Review: Super Smash Bros Brawl

Fighting games can really only evolve so far. In the end, you can't avoid the fact that you're just hitting each other until one person dies. That said, Smash Bros Brawl still feels like an incredibly deep, layered and intensely competitive addition to the genre.

..gameplay..

The Smash Bros series works like this: When a match starts, everyone's health is at 0%, as you take damage, your percentage goes up. The higher your percentage, the farther you'll fly when you're hit. If you get knocked off the screen, you lose a life. What makes it great though is that there's no combos to learn - press a direction on the stick and either A or B and you're doing a special move, so newbies can jump in and start doing cool stuff. But the more you play you realize that there are very minute and subtle things you can do to give yourself a huge edge.

Each character has their own nuances and anomalies. Some are very strong, but super slow. Some can recover great distances to avoid death time and time again, while others may be rock solid damage sponges. Some characters are extremely easy to use while others may seem impossible (like Ice Climbers) but every character, in the hands of someone who can use them properly, has the potential to be a walking death machine. That balance is what's great about the game.

In Brawl, Nintendo added a heap of new characters, all new levels, and new items. However, the biggest game-changer to the time tested Smash system was the addition of the Smash Ball.

Smash Ball.

For most characters, getting this coveted item will give them the ability to unleash their Final Smash - a devastating move that can take out one or all characters on the screen. The genius of this item is that you can't just touch it and activate your Final Smash, you have to attack it, and every time it appears it takes a different amount of hits to activate it. So when it shows up, its a mad dash to get this thing and it really changes the way the game is played.

The main attraction in Brawl is obviously the 4-player mayhem of fighting your buddies. However, Stadium Events, Classic Mode and Training Mode all return for you to enjoy the game on your own, but they also added a mode called "Subspace Emissary" which is a full fledged, side scrolling single player adventure. It's a nice addition, but in the end, its not very compelling. Bland story, simplistic level design and while the moves each character have are great for fighting, they feel clunky in side scrolling stages.

Ah. Simplicity.

On a personal note, I'd like to do a quick comparison between Brawl and the N64 original. Obviously the games have to grow with each iteration, but while I was training for the tournament, I played the original game on N64 and found it so much simpler - in a good way. A full cast of only ten characters, simple stages, time tested items - it's just perfect. There isn't a pixel wasted in the entire game. Going back to Brawl felt like a bloated mess of A.D.D. - so much was happening. Stages were moving and actively attacking you, the Smash Ball makes the game almost completely different, extra moves were added to every character - it's just a little too much. Between the three games in the series, I think the utter simplicity of the N64 version wins out and makes it the best of the bunch.

 ..presentation..

One thing that cannot be argued is the quality of the presentation. This is not only one of the best looking and sounding games on the Wii, it runs at a constant 60 frames per second - vital to a fighting game where two pixels makes the difference between life and death. Tech stuff aside, this game really is gorgeous and in fact, wouldn't look out of place on an XBOX 360 or PS3. It makes you wonder why so few games on the Wii were capable of this level of polish. 

The music is also phenomenal - offering hundreds of remastered tracks from Nintendo's rich history, all fully orchestrated and beautifully executed. And if you don't like a song, there are customization sliders to allow you to choose which pieces of music you hear on which stage - it even lets you customize the main menu screen. 

Smash Bros Brawl is really the ultimate love letter to Nintendo fans. Including music, levels, characters and unlockables that reach back far into the history of the company, even before they made video games. If you loved Nintendo as a kid, and can handle a quick paced fighting game, you owe it to yourself to invest a month of your life into this game. Even if the first one was better.