Super Smash Brothers Brawl
The holy grail of Nintendo fighters is here.
By Matt Kelly
I always consider fighters a real niche genre. It's not that they're a huge under seller, it's just that there's only room for one per platform. On the Playstation front you've got Tekken, Xbox gets the boob bouncing Dead Or Alive series and Nintendo has Super Smash Brothers. Street Fighter is on its way back but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. None of these games have ever had huge revisions, and even the minor changes can result in serious fan revolt, hence why it's still pretty easy to find a Tekken 3 arcade machine after five other releases in the series. But if you fall into the category of fighter genre player who gets angsty when the game changes, then hands down Super Smash Brothers Brawl is one of the best games you're going to play this year. On the flip side of that, if you haven't been a fan of Smash Brothers in the past, don't expect to fall in love with it now.
Straight up, the core gameplay is almost identical to previous incarnations but that's not a bad thing. If you're expecting to get blown away by brand new gameplay, don't. Instead what you're going to find is one of the most refined, balanced entries into the fighting genre. It's got a slew of new features but it is still a fighter plain and simple. If somehow you've missed the series success up until now, the game revolves around pitting Nintendo's huge line up of characters against each other in combat. Your goal, rather than beating them down, is to smash them clear off the screen. This isn't just a matter of pulling some super combo straight out the gate (though that can help), as all fighters have a damage meter. Do more damage to them and they become more prone to being smashed off the screen. When the first game hit for the Nintendo 64 it was a pretty massive departure from the flat landscape, life meter, combo heavy fighters to date, but with Super Smash Brothers Brawl the concept has been refined and just really balanced. That's something I can't stress enough, Brawl is simply a really solid game.
In terms of the absolute core gameplay, probably the biggest changes are in the control front and also a bit on the presentation side of things. Characters have been tweaked with moves and also additions to the roster have come along, but the essence of what makes the game works ls largely unchanged. The general fight presentation has been cleared up a bit as well from melee, mainly through use of effects making it a bit more clear whats going on for new comers. On the control front, movement controls have been toned down slightly from Melee's somewhat hectic jittery reactiveness. You're gonna find movement slightly sluggish but within about 30 minutes of play any noticeable impact will be gone from your mind. And of course there's the varied control schemes, which allows you to play with either the Wii Remote, Wii Remote+Nunchuck, Gamecube pad, or classic controller. If that wasn't enough for you, you can actually customize every control with the game to suit your preferred button map scheme. Gamecube and Classic Controller pads felt the best suited at the end of the day, though the Wii Remote only scheme does have some weight to it. It's really simple and intuitive, and is great to anyone who's picking up the game for the first time. If you are an intense brawler though, you'll find yourself moving to something more traditional fairly quickly. Wii Remote + Nunchuck however just didn't work for us, I couldn't quite put my finger on why but it just felt really unnatural.
So onto characters, the selection is just huge and most of them manage to stay pretty unique. A few suffer from model swap syndrome such as Fox, Falco and Wolf which is a bit disappointing but then you've also got characters that bring variation like Sonic who is a really fast paced character. And then of course there's Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid, who was really pleasant to see young and healthy and not sticking a gun in his mouth after all the MGS4 teaser previews. What's really great about Brawl and all of the series is the accessibility and the skill range with all the characters. Characters do follow a kind of set basic control scheme and some basic moves, but beyond that it becomes a case of easy to learn, hard to master combat. There's no one character you're going to learn to play over night, and no one character that can take out everyone via button mashing. Instead what you have is a really balanced playing field that is really quick to get into, but doesn't mean hard core players are going to have nothing on you.
There is of course the new element of Final Smashes which aren't game changing but they do lead to some insanely hectic moments. Every so often a smash ball will float through the screen and with a couple of attacks to it you'll be able to unleash your characters ultimate attack move. The moves are a mixed bag affair in terms of coolness but balancing wise they can all swing a game and all can be recovered from. These play perfectly into the overall design of the Smash Brothers series because you can't directly kill an opponent with them, but rather just damage them heavily (leading to being smashed off the stage). If anything they're there to give you an unexpected edge to swing the game one way or another, but they don't decide the result.
Stages have been mixed up a little bit, and while it's all still 2D platform stages inspired by game locations, the interactivity has been raised a lot. You'll find stages that transition between various areas either by falling apart, transforming or just flying off. And despite everything flying around they're still great battlefields which keep you on your toes. The only real one that stuck out as an issue was New Pork City, the largest stage in the game. When the camera is fully pulled out to take in the whole stage, it becomes much more of an exercise in careful platform play rather than any kind of fighter. But then you've got really stages with new designs like WarioWare which will randomly shove all the characters into a situation like the game where you all have to perform a task like get out the rain. Do it and you'll score a power up. Pictochat was another one I quite liked which randomly drew objects to battle on. If it had any realism though its a safe bet everything drawn would have been a wang. What's great about Smash Brothers stage design is they do allow for real personal flare in how you play. It's not a flat infinite plain, instead the stages are interactive and varied and really allow you to play them out in your own way. The more action based stages are pretty predictable but it makes for a nice change to the formula.
See, it's right about now a normal review will come to a halt and we'll score it, but there is so much content in the game it's insane. So onwards!
