QJ.NET reviews Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Part 1
Once in every console generation, there comes a game that just defines fun and epitomizes the term “next-gen”. While we have certainly seen some potential candidates in this seventh generation of gaming consoles, there has been one title that we’ve been eagerly watching out for – and now, that title is out: Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This is our review.
The reason to finally own a Nintendo Wii is here. Yes, we told you that about Super Mario Galaxy, but Super Smash Bros. Brawl (from the creative efforts of Game Arts, Sora Ltd., and Nintendo Company Ltd.) for the Wii is so good, it warrants a purchase of the console entirely all on its own. Featuring an updated roster, an improved fighting system, tons more content than its predecessors, a fully fleshed-out single player campaign and online play (not to mention its own stage builder), Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the true next-gen sequel.
And this is our review.
First off, let me just reassure fans of one thing: the game you fell in love with on the Nintendo 64 and on the Nintendo GameCube is pretty much back, but steeped in so many layers of polish that calling it a direct sequel both justifies and downplays the wide bounds of progress that both Game Arts and Sora Ltd. made with Brawl. *takes a deep breath*
It plays the same, and yet not quite. It looks and sounds similar, and yet it’s a completely different visual and audio experience. It bleeds the same amount of awesome as its predecessors, and yet it’ll gobsmack you in a way you’ve never been gobsmacked before. That, dear readers, is no exaggeration.
It would have been easy for Nintendo, alleged master of rehashes, to simply port Super Smash Bros. Melee over to the Wii, give it a few extra characters and items, and call it a sequel – but in true Nintendo fashion, in innovator and revolutionizer form, the devs ripped Melee apart and made an entirely new beast from the genes up.
That’s what Brawl is, and that’s what you get pretty much from the moment you fire up that gold disc into your console. Buy it – it completely validates putting your faith on the most underpowered (yet the most fun) console in this generation.
With that out of the way, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. There is no way I’ll be able to cover everything about Super Smash Bros. Brawl – there’s no way around it – so I’ve enlisted the help of Sally B., fellow writer and Smasher. She’s to handle Part 2 of the review and talk about the single-player modes of SSBB (that is, the SubSpace Emissary and all the other Solo modes). I’ll be tackling everything else.
Warning! Challenger approaching!
Ah, the roster. One of (if not the most) talked-about aspect of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the legendary lineup had people harping and speculating about whoever gets to be included in it since way back.
Before all the Dojo updates that pretty much hyped the game more efficiently (and arguably more subtly) than Halo 3‘s Believe adverts, Masahiro Sakurai held a worldwide poll that would ultimately decide who got to be on the sacred roster.
Fans all over the world were allowed to give their opinion as to who should be included, along with their respective moves, look, and even theme music. After a ton of suggestions, the votes were tallied, and the roster stands as it is today – somewhat surprising, somewhat disappointing, but all-in-all one that’s definitely memorable.
Who made the cut? I’m sorry if you’ve been keeping yourself spoiler-free for now, but it’s just too good of a list to keep to ourselves (and to you, if you’ve been hedging on whether or not to purchase this gift from the treasure vaults of Xerxes).
Besides the veterans who will probably never be cut from Super Smash Bros., the stellar additions are the following: Solid Snake, Pikmin & Olimar, Pokemon Trainer (awesome!), Metaknight, Ike, Sonic, Pit and King Dedede, to name a few.
Of course, there are also those who made the cut that we could not really fathom the reason why they did – but we took it in stride as part of the game’s charm to just suddenly throw you something from left field when you least expect it. Not an unpleasant surprise by far, just a very…surprising one (Three Landmasters? You have got to be kidding!).
Oh, and FALCON PUNCH.
Show me your moves!
Ill-placed Captain Falcon reference aside, this section of the review could be what makes or breaks the game (in the case of those who grew up with Super Smash Bros. Melee). No, no, the game still employs its simplistic and intuitive controls – an attack button, a special attack button, and the directional modifiers – but the difference to its predecessor is what merits its very own section. Why?
Well, first of all, it’s not as frantic and frenetic as Melee. It’s still fast and furious action – and sometimes you’ll lose track of where your character is just because of the amount of things going on – but the pacing, speed ,and tempo of the action is markedly more sedate. This is really evident when your character takes to the air, which can only be described as “floaty.”
Even Samus, listed as one of the more slower and heavier characters (not to be confused with her Zero Suit variation) falls just as slow as she walks. This in itself isn’t really bad. Not only does it give an emphasis on mid-air battles, it also makes those mad scrambles for Smash Balls that much more intense.
So the game is slower. What else is there? Again, if you weren’t raised on Melee, then this wouldn’t be a big deal, but if you were, here it is: the exploits that made the second iteration competitive are now absent in Brawl. Called Advanced Techniques, they formed a big part of any competitive Smasher’s arsenal in Melee – unfortunately, they never made the cut in this iteration.
That doesn’t make Brawl an exploit-free game though. Even before the game’s NA release, many users have already found quite a few glitches you could potentially exploit for a better game – but as it stands, most of them are character-specific and not really as useful as the timeless wavedash.
