By Dustin Chapas

Title: Super Smash Brothers Brawl
ESRB Rating: T
Players: 1-4
Developer: Sora/Nintendo
Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection: Yes






This Super Smash Brothers game is everything we knew and loved from Melee, with a lot more. One of the new features is an adeventure mode that doesn't take ten minutes to beat. It is an actual story that is roughly eight to ten hours long. Almost nobody was expecting this for a Smash game. Now lets get down to it. Subspace Emissary is very good and original. At the beginning, it shows you a few of the fighters and as the story progresses, you see just how each and every one of them joined the Brawl and how they all get connected. At the very start, it shows Mario and Kirby fighting just for entertainment and fun. At the end of their little battle, the sky turns an eerie dark purple and a giant ship comes into perspective. As the ship flys over the stadium, a ton of pruple dots fall onto the ground and form into an army of strange looking creatures called Primids. Primids are a faction of the Subspace Army which is led by this guy that hovers around called the Ancient Minister. Mario and Kirby fight off the Primids, but then the Ancient Minister hovers into the stadium and drops down something called a Subspace Bomb which will engulf the entire area in Subspace when detonated. Kirby escapes the bombs detonation, but Mario is missing. The game really takes off from there. As you play through Subspace Emissary, you will play as every available fighter in the game except for a few. As you begin as one of these fighters, you will usually start off in a specific area and eventually cross paths with someone else and you will join forces. At times the game can feel really repetitive, you may feel as though you are doing something that you just finished doing. But it will really keep you playing and you will not want to quit. A lot of the levels will contain some sort of thing from a past Nintendo game which I thought was pretty cool. The thing about Adventure mode that really won me over was the cutscenes. The cutscenes were made beautifully and look great. A lot of them are real epic scenes and some are laugh out loud funny. There is no dialogue at all, but after all this is a Nintendo game, what did you expect. Subspace Emissary is great with a good and original storyline, but some things just don't make sense. For example, if it is supposed to be Twilight Princess Link, then why does he have Navi with him? One more thing I should add is there is also a Co-Op mode which is really cool. Between every level, before you start the next, you get to choose which character in your party you will be playing as and which ones you will play as if your primary dies. I thought this was pretty cool as well. And as opposed to mulitplayer mode where you have to knock your opponent off screen in order to kill them, every enemy in Subspace Emissary has a health mode which is good because if you had to knock everybody off the screen, then it would get really annoying.




The gameplay of Super Smash Brothers Brawl is purely amazing just like it's predessecors. You choose from a variety of Nintendo characters from Nintendo's best franchises and you fight other Nintendo characters. It sounds pretty simple, but it is one of the most unique fighting games ever. After choosing your character you choose what stage you would like to play on and the match begins. In battle, each character has normal moves that often involve punching and kicking and a set of special moves that invove special things that that character is capable of. There are also several items that can be used to help defeat your opponent. For example, Poke balls, Bob-ombs, ray guns, and lots, lots more. Now that I have explained the basics, I will go in depth. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, there are four control schemes. The Wii Remote, Wii Remote and Nunchuk, the Classic Controller, and the Gamecube controller. While the Wii Remote and Wii Remote and Nunchuk work well, the Classic Controller and Gamecube Controller provide for the smoothest and best gameplay. Primarily the Gamecube Controller.

Two new things are Assist Trophies and Final Smashes. Assist Trophies are items that when you access them will turn into someone or something that will help you greatly. It's like a Poke Ball, but a lot more cool. Smash Balls are little balls that appear every so often during every Brawl that you play. Once it appears, you must keep hitting it until it breaks open and you get its power. Once you have it, your character starts glowing many different colors and you must press the secial move button to use it. Every character has their own final smash and it is the best possible attack for every character. Some final smashes do a lot of damage, and some are instant kills. Final Smashes bring a lot more to the game. The gameplay methods of Brawl are almost exactly alike those of Melee and the original, but that is perfectly fine because it is so much fun and nothing needs to be changed.




The graphics of Super Smash Brothers Brawl are great. From the beutiful environments, to the great 3D character models, everything is great. As many of you know, the Wii hasn't received that great of games graphics wise. Well, this game will not disappoint you. In my opinion, this game and Super Maio Galaxy were the first games to actually push the Wii graphics wise. Everything looks amazing. Just take a look at the detail that was put into every character. Nintendo really worked hard on this game and it payed off. Sometimes while playing on Final Destination, you will find yourself just staring at the pretty colors in the background. Of course there are minor glitches here and there, but nothing real big.





Replay Value was what this game was made for. Everything about this game replay value wise is excellent and the possibilites are endless. Not only is there the famous local multiplayer, but now there is online multiplayer. The online multiplayer works great when the servers are free. Matches can sometimes be laggy, but when they aren't, you almost have to remind yourself that you are online. When online, you choose your character, your choice of stage, and then it puts you in a room where you can warm up and get prepared for the match. Online could have been a little better post game wise. After a match, it gives you no options what so ever. It would be nice if it let you exchange friend codes or party up with someone you though was a really good teammate. Besides online, it still is great. Local Multiplayer is as awesome as its always been. Other options include Tournament mode, Rotation mode, and the new game in order to get trophies is no longer a stupid gumball machine, now it's a coin launcher that is very fun. It is like a game that you would see at an arcade. You have all of your coins in this launching device and you must shoot trophies that pass by. There will also be hordes of robotic enemies that you can destroy with coins. If you destroy an entire pack of them then you get a sticker. Both trophies and stickers can be collected, and when collected you can do many things with them. With stickers, you can arrange them in a scrap book and look at them. Hot that exciting, I know. But with trophies there are more options. Once you get a trophy you can view it in the trophy gallery and look at the information it has to offer on what trophy it it. There are also things called masterpieces which are trial virtual console games. However, they are extremely short. Before I accesed one, I looked at the duration of two of them. One was 0:30 and one was 2:00. I assumed it meant 30 minutes and 2 hours. I was really disappointed to find out it was only 30 seconds and two minutes. Not to mention the load times are horrible! You also have a theater mode where you can watch all the awesome Subspace Emissary cutscenes, along with videos such as E3 trailers and other things. There are also a lot of unlockable characters and stages that you can unlock. Super Smash Brother Brawl has a wealth of replay value. There is also unlockable modes such as Boss Battle mode and All Star Mode. Replay Value gets a 10/10 for sure.



Overall I give Super Smash Brothers Brawl a 9.5 out of 10


Adventure Mode
Multiplayer
Graphics
Sound/Soundtrack
Vault Options


Long loading time
Lack of online options

This game is arguably the best Wii game yet. This game is a must buy. If you do not own a Wii, first hit yourself across the head, and then go buy one along with this game. You will be doing yourself a favor.

Sincerely,
DustinCo312 or Dustin Chapas