Anything I can shame this game for would be the purest of nitpicking. It truly has filled every real wish of mine.
So tell me, what's the average fighting game story line? It involves a tournament right, with some prize everyone wants at the end of course. Well, the story in smash bros isn't exactly amazing, but it's a lot better than your average fighting game's storyline and it's pushed forward by beautiful cutscenes.
It all starts with a little innocent battle, when the battleship halberd comes out of the sky spreading monsters somewhat resembling the heartless in kingdom hearts. From there, smash bros evolves into something of a side scroller, even including coop. You may think adventure mode from melee, and you would be kinda right. See, main difference is though, the side scrolling sections in this are a lot more in depth. Full scale bosses, character specific sections, and a large list of enemies to clobber.
Graphics:
It is a very high resed and reduxed melee, and I really couldn't ask for more. It's true, you'll feel like you're playing melee at times. This however I don't believe is a graphics problem. Pay attention and animations are much more detailed, zoom in and you'll see your character carrying much more on him than his melee model ever could. Lands and stages carry so much more dynamics and details than the melee stages ever could. The reason it feels familiar is the game, not the graphics. You can't just make captain falcon look different from who he is, so seeing him on the field will always look the same, even to an n64 extent. Getting that out of the way...
The game looks awesome. Framerates do not drop below 60 on a normal match and stages are a beauty, retaining the style of whatever world they come from while still carrying a look that can be used for a battle between snake, mario, and link. There are a couple of odd places of loading times, mainly in the adventure mode, but otherwise, just wonderful to look at.
Gameplay:
It's smash bros, there's no denying that. It plays like a smash bros game, and you can't just change that fact. Anyone however who says it's too familiar obviously doesn't realize that smash is a game which doesn't get sequels every year. The biggest and only real main addition to the chaos gameplay of smashing people off your hill is the smash ball. This releases a devastating character specific attack which can range from transformations to giant beams to an LCD octopus.
This however doesn't mean you don't have much to discover. While gameplay remains generally the same, there's a lot of new stuff to discover. A total of 35 characters (excluding transforms like sheik/zelda) take up the land, all of which are arguably unique this time. There's still some similar characters, but everyone has had a good deal of work put into their own fighting style now, and each character feels like their own character. No more mario/dr.mario or pikachu/pichu cloning going on. The only character I've found to play a bit too familiarly is fox and falco. Wolf can be argued as too much like fox, but I find his playstyle completely different. Further more, every character has a feeling of equalness. Where speed characters used to dominate, heavy characters have now been given their rightful power on stage to be equal with everyone else. Do not just stop at one kool looking certain sword character and play him over and over again, there's a lot of people to discover and you'll have more fun if you try them all.
In game modes outside of a standard battle, you have everything from the old game, some of which given new coop functionality like the Multiman Brawl. The previously mentioned adventure mode while not acting as a game in itself, is an amazing and shockingly fun experience, lasting a good 8 hours. A new lineup of events await you for challenges, a long lineup of unlockables, challenges, and secrets. There's so much to do, you'll be busy for a long time to come, and keep coming back for casual battles with friends. It's true, you could wish for more characters, you could wish for you favorite nintendo character playable here if he or she wasn't or another stage or 2, but those aren't game flaws, those are wishlist.
Sounds:
This has to be the highest point of the game. This is perfect, a wonderful to the ears soundtrack fills the game with variety for that last touch. Where each stage in melee only had 1 or 2 pieces of music for it, brawl has several for every last stage on the list! All of which adjustable in their appearance possibility, so to make 1 music that special rare occasion or so to turn off that 1 piece you just can't stand. This game is overflowing with music. Having downloaded a ripped version of the soundtrack, I have well over 200 pieces here, most to all of which is high quality stuff.
The second side of sound however goes to voice work. Every character, whether being a playable character or a simple assist trophy has a voice where necessary, none of which I think a loyal fan could be ashamed of. While voices may seem minimal, the most of which you'll get in victory poses or attacks like the famous "falcon punch!", even just the grunts and the pokemon saying their names keep a quality often seen on tv show cartoons and such. None of which I find annoying in the slightest personally. Sound effects also carry enough variety.
Who wants this game?
Do you have a wii? Do you want to have fun? Yeah. You want this game. It's the closest to a perfect game I've played in years, and the work put into the game really shines through.
Extra note:
You may notice that I never mentioned online. It is suitable to battle that friend across the world you have, and i put a couple rounds into random battles, but I don't use it enough esspecially in the swarmed state it's in to mention it or give an opinion on it.