Super Smash Brothers Brawl is an extremely fun game.  Playing as a ton of
famous video game characters fighting to the grim bitter end, what’s
not to love? Plus, it’s the only way anyone outside Japan can legally
play as Lucas. So, there’s always that. But with all this hype for the
newest Smash Brothers coming out, let’s look back at the old new
one, Brawl.



Graphics: 8/10

The graphics here are great! There are definitely a few stages that
just show off how great the game can look (Rumble Falls, Battlefield,
and Bridge of Eldin come to mind...). They paid good attention to the
characters, and the stages. You can see Mario’s (oddly hyper realistic) denim, the stitching on
Link’s hat, and Waluigi’s pure awesomeness (As an assist trophy). But,
let’s be honest, that bland, wide-open desert stage  in adventure mode could have looked better.


Sound: 10/10

This game has a GREAT soundtrack! There are lots of songs from each
series that the characters are from, along with a few songs from Smash
Brothers Melee. And a few that have nothing to do with any of the
characters. Mainly the Famicom tracks. You’d think they would turn it to
NES, but a few of the songs from Famicom Melody weren’t released in the
US. Along with all the other music R.O.B uses…

All the music goes above and beyond what you would expect. And they
all are in a special section for you to listen to, if you’re like me and
think Mario and Fox’s yelps of pain kind of distract from the pretty
music.



Addictiveness: 8/10

This game can be extremely addicting; whether you like story mode,
(which sadly won’t be coming back in 4…) or if you have a few friends to
play with. Playing with other people in my opinion is what makes this
game so addicting. Playing solo, I usually get bored pretty fast and
just listen to music, or look at trophies. In multiplayer, you can
easily play for multiple hours with no problem.



Story: 7/10

The normal multiplayer game has no story whatsoever. But there is an
entire story mode you can play. The story for Story Mode is…Mario and
Kirby have secretly been arena fighters, like the gladiators of yore,
but with a twist. When you are “killed”, although defeated is a better
term, you turn into a trophy. If someone touches the bottom of the
trophy, you pop out perfectly fine. After Mario (Or Kirby, depending on
who you pick) defeats Kirby (or Mario) they shake hands. But, not all is
well with the world. The sky turns red, and The Halberd carpet-bombs
the arena with shadow bugs. Which turn into the basic mooks of the
Subspace Army, Primids.
After taking down the Primids and Peety Piranha with the help of Zelda
and Peach. Mario and Kirby are confronted with a subspace bomb (Think a
nuke, only it makes large areas implode into another dimension) and
Wario. Wario at some point decided to work for the Subspace Army, and
shoots either princess with a Trophy Gun. He kidnaps them, and runs off.
This sends Mario and Kirby off on a grand adventure full of meeting
friends, and fighting…Very odd looking baddies. But on this grand
adventure, only three levels are from games are at least based on
locations the characters are from: Skyworld, where you first play as
Pit, The Jungle where you play as Donkey and Diddy Kong, and The Ruined
Zoo where you play as Ness, Lucas, and the Pokemon Trainer. Well, The
Ruined Zoo is technically a section of Mother, which didn’t have Ness,
Lucas, Porky, or Pokemon.



The story itself isn’t too great, but seeing how the characters work
together, and how they respond to situations (extremely in-character no
less) is what makes it so good.



Depth: 8/10

This game has the most of everything in the series so far. It has
the most: fighters, trophies, items, stages, music, stickers and more.
Although there is a lot of stuff, it’s not all that great.

Stickers are fun to look at; but they’re basically worthless. They
should have just spent a bit more time making them into trophies,
or…anything! Not even using them to buff your characters in Story Mode
is worth it. (Except when you’re trying to get boss trophies I guess.
But that still doesn’t help much.)

The trophies are always fun to look at, and to learn a bit more about the games they are from.

There are lots of good stages, but there are a few that are just
awful; mainly Mario Bros, and 75M (AKA: Level two of Donkey Kong). While
retro stages sound good in-theory. These two didn’t turn out right. 75M
really isn’t that bad, but it’s size can make New Pork City, and Temple
from Melee seem jealous at times. And then there’s Mario Bros…The
floors make it basically imposible to jump, and if you’re hit by any
crabs or turtles, it’s basically a one hit kill no matter what.



Difficulty: 7/10

If you’re playing by yourself, you can set the difficulty of
computer controlled characters. Ranging from “mind numbingly easy” to
“You can take on a professional Smash Brothers player now”. When you’re
playing with a friend, you’ll have at least some different experiences
with difficulty and skill. They can be near impossible to beat, an even
match, or maybe extremely easy. And while the computer is predictable,
people aren’t.



Things not covered but I felt like including:



Con: Gannondorf has gone from a Captain Falcon clone, to a slow,
middle aged Captain Falcon clone who can’t jump for the life of him.



