Super Smash Brothers Brawl
By Will Bartos
Wednesday. May 14, 5:46 PM
The most anticipated title of 2008 on the Wii doesn’t disappoint.

Consider this: your company released only two real games in a particular series within three years, and already, you have a pedigree. It will be another seven years before another game within the series is released, and everybody wants to have their input. The amount of time going into it has to be well spent, and it had better be perfect or exceed perfection upon launch. No, this isn’t Half-Life, this is Super Smash Brothers. With only one game on each main console since the N64, the Wii version has a lot to live up to.

Thankfully, it does live up to its reputation. Super Smash Brothers Brawl is the ultimate fan service game, even with its few flaws.

Super Smash Brothers Brawl is the biggest undertaking for the series to date. It has an unbelievable 35 characters when fully unlocked, and they come from all sorts of games. The usual crowd is back, along with most of the crew from Melee. Gone are Roy and Mewtwo, but the additional characters more than outweigh the losses. Appearances from more current Stateside releases like Ike from Fire Emblem, as well as somewhat obscure titles that never made it past Japan like Lucas from Mother 3, appear in Brawl. You know that Nintendo knows its history when the original Robotic Operating Buddy is a playable character. Nintendo characters (and in one case, an accessory) aren’t the only ones in the fray, as Konami’s Solid Snake from the Metal Gear series and Sega’s fastest hedgehog in the world, Sonic, both make appearances as playable characters. Characters aren’t limited to playable appearances, though. Assist trophies appear randomly in battles, and much like the pokéballs, summon a random character from a random game. Characters include Grey Fox from Metal Gear Solid, soldiers and a tank from Advance Wars, Lyn from Fire Emblem, Shadow the Hedgehog from Sonic Adventure 2, Saki from Sin and Punishment, and Little Mac from Punch-Out!! (just to name a few) all make appearances to help in the chaos. All the items are back also, from hammers to ray guns to beam swords. The Final Smash Ball is one of the better additions, but this one you don’t grab: you have to hit it a number of times in order to be able to use it, then hit the B button and watch the finish!

Unfortunately, all the stuff that frustrated me in Melee all came rushing back after several different brawls. Anyone trying to get characters quickly through the group brawls will be attempting to do the same 1-stock 300% flower-on-head special battle over and over to try and unlock everyone. This, for me, gets boring after a while, and doesn’t really add to the gameplay. But this is a very minor gripe, as there are plenty of diversions to keep anyone interested.

The Subspace Emissary is Nintendo’s answer to a single-player campaign mode for the series. It’s more like a side scroller with Smash elements, similar to some of the levels in Adventure mode in Melee. While some people might pass this off as a diversion from massive multiplayer beatings, it’s actually quite fun to watch. The CG is the real star of the single player campaign, and makes for an entertaining watch when finished. It also makes the disc massive: this is the first Nintendo Wii game that is a dual-layer disc. This really is a testament to Nintendo’s optimization skills, requiring the use of up to nine gigs of space for video.

Coins also play a big part in the game, much like they did in Melee. However, instead of trying to buy new trophies out of a machine, Brawl puts you in front of a small arcade-like coin-shooting game. All coins are ammo, and you get to shoot what flies across the table, including more trophies and stickers. While you can’t unlock all the trophies, the stickers come in handy: not just as a collection item, but also as a power-up you can put on a character for the Subspace Emissary. The usual sorts of distractions are also there, such as All-Star Mode, Home Run Contest, Multi-Man Melee, and Break the Targets.

But why will most people buy Super Smash Brothers Brawl? It’s certainly not to enjoy unlocking characters and backgrounds, or get all the trophies, stickers, and challenges, or to watch small movies… oh no. It’s to beat the living hell out of anyone that comes over to the house. And Brawl finally adds the one thing that was missing from Melee: online play. Through Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection, Brawl allows you to play anyone online or even spectate matches and bet coins on who will win... with a few caveats. Full online play with friends requires the use of those friend codes specific to each game. Now, while this isn’t a really a hassle, this does require you to send your friend code to everyone else, and is nowhere as streamlined as Xbox Live. You can also play with anyone, but no one is identifiable by any means, and there isn’t a use of taunts, either. Brawl doesn’t support any form of communication save for four text prompts. Smart players will end up using Xbox Live as their communication source for voice chat, or possibly even a PSP Slim with Skype or a laptop. This would have been a prime opportunity for Brawl to compete on a heavy online level… perhaps the next iteration will have it.

There’s one other flaw, though, and it’s not quite a flaw. Super Smash Brothers Brawl allows you to use four types of control: the remote by itself on its side, the remote with the nunchuk, the Wii classic controller, and the Game Cube controller. Now, I’ve tested three of the four controls (I don’t even want to touch the remote by itself), and, much like everyone else, I’ve come to the conclusion that the best way to play the game is with the Game Cube controller. That’s right: Brawl actually denigrates the default controllers on the system it’s supposed to sell! So it’s really best if you have a bunch of Wavebirds for full wireless control. I really do see Nintendo’s website getting bombarded with orders for Game Cube controllers and Wavebirds. When the main guy behind Super Smash Brothers Brawl himself says that the best controller to use is the one for the Game Cube, you’d better believe it.

So despite a not-fully fleshed out online experience, some load times, and the fact that the best controller isn’t the one that comes with the system, Super Smash Brothers Brawl really is the best game on the Wii. Hell, even the gripes I just mentioned are forgotten completely as soon as you get to fighting. With a ton of options, plenty of diversions, and online incorporation, this game really is the ultimate fan service to Nintendo fans... at least, until the next iteration.

Will Bartos

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