Finally, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is available to the public in Japan and North America, unfortunately missing a release date for Europe and Australia. In spite of the problems facing SSBB software production in those territories, the game is out nonetheless, packing more content and more explosive action than ever before. But does SSBB laud the title as one of the best fighting games ever created or does it wallop itself into mediocrity?

The Menu Isn’t a Facade

When players enter the main menu of SSBB, they’ll come across a superabundance of play options and sub menus; already providing evidence on how robust the game is. Smash veterans will be able to navigate the menus with ease, knowing that there is still the traditional Solo (Classic, Stadium mode) and Group (includes Special Brawl) experience, however, there is still much to explore. A myriad of new features has added to the game and Nintendo has improved on the already-existing ones such as adding new Events (matches with predetermined battle conditions), more customization in Special Brawl and the ability to play cooperatively with second player in some Events. The content in SSBB is absolutely incredible and one may find him/herself spending hours on one mode without realizing how much more there is to experience.

Alone in the Basement

While the Super Smash series was not lauded for its single player as the frantic multiplayer component garnered much more popularity, it still exists here in SSBB with all the good ties and trimmings. In the Solo experience exists the typical Classic (fight through sorta-randomly generated opponents), Stadium (objective-based mini games) and Event Modes (fights with pre-determined battle conditions) which eat up a good lot of time to complete, but aren’t the game’s highlights. What is here isn’t bad at all, just less exciting than multiplayer and Subspace Emissary.

Indeed Subspace Emissary is a significantly huge feature in SSBB as it seemingly replaces the Adventure Mode founded in Melee. This mode is built with a storyline involving the entire Smash cast in side-scrolling levels, CG cutscenes and boss battles. The plot reveals a group of antagonists called the Subspace Army, led by the Ancient Minister, who flood the world causing chaos and blackness. Its interesting how Nintendo was able to incorporate the Smash characters into the storyline, easily portraying their attitudes and characteristics in relation to the ongoing events as the plot unfolds. Unlike the Ocean movies which just feature cameos of popular people for the hell of it, Subspace Emissary merge all the brawlers together in a somewhat cohesive story that spans for more than five hours on the first run through. The side scrolling level environments vary greatly from jungles to the ruins in a desert along with the enemies you’ll exchange blows with.

Surprisingly too, the Subspace Emissary mode contains some (minor) role-playing elements. Stickers (explain more in depth later in the review) come into play and are there to enhance the characters you use in the mode. Whether you want to increase the power of one character or the speed of another, stickers exist to fit the player’s needs for the fighters they are using.

There are some problems in Subspace Emissary though they can be quite forgivable given the true nature of the franchise. The mode is indeed a side scrolling platformer, which initially sounds incredible, being able to use a character and transverse across many locales. There are faults to this, especially in the platforming segments. Because of the gameplay mechanics, platforming can become awkward and wonky seeing SSBB is a fighting game far and foremost. Also, the mode has little depth and can become very repetitive, though it tries to save itself with varying level designs and enemies. Some people like myself found some enjoyment while others felt it was just a chore to unlock some new characters.

More to Fighting Than Just Combat

Super Smash Brawl’s robust content lies heavily on the unlockables which can be founded in the Vault, a mode where all your collected and created items are stored. Here you can find your storage space for trophies and stickers, stage builder mode, album for in-game screenshots, replays of matches, Challenges, Masterpieces and of course, a history write-up of Nintendo’s vast library of titles.

The trophies are indeed back in the same fashion. Players can unlock them through the solo campaign or in the new coin launcher. The coin launcher replaces the dispenser in Melee and is now based on how deftly can you nail trophies flying onscreen with coins rather than pure luck/chance. Stickers can be unlocked in the same way and are stored in a neat photo album for show. Unlock the trophies, they serve a more significant purpose than just for gandering (as explained in the Subspace Emissary).

The photo album and replay mode are self explanatory; they archive what you want to save for later viewings and whatnot (you could always send them to friends for bragging rights). A very strong mode for SSBB however is the stage builder, which allows the player to create a level using basic geometric pieces and other miscellaneous items. Options here are robust as well as there are different palette sizes, terrain, floor and structure items to choose from. I’ve creating a few stages myself, but could never get to the level of intensity some players have mustered up. The best part of all is the ability to send custom stages to your friends so they can brawl on them.

If you are familiar with the unlockable item structure in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, the Challenges mode works very similarly. Here players can see what rewards they have unlocked based on performances throughout the game. One can unlock a level or character simply by clocking in a certain amount of time into multiplayer or complete a certain task at the expense of some battle condition. Players can always cheat by using a golden hammer to smash one a glass case to see the unlockable behind it.

