This is the real deal. There is no reason for anyone not to like this game. It's the biggest and best Smash Bros yet.
This review is going to get right to the low down and tell you everything you want to know. First lets begin with the characters. The character roster is bigger than Melee's. It has ten more characters then Melee so put that together to figure out the content number. That number of characters is pretty good. It's not an insane amount of characters but for anyone who actually expected 50 characters, they had to know that wouldn't happen. Most of the characters from Melee are back, five Melee characters have been cut. Some are replaced with new ones that are similar to their counterparts. There's plenty of newcomers though. However, most of the interesting newcomers are starters. The amount of newcomers who are unlockable is a bit of a letdown. Here's the bad news. Some characters that had very good potential to be playable didn't make it. A certain villain from Metroid didn't make the playable roster nor did certain female characters from Star Fox and Fire Emblem respectively, nor did a certain character from Nintendo's GBA RPG series. Either they became bosses, assist trophies or neither. The playable roster newcomers falls a little short. It's a shame to see some really good characters not make it; not to mention there's a few playable characters that didn't even deserve to be on the roster. Having a certain accessory for the NES playable instead of the hinted characters above is a bit ridiculous. Aside from that, there are still some very deserving characters that did make it, not to mention a few surprises. Most of the previous character's fighting styles have been tweaked. Some characters got buffed while unfortunately, a few characters got nerfed. Nevertheless, most of the characters fight the same. They all have their own final smashes although there are a few cloned final smashes. Much like Melee, the characters aren't completely balanced. There are some characters with bigger advantages then others. There are some characters as an example who have insane recovery moves like Pit and Snake while other characters such as Link and Mario, really got screwed with their limited recovery moves.
The fighting action of the game is also a bit slower but it won't destroy the experience. You'll get use to it. It's a little unfortunate that some of the advanced techniques that players mastered in Melee got removed but that's how it. Another surprising move is bonuses for each match have been removed. Instead you get satistics. At least there's no more annoying butterfingers minus bonus for almost every match. Some more bad news is clones are back; something that shouldn't have happened with the extended development time as opposed to Melee. The good news however is some of the clones have some new tweaked moves. The bad news is everyone's favorite Zelda villain is still swordless and he still has a similar moveset to the Captain's; something that was inexcusable and it shows a little bit of laziness because he had so much potential for his own moveset. Apparently, the developers felt it wasn't worthwhile to work on. Still, there are plenty of unique characters and the 3rd party characters fit right in. Snake and Sonic have very unique and thought out movesets that make them feel very different from the other fighters. The 3rd party characters do not fall short in movesets like a few characters did. If you thought Game and Watch or the Ice Climbers were unique in Melee, then Brawl has some more for you. Pikmin and Olimar is one character that fights very differently as does the Pokemon Trainer. There honestly are some really well intacked characters. Overall the character roster is a mixed bag. There are some really unique characters but at the same time there are some characters that should have been worked on longer. The character roster number may not be the amount that some people dreamed about but it's a reasonable number and nowadays, there aren't many fighting games that go over 30 characters to begin with. The gameplay also is just as fun a Melee's before it. There are few changes in Brawl's gameplay but it isn't major and it is adjustable.
This game also has some excellent new stages. It has more stages than Melee, that's all that will be said. However that was expected anyways. This game also brings back some stages from Melee which really increases the stage number. There's one Melee stage from each Nintendo franchise. (except for Ice Climber and Game and Watch for obvious reasons) The game goes lengths and even implies an option to build your own stages. Building your own stage is very fun and there's plenty of unique ways to build one. You can go crazy and build a stage that is so hazardous. Overall the stage content will not disappoint.
In addition to the great stage selection, the developers went out of their way and added a ton of songs. There are multiple songs for each stage, some songs are unlockable. Honestly, the music is outstanding because there is so much of it. Imagine a stage with four songs to start with before you unlock more. Yes, there are that many songs. There are over one hundred songs in all. Some songs are remixed and sound great. Other songs are taken straight out of the game they came from. This can be seen as either a good or bad thing because the fact that it sounds like the original may please the person who loved the way the old song sounded maybe good but it's bad that the song sounds too old and outdated. There are several MIDI songs which is the bad news. While there are a few great orchestra songs, the MIDI numbers surpass them. This is a Nintendo game so nobody should really be surprised by that anyways. Nevertheless, there is so much music, it's hard to be disappointed in it unless you hate Nintendo songs. There's plenty of nostalgic songs no doubt. To talk more about the content, the game not only has way more trophies than Melee but there's even stickers. There's so much that almost every recognizable character from a Nintendo franchise is represented.
Now, finally it's time to analyze the one player mode. The great news is it surpasses Melee's greatly. Just about every one player mode from Melee is back in a whole new way. Everyone knows that classic mode would be included. What's most impressive about the one player mode is the new Subspace Emissary. That one player mode is unbelievably good. First of all, the mode has an actual story. There's a lot of cut scenes and it's sweet to see Nintendo characters team up. In this mode, you play through several different stages with several different characters. There's multiple difficulty levels too so you can abjust the difficulty. As you already know, there's co-op gameplay here. Co-op is added in other modes too which should have been brought up earlier. Anyways, the Subspace is a pretty lengthy one player mode that usually can't be beaten in one sitting unless you plan on playing the whole thing in one day. The mode is around 6-10 hours depending on you pace. Nevertheless, that's pretty long compared to Melee's one player adventure which can easily be beaten in under 20 minutes. Overall, the subspace is a great experience and it's fun to fight enemies with a party of Nintendo characters. It almost feels like an RPG. The stages are inspired from Melee's adventure since they are side scrolling and you fight lots of enemies. However, some people may find the enemies a little repetitive and too easy to fight which might be a bit disappointing. Honestly though, the subspace is a really exciting new addition.
Now to talk about the multiplayer, it's just as sweet as Melee's. Pretty much every multiplayer option from Melee is back and then some. However, this addition one ups Melee's by offering online. It's been many player's dream to fight other smashers around the world. However, is the online any good? The answer is it's good in someways and bad in others. To bring up the good news, the "with friends'"option lets you brawl anyway you want. You can fight with any set or rules. However, the very annoying friend codes are back and it will be hard to play with other players in "with friends" mode without knowing them in person. You'll probably have to find some people on the web and exchange your friend codes. The only enjoyable way to play online is through the "with friends" mode. This online mode also offers another feature called "with anyone". Unfortunately, it's not very good and extremely limited. You won't know who your fighting and you only fight in two minute matches. That's it. Because the time limit is so short, playing with anyone will get old very fast. The time is just too darn short. "With anyone" maybe fun the first ten to twenty times but after that, it may get tiring. Two minutes is just not enough to give you a real satisfying brawl. Try your best to play others in the "with friends" option because it's so much better. Overall though, it's just great that this game has online to begin with. It's a darn shame that the" with anyone" option is so limited because if you don't have friends, you won't be able to fully enjoy the online experience. The "with anyone" option is only good if you want a really quick Brawl.
Inconclusion, Brawl lives up to the name. It really went out of it's way by offering a lot of content. This game is one that you will be playing for several years, just like Melee. If you loved Melee, there's no reason for you not to enjoy Brawl. This game makes buying a Wii worth it.