Review: Super Smash Brothers Brawl

Nintendo's finest hour.

Well, It's finally here. The next installment in the megahit Smash series and equal to my favorite game ever is finally here after only six and a half years. Yes, it has been that long since Melee hit the Gamecube. Hard to believe isn't it? Now, finally, after six and a half years and two delays Brawl is finally here. And it lives up to the hype.

Every so often a game comes along that's a console seller. A game so amazing that people would buy the system just to play that one game. Microsoft did it with Halo for the Xbox, now Nintendo has done it with Brawl for the Wii. If you were to go out right now and buy a Wii and a copy of Brawl for $300, you will have made a sound purchase. If anyone actually takes that advice, let it be known that if Brawl was the only Wii game you owned, the amount of time spent playing the game and having fun with your pals would more than make up for the $300 price. That being said, I think I'll actually review the game now.

Where to start? Well... Brawl is... full. That's the only way to describe it. I'm still dumbfounded at the sheer amount of stuff they were able to fit into this game. 35 unique characters with 100s of sound effects and animations each, 41 unique stages with 100s or sound effect and animations, 314 audio tracks, thousands of dialog snippets, stage builder, five different single player modes, and even more for multilayer online and off, literally thousands of collectible trophies and stickers that provide background on your favorite characters, demos of classic Nintendo games, and probably more things that I can't think of right now. Rest assured, you'll get your monies worth!

I suppose I'll start with the new single player adventure mode known as the Subspace Emissary. Oddly enough, the vibe I get when I play it reminds me of Kingdom Hearts. I guess it's because it's pitted a crapload of famous gaming icons against a dark force that actually kind of resemble the heartless. The gameplay itself reminds me of Kirby. Really, it plays like a classic side-scroller so when you're playing with DK it feels like DK Country, as Samus it feels like Metroid, etc. Overall, though, it feels closest to Kirby for me. You beat up a variety of enemies as you progress to the door that leads you to the next section. The boss battles are especially nostalgic of old Nintendo games and some of the are really epic. It's also fairly long. There's a pretty large number of stages (over 20, I believe) and five difficulty levels. It took me around 10 hours to complete on Normal difficulty. Even on Normal, the game gets brutally hard in places. Intense, the hardest difficulty, is next to impossible. I've tried it. Believe me. If you want to avoid a torrent of pain and misery, then avoid Intense at all costs!

Classic mode and Allstar mode are pretty much the same as the last game. There is, however, a brand new Boss Mode which is like Allstar but you fight every boss from the SSE (Subspace Emissary) in order. It's pretty fun and another challange to add to the long list of game modes. The event matches this time around are a little different. You can play any of the 41 solo event matches or 21 co-op event matches on three difficulty levels. Of course, no matter what mode your playing, you'll get a bigger reward for beating it on a harder difficulty.

Where Brawl shines, of course, is in the multiplayer. It's just like you remembered only even more extreme. With all the new content and options in the mix, it'll feel like a whole new game. Every character plays slightly different as well to give it a fresh feel. You can customize the game rules to a greater extent now than you could before and they've added a new mode which uses HP instead of the damage percentage. If your HP runs out, you loose a life rather than having to be knocked out of the arena. There's also a rotate option if your playing with five or more people. In addition to the co-op event matches, you can also play the SSE or Allstar in co-op mode. Smash is the ultimate party game and really made to play with friends.

The sound in Brawl is amazing. The music is wonderful, which is a good thing considering there's lots of it! The sound effects are also very well done. The graphics are pretty good as well. Brawl looks just as good as many games out there in action, but it's the cut-scenes that really blew me away. If the game ran in HD, it might just rival Final Fantasy. I was really surprised how beautiful the movies were considering that's not something Nintendo usually does at all. Finally, the game controls exactly the same as Melee if you wish it to. You can use the remote on its side, the remote/nun chuck combo, the classic controller, or the Gamecube controller. Each of these can be customized to your liking.

There's just so much I could talk about with this game, but the review would go on forever. Just know that it's as good as you thought it would be, if not better. Get it now if you have a Wii, or get a Wii if you don't have one. Seriously, you'll thank me later.

If you guys have any specific questions about the game, drop it in the comment box and I'll answer them in a special segment in the future.

Breakdown:
Visuals: 9
Controls: 10
Gameplay: 10
Sound: 10
Replay Value: literally forever (10)

Overall: 10/10

A worthy sequel to my favorite game of all time.