Introduction:

It has been 7 years since Super Smash Bros. Melee came out, and like most of my friends, played the hell out of it. Of course, I am nowhere near as “good” as Cary Zhang, people from smashfests, and the obvious tournament going people, but thats not to say I suck (average, i might say). I’m pretty darn sure that no one LOVES the game as whole, like with how the stages are designed, how the adventure mode seamlessly (and randomly) integrates all the melee characters, etc, and not just for the gameplay (like 100% of the people i know) either. I’m also sure that no one listens to smash music on their computer, in the car (dont worry guys, you’ll STILL be listening to it years from now lol), and even on their phone as a ringtone.

But anyway, enough about melee. This review is about its successor – brawl.

Graphics:

To start, I think the graphics are HILARIOUSLY improved over melee. Honestly, it makes melee look like a complete joke, as if it was drawn and created in some guys spare time in a coffee shop. Really, melee looks impressively bad after you play brawl, and that is a good thing mind you. Hell, it better be a good thing, because these guys have had years to develop the game. You can zoom in during matches and see the stitching on links tunic, see how furry Donkey and Diddy Kong are, and even see how…detailed Mr. Game & Watch…er…looks like…yeah. But anyways, you get my point. This game looks pretty damn good for a Wii game, considering the Wii is a GameCube x2.5. And thank god it runs in 16:9 widescreen and 480p.

Notice how Sheik and Marth actually have real fingers now!

Sound:

Three words. Oh. My. God. This game has probably the best soundtrack I have ever heard in my life, hands down. There are over 250 songs (258 to be exact, and well over 300 if you count the various misc songs that arent in the sound test) and they all sound wonderful. The absolute best part of this game (and I am not joking about this) is that you can customize what songs play on each of the stages. Seriously, one can (and SHOULD) buy the game just to hear the music. I know most people dont care about it, but i do. It really makes the game 1000000x better than what it is. Bravo Nintendo…seriously, good job here.

Yay! This person has the right taste in Zelda music…or does he?

Gameplay:

Some people hate the fact that brawl got “noobified” so that everyone can pick up a character and have the same chance as the other person to win. Now personally, I think that is a great idea, because this is supposed to be a party AND a competitive game. Wavedashing got removed (thank god, i dont miss it at all) and I love how Sheik plays so differently now, considering she was overpowered in melee (f-air comes to mind). Everyone is buffed/nerfed for the better. In fact, i dont even think buffed or nerfed can be used in brawl…the simple truth is that everyone is “brawlified”. This game is NOT melee 2.0. You are NOT supposed to wavedash, l-cancel, use tricks that melee had, and etc. Everyone is SUPPOSED to be different from melee, not the same. Falco isnt supposed to be wavedashing all over the stage while hopping crazily and shooting his reflector, and Marth cant just do ken combos and f-air f-air f-air f-air f-air, d-air spike. You get my point. and to be fair, the gameplay isnt perfect, and i’m sure 100% of people who play brawl will agree with me. One word – tripping. Tripping is a pain in the butt and should have been removed. I really have no idea why that piece of garbage is in this game. It happens randomly and its so annoying! All of a sudden I will be running and then just randomly trip. Someone sees that you are on the floor and then BAM, they own you in the face and you lose a life. How fair is that???? Not very.

Presentation:

The menus are great…and honestly, I used to not like the white background, but as you play it more, it grows on you. It is also nice that the menus are big and easy to read and navigate, so for common people/party going people who want to just pick up and play, it’s a good thing. The opening cinematic is also wonderful, a mix of CGI and in game graphics as well as the music, but the 15-20 second “now loading” screen before it is not so wonderful. Also, the fact that the Wii cant read dual-layer discs is a minus, so brawl loads a bit more slowly than melee did. Of course, this is because brawl is packed with data and the wii has a cheap laser that was NOT designed to read dual-layer discs to begin with (cheapos – they could just put in for like 1-2 bucks more, resulting in a nice laser…oh well). I should also point out that melee is a fairly small game (data wise) and was on a 1.5GB gamecube disc, so it read pretty fast, and the game loaded really quickly. Unfortunately, this didnt translate over to brawl (as talked about above), even during single-player (i will mention more about this later).

