Remember Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Gamecube? That was awesome. Having all your favorite Nintendo characters fighting to the death in various areas that stretched all over the Nintendo Universe was something to behold. The N64 one was were it started, and the gamecube one enhanced on it greatly. So when I heard that there was one going to be on the Wii, I was excited. Although it wouldn't have as many characters as the last one, this game would introduce more stages. This is more than a melee of fighters. This is Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Fighter line-up: We have the classics, ranging from Mario to bowser, link to Gannondorf, Fox to Wolf and Kirby to....kirby. The new entries feature Meta Knight, King Dedede, Toon Link, Wario and....Pit! Finally, Pit from Kid Icarus made into a full 3D character in a game with voice acting <3 On a side note, did you know that the voice done by Pit is the same person who did Luke Triton from the Professor Layton series? And did you know that that same person is a girl? Shook me too. But I digress. Other characters include Snake from the Solid Snake series, and Sonic from......Sonic the hedgehog. These two are more like special guests from Konami and Sega to appear in a Nintendo-characters only game, which is saying something about Sega seeing as they were rival companies once some 15 years ago. All these characters can be unlocked by two ways: through a lot of multiplayer matches or through the main story.
I normally play with the nun-chuck and Wii-mote together, but you can play with just the Wii-mote, or the gamecube controller, or even the classic controller if you so wish. The controls are a little different for each controller, so I'll try and generalizes it. There are three types of attacks, a normal attack, a special attack, and a smash attack. A normal attack is normally quick attack to build up damage. The more damage you have, the further you will be rocketed when you are hit. The special attack is an attack unique to the character you play as. These attacks can be applied to different directions to preform different stunts (normally up and a special attack is a way to stop you from falling off the screen), with can be applied to normal attacks as well. A smash attack is an attack that is charged up, and then released on the spot to throw your opponent off the screen. You can grab and throw things, such as items and opponents, and you can hold a shield to block an attack, but is limited for time. You can also taunt your opponent. Each character has three different taunts (apart from Snake, who only has the one). This system of fighting is interesting, and is far different to Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, where you need to press a series of buttons to activate a special move. In this game, you press a button, the move activates. I suppose you need this to happen, as the fights can get really intense, and the stages are huge compared to Street Fighter. Perfect timing in this game is critical.
The stages range from all over the Nintendo Universe, with a stage from Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog. Most of these are new, and some of them are from the melee game. You can even create your own stage. During a brawl, you might come across a sticker or CD. If you see a CD, then grab it straight away, as they are fairly rare. Stickers are much more common, but still get them while you can. With each CD you collect, you will unlock a new piece of music to listen to. This can be used to expand on the music you want to listen to during a fight, but only if that stage is connected with that music. This can be edited is the "My music" section in the options. The stickers are a different story. You can place them on the base of your character during the main story to enhance your characters abilities. This is various, and can range from healing more when eating to being more resistant to fire attacks to having a longer shield.
The main story itself is about saving the universe, in a nutshell. It starts off with Mario and Kirby fighting each other (you get to choose who you play as for this fight) for some tournament. After the fight, they shake hands untill the sky darkens with a purple smoke and these things known as Primids (just imagine sand-bags with stick shaped arms and menacing purple eyes, there are a lot of them in this game mode) appear in huge numbers. Princess Peach and Zelda get caged up by a Paraina Plant, and this is your first boss. Afterwards, you see a cloaked figure flies around and places a large round steel ball with a red cross on. And then.....awwwww, there are little R.O.B's that set up the bomb for it to destroy the place.....ah....and they did set the bomb off.....that's pretty dark. As you go on, you meet companions such as Pit and Yoshi and all the rest, and meet plot twists that are epic and boss battles that give the purest sense of nostalgia. The way the cut-scenes are done are a little cliche in terms of mood and how not one player speaks a word of English during them, but they give the sense of adventure, and the seriousness of the plot only heightens the aspect of running out of time, and the feeling the baddies might win. This creates a good story, and is one of the best cross over stories I have heard in a video game, even if no-one talks.
The attention to detail on the backgrounds are wonderful, almost like a work of art by a great artist. The only problem is that due to the intense battles you can have, you have very little (if not any) time to look at these backgrounds and admire them. You could have to plugin a second controller and play a brawl on your own to appreciate these graphics. The final Destination backgrounds are quite odd. You see a lovely stray sky, followed by a sunset....followed by going upside down? I didn't notice it for a while, and even then, I had to take some pictures during the fight to admire the sea and the lighting effects.
The music has several different types in, ranging from every game Nintendo created that includes that character in the game. Several of the best pieces of music Nintendo created are here, like the Star Fox theme, the Temple theme off Zelda II, and the Pokemon theme (which makes a pretty good piece of music when playing a beat 'em up). Apart from that, they also including the music in Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog. What I love about this is that most of my favorites are here, Open your Heart (the original), Live and Learn, What I'm Made of, it's all here, as well as that catchy Green Hill Zone (not as fitting to a fight, but who can argue the awesomeness of it?). Apart from music that was already created, it has some original music in, like the theme. Just like One Winged Angel, the lyrics are in Latin.
This has to be one of the greatest multi-player games I have ever played....well, at least on the Wii. It includes everything, intense battles, ways of being dastardly to your opponent, various items that could help or hinder you, or could just be used as a laugh, different game modes for different settings.....Anyone who has played this game will know that two good players can battle and both have a laugh but at the same time be very serious. The items you can use are very various, even including ones that are outside the Nintendo Universe, yet is still a part of it. The Super Scope for the SNES is used in this game, for example. Other favorites of mine are Mr Saturn (pwwahhhhhh!), Assist trophy, Pokeballs and the Smash Ball. Everything else I use to my advantage as I go by (basically, an item hog =P). I often use the Pokeballs to make some pictures. I got some pretty good pictures this way, such as Kyogre trying to give Groudon a bath =D
Overall, I give this game a 9.3/10 The sheer joy of multi-player makes it a great game to play even to this day. Sure, once you unlock everything and such, it gets a little boring....on your own that is. You can have endless amounts of fun with your friends by playing this game, and even includes an online mode, where you can fight other players (in real time, might I add, not just a CPU calculating their skills by how many KO's they got or something like that). If you are as a big a Nintendo fan as I, then this game will overwhelm you with nostalgia.
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