Smash Bros. Brawl Brings Out Them All

While most of the gaming community is still waiting to get their hands on Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Nintendo fans in the Los Angeles area were given the opportunity to play the game in a tournament at the Orpheum Theatre Saturday.

The game, whose release date was recently delayed from February 10 until March 9, attracted a large number of fans to the tournament. Nearly 500 people gathered in line in hopes of being one of the 256 contestants in the competition.

“[I’m here because of] all the hype Brawl’s been getting,” said David Poblete, a resident of Carson, a suburb of Los Angeles. “I just want a chance to play it.”

Poblete, like many others in attendance, read about the tournament online and decided to take advantage of the local event. However, for some attendees, such as Nick Beebe from Visalia, this event was not so local.

“I’ve always wanted to play Brawl,” Beebe said. “We had some errands to run in L.A. and my dad said I could come.”

Beebe was one of a rather large group of people who decided to bring along their Gamecube controllers on the off-chance that they would be given the opportunity to choose their preferred control method.

“Hopefully they’ll let me use it because I think I’m going to be rubbish with the classic controller.”

Though the line contained some of the biggest Nintendo fans in Southern California, there was no disputing who the most dedicated of the fans were. James Montagna and Michael Herbster, two friends that headed the long line, said that they had been there since 2 am.
“We’re pretty hardcore Nintendo fans,” Montagna said. “We attend all Nintendo events and show our support.”

After more than 12 hours of waiting, Montagna and Herbster were the first two participants once the tournament got underway. They were, along with the other 254 contestants, placed into one of 16 brackets. Each bracket was divided so that there were eight one-on-one matches being played at a time.

The rules of the tournament were set up with a lack of differentiation. Every match in the tournament had to be played on the Battlefield level, and unfortunately for attendees like Beebe, the classic controller was the only control method available. Though these restrictions may have been a slight disappointment initially, the participants did not seem to mind much once they got the chance to watch their fellow Nintendo fans actually play the game.

While eight matches took place at one time, one match was projected on a big screen, which served as entertainment as each attendee waited for their chance to experience Brawl for themselves.

The experience of being with a large group of Nintendo fans, watching such a highly anticipated game, was comparable to being at a sporting event. The audience would applaud wildly at a great move, laugh together when something unpredictable happened and even occasionally start chants to cheer on their favored character.

One of the more exciting battles to watch was in the fourth round when Montagna and Herbster were given the opportunity to compete against each other. Montagna, as Kirby, and Herbster, as Zelda, had the audience highly interested as they showed off some cool tactics in their heated match. In the end, Herbster ended up beating his pal in a sudden death showoff, much to the excitement of the crowd.

Watching everybody get a chance to play the game would have been fun enough, but the real reason to show up at the event was to get your own hands on Brawl. After sitting through the first 14 brackets worth of matches, I finally had my chance to do just that.

Prior to my first match, I was not sure whether to use one of the veteran characters that I knew well enough to compete with, or to get a real preview of what the finished product was like and use a fighter that is new to the series. Luckily, the person I played against in the first round was not sure what to do in this case either, so we decided to both play as the newcomer Captain Olimar to even the playing field.

Olimar is a unique character in that he does all his fighting with Pikmin. He throws the plantlike creature at his opponent and even uses them to grab other players. It’s an odd play style that I was not able to fully understand by the end of the match. Luckily, I won in sudden death, so I continued on in the competition.

Unfortunately, my experience with the game did not extend past the second round as I lost in yet another sudden death encounter. However, after playing for a total of over eight minutes, and watching many hours of matches, I felt like I had acquired a feel for what the game is like.

One concern I had prior to the tournament is that the game’s new Final Smash attacks would hurt the competition and flow of the matches. Every so often, a Smash Ball will appear onscreen and will result in a mad dash for the item. Whoever collects the Smash Ball will be able to perform a character-specific special move.

It was feared that these Final Smashes would be an unfair, immediate kill for whoever grabs it, but that is not the case. It is very possible to avoid most of these attacks. For example, some of the more powerful Final Smashes must be performed within close proximity to an opponent, so fleeing is always an option. Overall, the Final Smashes felt very balanced, despite many people’s concerns, and after experiencing many of them, I feel that it’s safe to say that they are an excellent addition to the series.

If my experience with the game is anything to go by, March 9 is getting to be a very exciting day for Nintendo fans across America.

Nintendo fans lucky enough to be living in the San Francisco, Massachusetts or New York areas will be able to participate in one of three tournaments still scheduled before Brawl’s release. Here is the link for Nintendo’s press release.

http://press.nintendo.com/articles.jsp?id=14627


View of The Orpheum's marquee from the street

James Montagna and Michael Herbster - Head of the line

Participants competing at the front of the theatre