Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Review

Some of you readers may have been wondering when I planned on posting the review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl that I have been teasing you with since the inception of this blog. Well, here it is. Though this piece of literary brilliance is, admittedly, late in coming, I have a good excuse: I’ve been having far too much fun with the game to pull myself away long enough to write an article about it.

For Nintendo fans, a huge part of Brawl’s fun is discovering every bit of fan-service that the game has to offer. Every facet of the game is oozing with nostalgia, and finding every bit of Nintendo history hiding on the disc can quickly become an obsession. As in Brawl’s predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Melee, there are over 500 trophies to collect, each including a descriptive paragraph detailing many of the characters from the company’s rich history. However, the collectibles do not stop there. During play you can also find or unlock various music discs.

Each disc unlocks a new musical track from almost all of Nintendo’s big hits, and even some you may have never heard before. This music ranges from a medley of classic NES game songs to fully orchestrated versions of more modern music. Making these tracks even more desirable is the customization that they offer. As your song collection grows, you can change the rate of frequency in which the songs play within the levels, allowing you to hear your favorites often and your least favorites never.

Rounding out the list of new collectibles are over 700 stickers, each containing promotional artwork for even the most obscure Nintendo titles.

It may seem odd that I spent the first 275 words of my review detailing the game’s many collectibles without even mentioning how the game plays, but there is a reason for this. Brawl feels as if its primary mission is to give a giant high-five to the Nintendo enthusiasts around the world. Everything from said collectibles to some very special unlockable characters and stages do just that. Heck, the game even includes a list of every Nintendo published game release.

However, what makes Smash Bros. Brawl truly special is that even without a single recognizable Nintendo character, it would still be one of the most fun gaming experiences available on any console.

The core experience of playing Brawl is very similar to that of Melee. Two to four characters square off in a frantic battle with controls that are simple enough for most “expanded audience” players to understand, but with enough depth for the more experienced gamers to develop really complex strategies. Of course, even the best strategies aren’t of much help when a Nintendog pops out of an assist trophy - which makes a character appear that can either help or hinder your gameplay - and blocks your view of the screen.

This unpredictable nature is what makes Smash Bros. such a special series. It manages to take the best of both fighting and party games and mesh them together to create a game that can even the playing field for all players, without hurting the integrity of more hardcore matches. Brawl continues this tradition and improves upon it with fun new items, such as final smashes - which allow a player to unleash a character-specific finishing move - and the aforementioned assist trophies, as well as interesting new levels like the Wario Ware stage, in which miniature challenges will appear and reward success with an upgrade. There is nothing quite like fighting a frantic battle and witnessing everyone stop moving because a “red light, green light” style challenge appears.

While the hallmark of Smash Bros. has always been hectic matches with a group of friends, fans of single-player experiences will find a great deal of content to keep them satisfied for quite some time. The most satisfying single-player mode is the Subspace Emissary, a side-scrolling adventure featuring almost all of the game’s characters. This is a fairly lengthy quest that features fun boss fights and a huge collection of cinemas.

Of course, if you aren’t in the mood for a story mode, the Brawl still has plenty to offer solitary gamers. The Event mode tasks players with completing a match under specific conditions, such as defeating 50 enemies in a set time frame. Plus, players could try to beat their best score on one of the target tests, where the objective is to hit all the targets within an obstacle course. Also, lonely gamers can get their multi-player kicks by playing friends or strangers in online matches. Clearly there is a variety of ways to play Brawl, and I haven’t even mentioned half of the modes (both for space and to prevent spoilers).

This abundance of ways to play is a large reason why the game is so fun. It allows you to play the way you want to, and before you can tire of one mode, you are off enjoying the next. No two gamers are likely to play exactly the same way. In my first five hours of Brawl, I played through the Classic mode with one character, challenged the target test with a few characters, played through a couple of levels in the Subspace Emissary, played some on-line battles, spent some time enjoying the various trophies and music tracks I had unlocked, then played through the Classic mode with a different character before finishing off with a half hour of the Event mode. When my friend came over to partake in some multi-player battles, I discovered that he had spent most of his time working through the Subspace Emissary. We represented two very different, but ultimately very rewarding, ways of playing Brawl.

Fortunately, Brawl does not have any major problems. However, when playing a game as thoroughly as this game encourages, you are bound to find some issues with it. For one, controls are the same in regular battles as they are in the Subspace Emissary, and they are not as tight as they could have been had they been designed for a platforming game. Also, it would have been nice if each character had an individual target test obstacle to complete, as it was in Melee, rather than the five different courses for all the characters to share. And, of course, fans of Playstation 3 and Xbox 360’s online services will be disappointed with Brawl’s limited online matches.

While Brawl would have greatly benefited from addressing these issues, it is difficult to fault the game for a few nitpicky problems. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a game of great ambition that succeeds on almost every level. It may have taken more than six years, but Nintendo has finally given its fans a reason to stop playing Melee.

Score: 10/10