Littaly

Okay i know, it's silly, but I've always wanted to try writing a review, and this is the first new title I've bought in a while (well it is new to me!) so i thought I'd might give it a shot, it is probably the same thing everyone else has written but what the hell, here it goes (constructive criticism appreciated ).

When I first heard about Super Smash Bros. Brawl about a year ago my first thought was “Oh sh*t, am I gonna have to play Super Smash Bros. By waving a stupid stick around?”. Then as time went by I learned that this wasn’t of course the way, so when I went to pick up a preordered copy at the release I was date pretty excited, Super Smash Bros Melee was after all my favourite game on the gamecube.

First thing I realised when I plugged in my gamecube controller and played an easy classic mode for a warm-up was how little had actually changed. The concept of Smash Bros has always been simple, two-dimensional levels, easy combos, the more damage you take the longer you fly and the goal is to smash your enemy out of the screen, all in all easy to learn but hard to master. A winning concept that Nintendo has chosen not to change, it all basically felt the same, Fox McCloud had the same combos and attacks that he had five years ago and so did all the other enemies that returned from the Melee. Eventually I decided to take a look at the new character additions, and this is where the game started to impress me, several new characters from Nintendo games had been added, among the more interesting were the Pokémon trainer with his team of Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard, but also Wario, Metaknigt from the Kirby games and Captain Olimar with his Pikmin. All in all the characters all play differently and offer a lot of variety which adds to the fun. But despite all the new characters I admit I was a little disappointed that so little had changed, so at this point I decided to take a look at one of the games main new features: The Subspace Emissary.

The Subspace Emissary is a huge upgrade of what in Melee was called “Adventure Mode”. It is basically a side scrolling platform game with all the SSBB fighters, you get to play as all of the fighters as they team up in groups to fight the “primids”. The story is brought forward by numerous cutscenes that at times feel awesome and at times just annoying. This is also the way in which most secret characters are unlocked, and if you find it boring (which is fully understandable, because it will most likely take you more than six hours to complete it) there is always the option of playing it in co-op mode. Personally I enjoyed The Subspace Emissary, but I can imagine that a lot of people will find it a little misplaced and more like a waste of time.

Another of the games top new features was that the game featured two third party characters: Solid Snake from the Metal Gear series and Mario’s old rival: Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog. Both are locked from the beginning and take a while to unlock but once you do so they fit in perfectly (yes, even Snake).

The newest additions to the actual battles are two new items: the Assist Trophies and the Brawl Ball. The assist trophies work as pokéballs, once you pick them up a random character from one of Nintendo’s more or less known games will appear and help you in battle for a short while. This is a pretty neat feature and helps stuffing in as many Nintendo characters as possible, even those that most people in my generation have forgotten or never even heard about.

The Brawl Ball is a ball that starts floating around the stage, it breaks after a few hits and the one who breaks it gets to unleash a “final smash”, a ridiculously overpowered super move that differs depending on what character you play. For example Link unleashes a powerful Triforce Slash and Bowser transforms into the dreaded Giga Bowser. The final smashes may seem cool, but it often turns into a race of who can break the Brawl Ball before everyone else taking a lot of focus away from the actual fight. Luckily the Brawl Ball can be turned off, so if you don’t need to deal with it when playing with a pal.

New is also that Super Smash Bros is now playable online! But this is where the game really disappoints. You sign up to play either with a friend or with anyone, if you chose the latter you will be teamed up with four random players for a two minute brawl where most KOs win… and that’s it. There is no communication, you can’t change game mode and you are teamed up with random players undepending on how good you are. You can’t even chose to play a one on one battle, it’s always four player free for all which means that it often turns chaotic and there is never really a chance to show skills, and this may be fun when the three people you play with are your friends and sit beside you but online it really looses it’s charm. Luckily when you play with a friend there are more options to choose from but nonetheless the online play feels hasted and unfinished.

What really shines through to me are the small features, like being able to take screenshots when you pause the screen, save your battle replays, play co-op event matches and building your own stages (never really got around with this one myself but it is a nice addition and I can see that a lot of other people are gonna like it). There is also a huge variety of controls to use, Gamecube controller for those that are scare of trying something new, the Wiimote (with our without nun chuck) and the classic controller, in addition you can customise the controls as you like.

After a week of playing Super Smash Bros Brawl I am glad that Nintendo didn’t force motion sensor or some other crap into it, even if the game feels a little recycled there is no need to change a winning concept and Super Smash Bros is definitely a winning concept.

Zenzerian

Brawl feels completely different from Melee, it's slower, characters seems clunky.

Overall I suppose it was a good review. 9/10

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littleguy000

SSBB is a great game. It gives gamers like me a break from MMORPGS on the PC and FPSs on the PS3. SSBB isn't serious. Its humerous. Its loads of fun. Its addictive. Its challenging.

I love this game and really want to give it a 10 but I have never given out a ten in my life....until now
10 SSBB
10!!!!!!!!!!