Brawling

On Monday I acquired Super Smash Bros. Brawl.  I’ve been playing it nearly nonstop over the past few days, and I have to say that I’m pleasantly surprised with this new addition to the Super Smash Bros. series.

Those who know me know that I was not a fan of Super Smash Bros. Melee.  Yes, it had many more characters, many more play modes, many more stages and items—my problem was with the game play.  Melee looked a lot better on the surface, but at its core the fighting just didn’t feel as good to me.  The gameplay was faster (which I liked) but the hits felt chintzy, like they didn’t do anything.  Sort of like how Deus Ex: Invisible War felt to me, actually.

Brawl fixes this.  The combat is both fast and solid, and the characters are more well balanced (I was a fan of Ness from the original Smash Bros., but they nerfed him in Melee).  The Final Smash moves provide an interesting element to the gameplay.  For the uninitiated, each character has an attack called a Final Smash, which is a sort of crazy attack that can easily damage or defeat multiple opponents.  This is triggered by hitting a floating item which occasionally appears (the Final Smash Ball) and pressing the B button.  Before, the main object of Super Smash Bros. at all times was to knock your opponents off the stage.  When the Final Smash Ball appears this object shifts, and the game becomes a sort of mad dash for the item.  This shift in objectives is fun, as it requires a completely different style of play than what a player is used to.

In addition to the traditional multiplayer and classic modes, the game features a single-player mode called The Subspace Emissary, in which gamers play through the characters’ fight against Subspace Army.  Clearly the developers worked harder on this mode than on past single-player modes in the series, but it still feels like an afterthought.  The CG cutscenes are cool, but the platformer-esque levels quickly grow tedious, especially later on when the player is forced to go through every single room.

The multiplayer mode offers many new options.  In the game options, players can control the speed of the game.  There is now a stage builder with which users can create their own fields to play on.  It is in multiplayer mode that the gameplay really shines—fast like Melee, solid like the original.  The characters are better balanced (although I see too many people playing as Pit) and I’ve found that I can do just as well with Olimar and Lucas as I can with some of the more serious characters.

Overall, the game is excellent.  The one-player mode is a bit dry, but the gameplay is fun and the plethora of different modes and options is enough to keep one occupied for a long time—especially if they have three friends to play with.  If not, there’s always online play.