Masterpieces are just some of Nintendo’s classic games that are included on the SSBB disc in the form of demos. The games themselves include Kirby, Ice Climbers, Star Fox 64 and more and the demos generally last less than one minute. Because of how little playtime you’ll get from these games, players shouldn’t care for them whatsoever since they seem completely unnecessary to include on the disc. I came to the idea that this was Nintendo’s approach to encourage players to try these games out since they are available on the Virtual Console. Perhaps if they allowed demos of VC games to begin with, we wouldn’t have something like this.

How to Play the Instrument and See Success

I think its safe to say Nintendo’s decision to not use motion controls was a good one. Many will argue against this, but there is no denying that the ability to play SSBB with four different play styles makes up for the lack of innovation. Players will have the choice between the Gamecube contoller, Wii remote + nunchuck, lone Wii remote and the classic controller. Many veterans tend to stick to the GCN controller because there are no changes in that regard from Melee, but some (including myself) experiment with the other play styles to see if our skills hold any water with them. I tried out all of them for a substantial amount of time and found myself using the Wii remote + nunchuck. I enjoy the freedom my hands have and I don’t feel restricted cramming my hands together on a single controller. The GCN pad works but I found the classic controller and lone Wii remote difficult to use. The flaws are founded in the design of the controllers and the lack of buttons. Players will find themselves trying to configure the buttons to their liking, but they are just not comfortable at all.

Here is some food for thought: SSBB enlisted 33 different composers to create music scores for the game. The music selection in the game is enormous and come from some of the greatest Japanese composers such as Koji Kondo (The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario series), Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts series) and Kenji Yamamoto (Metroid/Prime series). What is a neat feature is My Music; here you can listen to the tracks freely and adjust how often they appear on stages. So if you want to hear only the Metal Gear theme, so be it!

Visually, the game is looks amazing. The game is littered with a plethora of colors and activity and the character models are much better looking than in Melee. Mario’s overalls are fully detailed and Link looks just as great as he did in Twilight Princess. Zooming very closely onto the characters makes them look a little funky in the detail, but there are still great nonetheless. The game runs at an impressive 60 fps with 16:9 and widescreen support.

“Laugh and the World Laughs With You, Weep and You Weep Alone”

Whilst I’ll never know if Ella Wheeler Wilcox was a good SSBB brawler, I do know this is one of the most important sections of my review: characters, stages, items, gameplay and online. I saved all this for last because there are some things that have occurred lately that I have to address and I’ll try to limit how much bias I put into my opinion.

Sorry folks, as much as you had desired and screamed for it: Mega Man is not in SSBB. Considering that there are 37 fighters in the game, more than any other fighting title has ever included, who cares if a guy in a blue suit isn’t in the roster? SSBB includes the good lot of traditional characters from the game’s predecessors such as Mario, Link and Donkey Kong, but also includes an array of new ones such as Solid Snake, Wolf and Lucario. While it has never been stated, I have the notion that the roster is split up into three classes: power, speed and midrange. Characters such as Donkey Kong and Ike fall into the power category since their strength is unmatched but their speed leaves a lot to be desired. Speedy fellas include Sonic, Fox and Pikachu who can move at high speeds though sheer might is out of the question. Then we have the midrange characters such as Mario, Samus and Olimar who balance in the middle of power and speed. Altogether the characters seem fairly balanced, which is an impressive accomplishment considering the plethora of characters available. People will come across the case in which they’ll find characters that seem utterly undefinable (Ike in a 4-player Brawl match is the equivalent of God) and some that are just utterly useless (Olimar without Pikman is like a professional boxer without hands), but for the most part, everyone seems fair. There might be some disappointment with returning fighters since some have been dumbed down for the sake of balancing (oh dear, Link and Samus), so if you thought you could spam Link’s Up+B move verbatim, it won’t work as well here.

For the most part, SSBB core gameplay hasn’t changed; players will need to bash the daylights out of each other till eventually someone accumulates enough damage to fly off the stage. Really, there aren’t any reason to change this formula because its what gives Super Smash its name and reputation as a party fighting game. Now, I say the core gameplay hasn’t changed for the most part, but that doesn’t mean change hasn’t been made. What still exist here is the ability to change battle conditions before the fight and put also put in Special conditions (want to fight in slow motion?). SSBB plays significantly slower than Melee and perhaps around the same as SSB64. The ability to wave dash has been excluded, players can trip for some unexplained reason and character balancing, stages and items have made it so that some strategies players used in Melee won’t work in SSBB. There has been some fiery arguments regarding on the competitiveness of the two games and whether or not the metagame has been reached, but that I will save for last.