Online multiplayer is probably the biggest additional to what you'll spend your time on in Brawl. Essentially anything that can be done in offline multiplayer and can be done online. This can be anywhere from character and stage select to damage handicaps, item drops, and a whole wide array of statistical changes. It still uses the shonky friend code system and the only kind of communication you'll be doing is a fireball to the face which is no doubt going to turn some people off. If you go for a random automatch you'll fight with a few other people who's names we'll never be revealed to you, and then chances are you'll never see them again, which is a really shame because Smash Brothers players can be really competitive! To further throw salt in the wound, there's no online rankings and stats tracking. As far as playing with friends go, it's great, it does exactly what it promises to do, and that is to allow you to play multiplayer like you would if they were there. The automatiching does that too but not even being able to track where you stand with the world is a pain. Just in a moment of self promotion, no doubt web based tools are going to start popping up on mass to make up for this, like the MyWii SSBB mini site. On the pros of it though, the game was very lag free and was as fluid as playing a local game. If you love your Brawl and don't mind the lack of social or ranking options, then you're going to be brawling for a long time to come.
Then you've got Subspace Emissary which is a real mix bag affair. Straight up, the game doesn't actually need it, and the fact its in there is a real bonus. Old school Nintendo fans will find a ride of nostalgia as each character get his or her (or it's) spotlight moment. Arguably the highlight is the cinematics which are really cool, and great to watch. It's really fun to see your favourite character burst out onto screen and start handing asses back to the enemy. As far as the plot goes, it seems to have been more dictated by what characters look good together rather than any other kind of logic. There is a story, but you'll be staying for the characters rather than what happens next. The gameplay itself is a bit clunky. It's certainly more varied and interesting than Melee's adventure mode ever was but it's still taking compact area fight controls and turning them into a platformer, which is really hit and miss. If you think of it as a multiman match with everyone spread out and lots of walking and jumping, you get the idea. However Subspace does stay true to what seems like Brawl's internal philosophy of doing things your own way. Subspace is an alternative way to unlock characters in the game, so if you're getting sick of straight fights or your current roster, give Subspace a go. The only other thing we'd really pick on is when going from cut scene to actual gameplay, the game crunches with a load time. It doesn't kill the adventure, but at first I honestly thought I was falling victim to the dual layer problems going around a while back.
Just on the other content you can expect, the unlockable system is back in full force, this time with music, trophies, stickers, levels and all sorts of other stuff. In game assist trophies only add to the insane amount of characters, who will pop up on screen to aid you for a few seconds and then vanish again. Events are also in, which are basically mini games or set battle scenarios which you can work through on various difficulty. There is a few other things that we have mentioned today but literally, Brawl is packed full of content!
Frame rate isn't something I normally get too angsty about but when you see fluid frame rates in action it's really great. Brawl does that at 60FPS and full 480P wide screen support. The graphical level has been raised from Melee but only so far, but of course the pay off is the awesome frame rate, which is a fast paced game like Brawl is more important than being able to zoom in up Peach's skirt and see the brand of her nickers. All the character animation is great (though a tad physics defying from time to time, that's the charm right?) and the environment are easy on the eyes. There's been a lot of graphical cheats to make them all work and do what they do, but the result is what counts and it's so good to look at.
Sound is the only thing we're scoring 10/10 on today, and it can be summed up in one word. Soundtrack. While Nintendo may still be leaning in the direction for synthesized music for most of its titles, within Brawl you'll find a total of 269 tracks throughout the game (and that's after we nixed everything that was under a minute looping), most of which are unlockable for battle and the vast majority have been remixed or performed just for the game. While some tracks are straight copies from the source material (Twilight Princess: Hyrule Field for example) you've got others which have never had a orchestrated performance before (some of the Kirby music is awesome!). And in between those two extremes you've got a slew of remixes of new and old tunes to give them a real edge. It is a complete nostalgic ride for your ears and sits above The World Ends With You for Nintendo DS as one of the best, varied video game soundtracks ever produced.
Summary:
So I guess what it all comes down to though is with all these features and content is the game worth getting. The short answer is yes with a but. At the end of the day, Brawl is still a fighter. It's a really good fighter, and probably one of the best ever produced in the genre. It's absolutely feature packed and really balanced. But if fighters don't do it for you chances Brawl won't either. With fighter fans in mind however, this is probably one of the best packages to ever come out in the genre. You've got good offline and online play, enough customization that you can tweak it to your play style, insane amounts of unlockable content, mini game events, and a nicely presented adventure mode. Brawl is real value as for as content goes and it's something that will probably get scratched to death before you truly shelve it.
Gameplay - 9.5
Brawl is still ultimately a multiplayer game and the online is the win here. Singe player is still as good as ever with a mix bag adventure mode if you're up for a distraction.
Graphics - 9.0
Subspace cut scenes are great, and the frame rate for everything else is fantastic. The whole game leans on the under detailed side but its a welcome sacrifice for the fluid speed.
Sound - 10
Best. Soundtrack. Ever. Or just about anyway. SFX work is great but the soundtrack is the score getter here.
Replay - 9.5
Online + unlockables + character roster + the 20 billion other things in this game = replay, and lots of it.
Overall - 9.5
Brawl is a fighter and if you like fighters, Brawl is like the holy grail.