Single-Player:

Classic, All-Star, Adventure, Multi-Man Brawl, and more. Even better is that most of all the single-player modes (except for like 2-3 of them) can be played cooperatively! The biggest addition by far of this game (besides the music) is definitely the new adventure mode, which is called “The Subspace Emissary”. Now this mode actually takes more than 6-7 hours to beat, and is one method of unlocking all the characters too. The story-line is typical for a game (spoiler alert if you care – bad guys take over, good guys come together, defeat bad guys, etc), but the way it’s presented, even though there isn’t any talking, is simply awesome. I mean, the creators did an excellent job of weaving everyone from the 35 character roster together (even sonic – although his role in SSE is REALLY small lol).

The only few gripes i have with this mode, is that after CGI cutscenes are finished, the game takes 10-20 seconds to load the next level (again this isnt brawls fault, but it is Wii’s cheap laser). I’m also knocking the fact that there IS NOT any voice acting…they could have easily added voices to Pokemon Trainer, Ike, Marth, Captain Falcon, and other people. It just makes it sound way more realistic, instead of just watching the characters all the time. As for the levels, they can sometimes get repetitive, and backgrounds wise…some can be really good in detail, to just rehashed or even sub-par 2d backgrounds (the caves where you get wolf is a good example). Aside from SSE, the events mode also didn’t have enough depth to them. Melee really just had better events to begin with, and to be honest, even without the difficulty levels in brawl, it was still better. Otherwise, the rest of the modes are fine and awesome.

Multi-player:

Really now? :p

Ouch. Poor Captain Falcon. If only he knew what was going to happen.

Online:

Now i am really glad that nintendo actually included SOME sort of online play…but i am REALLY pissed that its completely barebones. I mean, come on…in this day and age, we need more than just typing in crappy friend codes (no joke). There is also no voice chat either and you are stuck with 4 customizable taunts, which are of course limited to like 20 letters/characters. Although you can brawl however you want (like set options, items, cpus, etc) if you have the persons friend code. If you do not have the persons friend code, you have to brawl “with anyone”, meaning any random person around the world. now this sucks because you cant set any options…it is limited to 2 minute matches and it depends on which person has items on/off and what stage everyone picks. As for the lag, i’ll get right to it – its pretty bad, especially using the with anyone mode, so most people are better off just getting everyone’s friend code and playing them only.

I mentioned lag before, and have to admit…if you are competitive, a technical/geeky/nerdy person (like me for example), or just hate button lag (pressing a button and it performs it like 1-2 seconds later), you absolutely NEED to get the USB to Ethernet adapter. i know it is $25, but unfortunately (as far as i know), Nintendo has blocked every non Nintendo branded adapter but their own, so you have to pay for their high priced one. Playing over wi-fi/wireless is acceptable…i mean, I play over it all the time and its really not so bad, but i KNOW i have to get a usb to ethernet adapter soon. I also love that you can do home run contest and Multi-Man Brawl with a friend too. Lastly, the fact that Nintendo sends you a new stage, replay, and screenshot every weekday is awesome. Of course, you can choose to opt out of that service if you wish not to receive anything.

Edit – My friend Leroy has informed me that buying the USB to Ethernet adapter does no good – it’s still quite laggy on a very fast connection. Stick with friendly, non-competitive matches here folks.

Extras:

500+ trophies, 700+ stickers, 250+ songs, a master collection of old school video games to test out (brawl calls them “masterpieces”), replays, save screenshots, sticker book, trophy hoard (set them out on a platform, take screenshots, etc), a challenge board to see what you can unlock, album viewer, a coin launcher game to get new stickers and trophies, and more. 35 total characters (14 are hidden), 41 total stages (12 hidden ones), and COUNTLESS other things. It’s nostalgia and extras at its absolute finest. You will never run out of things to do in this game, period.

Conclusion:

Overall, this game is fantastic. From the unheard of and unprecedented soundtrack to its millions of extras to its cleverly themed stages, his game is packed with everything you can possibly imagine. Everything that you love about Nintendo, Smash Bros. 64, Melee, or anything about having a fun time in general, is all here. It will easily go down as one of the best games in the history of video games – really. Buy this game IMMEDIATELY if you havent already. It is that good. There are minor flaws, such as laggy online, tripping, and the annoying loading times, but they are easily forgotten once you get used to the game. Otherwise, brilliant job nintendo. It’s a fantastic title.

Rating: 9.5/10.

“OMG GTFO!!!!!” “Pikaaaa…CHUUUUUUU” “no…Pikaaa…FUUUUUUUU”