Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Posted By: Kevin on Oct 26 2008

 The majority of non-gamers out there would peg any Mario game as being the best selling Nintendo game on their long line of consoles. But as gamers, we know that the majority of us enjoy beating the crap out of each other in competitive venues instead of hopping and bopping living mushrooms with bugged out eyes. The Smash Bros series has been Nintendo's big gun across their last two consoles. Those resilient enough to stick with the Nintendo 64 during the Playstation era were treated to Super Smash Bros, a game originally designed to be an original fighter to take advantage of the then new analog stick controller. The inevitable sequel, Super Smash Bros Melee, went on to become the best selling game on the Gamecube and is still a regularly played game in LAN parties and homes across the world. Nintendo, with developer Sora and GameArts, has forged ahead to produce what should be considered the ultimate game in the series, Super Smash Bros Brawl.

For those unfamiliar with the series, it is a veritable who's who of Nintendo culture. Players pick one of many Nintendo (and now, for the first time, third party) characters and enter into an arena very similar to a sumo match. Balking against the previous standard of fighting games where one opponent wins by depleting another's life bar, Smash follows a different drummer. As damage is dealt with a variety of simple and special attacks, your opponent loses his ability to recover from large attacks. With either a flick of the right analog stick, or a charged normal attack, a solid hit will send your opponent flying off the board resulting in a win for you. Brawl, much like its predecessors, features a wide variety of game modes. You can play a classic game match where loss of life leads directly to defeat. The game can also be set up based on stock where every player has a certain amount of lives before they are considered out of the game. The standard setup sees players getting points for smashing others off the screen and losing points for dying themselves. These basic game modes lead to a wonderful array of game sessions producing a fighter that seems to always have a twist built in for veteran players.

Despite the stellar 3D graphics, Brawl is played along a 2D plane. Arenas ranging from the small Final Destination to the enormous New Pork City allow gamers to engage in small chaotic affairs or stamina fueled bouts of long range sniping. Random item drops produce a fly by the seat of your pants game setting, where the top player can quickly become the underdog through a variety of guns, explosive bombs, and even the assistance of niche Nintendo characters such as Saki from Sin and Punishment. With 4 players on the screen at once combat can take a turn for the worse when even the stages themselves seem to rise up against the players. The Norfair setting from the Metroid series sends huge waves of lava cascading towards the front of the screen with respite only found in a small protected tube near the top of the match. Brawl is a game where the best environment becomes your worse enemy at the drop of a dime. While other brawlers such as the Naruto or Tekken series feature obstacles to clutter up the playing field, Brawl perfectly strikes the balance. Some stages are more deadly than others, but they all feature a rich coliseum to dole out the pain.

It is a great pleasure for me, in this review, to give the simplest description of the button layout needed to control this magnificent game. That is because across 4 controllers setups (wiimote, wiimote and nunchuck, wavebird, classic controller), players are allowed to map every action to which ever button suits them. Quickly go over to player entry, create a player profile, then lead into the controller mapping and test out your optimal setup. In the short time with this game I have seen players stick with the default setup or like myself, radically change the layout to resemble other fighters that I am already comfortable with. I cannot stress enough the importance this simple freedom gives gamers. I personally never get into the previous two Smash games because I could not adjust to the controller layout. A lesson to companies producing fighters: allow your players to map every face button to jump if they want.

What could have been a single paragraph description from most fighters becomes a full page for Brawl. Taking into account the sheer amount of times Brawl has been delayed the announced Subspace Emissary mode delivers a unique and enjoyable single player experience well worth the 50 dollar cost alone. Starting the player off with a small roster of characters this mode sees the entire Nintendo universe defending their homeland against a variety of evil villains. Sprinkled generously across this mode are gorgeous CG clips that, while silent, deliver enough action to compel the player to keep going. At times, the silent treatment even plays for the best as Subspace delivers some touching moments that would have been hampered by voice work. Plot twists come slow and quickly, some requiring a deep understanding of Nintendo culture while others are immediately apparent to even the beginning player.

I found myself impressed by the length of Subspace Emissary playing this over the multiplayer in the first several days of owning Brawl. The idea of having Samus partner with Pikachu to defeat Ridley in an adrenaline fueled escape delivers just as much bang as any previous Samus/Ridley fight in the Metroid series. Villains become heroes and new evil rises to take their place. Even outside of the player roster bosses from previous games rear their ugly head beside newly designed monstrosities that present new challenges for Brawl players. A selection of multiple difficulties gives both veteran and newcomer the chance to experience Brawl's rich single player mode.

There is not a single game, even within Nintendo's developed titles, that approaches the spit and shine found in Brawl. Sora and GameArts has put together the best audio visual package to be found on the spec light Wii. Particle effects are plentiful and even when playing characters such as the Pokemon Trainer, the game engine never stutters or falls. Battling atop a space ship in Star Fox's universe delivers a huge amount of eye candy. The constant shifting nature of Fire Emblem's Castle Siege stage allows the player three beautiful arenas for the price of one. Excellent touches, such as making the characters 2D during the Game and Watch stage, may prevent you from getting that incredible screen shot but show the developers drive to adhere to unique stage design. Brawl's final smash attacks treat gamers to wonderful attack animations that never become old hat. Watch, as Link pins his opponent between two rotating Triforces and delivers blow after blow to their helpless corpse. Wonder, how in the world how Mr. Game and Watch go from a black silhouette to an enormous... octopus.

