Will you fight for or against your friends?
This time around Super Smash Bros. is holding a new type of story mode over the traditional Classic Mode that has been in the other Smash Bros. games. This little, but not really, story mode is called Sub Space Emissary and good gosh this can be such an annoying "story" to play through. The story here is that all the Nintendo idols are having...what else, friendly fight matches until some giant space shipe thing drops off a couple R.O.B robots and they unleash this...giant black hole thing. Besides the fact the whole story is meant to be nothing other than fanservice for the Nintendo gaming populous, this story makes no sense whatsoever. It feels as though you are given a new toy to play with but with no instruction as to how to have fun with it, so you just sit there and take whatever you get. That is what SSE feels like for most of the ride it takes you on.
As for the actual progression of the Emissary mode, it's basically a 2D sidescrolling platformer that is very annoying at times. Basically you go through different Nintendo themed worlds (Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem, etc) and...keep going..and going...and going. Till you get to the end of course and you have to go back through all the stages you just went through again to fight bosses in each area. All the backtracking SSE makes you do can get rather confusing and leaves you wondering why you're bothering to do this. That's right, because it's the easiest way to unlock the other half of the character roster. Overall, SSE is just an annoying backtracking estravaganza that feels really pointless in the end. SSE is like one of those little amuesment stunts you'd do when you were younger; like leaping off the top of a flight of stairs on a pillow, only to discover you'll only feel pain and regret afterward despite it's initial thrill.
The actual combat in Brawl hasn't really deviated too much from what the other two games did. The one big different is the Final Smash move that each character can pull off after they get a Smash Orb that appears in a stage like the other items in the game. Though, the Final Smashes range from completely awesome instant KO moves, to "Why am I bothering to use this move?" Some depend on your ability at being able to manipulate a high speed hedgehog who is going all super saiyan and running into everything. While some mearly require you to press B and sit back and watch. They are pretty to watch and are very satisfying once you manage to pull one off. There are also Assist Trophies which unleash a random Nintendo character who was unfortunate enough to not get put into Brawl as a playable character. They also range from, "Wootz! Awesome!" to "OMG get off the freaking screen!!" By "OMG get off the freaking screen." I mean you Mr. Rosetti and you Nintendog!!! These two items are the biggets additions to the gameplay in Brawl.
When you want to go online all you have to do is get on Nintendo WiFi connect. You can either Brawl with friends (providing you have their friend code of course) or "Brawl annonymously with people you don't know!" as the game puts it. Either way online plays out pretty much like a normal Brawl would if you were playing it with either COMPs or people sitting right next to you. Though you can play other game modes with people online like Home Run Batting. Really online feels like regular ole Super Smash Bros. just with people from all over the world and not just the ones sitting right next to you.
Unlocking most of the content is something that can also be quite annoying about Brawl. In order to make cooler looking stages you have to unlock the stuff in obscure ways. In order to unlock more characters you have to do the painful SSE. But the positive to unlocking these things is that you really feel a sense of achievement afterward and you are eager to try out what you just got. So the unlocking is something that you can either love or hate, but in the end after you unlock something you'll want to try it out right away. Believe me, there is A LOT to unlock in Brawl. You've basically got the OST for Brawl in the game, you just have to find all the disks to listen to the songs. There are trophies to place in a fancy diarama or little stickers to show off to your other Brawl buddies.
There are also numerous other gameplay modes to try out and grind into. Of course there are the challenge modes which display a certain objective you must complete. As you beat the challenges you unlock more and more and more challenges. The create your own stage mode is rather limiting at first, there isn't too much to "create" with what you initially get. There is a mode where you can fight specific bosses from the SSE, a surivial mode, an All-Star mode, and others that you can poke around with. Really, Brawl brings so much food to the table you'll be stuffed and on the verge of explosion once you're done with it all, which is one nice thing about the game; it delievers in its quanitity of goods.
The graphics for Brawl are very pretty. Each character is very well animated and brought to life in the graphically crazy brawls. There are definitely enough particle effects going on in each brawl to make you want to rub your eyes to re-evaluate where your characters is at. The Final Smashes are very nice to look at and the environments, in their full moving 3-D glory, are amazing to battle on. Well, the entire environment doesn't really move, it's more like the background is, but it's still beautiful. Final Destination is a stage that never seems to get old to look at.
Overall Brawl is a nice addition to the Wii's library of games. It holds what has made the franchise so popular and adds some more things to it, though not all the things it adds necessarily makes it better. For any Wii owner who wants to hear the good ole Kirby Fawlcun Pawwwnch, this is the game for you.