"Brawl - The best of Nintendo?"

The Wii launched back in late 2006 and many great games have been released on it such as: Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Mario Strikers Charged, and Super Paper Mario among other fabulous games. Though while these were highly anticipated they don't match up to the amount of hype that a particular fighting game has produced for Nintendo. That game is Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

It was announced around early 2006 under the codename “Super Smash Bros. Revolution” to match up with the Wii's codename “Revolution”. Brawl has held the spotlight of Nintendo fans for those 2 years and – finally – it is out. Er..well..will be come Sunday. Though its out in Japan. So…did Brawl live up to expectations or did it fall short?

Playable Characters:

Smash Bros. is a series where Nintendo's biggest faces meet to square off in a friendly fight. The series debuted on the Nintendo 64 with 12 characters and gained more on Melee and again, even more on Brawl. What characters make the cut is crucial to the success of the game, as people will want to play with their favorite characters. The playable characters are amazing. They range from Mario (of course) to R.O.B to Sonic and so many faces. You've got 35 characters to choose from. This is the complete roster. Warning spoilers will happen. *video clip plays*

Selecting a character to use may be a bit difficult, but that is because the characters themselves are so incredible. You may end up “maining” 5 or more characters. We do say good-bye to some characters that were in the previous installment but the new additions more than make up for it. The playable character roster is very unique and to say it is bad is ignorance.

Many fan favorites didn't make the cut – I wanted Paper Mario, but he didn't make it – but you'll forget that and begin using other characters and you'll have a blast.

Stages:
Stages are another thing that players focus a lot of attention on. What elements do said stages have? Are they unique? Is it easy or hard to fight on this stage? Those are but a few questions people ask themselves when selecting a stage for their fights.

Brawl's stages never cease to amaze me. We got a track from Mario Kart, a castle from Fire Emblem, and so many other stages that are interesting to fight on. Don't like the stages available? Well, then, go make your own. And you can!

Brawl has a bonus feature called ‘Stage Builder' in which you can design your own stage to use for your brawls. You can even send your creations in to Nintendo via Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. Each day Nintendo will choose one stage and send it to all Brawl owners' Wiis so your creation could be used by someone in Japan or half-way across the country.

And the most popular stage – Final Destination – is back. This stage offers no real terrain. It is flat, no traps or anything. It may seem “Dull” and “boring” but to competitive players who join and host many tournaments, there is no better stage to fight one. It truly allows the players to show their skill in 1-on-1 combat. No interruptions and you win by skill. Like in this clip I'm about to show you that demonstrates why it is such a good stage. *video clip plays*

Items:

Items play a big role in Smash Bros. and that role only gets bigger in Brawl. In Brawl the new items “Smash Ball” and “Assist Trophies” make their debut. These items can aide or hurt a player at any given time.

The item “Smash Ball” allows for a character to use a special attack called a “Final Smash”. This is the characters strongest attack and they can easily turn the tide of the battle if used correctly. Not all characters have the same final smash though, they each have a different one that is unique to them or their game series. This is another clip of Brawl that shows off some of the very best final smashes that characters have. *video clip plays*

As you can see these attacks are very deadly and if you can avoid them, do so. Some are easy to dodge whilst some are not. Final Smashes are part of what sets Brawl apart from other fighting-genre games.

And we got two other groups of items that I must briefly describe. Those are “Poke Balls” and “Assist Trophies”. Assist Trophies are capsules that contain a non-playable character from a Nintendo game that attacks one or more characters. The characters that can appears as Assist Trophies can range from the mayor of Sims to Shadow the Hedgehog. There are many unique Assist Trophies.

Poke Balls are basically the same except – as the name would imply – they contain Pokemon. These Pokemon can be weak common Pokemon to super strong legendary Pokemon. Poke Balls add a new way of playing Smash Bros. Basically it's a Pokemon Battle where you select the Pokemon Stadium stage and set the only item to appear as Poke Ball and at very high setting then you and your opponent (only two players can compete) stand on opposite sides of the field and chuck poke balls at the opponent and let the Pokemon do the killing.

Overall items in Brawl are very amazing can be a blast to use. And as Sakurai – the Smash Bros. creator – says, “Real men use items”.

Online Play / Co-Op:

Online play is a dominant factor in video games these days. Basically you connect to the internet through your WiFi capable USB modem and can play with your friends who may live in a different state or even a different country. Brawl is the first in the Smash Bros. series to utilize such a feature.

Brawl uses it for beating target tests, events, and just having a friendly brawl with a friend or a stranger. It is a fun feature and if you're stuck can get you out of a tight spot in an event or such. This is sure to be used by many players whether it be to get help, fight, or just play around together there are many uses to the online capability of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Adventure Mode (Subspace Emissary):

The last feature in Brawl I'd like to review and critique is its adventure mode; The Subspace Emissary. This adventure mode could sell games on its own, as it is very in-depth and of good length (10~ hrs of play). But Sakurai threw it in as an added bonus feature, which makes Brawl all that much sweeter.

The Subspace Emissary story combines the worlds of all the playable characters and makes each character interact with each other. This is one of the most anticipated parts of Brawl and rightfully so. While I may not have played it myself yet, the videos (I'll provide a short clip of it) do show just how good it is.

Nothing in it feels half-baked at all. The enemies are unique to Brawl (Except for some bosses that make appearances from other franchises) and they are very well made. They can put up one heck of a fight. This is no mini-game that you can beat in 5 minutes. No, you'll spend hours upon hours just to beat it once.

Luckily, there is a save option for the Subspace Emissary so that you don't lose your progress if you wish to go to another part of Brawl or if you must turn the game off for a while. It may take weeks of play to beat Subspace Emissary. Though it is worth it as when you beat it you can unlock many other bonus characters and stages.

Score out of ten:

And that is Super Smash Bros. Brawl. One of the most unique fighting games to ever be created for any system. Besting it will be hard for all companies. While the roster may not be anyone's dream roster and stages may seem stupid and ridiculous, you'll get used to it. There's so much more to Brawl that I didn't discuss but that I didn't get to talk about as I'm eating up enough time for this speech. I'll go more in-depth with gameplay and storyline in the demonstration speech.

Brawl gets a 9.5/10 from me. It is well worth the money you spend on it, as so much about the game is worth it alone. If you own a Wii then I highly suggest you pick-up a copy of Brawl on Sunday. GameStop would be a good place to go since on Saturday they're holding a midnight launch tournament for the game. I'll be there…how about you?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/03/08

Game Release: Dairantou Smash Brothers X (JP, 01/31/08)