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To paraphrase Sesame Street, Super Smash Bros Brawl was brought to you by the number 287. That’s the number of songs in Brawl’s soundtrack, and a perfect example of the gargantuan beast that the latest incarnation of the Smash Bros. series. Whereas any other game would have somewhere between 30 and 50 songs, Smash Bros. Brawl blows them all away with over 5 times the content of other games, and this theme applies for more than just music. Super Smash Bros. Brawl feels like three or more games combined on one disk into a single super-game, its dual-layered DVD stuffed so full with digital goodness that some Wiis can’t even handle it all. A virtual smorgasbord of pugilistic fun, SSBB beats out Mario Galaxy for best Wii game, and is easily my pick for game of the year and possibly game of the generation.
Hit the jump to see every synonym for “big” in my word processor’s thesaurus.
When it comes to gameplay, the basics of the Smash Bros series has not really changed. You still square up against one to three opponents and punch, kick, and shoot them off the stage. It’s a giant chaotic game of king-of-the-mountain. The end result is a system that rewards skill is ways somewhat different to fighting games, the genre that many feel is the most similar to Smash Bros. A good player is someone who can adapt to the fluid conditions of a match and use them to his advantage while avoiding the stage’s hazards and the machinations of his opponents.
Like the other two Smash Bros. games, multiplayer competition is the heart and soul of Brawl, and knowing this Nintendo has put in tons of variety. There are tons of ways to play a standard multiplayer game. You can choose between three different game types, Time, Stock, and Coin, and apply lots of various modifiers should you choose. For example, you can make everyone metal, or invisible, or giant, or all three at once should you so choose.
You can play these modes with one of 35 different characters, ranging from the hulking Bowser to the tiny Olimar. The variety of play styles found in this mammoth is one of the things that will keep people coming back for more. There’s Ganondorf, slow and powerful with an emphasis on direct attacks, or Samus and Link, who specialize in long distance projectiles. You can play as Sonic, the blazing fast speedster, or Luigi, whose entire moveset seems tailored to highlight just how weird he is. There’s the Pokemon Trainer, who is actually three separate and complete characters crammed into one, and there’s Snake, whose many explosives make him a force to be reckoned with anywhere on the battlefield. With so many characters, each with its own unique moveset and attributes, there’s a character suitable for pretty much everybody.
Once you’ve chosen your character, now prepare to pick a level from Brawl’s gargantuan stage list. There are 41 total stages to be found in Brawl, ranging from the flat and static Final Destination and Battlefield to the dynamic and crazy Pictochat and Warioware stages (those 287 songs are split among the levels, with each level getting around 5 songs apiece.) Of those 41, 9 are classics from Smash Bros. Melee for the Gamecube, while the others are all original. Plus, if you want a stage that isn’t available, you can make one with the stage editor! That’s right, you can create your own custom stages in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, giving you basically endless replayability. Plus, you can share them with your friends.
Should you wish for a more single-player oriented experience, Brawl is most willing to accommodate. The main new attraction is the Supspace Emissary mode, a 8+ hour affair (time spent may vary if you play it co-op) that does its best to weave a tale encompassing every character in the game. It has some trouble with this, since even though the script is written by the same man who wrote Final Fantasy VII, nobody is allowed to talk. Given such a limitation, the whole thing comes off as a little silly and quite cheesy. Many people have expressed disappointment with this mode and the way it plays. I however disagree. The creator and mastermind behind the Smash Bros. franchise is a man named Masahiro Sakurai, previously famous as the creator of Kirby. This is why I was not surprised to find that the Supspace Emissary mode plays exactly like one of my favorite old games, Kirby Super Star for the SNES. You run through many small stages, each connected by doors, fighting loads of enemies and the occasional boss with your arsenal of attacks. They even handle the second player going off-screen in the same way.
Along for the single-player ride are the old standbys: Classic, Events, and Stadium modes. My favorite part of Melee was the event mode, where you had to do a certain thing like beat 5 guys in 20 seconds for example, so I’m extremely happy they have added in Cooperative Events as well. There is also an unlockable Boss Run mode and All Star Mode.
The greatest appeal of Smash Bros Brawl besides the general gameplay is the sheer overwhelming amount of content that you get and unlock. Songs, trophies, stickers (which you can apply to characters to give them stat boosts in Subspace Emissary), levels, characters, modes, there’s always something more to get. Couple this with the game’s great little winks and nods to Nintendo fans (like how KK Slider will appear at midnight on Saturday on the Animal Crossing stage) and great attention to detail (for example, fully customizable controls which you can set to your profile and load from the character select screen) and you have a game for the ages.
Super Smash Bros Brawl is, for the most part, a game for people with friends. Real friends, not online friends. However, Nintendo has attempted to provide for those with only the latter with their online mode. This is without a doubt the best online integration Nintendo has ever done. Yes, I realize that isn’t saying much. Still, I have found playing with friends to be an enjoyable experience. I have not experienced any major lag or disconnects when playing with friends. Playing against random people, however, is another matter entirely. I was not surprised when, on the night of the launch, the servers were hammered so hard that they couldn’t function. However, while this has improved a bit since that time, it is still pretty difficult to find a match that isn’t lagged to the point of aggrivation. Also, the random games are limited to 2-minute matches, which is disappointing to say the least.
Brawl is a visual treat for Wii owners. The characters are wonderfully detailed, with little touches like the denim in Mario’s jeans. There is also a dramatic improvement over Melee’s greatest graphical weakness, the backgrounds. Everything animates smoothly and the constant parade of explosions and other special effects do nothing to hamper the silky smooth framerate.
SSBB is also a sonic marvel. Sure there might be 287 songs, but that wouldn’t matter if only a handful of them were any good. Luckily for us, the soundtrack is a collection of pieces done my over 30 of the best composers in the Japanese gaming world. Aural artists like Nintendo’s own Koji Kondo, Motoi Sakuraba (Baten Kaitos and Golden Sun), Michiko Naruke (Wild Arms), Jun Fukuda (Killer 7, No More Heroes), Akihiro Honda (Metal Gear Solid 4), and Nobuo Uematsu (the Final Fantasy series) all contributed to this triumphant audio masterpiece. I do not hesitate to say that it is without a doubt the greatest soundtrack to any game to date.
Super Smash Bros. Melee, the last Smash Bros. iteration on the Gamecube, was a great game. Still, it has its issues. There were glitches, things that seemed incomplete, and just a general sense that the game was a little rushed to get it out around the time the Gamecube launched. Unlike its predecessor, Brawl was given the extra time it needed to mature and become the game it is today, and for that we, and gamers everywhere, are truly blessed. Get it, play it, and enjoy it, because at this rate we won’t have another one for at least another seven years.
Final Score: 10/10
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