A great game in its own right, but not without flaws.
Graphics: You'll be hardpressed to find a btter looking game on Wii today, outside of the Mario Galaxies. The animation is smooth, the character models are all highly detailed and the Final Smash attacks are all flashy. And the bosses look great. The only problem is that there is some slowdown when a lot (and I mean ALOT) is going on onscreen. But, it doesn't happen very often. Finally, the CGI cutscenes during the Sub Space Emmisarry look awesome. 10/ 10
Sound: The music in this game is amzing. There are all sorts of awesome tracks. Some are straight ports from their games of origin and others are remixes of old tunes. They just sound... awesome. The game is worth getting based on the music alone. And the best part is that there are HUNDREDS of tracks. The voices, on the other hand, can get very anoying. But, you'll likely be too busy listening to the awesome music to even notice. 10/ 10
Story: Yeah, beleive it or not, this game has a story. It only extends to the Sub Space Emmisarry (abreviated SSE) so don't worry. Basically, all the characters from all corners of the Nintendo universe have to band together (yeah, even the villians) to stop a menace from Subspace. It's very noesnsical and there's not any voice acting aside from the battle cries of the characters, so you'll stop caring about it almost as soon as it starts. It does have it's epic moments, though, so it gives you an excuse to watch some absolutley awesome cutscenes. 5/ 10
Gameplay:
I'm going to split this section into 2 parts: The singleplayer SSE (which replaces Adventure Mode from Melle) and everything else.
Singleplayer: The SSE is like an action platformer, only with Brawl mechanics. You fight your way through maze- like stages while fighting some goofy looking enemies. The stages themselves are rather boring and pointless, but the bosses are very fun. My personal favorite is Meta Ridley, just because of the epicness of the part. However, it's ultimatley not worth it to slog through the boring levels to get to this part. And the last level... oh, man. It is a fusion of almost every major area of the game and you have to fight every character and boss in the game all over again. It's so freakin' obnoxious and it just artificially lengthens what is a short mode. (Thank God it's not the only thing in this package.) You can customize each character with different stickers. These give you special abilities that's supposed to add to the replay value, but you'll likely never come back to it. It's just boring. And there's co- op, which does add to the fun a bit, but if you have a friend over, you'll likley be playing another of the game's multitude of modes. 5/ 10
Everything else: There are a bunch of different modes, including: Classic, Boss Rush, Break the Targets, a new trophy shooting game, All Star, Multi Man Melle, New Events, and the traditional multiplayer. (I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting.) I'll be focusing mostly on the traditional multiplayer here. Before I forget, There are new challenges that make it much easier to unlock trophies, music, stages, etc, because they tell you what you need to do. Also worth noting is that most of the modes mentioned above are multiplayer, with the exception of the Events. Instead, there is a separate set of Events for singleplayer and Multiplayer.
Anyway, the multiplayer is the main reason to get this game. First, there are over 35 characters to choose from, with 2 of them being 3rd party characters. (Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake.) The cast is actually fairly balanced, but there are a few issues. For one, Olimar is really difficult to get the hand of and isn't worth the trouble to use him. Another is that the Final Smashes are extremly unbalanced. These are character specific moves that you get from breaking the item known as the Smash Ball. Take, for instance, Sonic's Final Smash. He turns into Super Sonic and he can dash aorund the screen and practially one hit kill anyone he comes into contact with. It's extremly cheap and is very difficult to dodge. Then there's Mario's Final Smash. He unleashes a vortex of fire from his hands (that looks pretty awesome). The problem with it is that you can easily jump over it and even if you get caught up in the vortex the whole time, it likely won't kill you. And, usually, the battle to get the Smash Ball is more deadly than the actual Final Smash.
The stages are pretty cooly designed and fit pretty well with whoever's game it's from. I really wish that all of the Melle stages were present in the legacy stages. I really thought that there were better stages than the ones they chose. Anyway, the only probelm with the designs is that a few of them are all flash, no show. For instance, Meta Knight's battleship Halberd. It opens up with this absolutley breathtaking scene of the ship taking off into the sky, but the stage itself is a very small platform with another above it. It's basically the same as the Animal Crossing stage, except it does have one stage hazard. Some of the stages are prety fun, though and it's always a blast to play with 4 friends. It gets absolutley chaotic and awesome.
There is a pretty colorful cast of characters in this game, with many of them being rehashes from Mellee. But, the newcomers are awesome, with my favorites being Meta Knight, Solid Snake and Ike. One of the problems with Melle was that many of the characters were just clones of eachother. This is fixed, but there are still clones. For instance, Ganondorf is still a slower and more powerful form of Captain Falcon and, instead of Young Link, we have Toon Link from the Wind Waker. But, most of the characters have a very distinct feel to them and are fairly balanced. There are some cheap spam attacks, like one of Pitt's spinning blade attacks. But, for the most part, it's a balanced cast of characters and you can most liely find one who fits your play style.
This game has a level editor. It's pretty fun to make your own stages, and you can create some truly whacky stuff. A touch that I liked is that you can put any song from the game into the level.
I've really only scratched the surface of the stuff for you to do in this game. There are a ton of customization options and you won't get finished with the content anytime soon. 8/ 10
SSBB is a very fun, but flawed game. The singleplayer campaign is about as good as a very mediocre action game and there are a few balancing issues. I find this game a touch overrated, but it's still very fun and it has a lot of content. It's also great at parties and a blast to play with friends. It's definitley a great game and is one of the few must have Wii titles, due to the accesibility and strong multiplayer component. And I have a few ideas for new 3rd party characters.
Simon Belmont
Ezio
Viewtiful Joe
The Prince of Persia
So, thanks fo reading and continue playing!