Super Smash Bros. Brawl

THE BAD:
A little too user-friendly for me; Wi-fi being a huge pain, and laggy as heck as well; Final Smash is a cheap win/loss, no matter what; even though the graphics look great, it doesn't really feel next-gen, or look any good on a bigscreen TV

SUMMARY:
Detailed Summary:
After creating Melee, the reviews praising how good it was all came in, with some of them complaining about the advanced techniques (about 30%). Some other reviews complained about characters either being in it or not being in it. And many simply praised it for being such a brilliant game. Reading these, Nintendo took the opportunity to make a sequel. However, instead of listening to the 70% who can actually play the game, they decide to listen to the 30% who are just casual gamers and take out all the fun things that made Melee, well...fun! Instead, they did exactly what Square did with Kingdom Hearts 2: Make it slower, easier, user-friendly and, well...boring. So finally, after a few years of development, few years of checking on how user-friendly it is, how awkward the Wiimote controls are, and applying the finishing touches (aka the graphics), it finally gets called...a game! The sequel to the smash hit Super Smash Brothers Melee! But is it worth it? Well, let's look more into it.

And boy, did I get disappointed or what? When I think user-friendly, I think "well, hey, it's if you want to get into this series, and hey, there's nothing wrong with starting here and not at its roots on the N64 called Super Smash Brothers", so I play more and more, but man...I just couldn't deal with it. It just lacks a lot of things that made Melee so successful, such as techniques which wasn't just hold the stick forward and press A at once for a powered up punch or whatever. A real doozy of an addition would be the cheap Final Smash. Smash this floating orb three times and then the Final Smash animation occurs. You have to either use the Wii-mote sensor or analog stick to move the cursor and press some button to fire, or just move around with the analog stick, or...well, virtually nothing. Most of the Final Smashes are cheap beyond heck. Smash the orb three times, and you're assured victory. Not kidding, not exaggerating, I'm serious, you might as well just be called the winner in a 1 or 2 stock match with you smash the Final Smash orb. There is a cheap item that's been around since the original SSB called the Hammer, but at least it requires you to chase the opponent. Final Smash, the only catch is some of the aim and fire ones, but many of them are just "smash the orb and WA-BAM, instant win in a 1 or 2 stock match". Then it goes over to the victory screen (on your end), but you really don't feel that you earned that victory. It's like winning a talent show and being the only one who participated. Man, this just doesn't feel all that rewarding, and when I try to do it rewardingly, it's boring anyway, because the combat has been reduced to the primitave stage. Now, the original felt primitive too, but compared to this, the original actually feels like Mortal Kombat, and the fighting in that has a sort of sophisticated feel to it, along with blood and gore obviously (), but still, just primitive, boring, and such. Will go even more in-depth in the Gameplay section, but really, it was just beyond disappointed and I actually couldn't deal with it. At all. Alright, let's get this review over and done with and out of the way...

Graphics: 4/5
Now, I would gladly accept this graphics with open arms since they looked good on the medium sized TV in my room, but one day, I decided to hook my Wii and Brawl up to the family bigscreen...big mistake, the graphics looked stretched, as if it was made for medium screens. I wouldn't mind this, but those with bigscreen TV's will mind it, as the pixels look fairly stretched on them. And is it just me, or do the graphics not even look next-gen? I mean, let's take a random Melee screenshot:



OK, that's Ness from Melee. Now let's get a picture of Ness from Brawl:



Oh no they didn't! That looks the same, maybe with 1 extra layer of good graphics. Now, I would be angry about this, but since Melee had top-notch graphics, well, I may as well greet it with open arms as well, despite the fact that Melee was one of the first games to come out on the Gamecube (2001 it came out), and that Brawl came out about a month ago (2008), meaning it could have better graphics. But hey, the graphics in Melee were kind of hard to surpass, so Brawl just updated them a bit. I guess it's cool.

Some character models look brilliant! I could care less that most of them look like the most recent version of themselves, just add a layer of next-gen graphics coating, they still look brilliant. Easy on the eyes, unless they're presented on a bigscreen TV, then it's all stretched and not so easy on the eyes. I have to say, though, it's still good. Level designs are at the same level. Updated graphics from either a Nintendo (and Sega and Konami, for the Sonic and Metal Gear Solid themed levels) game, or Melee itself, and, aside from the stretchy sort of look the bigscreen often has, looks slightly better. Some great graphics processed here. However, neither aspects are at par with, say, Super Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, as they have superior graphics, whilst being released earlier than Super Smash Brothers Brawl, but I will give it the benefit of the doubt, as they are still pretty to look at.

Sound: 4/5
To me, the music feels like enhanced 16-bit music, and maybe as if a guitarist and keyboard player played some music together too. Now, if this was just all it was, I would be giving this a 5/5. I mean, the music is all good, the sound effects, though many still the same as they were from Melee, and heck even the original, still are acceptable and really can't be improved upon. The new sounds are acceptable too, and can't really be improved much. I think it's nearly perfect.

