Super Smash Bros Brawl review (Wii)

Five months since the Japanese release, more than three months since the US release - what sort of time do you call this, Nintendo? Why do you hate us so Europeans so much?

They’ve finally learned to accept the US, but the rest of the world is unimportant to them (allegedly – gamezine lawyers).

I guess we should be grateful we’ve got the most anticipated game on the Wii at all. Personally, I would’ve thought that releasing the biggest game on the Wii this year at the correct time would be a good thing, but what do I know?

Rant over

Thankfully though, if there was ever a definition of a major must-have game, Super Smash Bros Brawl fits the bill even better than Metal Gear Solid 4, which still has its detractors (me being one of them).

Speaking of which, even MGS fans can get in on the action, for the reasons everyone knows about and which I’ll get to shortly.

The great thing about the Smash Bros series is it does for fighting games what Mario Kart does for racing games – makes them fun and removes all the irritating complications that make people dislike about the genre.

I personally hate fighting AND racing games, but I love Nintendo’s two spins on both genres. Thankfully, unlike with Mario Kart Wii, Nintendo haven’t pandered to the masses and removed everything great about previous iterations. In fact, they’ve made Smash Bros (SB) even better.

What makes SB so great is that magic formula – easy to pick up, hard to master. While an average SB game, to the casual observer, looks like pure chaos, it is actually a high-speed game of strategy and improvisation.

That is probably the most pretentious thing I’ve ever said, but it’s true. While some newbies may take some time to pick up stuff like perfect double-jumping, let alone the subtle art of Ness and Lucas’ PK Thunder charge attack, it really doesn’t take that long – and learning everything about the game is half the fun.

Incidentally, while I’m on the subject of Ness and Lucas, I must offer congratulations to Nintendo for sticking forks so effectively in our eyes.

Two characters, several levels and items, and loads of music from the best game series ever made that nobody outside Japan will ever see again.

I rarely advocate piracy, but I urge you to seek out an emulator and ROM of Earthbound for the SNES (Piracy is wrong, Chris – gamezine lawyers). Greatest game ever, but we didn’t get it because those stupid Yanks didn’t buy it. And now no one who doesn’t speak Japanese can play the sequel. Grumble.

Rant over (again)

So, what’s changed from Melee that will persuade people to buy this instead? In terms of gameplay, well, not a lot.

Fights still play the same as ever and characters still pretty much have the same move set. It’s all been tweaked so it won’t be quite the same, but you can bet that Jigglypuff is still rubbish.

There are, of course, loads of additions to the game. There’s a massive single-player campaign called Subspace Emissary, fifty new challenges, a Boss Battle mode, a Stage Creator, and lots and lots of things to unlock including levels, characters, modes, items, music tracks and even demos for classic games.

There are also new versions of the classic campaign, target practice, home-run contest, multi-man melee and matches against AI opponents. Finally, there’s online play, so if you don’t have any friends you can seek out matches online.

That’s a lot of stuff there and, even if you just focus on unlocking characters and levels, there are hours and hours of playtime here. This is one game that will probably never be finished (by anyone with a life).

Out of that list, the only thing I really want to draw attention to is the online play. It is a disappointment if you just want a random match, which dumps you in a short timed bout with no choice of options other than character and preferred stage.

This is really annoying, so it’s always best to seek out people on forums and exchange Friend Codes if you want a decent match.

Mario v Sonic

The characters are arguably the most important part of, well, any fighting game, but especially Smash Bros. There are over thirty to choose from this time, and you’ll soon find yourself gravitating towards a few select favourites.

The big two names this time from non-Nintendo franchises are Metal Gear Solid’s Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Both could not have been implemented any more perfectly. Snake mostly relies on stealth (in a beat-‘em-up? – Ed) and ranged attacks, while Sonic is literally a blue blur.

Both are quite hard to master for those exact reasons, but are great fun nonetheless. It’s a bit annoying that after being so hyped (even on the box) neither are available to play from the off, so everyone will be scouring the web for advice on how to unlock them. Luckily, this can be done fairly easily.

Being such a key selling point, it is inevitable that some people will find some level of disappointment in the massive selection of characters.

Clone characters still remain (ones that are basically a re-skinned version of another) and Fox gets a staggering two ‘brothers’ in Falco and Wolf, artificially and cheaply raising the game’s total character count.

Popular Legend of Zelda villain Ganondorf is still only a clone of F-Zero’s Captain Falcon, which will irritate people who were hoping to see him get his own move set and maybe get to use his cool sword.

Finally, there’s Ike from Fire Emblem. He is the most unbalanced character in the game. His entire move-set seems to consist of killing blows, several affect a 360 degree radius, his charged attacks can be held indefinitely, and he can still unleash those charged attacks even after being hit.

No other character in the game has ANY of those abilities, and Ike has them all (and is quite fast too). I will not play against anyone as or against him. This is a shame, as apart from this one blip I would say the character roster is very well balanced.

Someone who has mastered any of the characters can easily go up against any of the other characters. Except Ike, of course.

They’re an item

While there are many new items in the game that do various things in the course of battle, the most significant (and potentially devastating and score-altering) are the Assist Trophies and the Final Smash ball.

Assist Trophies call on a classic Nintendo character to help you out (a bit like the Pokeballs), but Final Smashs are something else. They can’t be picked up, for a start. Instead, they float around the screen and have to be beaten open.

Once received, the player can unleash a devastating attack unique to their character, which can easily win them the match. My personal favourite is Ness and Lucas’ PK Starstorm, which rains down some mightily impressive fireballs.

Despite looking impressive, these Final Smashs can make things unbalanced, as several characters’ (such as Luigi and Peach) are all but useless, whereas Fox or Sonic can rack up multiple kills with theirs. If they want a fair game, most experienced players will turn these two items off.

Despite a few small flaws like these, there is really not much to complain about with Smash Bros Brawl. It will last forever on both single or multiplayer, and will never ever get boring.

While Mario Kart Wii drowns in the casual gaming pool, SB plays to its strengths and smoothly traverses the watery void. Melee is my most played game of all time, but I suspect Brawl may eclipse it.

Even if we got it far too late.

9.5/10

Chris ‘Toon Link’ Capel