Given this, Brawl can be considered as both a true sequel and a title all of its own – and everyone from newbies to professionals will have to get used to a completely different game this time around… without the Advanced Techniques.
As for the controls, you’re given a choice from a menu of four: the Classic Controller, the Wiimote on its side, the Wiimote and Nunchuk combo, and the timeless Gamecube Controller.
Old-time smashers will definitely have a blast with the fourth option, but this blogger recommends the Wiimote-only setup. It’s refreshing and easy, and the only gripe I can say about it is that the button to let go of an item is awkwardly-placed. But with Brawl ALSO letting you map your own controls, that issue’s pretty much moot, isn’t it?
Futility, thy name is OH GOD FINAL SMASH! FINAL SMASH! GET THE SMASH BALL!
The name Nintendo goes hand in hand with innovation – and while they certainly haven’t tacked on something as groundbreaking as, say, Street Fighter III: Third Strike‘s Parry Tech system onto Brawl, they’ve added a feature that pretty much keeps the action fresh: the Smash Ball.
A multicolored, hovering ball of death that pops up randomly in the middle of a match, this particular item is the sweet spot of Brawl – as it gives any character lucky enough to get it the ability to perform a screen-clearing attack of pure brutality.
You can’t just get it like any normal item, however. Not only does it move in a maddeningly-evasive path, but it requires multiple hits to be able to actually “get” it – which means that every time this glowing can of whoop-ass blesses your brawl with its presence, it’s always going to be a mad scramble for it.
And there is nothing like getting that tell-tale glow around your character while the entire background dims in anticipation – before letting loose with the Special Attack button and unleashing hell. Oh, yeah.
Items, items, and more items
Just like the esteemed Mario Kart series, Super Smash Bros. has its own share of randomly-spawning items you can pick up and use to turn the tides of battle to your favor. These items have been considered as the bane of competitive play, and yet there’s really no contention that they’re absurdly fun to use and see in action.
Not taking tradition for granted, Nintendo has made sure that Brawl features items – and it features it in spades. From grenades to hammers to firework launchers, the Item Master will have a lot of old and new material to work with – as well as an entirely new type of item called Assist Trophies.
Assist Trophies are, in essence, complete and total fanservice, from Nintendo to you. If you had a character that you hoped would make it into the character roster but didn’t, then chances are that they made it as an Assist Trophy.
Just like items, they spawn at random times. Using them would then summon a character, who would perform its own signature attack – suffice to say, it’s almost a guaranteed knock-off.
Waluigi, for one, would hunt down one of the players, stomp them into the ground, and then backhand them away into the horizon. Little Joe from the Punch Out! series does what he does best – uppercutting people and not taking any crap from anyone, even if they’re ten stories taller than him.
Oh, and there’s a Greyfox trophy, too. He does his Ninja routine and slits people up with the sword like no one’s business. But we know he’s already awesome, more awesome than that damn Raiden (with his blade-tipped high heels) can ever hope to be.
Assist trophies are freaking hardcore.
You. Me. Final Destination. NOW.
Brawl‘s predecessors always had one particular complaint lodged against them: that while the characters themselves received quite the graphical touch-up, the stages you fought on didn’t. Third time’s the charm, it seems, as the stages pretty much show off the blood, sweat, and tears that Sakurai and his team shed in squeezing every last drop of graphical goodness from the Nintendo Wii.
Every stage bleeds… nay – bristles… nay – explodes with life, and each one is so lovingly detailed that you can often lose track of the action because you find yourself getting lost in them. And they don’t just look beautiful. They break up beautiful, too.
That’s right. Some of the stages you’ll see in Brawl are destructible, which not only makes for a more exciting round of brawling, you actually feel just a bit more of a badass when you realize that it was your Squirtle’s Waterfall that totally smashed that ornately-decorated part of Luigi‘s Mansion.
Don’t worry, though, almost all of the breakable platforms respawn, from the portions of Eldin’s Bridge to the entirety of Luigi’s creepy-as-hell mansion. And they rebuild themselves in pretty cool ways, too, so take it as a license to go all out!
Returning also to Brawl are some of Melee‘s best (and most memorable) levels, with classics such as Big Blue, Hyrule Temple and Jungle Japes making their comeback. Unfortunately, they’re pretty much carbon copies of their original Melee forms, so fans looking for a glossy remade version will just have to contend with the real, unedited thing. Still, it’s a nice touch, and pretty much expands an already expansive selection of places to beat each other up in.
And if (heavens forbid) that you don’t like any of the stages, Brawl still has you covered with its own Stage Builder. Yes, a Stage Builder – you can build your own stages, holy crap. The stage editor itself isn’t too bad, in fact it’s intuitive, and with pretty much all of the elements available to you (although some you’ll have to unlock), each stage you make will have their own identity.
So now that we’ve covered everything new about Brawl (at least most of it), let’s move on to the game proper. There are two main modes to Brawl – Group (for your normal, everyday, multiplayer needs) and Solo (for the smasher who likes to play alone). This review tackles the Group Mode (as well as Wi-Fi mode), so you’ll have to wait for Sally B.’s comprehensive review and breakdown of Solo Mode for all the details.