But the black sheep of the sound part, and this one is a real doozy, is the announcer! The announcer in the original, as well as Melee's, had great voices! This guy sucks! I honestly can't STAND his voice! I'm actually not too sure if you can mute his voice (it's most likely you can't), but damn, that has to be one of the worst voices for an announcer, ever. Wouldn't mind it, except fights can be short, plus there's a bit of speaking at the victory screens, so you'll have to tolerate this guy's annoying voice! Where's the old voice actor? Why did he, or Nintendo (whoever accepted voice actors) let this new guy come in and sound bad? Some like him, but I don't. Some will come to get used to his voice, but man, I ain't going to. Overall, bad voice actor, but every other voice is still good, just to an extent where improvement just enhances how good it already was before. Just...don't like the announcer, I really don't. Ugh!

Control: 3.5/5
Well, you can either play this game with the Wiimote, Classic Controller, or the good old Gamecube Controller.

With the Wiimote+Nunchuck, you need the Nunchuck attachment to make this more useful. Basically, it requires shaking to attack, forceful movement to the left, right, up or down to go their respective directions, or you could just use the buttons for actions, and move it along when needed. It's awkward at first, but then you adjust.

Take out the nunchuck, and turn the Wiimote to the side, and get used to a bad control scheme, which encourages going to Option to edit it, and make it more user friendly (I really doubt Taunt needs to be a button you'll accidently press often due to the habit of pressing A for something useful). But even if you manage to, you'll get hand-cramps trying to press some of the buttons anyway. Shaking it after some time will do the same. This is my least favorite option of the four control schemes.

Classic controller and Gamecube controller are essentially the same, it's just that the classic controller feels a tad bit awkward as it has no bumps like the Gamecube controller has. Aside from the little side bumps, there's no difference. The controls are the same as Melee's (A for attack, B for special attack, Z to grab, R/L to shield, etc etc, though they can be edited in the control scheme editor option in Option menu, but there's the default controls for you). These two are my favorite schemes, and recommended for beginners...in fact, recommended at all times, since the Wiimote is awkward as heck to use.

That's it for controls, I can't really explain any further than that. Well, they're responsive, I'll add that. Quite responsive. No delays unless in online mode, in which case, it's not too responsive, but that's just because of online's laggyness. Ok, that's it.

Gameplay: 6/10
First off, I'm rating the gameplay section out of 10 instead of out of 5, as I find gameplay to be the most important aspect of the game. If you can't get this right, the game will suck. Okay, back to the review...

The reason I gave this a 6, and not a 7.5, out of 10, is because I really don't like the primitive gameplay. No, this goes beyond the original Super Smash Brothers, this is just primitive to help the newbies get good at this series. I mean, I like the user-friendliness, and how it retains at least some of the gameplay features that made this series brilliant in the first place (the whole 4 people beating each other up at once), however, the new additions, aside from Subspace Emissary, I will not welcome. It really just makes the game seem more primitive than the original, which is never really a good thing, since it's actually supposed to add-on to the original, or change the gameplay up a bit, but no, they actually downgraded from the original. How? Well, here's the thing:

Final Smash: Requires you to smash this rainbow colored flying orb three times, then unleash it, and cheaply steal victory away from the jaws of defeat, often snatching your opponent's well-earned victory and turning it into a victory you don't deserve. Sorry about the cruelty of the last sentence, but Final Smash is cheap. They're often OHKO moves, some of which are impossible to avoid, and when you come back from the dead with one ready, that's it, the opponent is buggered and he or she will lose. I mean, it seems like a good idea in theory, but when put into practise, man, did it prove cheap or what? And the orbs, they're a bit too common, meaning Final Smashes will occur fairly often. What I think would make this better, is if this wasn't as common as it was? Like, if it only came once or maybe twice per match? The idea would still sound bad in a 1 or 2 stock match, but in a long-winded battle, this seems great. But what would make them fairer for the shorter matches, is if they weren't near impossible to avoid? Like if the opponent still had a sporting chance of winning? Better, if you actually had to do something other than smashing some orb? Some of these actually do more than that, such as Snake's with the whole aim and fire thing he does in Metal Gear Solid, and then there's some, like Ganondorf's, which just hurts a bit the first hit, then he lashes out at you, and if you get hit, that's it, you're dead. Your only chance to dodge is to jump over it. Ganondorf's seems a bit cheap, but at least his Final Smash can be dodged if you got some good timing (or play as Kirby and Jigglypuff) with the jump itself, and if you can maintain your position in the air before Ganondorf in beast form impales you with his talons. Yeah, the two and some others are fair and all, but there's some (examples escape me at this moment, but trust me, once you start playing, you'll find out which, or just watch Youtube vids) which are just cheap OHKO's, which basically gives the rest a bad name. Seriously, I think if they could be easier to dodge and occurs less often, Final Smash would be a heck of a lot more like Final Smash.

