A Must Have for any Wii Owner!

Super Smash Bros. Brawl. A Review.


Intro:

It’s been almost seven years since we last heard of the Super Smash Bros. gaming franchise. For years fans of the series have been craving for a fresh, new installment. This March, fans got their wish with the latest version now available for the Nintendo Wii. I like most fans was ecstatic when I saw the first screenshots, but thought to myself, “How can they make Super Smash Bros. any better?” Well I don’t know how, but they managed to cram every little thing you could think of into a fighting game and then some.

Now I’m not the biggest, most diehard fan of the Super Smash Bros. series, I cannot even be considered a diehard fan. I am however a big fan and the first thing I can say about this game is that if you own a Nintendo Wii you have to get this game. There is so much to do in this game and so many game modes to have fun in. The other good thing about this game is that is does not cater to one specific age group, and the fighting violence is cartoony enough for kids to play. It truly is a game that almost any one can enjoy.

Many people think that Super Smash Bros. Brawl is just another fighting game, but the truth is it’s so much more than a fighting game. It has so many game modes that I have been playing it for a week and still haven’t played through all of them. But lets get down to the game itself. There is a lot to mention about this game, I just hope I get everything!

The Game:

If you have ever played any of the other Smash Bros. game then you know the basic idea, but those who are new to the game need a brief lesson on the basics of the game. The game starts with 21 characters, most of which are you classic Nintendo characters (Mario, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Samus from Metroid, Bowser, and many others), and has an additional 14 characters to be unlocked. You pick your player and it’s off to the fighting arena where you can fight up to three opponents for a total of four fighters at a time. At the bottom of the screen you will see a portrait of your character and portraits of the other fighters, you will also see a percentage sign, which should start at 0%(unless modified in the rules mode, but that will be discussed later.). The whole point of the game is to inflict damage on your foes and cause their percentage meter to increase, and upon inflicting the right amount of damage you hit them with a swift blow and “smash” them off the screen. That is the basic idea of the game. There are however many different ways to inflict damage and every character has different moves to play with.

As stated above there are many things that can affect the basic fighting gameplay of a match. During a match you can have items that drop from the top of the screen that can be picked up to be used during the match. These items include food to lower your damage percentage; swords, hammers and bats to strike other fighters with; blaster type guns and rocket launcher type guns to attack with; and many, many more items to use in a match (keep an eye out for mushrooms, they make you turn into a giant!). Now as I said earlier there are many game modes to play with and there are many ways to modify a match. When playing just a basic match the game allows you to modify the “rules” of the match. What this means is that the game allows you to pick if you want items to drop in a match, or maybe you don’t want any items, or maybe you want a lot, the choice is yours. It also has many fun different things to play with like all the fighters starting with a really high damage percentage or everyone starting as giant fighters, there are a lot of cool modes to play around with. Keep in mind that all of this info is just for a basic match play and there is so much more game to get too.

Controls:

The really neat thing about Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the control scheme. Nintendo has done a fantastic job with giving the player choice in this game, and the controls are no different. Many people who played the Gamecube game really loved the controls; they were simple and allowed for you to get a feel for the game very quickly. Well if you loved playing with a Gamecube controller, go ahead and plug it into the port, because you can use it for this game too! The game offers the ability to use any of the following control schemes: a Wiimote alone, a Wiimote with attached Nunchuck, a Wii classic controller, and a Gamecube controller. I really feel that this adds a lot of comfort to the game, because a lot of times the spread of a games popularity can be hindered by a bad control scheme, so bravo to the folks at Nintendo for coming up with this one! Now I cannot say too much about using the Wiimote and nunchuck or classic controller because I have primarily been playing with a Gamecube controller, but from a lot of forums I have been reading almost all of the controllers seem to work great, its just a matter of finding the one that you like to use. The actual button controls can be found in the manual or google them on-line, they are not difficult to figure out. The basic buttons are a jump button, regular attack, special attack, and hold. Every controlling scheme has a different button patter, but they all have those basic controls; on a side not most attack moves have a different variation depending on which way you use the directional pad (i.e. if you press the attack button and left and the attack button, you may have a different looking attack). Understanding the moves of each character is critical for getting through the game. The cool thing about the fighting controls is that they are the same for every fighter, now that is not to say that every character fights the same because there are many differences. You should not expect a big character like Donkey Kong or Bowser to move as fast or jump as high as a character like Fox McCloud or Diddy Kong. But the general control scheme is the same, i.e. special attacks, basic attacks, holds, jumping, ect. But those can be explained much better in a walkthrough guide or in the gaming manual.