In any case, Group Mode. It’s the mode you’ll be spending a lot of time in, especially when you have friends over. Accessing this mode then opens up the Group Brawl screen, where you can pick from Brawl, Special Brawl, Tourney, and Rotation.
Brawl is the standard four-player bash – pick your characters, pick your stage, and you’re ready to go. Tourney is your usual tournament game, where you can have as many as 32 different players duking it out in an elimination-style mashup for the top spot. Typical stuff that we’ve known and loved from Melee.
Now, Special Brawl and Rotation. While Rotation in itself is a cool feature that pretty much delegates the duty of deciding who gets to play next (if you’re more than a group of four), Special Brawl is where it’s at, in terms of crazy matches. In Melee, the only close equivalent to his is Giant Melee – where all the combatants receive a permanent growth spurt at the start of the match.
In Special Brawl, everything in the game is at your fingertips. Do you want all the characters to start out with 300% damage? How about Metal status? Do you want the gravity status to be heavy or light? Maybe a permanent Curry status effect to heat things up? The possibilities and match combinations are endless, and makes for some very delicious insanity.
And that’s just the local flavor. For true Smashers who can take on anyone and anytime, Masahiro Sakurai and his team has graciously provided us with the one thing that should propel the game into platinum quality: online play. Yes, you can now Smash with anyone, anytime, so long as you have a Wi-Fi connection handy (or at the worst-case scenario, have one of those discontinued dongles).
But wait a tick, you interject. A Nintendo game with online play? Surely this one is going to tank, what with Nintendo’s unwieldy and number-heavy Friend Code system! Add to that the fact that you have to register each other into Brawl‘s friend code library, with only 64 slots free – and the exclusion of a chat option – it’s a guaranteed failure in terms of online matchmaking!
Well, yes, you still need those cumbersome Friend Codes, but for those of us who just want to get into an online brawl with no questions asked, there is the blessed With Anyone Wi-Fi Play mode. This puts you directly into a bog-standard Brawl with three anonymous opponents, online – pick the characters, pick the stage and you’re ready to rumble. No, you won’t be able to see their names, their friend codes, or even their text-based taunts. That’s pretty much it.
Sure, it may seem like a little bare, but there’s definitely evidence that Masahiro Sakurai and the others thought the online mode through before implementing it. First is that they knew that Nintendo’s online service isn’t quite as up to par as that of other consoles’ (let’s face it, Nintendo’s WFC isn’t exactly Xbox Live), so they streamlined it in a way that even something as bandwidth-heavy as Brawl matches can get online and battle as soon as they can. And yes, it’s lag-free! Well, depending on your connection and how far your opponents are from you.
Another good thing about With Anyone Brawl (besides the fact that you don’t have to deal with the livelier multiplayer crowd) is that the game will automatically replace anyone who gets disconnected with a CPU player. No, you won’t know when this pinch-hitting replacement system kicks in, but suffice to say that even if someone gets booted out of the match for whatever reason, it will still continue up to the very end. Sweet!
A choir of angels moaning in your ear
Music. Brawl‘s music is spectacular. Just like Super Mario Galaxy, Nintendo once more changes the perception of just what video game soundtracks should sound like. From the moaning of a Latin opera in the main theme, to the flighty trills of Pit’s Theme, Brawl packs a heavy aural punch that will pretty much force you to hook the Nintendo Wii up to your sound system and play it on the highest volume setting possible. It’s a treat for your ears that shouldn’t be gone without.
And no fan should ever go without listening (at least once) to Snake’s theme. If that isn’t epic, we don’t know what is.
A next-gen polish on a next-gen game
Brawl isn’t Melee 1.5. Let that sink in for a while – it isn’t Melee 1.5. Not only does the game sport improved graphics, improved sound and an immense truckload of new content – it plays differently, breaking through the elitist boundaries its predecessor built up and making the art of Smashing accessible to everyone.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is just a blast to play, whether you’re playing online, playing with friends, playing competitively, or playing for the heck of it – it’s. Just. FUN. Your Wii has just become the entertainment machine it’s supposed to be, and you will be working it over until the next iteration of Smash comes along.
As for those of us who can’t bear the thought of Smash being any different from its more technical counterpart, Melee, then I present this argument to you: what sort of fan are you if you can’t look past the fact that it’s been made more accessible for everyone? Don’t confine yourselves to Melee just because you can’t wavedash or SHFFL or any of the exploits that made combat that more intense.
Brawl is the higher playing field, because you don’t have any of those crutches to lean on anymore. This is how Smash was originally thought to be played, how it was originally designed to be played. And if you’re still stubborn, then consider this: the guys who worked on Brawl has, in all probability, played Melee longer and harder than you did. And the exploits were still removed. How about that?
The next-gen has arrived for the Wii, and it is Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Your social life is forfeit.
Check back soon for Sally B.’s review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s Solo Mode!
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