That's my second problem with the gameplay. Now let's try this one that really boils my blood...

Online aka Wi-Fi: Now, this really, really does sound fun in theory, but when put into practise, this becomes a real problem. First off, it takes a long, long time to find players, despite there being god knows how many people online at any time. Yeah, find an opponent, select character, select stage, and then the real problem starts!

IT'S LAGGY AS!

I know this isn't Nintendo's fault, but man, this is even laggier than what Halo 3 got like sometimes, and when that gets laggy, it's no fun. This is laggy most of the time, meaning no fun. Projectile attacks are more like invisible objects, which can translate into cheap strikes. Control responses are downgraded to responding after quite a while. Heck, the game feels slower than it was before. You know what? The only good thing about Online, is that if you defeat your opponent who has a character you haven't unlocked...BINGO! You got that character. I would say this is a better alternative to Subspace Emissary, but the laggyness, you probably wouldn't tolerate it too much, plus the Subspace Emissary is actually pretty good regardless anyway, so only use Online mode to face people all around the world or your mates online, if they have the game and both of you just feel like it

Speaking of Subspace Emissary...

Subspace Emissary: This is basically an upgrade of Melee's Adventure Mode. How so? Well, it has a story. And it has scenes. Aside from these upgrades, it plays a lot like Adventure Mode from Melee; sidescroll some levels killing things, fight some characters from the game itself, and get all the way to the final boss and kill him. You unlock characters as you go through it. I would go more in-depth, but I kind of just explained the basics for the Subspace Emissary, and I kind of do want you to experience the rest for yourself.

But what's a Super Smash Brothers game, without the good old Classic Mode?

Classic: Basically copied and pasted from Melee, heck, even from the original itself. You go through 12 stages, defeating different characters, and at the last stage, you face Master Hand. Master Hand is a glove which lives, and his purpose is to kick the crap out of you. You must defeat him before he finishes you off. He'll fight by slapping, shooting and flying at you, and you should dodge those, then attack him while he's vulnerable. Depending on difficulty and time, you also face Crazy Hand. Same story as with Master Hand, but this guy is crazier, and to be completely honest, much harder than Master Hand. Crazy Hand has spasm attacks for one, which has him rolling on the ground as if he's having a seizure attack. This attack can really kill if you get hit by this, so avoid at all costs. I thought this was a great addtion, as just Master Hand was boring, though if you're new to the series, Master Hand is good practise, because newbies will be destroyed by Crazy Hand.

There are stages which are Target Tests, but dang it, I didn't like how everyone had the same stage, with the stage only differing if you played on different difficulty levels! It's the same as usual, though: Find the ten targets, and destroy them. You do this twice throughout Classic Mode.

There's also a local multiplay mode, or just a free battle outside of Classic and Subspace Emissary. Well, there's two, actually; Brawl Mode, and Special Brawl Mode.

Brawl Mode: Simply a free battle mode, where you control settings beforehand, such as amount of lives, handicaps, stage choice, heck, even character choice. You can play local multiplayer on this, which is a good idea if you got some extra controllers and/or some friends over who feel like a bit of a Super Smash Brothers fix.

Special Brawl Mode: The same thing, but with options like Giant Brawl (giant size characters), Tiny Brawl (small size characters), Stamina Mode (HP instead of percentage) and so on and so forth. Great if you want to mix it up a bit for your local mates.

There's more I can go on about, but man, just buy it and experience the rest for yourself, it's all cool (aside from the Final Smashes, primitive gameplay and Online mode).

Now, if you're going to say anything about me saying this is primitive, just hear me out. This game is devoid of any tactics, aside from what you have to expect in levels. Some levels will allow room for tactics, and some will force them out of you, but most will be nothing but 'get in there!!!'. While it was the same case for Melee, this one exaggerates. No longer is wavedashing present. No longer is it necessary to dodge as you can shield most attacks (grabs can't be shielded) and your shield is more durable than in Melee, so unless your opponent is grab happy, your shield is nearly broken or you're in the air, you have no reason to use the dodge command. Just shield. Also, this doesn't actually look like it was copied and pasted from Melee, but actually from the original. Not sure if the reader who already has the game feels the same way I do, but man, it just feels slower with more emphasis on offense than both Melee and Original. Not exactly my cup of tea, but might be good for those wanting to play online, which is all that matters for many people.

Skipping Replay Value section as this game has nearly unlimited Replay Value...if you can get past the laggy online, that is, and also if you're interested in beating the game on harder settings and faster and faster.

Overall: 19.5/25
Although it is inferior to Melee and is intended for beginners and vets who wanted the online capabilities for so long, if you could care less about online, stick with Melee, that game is much better. I think in the sequel, if they just fixed up the Gameplay a bit, and if they make Final Smash less occuring and fairer instead of just a cheap win, it would be perfect, and most of all, superior to Melee.

Jak's Rating System: 19.5/25
Neoseeker's Rating System: 3.4/5