If I had to choose any section of Brawl to highlight as its strongest point, music and sound would win hand over fist. The gameplay is superb, the Havok infused physics engine is an excellent choice to really feel the heavy hits, but the sound design simply trumps every aspect of this game. It is amazing that Nintendo saw fit to pull so many composers from the gamer world and have them produce their own unique flair within Brawl. The tunes go from the epic Vs. Ridley theme to the abstract Smashville Animal Crossing theme (featuring K.K. Slider belting out his famous tune!). Donkey Kong's slam connects with one of the most satisfying sound effects since Indy threw his first punch. Even amongst the sword-wielders of the game individuality can be found. The clash of Ike's huge broadsword clangs in comparison to the schwing schwing of Metaknight's slicing blade. Above and beyond what could be considered the best Nintendo game for the life of the Wii, Brawl gives players one of the best soundtracks of gaming history.

Once you find yourself fully immersed into Brawl's brilliant single player modes, it presents gamers with some of the best multiplayer fighting to grace any console. Nintendo has made themselves the premier of local four player gaming and Brawl is at the top of the heap. No other game even within the series gives the breadth of options that Brawl has. It is an amazing feeling to play the game's rotation Brawl mode with more than 4 players. Trash talking comes not only from within the game but as players left sitting on the side lines cheer or chide people within the game. A vibe is created that is impossible to match. Nintendo has created a game that will be locked within Wiis for years to come, simply due to its incredible multiplayer options.

For the first time in the series, online play is present. Although simpler in comparison to local play, it is a huge leap forward for Nintendo in the online environment. You may not be able to play those custom stages you created earlier in the day, but with 3 other friends enough game play modes are available to see Brawl eating up a huge amount of bandwidth in the foreseeable future. Hindered by Nintendo's archaic friend code setup online Brawling can be a trial, but once the numbers are plugged in and players are online matches will go on well into the wee hours of the morning.

Disappointment in Brawl can be found most in this online mode. The lack of voice chat is critical as even DS equivalents such as Jump Ultimate Stars allow chatting outside of matches. The best solution I have found is setting the four user defined taunts to deliver actual messages to other players, such as "One more match" or my favorite "LAAAAAAAAG". It is difficult to weigh the inclusion of voice chat versus the additional delays the game would have seen. At a certain point the developer must stop putting in extras and polish what aspects to the game are already there. Whether you consider voice chat a bonus or a necessity depends on your gaming style.

I tend to reserve my overall score to benefit a game's score. As a longtime gamer, I can appreciate the effort put into projects by developers and understand the time and effort that goes into creating game design, sound architecture, and graphical finesse. And it is in this mindset that I must punish Nintendo in my overall rating for two pitfalls.

The first is physical. A big enough slice of the Wii owning public, myself included have discovered in horror that the Wii suffers the same fate as early PS2s; a problem reading dual layer DVDs. Nintendo claims this is due to a dirty lens, which it very much could be. However, across the forums of the Internet, players have piped up with stories such as "I never smoke, baby my Wii with a soft hand, and yet I have to insert the game several times to get it to run." So despite Nintendo's official stance on this issue I am forced to conclude that much like cheap PS2 lasers, or cheap Microsoft DVD drives, the Wii houses an ultimately poor DVD drive. Dual layer DVD technology is a norm at this point and it is a travesty that Nintendo?s biggest title could suffer from an oversight in the console design process. I am happy to see Nintendo offering free repair services to Wiis suffering this fate but I know personally if I had to be without for a week or two on the eve of purchasing the game I had looked forward to for years I would become jaded at the company.

The second caveat to Brawl is hopefully over and done, but I still find it even more infuriating than a poor DVD drive. Those purchasing Brawl at midnight launches and connecting to the Nintendo WiFi network within the first few hours, myself included, found that online play was nearly impossible. Certain WiFi options were unavailable and even game matching was a hit or miss. While the issue seems to have been fixed and even quicker than the Mario Kart DS issues that cropped up with the initial launch of the WiFi service years ago, it is inexcusable that Nintendo allow this mentality to continue. As a company coming into the forefront of online gameplay behind so many others, they simply cannot afford to abide by a wait and fix mindset for multiplayer. Gamers that frequent Xbox Live and PCs have grown up and moved past this phase and Nintendo is doing nothing to draw them into the fold with such lackadaisical efforts. Personally, I have been enjoying multiplayer for a few days now, but I cannot ignore what seems to be a poor policy amongst my favorite gaming company.

There are sections of Brawl that I cannot even detail in this full review, such as the addicting coin launcher mini game, the ability to swap snapshots and replays with online friends, and even the child like sticker albums you can create. Brawl is a game of discovery just as much as it is a hardcore fight fest and it would be a sin for me to spoil everything the game has to offer. Nintendo has produced a deeply rich and rewarding game experience that should not be ignored by those owning a Wii and should grab those that don't. To put it bluntly if you own a Wii in your home there is no reason you should not have a copy of Super Smash Bros Brawl sitting next to it. For those that have purchased the game please visit the forums here on LANGaming.net for friend code posting and for those that are still on the fence rest assured future LAGs will see Brawl in our stable of incredible multiplayer games.