It has been seven long years since Super Smash Bros. Melee, one of the GameCube’s earliest mega-hits, was released. When Melee’s sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, was announced at 2006’s E3 conference, fans rejoiced. Now, after being delayed twice, Brawl is finally here. Did Nintendo score a KO, of a pitiful self-destruct? All categories are rated out of five points.
*SPOILER WARNING* I don’t like to do
this, but I feel that I cannot fully explore Brawl without revealing some
of the hidden characters, stages, and music. I will not, however, reveal
anything about the storyline of the Subspace Emissary. But if you don’t
want to spoil the surprise, then I would direct you away from this Review.
Graphics: 5/5
Unbelievable. Everything is crisp and
clear, never lacking in detail. Characters and objects look realistic,
and yet cartoonishly bizarre. Link received a Twilight Princess makeover,
Ike and Marth look very human, and Wario’s mustache never looked better!
As for stages, Delfino Plaza offers views of a plaza painstakingly detailed
to look just like the original in Sunshine. The Battleship Halberd looks
terrifyingly large in the setting sun, and just look at the ghosts flying
out of the crumbling Luigi’s Mansion! An excellent, but not entirely unexpected,
job with the graphics.
Controls: 5/5
With three different ways to play,
Brawl suits all people’s control styles. You can use the Wii Remote and
the Nunchuck, the GameCube controller (my personal preference), or the
Wii’s Classic controller. The Gamecube controller works just like in Melee,
which is perfect. I find the Wii Remote hard to use, however, and I’ve
never tried the Classic controller.
Characters: 3/5
35 characters, and this section only
gets a 3? Yes, sadly, and I’ll explain why in a bit. First, however, I’d
like to give an overview of the various characters you can select. You’ve
got the omnipresent Marios, Link, Ganondorf, Captain Falcon, the Pikmin-plucking
Olimar, Kirby, Metal Gear Solid’s Solid Snake, and Sonic the Hedgehog,
to name a few. The incredibly wide variety of characters should please
most everyone.
Why, then, the less than stellar grade?
Balance. The characters are horribly unbalanced; some have clear advantages
over others. It seems that all the characters who were perhaps a tad underpowered
in Melee have been WAY overpowered in Brawl (Peach, Zelda, and Game &
Watch prominent among them). Despite him being my favorite, I recognize
that Luigi is overpowered with ridiculously fast moves and no recovery
lag whatsoever.
While some characters enjoy this beefing
up, others, sadly, were left out in the cold. I think the most noticeable
example of an underpowering is Captain Falcon. In Melee, he was strong
and fast, but his attacks were very slow and hard to pull off, thus balancing
him. In Brawl, here’s what they did to Falcon:
1) He’s
slower
2) His
jump is absolutely pathetic
3) His
attacks do less damage, but are still just as slow
4) His
meteor smash and Electric Knee are now almost impossible to hit with
5) His
Final Smash (see “Items” for more info) is lousy.
Is that at all fair?
Sound/Music: 5/5
The music here is unbelievable. There
are over 200 different tunes representing various different games and series.
Many of the tunes are fully orchestrated and sound beautiful. You’ve got
classic Mario tunes like Rainbow Road, classic Kirby tunes like King Dedede’s
theme, and many, many more. And, to sweeten the deal, you can turn off
tunes you don’t like, and adjust the probability that one you do like will
appear! Awesome!
Stages: 3/5
Hmm. I seem to recall this pattern
of 3s and 5s before in the Galaxy review. That seems a common trait of
video games these days: game aspects range from great to average. These
stages are okay, but they just don’t impress me like Melee’s did. I like
all of the Mario stages, especially Delfino Plaza. But why only one Kirby
and Yoshi stage? And levels like Mario Bros. and 75m where you are constantly
bombarded by environmental hazards are more a struggle to avoid stuff than
an actual Brawl. And that “Stay Dry!” minigame on WarioWare is absolutely
impossible.
On the plus side, some stages have
really cool gimmicks. Bashing items out of ? Blocks in Mushroomy Kingdom,
the Shy Guy racers in Mario Kart, the downpour in Distant Planet; good
stuff. Overall, though, the stages just aren’t as interesting as Melee’s
are.
