The most awesome fan service of a game ever.
The graphics are fantastic, and are actually pretty realistic. This game brings up the same issue Super Mario Galaxy brought up, I don't think I want any game including Mario or Kirby to look much more realistic, or it just wouldn't feel right. There's some pretty good textures here, and a very solid frame rate. I have never noticed any slowdown, not even in the game's craziest moments. The graphics, while not the best you're going to see in gaming, are very solid, do their job, and are some of the best the Wii offers.
The soundtrack is far beyond what gamers are used to. It is massive. Not only is it massive, but is awesome too. Most of the songs are reworked classics, that any gamer loves to hear. As for the others, they're still nice to have for variety. A cool new feature is that you can select how often certain songs play on each arena. The soundtrack is amazing, and has a pretty good chance at winning that department here for Best of 2008.
Now for the game play. As much as they have added to the graphics and soundtrack, they have added even more to the game play. Not only do they have the awesome new arenas that change as you fight, but they also included some of your old favorites from Melee. There's also way more characters than before, and I am really glad they included Snake and Sonic, as they are both huge parts of my gaming history. They revamped the single player completely. Now, not only can you play through classic on various difficulties, but there's the new single player storyline, Subspace Emissary. There's no speaking in Subspace, which I consider a good thing, and its filled with funny moments, as well as cool epic ones. It lasts a good eight hours or so, and is surprisingly good for a party and/or fighting game. Subspace has helped to evolve Brawl past a party/fighting game, and really makes it a whole lot more fun to play single player than it was with Melee. When you're done with Subspace, there's still classic mode, tournament, home run, multi man brawl, boss battles, coin toss, and more. The multi player is as great as ever, and I think the super smash orb really adds tot he game play, because everyone in the room is yelling at each other in panic and fighting to get the final hit on it when it arrives. Plus all the super smash moves are pretty cool, well except for Luigi's, I'm not really sure what to think when he does that.
In short, this game will keep you entertained for hours and hours. Even if you get sick of it from playing it too much, I promise that you'll come back to it eventually. This game has some serious replay value. Forget about your harsh feelings towards the Wii, when you approach this game, just have fun with it.