Nintendo’s stable of characters is second to none in the video gaming world and they have developed a rabid fan base because of this. The Super Smash Bros series once seemed like a goofy concept destined for a niche crowd but it’s quickly become one of the big N’s hottest brands. The series is both fan-fiction come to life and a virtual museum of a company’s storied franchises, but people flock to the series because the games have been so well designed in every aspect. Super Smash Bros Brawl is perhaps better designed than its predecessors, even the new additions come with a few flaws.
"Brawl’s gameplay additions are worthy but flawed"
|
The core gameplay of Brawl is not leaps and bounds ahead of what was found in Melee, but this isn’t a problem since it was already pretty much perfect. Battles take place between two to four characters at a time, and the object is to knock all the enemies off the stage. The more damage they take, the lighter they become and are therefore easier to propel into the distance. Items from just about every Nintendo game ever can randomly appear, and sometimes they change the tide of battle. Nintendo only changed a few minor details in terms of the actual mechanics, like allowing players to air-dodge freely, or allowing characters with wings the ability to glide. There is also a swimming function should your character fall into water.
While the Super Smash Bros series is enjoyable because of it’s frentic multiplayer action, it’s the hidden depth that keeps many players coming back. Advanced players who take the time to learn the ins and outs of each character and the timing of their moves, not to mention roll-dodging and air-dodging, will find a surprisingly satisfying battle system. It’s not always the character you pick that matters, but how well you learn to use them. Samus against Olimar shouldn’t be a contest, but Smash Bros is here to make it so.
One of the biggest changes is the advent of Smash Balls, which float around the level until someone breaks them open. The character that does so has access to a super-powerful attack that has level clearing potential. Link’s is a flashy-flurry of swordplay that demolishes an opponent next to him. Sonic becomes Super Sonic and can cause havoc while flying around the level. Almost all of the Final Smash attacks have impressive animation sequences that are rooted in the character’s history, save for Luigi’s mystery bubble of damage.
Most of the Final Smashes guarantee that at least one opponent is going to lose a life if they aren’t careful, but others aren’t as carefully balanced. Characters from the Star Fox series gain access to a tank for a short period of time, and there isn’t really a way to avoid being killed by it. A character like Wario, however, simply becomes stronger and faster – a far cry from the many kills provided by the Landmaster. Yoshi falls somewhere towards the middle of the road, and gains the ability to shoot fireballs and fly. It takes skill to kill your opponent with this attack, but it takes even more to avoid being killed. You can turn this option off in multiplayer and they don’t show up but a few times a match, so it isn’t game-breaking, but hopefully things will be better balanced the next time around.
Brawl takes the single-player aspect a step further than Melee with the Subspace Emissary – a full-length single-player adventure. While the level design and enemies repeat themselves, this is probably the fastest way to unlock most of the game’s 35 playable characters. The story involved is nonsense, but the beautiful FMV movies that play during and between stages are great fun to watch. Solo artists can also enjoy the prerequisite Classic and All-Star modes, or take on the Event Challenges. Classic mode consists of twelve stages, but All-Star mode requires you to fight the entire cast with only one life, a difficult prospect on the higher difficulty levels. Also difficult on the higher difficulty setting are the Event Matches. These forty challenges require players to meet creative objectives, like reach the protective bubble before the lava wave destroys you, or keep several Pikmin alive for a certain amount of time. The computer opponents can make life hell for you in these modes, but what fun would they be without a challenge?
"Subspace Emissary - beautiful but not much upstairs"
|
When taken to the online battlefield, Brawl can be great fun if you can swallow Nintendo’s foolish insistence on several annoying details. The first of course, is the need to use friend codes in order to pick who you want to play. Matches can be customized in any way the hosting player sees fit, which is good since there are quite a lot of options to choose from. Voice chat is sadly missing, and the ability to map text to your taunts does little to make up for it. It would have been great fun to talk smack to your opponents, or hear their cries as you send them hurdling into the abyss. There seems to be an issue with lag as well, since it seemed that about half the matches were slowed down, but it usually cleared up in subsequent matches with the same people.
If you don’t have any friends to exchange superfluous twelve-digit codes with you’ll be forced to try a random battle, which allows you the dubious honor to play one match type with no customizable options at all. It’s also hard to connect to a random match – it feels like you’d have better luck getting into Harvard. And should you get into a game, there’s no way to add the other players to your friends list. It’s hard not to feel like you’d rather be playing the computer instead, since they’re just as faceless and you wouldn’t have to put up with any latency. While there are several communities out there for Brawl players looking to exchange codes, it’s a major inconvenience to the player to take that extra step. This mode shows signs of promise, but does more to highlight just how far Nintendo needs to go in terms of improving their online presence.
Aside from a mess of characters to unlock, there are a good number of other hidden goods as well. Stages are probably the most prominent. Tournament players and purists won’t appreciate the zany elements found in the Pictochat and WarioWare stages, but they help to keep the skilled players on their toes while maybe giving inexperienced ones a bit of luck with their random changes. Pictochat constantly changes its layout by adding and removing platforms or hazards, and WarioWare has players participate in some of the microgames found in the portable series. The Electroplankton stage is a nice touch, lending a surreal feeling to any battles taking place there. Some of the new stages feel a little plain, namely Skyworld (Kid Icarus), but there’s a huge variety so it doesn’t really matter if there are a few duds.
"Online play is fun but stilted by Nintendo’s stubborn nature"
|
Players can also unlock trophies, sticker and music as they play through the game. The trophies are characters or items from Nintendo’s library, and some are more obscure than others. They can be obtained by meeting certain requirements, like beating certain events or swimming a certain distance. Stickers and CDs drop during matches for players to pick up, so be sure to grab those. Stickers can also be used in the Subspace Emissary to boost your character’s stats, but they can never be removed if used.
Few games pack in as much content as Super Smash Bros Brawl, so players will be busy unlocking this game’s hidden joys for quite some time. There are few games as franticly paced that are this enjoyable with four people, whether online or in the same room. While the online modes are flawed, that doesn’t seem to be stopping people from battling their nights away with one another, but they always have the next generation’s inevitable sequel to look toward for improvement.