Pro: Lucas and Mother 3’s possibly only mention by Nintendo
anywhere outside Japan. And Lucas is one tough fighter! (Not so much in
the games… *Gets sued by Nintendo for playing Mother 3*)



Con? Pro?: Brawl has some VERY different physics from Melee. Most
notable is that you fall a lot slower; almost as if you were on the moon
or something if you compare the two. But, air combat is lots easier and
effective as a result.. It’s really not that bad once you get used to
it. I’ve also heard people say the Wavedashing technique doesn’t work
anymore either. But that’s not completely true. It’s still possible with
Pikachu, Yoshi, Ness, and possibly a few others.



Pro: Final Smashes, are your character’s ultimate attacks. Some of
them are nearly impossible to dodge, some are easy to counter and not
too helpful, and others just don’t make sense *cough cough* Luigi *cough
cough*. But they will all turn the tide of the battle, if you can get
the Smash Ball in time that is



Pro: Assist Trophies summon non-playable characters to fight at your
side. They are great! One of them even got promoted to a full-fledged
fighter even. Sometimes they can help, and other times they fall off the
stage or don’t really help you much.



Con: The online fighting didn’t work out so well. As sad as that is,
it’s now kind of redundant since Nintendo canceled all Wii and DS wi-fi
game services.



Pro: We can all now rest easy now that we know the title on the back
of the box: “The Brawl to end them all” was just another entry in
Sakurai’s chronicle of trolling.




This game was great, but might go down as the weirdest in the series. It
was casual with it's slow falling, and multiple ways to unlock
everything. But at the same time it wanted to be hardcore with it's
Latin lyrics, addition of Solid Snake, and realistic graphics. Which,
just made it all the more hilarious to play. Seeing a grim, real looking
super soldier go toe to toe with a pink puffball, and a astronaut
commanding a horde of vegetables. And in another turn of events, it rebooted the Kid Icarus series and gave it a new style.

It was weird, funny, and still is an all around great game.

Overall: 9.5/10

A user of this : I can see why your role on the site staff is game reviewer. In my opinion this is the best Super Smash Bros Brawl review on vizzed.

A user of this : Hehe, your comment on Ganondorf...so true. it cracks me up. And great review! However, I am among those who really loved the 75m and Mario Bros. stages. While I appreciate classic maps like Battlefield and Final Destination, I like maps that mix it up a bit, even if certain players hate them. I just love the game to death. Just about everything about it is brilliant.

Great detailed game review!

Even though I still like Super Smash Brothers Melee better than Super Smash Brothers Brawl, this game review was able to tell new players and old players of the Super Smash Brothers series the differences between the two games. I like how you went in detail with the differences and the changes.

I thought the adventure mode of Super Smash Brothers Brawl could have been better because I would get easily lost and have no idea on where to go during the adventure process. The story could have been much better as well. I did like the boss battles and how you get to choose a team of the characters though. This was average to me at 7.5/10 for me.

I do agree on the physics of Super Smash Brothers Brawl as well and it looks like the characters are falling down with no gravity. Talk about your slow motion falling I should say. I definitely like Super Smash Brothers Melee's physics better especially when it is more realistic to me and it makes the battles much more competitive and fun.

I wish that the online multiplayer feature was more better. I hate how it went really slow most of the time and it would disconnect on you if one player goes missing from a match. I think Nintendo cancelled its wifi play from it due to the 3DS and Wii U.

You forgot to mention the customization of making your own stages and you get to play in them. Lots of stage platforms and terrain to choose for your creation(s). I thought that this was a great feature even though it only had 3 different themes to choose from.

Keep up with the good work and keep writing game reviews! We need good detailed game reviews.

gamerforlifeforever2 : Thank you! I knew I had quite a bit of competition. lol

supernerd117 : I know right? You'd have trouble believing he was a threat to anything. 75m and Mario Bros were cool stages, but I always get killed by the props more than I am by other players.

ghostfishy : I usually didn't make stages with the custom level thingy. And, the wi-fi for Brawl was awful, I agree. Hopefully this new one will be much better. And thank you, I'll try to keep making great reviews!

A user of this : maybe because i sucked at the game, but i always rage quitted at this game because of stupid reasons (cruel brawl, friend battle, NOT BEING ABLE TO JUMP DUE TO USING MY UP-SPECIAL, you name, i've rage quitted over it.) other than that, great review

I really enjoyed this review, one of the best I've read! I would even call it... smashing! I'm sorry, stupid pun.'

BUT, my only criticism is one of conflicting opinions, I absolutely believe the change in physics is a con. While I don't care about wavedashing, Brawl takes out hit-stun, L-cancelling, gives characters OP moves (Metaknight anyone?), ADDED TRIPPING, and just had an overall floaty feel to it that just ruined the feel of the game. I preferred the fast paced gameplay of Melee, and the movesets were definitely better Melee style. It's mostly the small things that ruin the game for me, ever since I became a competitive player. Now, Brawl is still amazing with the addition of Project M to your Wii, if you're competitive. If not, Brawl is fine just for fun with your friends. I feel like I'm rambling, and I have SO much more to say that I won't lest I accidentally make a review in your review thread.


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