Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Anyone not living under a rock for the last ten years or so has most certainly heard of Nintendo's Smash Bros. series. It was virtually the only Gamecube game that achieved a sales figure greater than five and arguably the only sequel released on the system that was actually better than the game that came before it (perhaps with the exception of Metroid Prime, which had a distinct advantage over its predecessors thanks to having a whole extra spacial dimension to play with). While single-handedly keeping the Gamecube's head above the proverbial gaming ocean was Melee's favorite pastime, it also did quite well at being a good game, perhaps explaining the almost rabid levels of hype aimed at this latest installment: Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

The basic premise of the Smash Bros. series is to take one cutesy-wootsy character and use it to beat the living crap out of another cutesy-wootsy character pulled from Nintendo's vast library of creations. Brawl shakes this tradition up...

The point of the Super Smash Brothers series is to provide wildly fun fighting action without all the demanding timing tricks or memorization, so the controls are a snap. Each character has a punch button and a special moves button, which when combined with very simple directional movements result in a surprising array of clever attacks. The levels are wildly inventive, the fancy power-ups ensure lots of crazy action, and the variety of characters is staggering. Up to four people can play at once and the game has full support for old Gamecube controllers, so you might not have to shell out the money for extra Wiimotes.



For the most part, Brawl doesn't tamper with the Super Smash Bros. formula. The graphics aren't noticeably better than they were on the Gamecube in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but there are enough new levels and characters to keep this from feeling like...

THE GOOD:
Third party characters
Gameplay
Controllers
Extra features
Subspace Emissary

THE BAD:
Online play
Clones

SUMMARY:
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is overall a great game. It blew the original game away, and beat the sequel(Melee) in awesomeness. There were very important improvements to the game like the competiveness, characters, and features. Heres what i rate some of the things in Brawl that show its shining glory and its falling pits of doom.
CHARACTERS: Rating = 90%/100%
Characters are practically perfect. There are plenty of new and improved characters to play, especially Sonic and Snake. They are very unique and make excellent new characters. The characters have also been sped down or nerfed.
In my opinion, I think it is better that they got nerfed. It makes it easier for the average players to win.Finally, there are still clones. Thats why I didn't give a perfect score. A perfect example is...

THE GOOD:
Plenty of characters to choose from

Fun and addictive gameplay

The addition of two third party character

Online play

Great and detailed graphics

THE BAD:
Nothing much really....

SUMMARY:
Super Smash Brothers Melee was one of the most popular GameCube games and I can easily see this becoming one the most popular Wii game, if it hasn't already. However, it all started on the Nintendo 64 with a game called Super Smash Brothers. It was a good and fun game. Then about two years later, Super Smash Brothers Melee came out and it was awesome. And now here's this game which is even better than SSBM! And I imagine it wouldn't be easy to improve upon a game like that, but they did it.

As with the two previous games, you get the standard Classic mode. You still fight a giant version of a certain character or a metal version of a certain character. Master Hand is still the final boss of that...

THE GOOD:
-Lots of New Characters
-Wi-fi Compatibility
-Stage Builder
-SubSpace Emissary (Story Mode)
-500 Trophies and 700 Stickers to Collect
-New Brawl Challenge Wall (Glass Breaks Open when you accomplish a specific task)
-Wi-Fi has Team Homerun Contest and MultiMan Brawl
-New Items
-New Stages
-Coin Launcher
-Old Games such as Zelda: Ocarina of Time demos in the "Masterpiece" Section
-Many Hours of Playtime
-Infinite Replay Value

THE BAD:
-For those of you who played Melee for like 1000 hours, Brawl is fun, but if can get boring.
-Wi-fi has Lag
-Some Character Clones

SUMMARY:
Super Smash Brothers Brawl. The latest and greatest of the Super Smash Brothers Series. Super Smash Brothers has been around since Nintendo's N64. Back then, there were only 12 Characters to chose from. Eventually Gamecube came out, and Super Smash Brothers: Melee was released. Melee was the...

THE GOOD:
This game enjoys a rich diversity in characters. This is not in name alone. The many fighting styles and attributes that each one carries is unique and gives you dozens of opportunities to perfect your game. While the inclusion of Snake and Sonic, which to me seemed like a mistake (being that they were not always not Nintendo), I came to see that they were valuable additions to the series and help to maintain the wide demographic in playable characters.

The Subspace Emissary is excellent. It is a new story mode for the game that dazzles you with amazing, cinematic graphics. It is playable with almost every character throughout various stages of the game. Many people believe this feature to be a poor one, but let me tell you; I really enjoyed. It was a much needed addition.