So again, the core gameplay hasn’t changed, but means to achieve a victory are quite different than in SSBB’s predecessors thanks to assist trophies, new items and the Final Smash. Assist trophies act almost like Pokeballs except that they contain characters from previous Nintendo games that help you in combat (Advance Wars‘ cartoon vehicles are my favorite). Unlike some items, assist trophies are extremely useful and should be picked up immediately if appeared on the stage.

As always, items play a huge role in the game as of the previous Smash titles with both classic and new ones joining the fray. Players will still come across the beam sword, fire flower and super mushroom but will also encounter the smart bomb, banana peel and the cheapest item: Dragoon. Like before, you are able to adjust how much items appear during a match individually or altogether. Turning them all off for the sake of naked competition is alright, but the game is much more exciting with the items in play.

The Final Smash is a different beast entirely. In SSBB, each fighter has their own special move/ability which can be unlocked by breaking the Final Smash orb that appears periodically during a match and floats all around the stage. This changes the strategy of most gamers from fighting each other to frantically fending off one another to make the final blow on the orb. Once you break it, your character will be inflamed in a colored aura and will press “B” to unleashed the Final Smash. Each character has their own unique one, some lame and some extraordinary. Regardless of what character you have, Final Smashes can easily change the results of the match midway so its important to get it before everyone else. This system kind of reminds me of Naruto: Clash of the Ninja and I feel its a bit cheap, but usually that is the mindset of someone who always fails to acquire it.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=2HU_AJbx10Q[/youtube]And who can forget the stages! There are a total of 41 locales to battle in with 29 initially available. A complaint I do have here is the approach Nintendo took to develop these stages, in terms of design. The design aspect of many are weak as they seem to be a copy representation of one another. What makes up for this are the elaborate changes some undergo during battle. Snake’s level, Shadow Moses, has destructible environments and eventually a Metal Gear will burst out from the background. Wario’s stage represents his Wario Ware series and is probably one of the most frantic of all. I was hoping the design aspect could have been much more creative in the layout of the stages, but what is here isn’t bad.

Back in October, I wrote an angry rant on how faulty SSBB’s online component was going to be when the game released. Three months later and I’ve picked up my copy of the game and actually jumped online before I played the game offline. Eh…..just meh. The complaints I wrote back in that editorial still exist here, albeit the lag has diminished nowadays. The online component in Brawl allows the player to either play against random opponents or against friends, though the latter requires one to input someone’s friend code (an arduous task). Battling against random opponents lacks all multiplayer features except for stage selection, leaving players to fight each other within a 2 minute time limit. After the duration is over, you can choose to continue to brawl in the same party or leave. You cannot communicate with them nor can you know their name. No online leader boards or rankings which is a huge shame. Battling against friends is much better since you can toggle on and off some battle conditions and features. Its a mediocre online component and its bad that its existing on the most potential game for great online gameplay.

Now is the time to address the many complaints and concerns I’ve been hearing on the online video game community. Some have noted that because of how slow the game is compared to Melee and some of the gameplay mechanics have changed a bit, Brawl isn’t a good game to play competitively. Some also say that the metagame has already been reached. Players have said that Brawl has diminished the skill they had in Melee and forbade the idea that Brawl should be used in competitions and tourneys. I do agree with the fact that Brawl is less competitive than Melee is, mainly due to the fact that I’m also undergoing skill deficiency, seeing none of my “awesome” skills were not carried over to this game. Personal opinion aside, its still undeniable that Brawl is the better game. It has more characters, features, stages, items and game modes than its predecessor or any other fighting game for that matter. Brawl is the game it is is perhaps because the game is trying to appeal to a broader audience. The game is much more assessable than Melee so anyone can pick it up and play. People who don’t like Brawl will just have to stick with old times again.

Super Smash Brawl was the most anticipated game on the Wii and it delivers in almost every way imaginable. I did have some complaints, but none of them should stop anyone from purchasing the game. Everyone should have it as when everyone had Melee on the Gamecube. The game will be played for weeks, months or undeniably, years.

Pros:

-More features and content than any other fighting game existing.

-Visually amazing.

-Same ol’ core mechanics and gameplay.

-New items, inclusion of assist trophies and Final Smash.

-Subspace Emissary is a much better Adventure Mode.

-Stage Builder is incredibly deep.

-Music is amazing and euphonious.

-A huge fighter roster.

Cons:

-Online component isn’t all that its cracked up to be. Its disappointing since it exists on the most potential game for great online play.

-Final Smash seems cheap sometimes since it can turn the results of a match completely. Matches are sometimes based off who can get the Smash orb rather than fighting each other.

-Stage design is repetitive though elaborate changes can make up for it.

-Controls and gameplay in Subspace Emissary is clunky.

Overall Score: 9.5/10