggest complaint it will get is how similar it is to Melee, but my question is this: what else do you want? They improved every aspect of the Smash Bros. formula without inherently changing the game, giving us the frantic fun of the previous instalments with a level of depth not before seen. My bottom line: If you own a Wii, you must own this game.
http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/279/eb0245bd4df740fbqv1.jpg
Report Card
A-
+ It's Smash Bros.!
+ Better fighting
+ More Characters
+ Will keep you playing until the end of time
- Sort of weak online