Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

100 or More Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Rocks"

Pros:
-Massive character roster
-Lengthy and fun single player
-Hundreds of hours worth of unlocks
-Insane amount of features
-Variety of ways to play; Motion Control Wii-Mote, or standard controls

Cons:
-Online is broken and limited
-Too many "clone" characters

Super Smash Bros. Brawl marks the return of Nintendo's highly fun and successful party fighter, and this time it has expanded on every feature making Brawl a game of epic proportions! To put it simply: You could not ask for a better party game or fighter.

The gameplay is similar to past Smash Bros. games, each player has a percentage meter that builds up and you try to throw them out of the stage, while also using items that randomly drop and your characters special attacks. The game features a much more improved story mode this time and it's very lengthy and fun. You fight through many different scenarios and unlock characters, both old and new. The character roster for this game is ridiculously huge, featuring both 1st party and 3rd party, the characters expand across many different games.

From the obvious but lovable Mario and Zelda to new one's like Metal Gear and Sonic, Nintendo really went all out with this one! While the character list is overall great, there is an issue with some of the characters being "clones" of each other, for example some characters have similar or even the same exact move set as another, and while there may be some slight differences between them, it's not quite enough and it's a shame as it stops all of the characters from feeling unique.

But regardless of that, the characters are still fun and enjoyable to play as. Brawl also offers many different ways to play it, you can use the Wii Mote, with or without the Nunchuck, or your can use a more standard controller such as the Game Cube. This gives a way for everyone to play how they want and how they feel the most comfortable, the result is that there is something for everyone. Brawl also expands upon this with it's features, there are very many different modes that offer unique styles of gameplay, you will find enough here to keep the game feeling fresh. There are many hours upon hours of things to unlock, from new characters, to items, stages, modes, and more to keep you busy for a very long time!

It's a shame the same can't be said about it's online, lacking in many of the features that makes offline play so brilliant, Brawl online is extreamely disappointing and match quality is only so-so. Some times it works better than others, but there are more than enough laggy matches you will come across, it also doesn't help that in order to play with friends online you have to exchange Wii friend codes, this is a hassle and is frankly more trouble than it's worth. However this is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things, as Brawl is plenty of fun without online.

Brawl offers a great gameplay experience that you and your friends will enjoy playing on the couch together into the late night. It is definitely worth your money and you do not want to miss out!

Super Smash Bros. Brawl get's a 9/10