Items: 4/5
The item selection is basically the
same as Melee’s, but a lot of items have been changed. Now, you can run
while shooting the Super Scope, but it’s not nearly as effective. The Bob-ombs
aren’t nearly as powerful, and it takes entirely too long to charge up
a Home Run. Why did these items need to be changed? I mean, I thought the
originals were okay. Plus, the Parasol isn’t even in this game! Assist
trophies are cool, but what’s the point of Nintendog and the Devil? They’re
merely distractions, no help at all. What a waste. However, the new Ray
Guns look great, Sandbags are very useful, and Gooey Bombs are about the
funniest item in the game. Except, of course, for the Golden Squeaky Hammer!
But how about those Final Smashes,
the major selling point of the game? Overall: they stink. *Gasp!* Now,
this leads back to the issue of balance in that some are clearly better
than others. Luigi’s, Peach’s, and Olimar’s are nearly impossible to dodge,
whereas Falcon’s and Lucario’s are very difficult to set up and use. It’s
outrageous that some Final Smashes are clearly better than others. Did
the game designers [i]try to make the game unfair? That’s nuts!
Plot: 5/5
This section, I think, came way out
of order. Well, never mind that, the point is, the Subspace Emissary storyline
is incredible. Basically, the Brawl universe is ambushed by the mysterious
Subspace Army, which drops Subspace Bombs to bring the real world into
subspace. I’m not saying any more than this, but trust me: This is one
story that keeps you hooked all throughout!
Subspace Emissary (SSE): 0/5
What a lousy excuse for an adventure
mode. Great plot notwithstanding, this mode is terrible because it’s all
a series of lame platformer levels. Now, I love a good platformer, but
there are two major problems here: 1) This is in no way a good platformer,
and 2) This is Super Smash Bros. BRAWL, not Super Smash Bros. PLATFORMER.
I want to do Brawls, not these lousy levels! Plus, the controls in this
mode are so bad, their difficulty is through the roof. In SSE, you can
barely jump, which is a big problem in a platformer. Plus, there are a
ton of really annoying enemies that take a million hits to kill, and the
bosses are boring. Please, get this thing outta the game!
Difficulty: 2/5
I think I’ve pretty much summed this
up in the other sections. The main problem is balance, and SSE doesn’t
help either. The only other thing worth mentioning is that you can set
the AI’s skill level. Those level 9’s are a lot harder than they used to
be because they’re now a lot smarter. No longer will they simply stand
on top of a Pokemon that’s poised to kill them; they’ll get out of the
way. Bummer!
One final point: In the Options menu,
the game provides a checklist of sorts for onlockable stuff. A silhouetted
image of the unlockable is shown along with a description of what you need
to do to unlock it. You are also provided several hammers to automatically
unlock an item without going through all the motions. But what does this
have to do with difficulty? Well, let me relate to you this tale: There
is this one thing to unlock that requires the accomplishment of a task
I find too difficult. Not a problem, though, because I’ve got a hammer
to smash through to the prize! Except… the hammer doesn’t work on this!
The one thing I find too hard to do, the hammer can’t do either! I mean,
what’s the point of providing you with something that you’re not allowed
to use 100% of the time? Instead, I’ve got this hammer that I can’t use
taunting me at the bottom of the screen! What a joke!
Gameplay: 3/5
What I haven’t mentioned in the other
sections should be well-known to a Smash veteran. You can do singles Brawls,
setting all the rules yourself (AI level, time limit, number of lives,
etc). There’s Classic Mode, which involves fighting through 10 or so other
brawlers and then defeating Master Hand, for which you can earn trophies.
There’s a Training Mode, the ever-boring Target Smash and Home Run Contest,
SSE; you know the drill. From a technical standpoint, everything works
fine, but if I’ve said it once I’ve said it a million times: the lack of
balance just kills the game.
Replayability: 5/5
Well, I can’t fault the game here.
If you’ve got some friends to play with, you won’t want to put it down.
Even bouts with AIs are a ton of fun. Single player is boring, yes, but
multiplayer is the heart and soul of Brawl anyway. All of this applies
to the next section…
Fun Factor!: 5/5
…as well. The balancing issues can’t
overcome the addictive nature of this game. Like Melee, you’ll probably
love every second of those Brawls. Just pretend that SSE isn’t in the game.
Overall: 4/5
All right, I’ve been pretty negative
so far, but this really is a great game. The items and stages aren’t quite
up to par, but the music is WAY above par. Seriously, though, how many
times must I repeat myself?! THIS GAME IS UNBALANCED! It doesn’t destroy
the game, no, but considering the hype and the high expectations, a 4 is
a mediocre score. Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed. Nintendo had better
never keep us waiting 7 years for something like this again!
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