Super Smash Bros. Brawl Review
Here’s the game the Wii has been waiting for. Sure, we’ve gotten some pretty killer titles in the past year and a half, but this is absolutely what it needed. I’ve been counting the excruciating days since it’s first announcement two years ago. How is it? Hit the link!
It’s excellent. It has it’s flaws, as every game does (save Portal), but they in no way should deter you from purchasing this game. The amount of content borders on insane. There’s your regular classic mode, multiplayer, an all-new story (sort of) mode, events, fun little diversion mini games, a stage builder, online play (untested by Cesaria at this point), a great line-up of characters, and a massive amount of things to collect, as I love to do. Let’s break it down!
The classic mode is essentially unchanged, which is fine. It provides its fun and gains you trophies. That’s really it. The multiplayer is where the meat is at and will easily keep you going for years, if you have friends who are willing to come over and play. But wait! There’s more! If you don’t have friends, hop online and brawl against strangers! I’ve been hearing there’s been problems with lag and all that, but Nintendo says it should be fixed soon.
The story mode, dubbed The Subspace Emissary, is more or less a side scrolling beat-em-up. It’s pretty fun but grows old quickly. The last few levels feel like more of a chore than anything, and there is little to no story line, strung together by random cut scenes. It gives a good amount of play time (8 hours for me!) and unlocks a majority of the characters. Basically, I’d rather have it than not, whatever that means.
The stage builder is a little bare bones to begin with but grows larger the more you use it. It’s pretty fun to brawl on something you’ve built. And you can download user created levels hand picked by Nintendo and upload your own, or share with friends on your Friend Code list.
The premade stages are absolutely great. Some border on the same-y category, but there are so many unique ones that you forget about the bare bones stages. A personal favorite is the PictoChat level where random things are being drawn on an over sized DS screen and can be interacted with by the players. There’s some classic stages returning as well (Hyrule FTW!)
The character roster is pretty huge containing many fan favorites and a few unexpected newcomers. The new characters play great (Pit, Meta Knight, Olimar) and actually offer a pretty unique playing style, Olimar specifically. They seem underpowered at first, but with time and patience become very capable in the right hands. I have very little complaints with the roster, except it leaves something to be desired. There’s a few clones where they could have put in a completely original character, and I expected more third-party characters. Still, with a roster at 35, that’s nothing to mar the experience.
And on to my favorite part of Smash Bros: the trophies and collectibles. There’s a borderline amount of shit to get in this game. From trophies to stickers to trial versions of classic games, this game is stuffed with content. There’s even a helpful screen that gives you hints on how to unlock certain things. Some trophies can be collected through adventure mode, and some can be gained by the newly added Coin Launcher mini game. It’s kind of like a Spaced Invaders! type mini game where you blast trophies with the coins you accrue throughout your playtime and is surprisingly fun.
As a massive Nintendo fan, this game is pure nostalgia, but it’s not nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. It may pay its fan service to us Nintendo fanboys who have stuck with the company for 20 years, good or bad, but underneath it all lies an incredible game with an incredible amount of playtime. You’ll be playing this bad boy for years if you don’t try to unlock everything the first couple of weeks, which I’m not sure is even possible. I’ve been thinking about how the hell do you rate a game like this, and am almost scared to do so. This is a game that demands a great amount of time, and I’ve only been playing it for four days. I can’t in good faith give it the perfect ten rating because the game is not perfect (only Portal, my BFF), but goddamn if it isn’t as close as possible. It’s very few flaws are out weighed by its many excellent points and can only be described as fucking excellent. I love this game and give it a 9.5. That number will more than likely change with the time this game deserves, and it can only go up.
