After half a decade, Smash Brothers returns, ripping onto the Wii with authority
Brawl takes the formula of the previous games and smashes it to pieces, making itself a beast of a game in its own right. Yes, it is at its core, the same game as the previous two games, but Brawl is packed with so much more, one would be forgiven for forgetting about Smash Brothers and Melee.
The Smash Brothers franchise at its core, is a fighting game, showcasing members of Nintendo's most popular franchises (in and out of Japan). The way the game works is different to conventional fighters, since you must beat your opponent until they have enough damage to be launched of the stage in defeat. The controls are simplified compared to other beat 'em up games, consisting of only two attack buttons, when used with the analog stick, creates different attacks depending on left, right, up or down. There is a shield, jump buttons and the ability to grab.
The biggest appeal to Brawl, is the fighter roster, which is at its largest ever. The roster consists of iconic characters from Nintendo's universe, and for the first time ever, two third party characters, Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, and Sonic The Hedgehog.
Personally, I'd rather at least one of these characters available for play upon starting the game for the first time, instead of playing the game for a minimum of three hours before you unlock one. My reasons for this is because both were used in the hype for this game, and it is a kick in the teeth for us. But, whatever.
Each fighter is balanced out with their strengths and weakness', making the fighting mechanics of the game fairly deep. Out of the all the characters, Snake feels the most out of place, as he's controls and even his presence in the game seems tacked on. This is perhaps the developing teams response to 'having' to put him in the game.
Brawl features a huge array of different levels, which, compared to the past games, aren't as amazing. The unlockable new levels for Brawl (those that aren't re-hashes of past levels) are actually fairly good, Luigi's Mansion and 75m being most notable of this. It also features a lot of customization for battles, including tons upon tons of unlockable features and trophies, which number is roughly upward of 250.
Brawl has added sparkle due to the new single player adventure, The Subspace Emissary. It's a 8 hour long adventure mode which features a very loose story line involving all of the characters, coming together to defeat a common threat. You play through a series of side scrolling platform levels, which personally, are designed rather well. The story is shown through beautiful cut scenes, which is littered with humor, however, the lack of dialogue, even subtitles, hurts this drastically. Once this adventure mode is completed, you add extra stuff to the one player section of the game, including boss battles and all-star mode.
As always, Brawl has an amazing soundtrack, possibly one of the greatest game soundtracks I've ever heard. There are remixes of old Nintendo themes, as well as original themes. In addition, there is a stage builder in the game, which allows you to use templates to build your own fighting field, with customizable soundtracks.
Brawl is an event for every Wii owner. It brings together a great deal of Nintendo magic and provides hours upon hours of fun. It does have it's faults, and for those who have never been part of the Nintendo camp, will find possibly no joy in this game. For those who do, will be rewarded with an experience that will be able to be enjoyed for years.