Game Modes:

The game has two basic modes: solo or group.
Group is the easier of the two to define. Basically you play against your friends in various brawls, most of which you can control the “rules” of the match, or build your own custom match from the ground up. It also features an impressive on-line mode for playing against people all over the world. Basically you click the “wifi” button on the bottom of the screen and, depending on your connection, in a short amount of time you are on-line fighting against people everywhere. The on-line mode does not allow custom matches, but it does offer the experience of playing against other fighters if you normally would be playing alone. It is a very good setup and usually has no lagging or ridiculous loading times.

The solo mode is a bit more complicated to describe.
Training:
The most basic mode is the training mode, which is one of my favorite features. Before playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl it had probably been a year or so before I had played the Gamecube version, so I was a bit rusty. What the training mode allows you to do is pick a character and face off against one to three opponents to practice a particular character’s moves. This mode allows you to set your opponents to stand still, run around, jump, and attack back at you depending on what moves you want to practice. This is a great mode to play with if you are having trouble fighting as a particular player.
Stadium:
This mode will look familiar to seasoned veterans of the “smash” series. This mode has side games that test your abilities in the game. It has three basic types of play in it; Target smash, where you have to run through a level and try to smash all of the targets scattered across the level; Home-run Contest, where you have to smash a sandbag as far as you can; and Multi-Man, where you see how many foes you can fight and smash off the screen until you get smashed off.
Events:
Events mode is fun to play. It starts with ten stages to play through, each with their own rules and stories, and after you beat so many you unlock ten more, and so on. The games themselves can range from fighting three giant opponents while you are a mini fighter to being Yoshi and have to turn two other fighters into eggs at the same time by eating them. Some levels are easy, some are hard, some are wacky, and honestly some are a bit annoying.
Classic:
This is the basic fighting game that is very similar to the original games. You basically fight foe after foe. This mode is fun, but can feel a bit stale after a while; they do however have some fun mini-games to break up the monotony. This is probably my least favorite mode, but still has redeeming qualities, such as unlocking some characters.
Adventure:
This is a linear story based game mode that is quite lengthy. It basically takes you through the story of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which summed up is the “bad guy” characters (Wario, Bowswer, Meta Knight, ect.) are trying to turn the “good guy” characters (Mario, Donkey Kong, Fox McCloud) into statues. It is up to you to stop them and you play through a long story mode to figure out what happens. In this mode, however, you do not get to pick your character and you are introduced into all the characters in a cinematic way. It has a lot of beautiful presentation and offers a change in the Super Smash Bros series. This mode has levels that you play with foes other than the original fighters. You basically run through the different levels and try to get to the end and they typically end in a “boss” brawl with a bigger named character. It is a very cool game mode to play and probably my favorite addition to the game.

I mentioned earlier that there are fourteen unlockable characters in the game. This is what makes the game so addicting to play, there is so much stuff to unlock. What is neat about unlocking characters is that there are many ways to unlock a single character. For some character playing the story mode will unlock, but playing a certain number of matches, or playing for a certain length of time may also unlock these characters. Also you can collect various trophies and view them in your collection room, which appears at the start of the game. This just adds to the depth and replay value of the game.

Final Thoughts:
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is an enjoyable game for any fan of video games. It offers a little bit for everyone, and is simple enough for most people to easily pickup the gameplay. The game can feel a bit repetitive while playing in certain modes, but the fact that there are so many modes to play, allows you freedom to do what you want. The game has a great multiplayer mode and the on-line features are stellar, usually offering lag-free play. The single player modes offer challenges that can test anyone’s skill level and includes a lengthy story mode that give all the details of what is going on in the game. Oh I almost forgot to mention, while the actual gameplay may not luck too much better than the Gamecube version, the cinematic movies are absolutely stunning! The game itself does offer some visual upgrades, but the game is not based on look it is based on action. A great addition to any Nintendo fan’s collection and if you do not have a Wii and were waiting for a game to come along to pull you to the system, this is it.

Play this game, enjoy this game, you will not be let down!

Hope this review helped, please feel free to comment or e-mail me with questions or concerns regarding this game or this review.

Cheers,
Atlas