Peter’s Place

Before I get into my review, I must tell you I’ve never been a big fan of fighting games.  The only reason I ever played “Super Street Fighter II” or even “Mortal Kombat” was because one of my best friends at the time had both games, we always hung out at his house, and it was all he ever wanted to play.  I just played for lack of choice, but never really got into it enough to learn all the combos, special moves and such.

Even now, I don’t know all the special moves — nor do I plan on taking the time to learn them all — but the chance to play as Mario, Link, Zelda, Samus Aran and dozens of other popular characters from every major Nintendo series greatly outweighs any opinion or dislike I’ve had for any other fighting games in the past.

First of all, this game is really easy to pick up.  You have many different control choices.  The “standard” setup is to play with a Wii remote and a Nunchuk.  But you can also play with the Wii remote alone — which is great if you just got your Wii… and you don’t necessarily have cash to be buying extra Nunchucks for everyone.  (The controllers themselves are pricey enough.)  Even better, you can play with Gamecube controllers — and the buttons are pretty much identical to Gamecube’s ”Super Smash Bros. Melee.”  So if you have a Gamecube, you’ve already got extra controllers for friends to join (or yourself, if you don’t want to learn any new controls).  Not to mention, you won’t eat up batteries so fast.  But the options don’t end there… you can also use the Wii Classic Controller, which gives you Gamecube-like controls, with the added benefit of being wireless, and getting to replace the batteries every few days.

Once you get up and running — especially if you’re new to Super Smash Bros. — I strongly suggest going into the “training” mode.  You can take your time getting familiar with the controls without worrying about some enemy character beating you to a pulp.  Even if you’re an old pro with the previous Smash titles, training is a good way to try out the different control options, to see which one you like best.  Not to mention, there are new attacks and new characters… so this is a good way to try them out.

Next, you’re ready to do some battle.  This is where it gets tough, simply because there are so many different characters to choose from!  Admittedly, I usually go for Mario simply because I have played so many other Mario games, and in other Mario “sports” games, he’s usually the most well-rounded character of the bunch.  But in this title, I find his attacks to be pretty basic.  He kicks, he punches, his “coin uppercut” is still there.  But when you press B, he whips out that glorified Super Soaker he used from Super Mario Sunshine (one of the few “major” Mario games that never interested me).  I don’t think shooting water at people is nearly as powerful as Link’s arrows or Samus Aran’s plasma gun.  But maybe that’s just me.

Which characters do you prefer?  Scroll down to the bottom and post a comment with your thoughts.

OK, so if you’ve played any previous Smash game, the basic fight mode is the same as always — except for the new environments, new characters, and so forth.  For newbies, basically, you just go out there and beat the crap out of your enemies.  As you register hits, their damage percentage (at the bottom of the screen) increases.  The object is to hit your enemy so hard, they get knocked off the platform — and don’t make it back.  But when damage percentage is still low, people don’t get knocked off too far, and it’s possible to jump back in.  Usually at higher percentages, people are thrown too far to make it back, and that’s when the character is defeated.

That’s the simple part of the game.  But there’s much more to it.  Special items often appear on the playing field.  Weapons like baseball bats, Fire Flowers (from Super Mario Bros.) or the Super Scope (an old gun-like accessory for the Super NES) allow you to hurt your enemies.  There are also defensive items, like food that reduces your damage level.  And of course, if you can learn the right button combinations, you can take advantage of the special attacks which are unique to your character.   Fox McCloud (from Star Fox) can zip across the field, almost as if warping… while Princess Zelda literally CAN warp from one place to another.

Playing basic fights can be fun, and it’s usually the best way to play when you’ve got friends over.  But if you’re playing solo, you might seek some variety.  Thankfully, this game, like its predecessor, comes through in a big way.

Solo “Classic” Mode will be familiar to “Melee” players.  You fight through a string of different matches, each one taking place in a different Nintendo environment.  Some of the battles have different conditions — they aren’t all 1-on-1 matches.  In some cases, it’s a 2-on-2 battle, where you’ll be paired with a computer partner to go against 2 enemies.  (As you can expect with computer players… sometimes the partner is good, other times you’re better off just taking care of business yourself.)  Other times, it’s a multi-player free-for-all, where sitting back and letting everyone else beat each other up may be your best strategy.  And in yet another type of match, you’ll sometimes be pitted against dozens of enemies.  After you beat the first few, replacements show up immediately… so fast that you’re just pressing buttons and hitting anything that’s moving, without time to worry about executing combo moves or looking for items.

As fun as that can be, the real gem of this game so far (in the 2 weeks since I bought it) seems to be the new “Adventure Mode.”  It’s like an entirely different game all its own.  It has cutscenes like an RPG, and you can even apply “stickers” to characters to boost their abilities (much like patches in the Paper Mario series).  But it plays more like Double Dragon, in that you’re navigating a series of side-scrolling stages, fighting your enemies, occasionally reaching a difficult boss enemy.  And taking some cues from the Super Mario series, there are some “secret rooms” scattered off the beaten path — where you can find prizes and power-ups.   Granted, I’ve only cleared about 15% of the stages (according to the “save file” screen), so I’m not quite clear what the story is, but it appears Wario and Bowser are trying to turn everyone into trophies, while some weird flying object goes around wreaking havoc of its own.  (I’m guessing it’s the villain from either Pokemon or Kirby, but I’m not too familiar with either.)

Even though I’ve only gone through 15%, it’s been neat to play with different characters in their “native environments.”  For example, you start off with the character of your choice in Pokemon Stadium, but you quickly wind up playing as Pit from “Kid Icarus,” up in the sky.  Before long, you’re in the jungle as Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong.  The choice of characters at your disposal depends on which stage you’re in, as the story progresses.

And I almost forgot — Super Smash Bros. Brawl isn’t just Nintendo.  Characters from other companies appear, like from Konami’s “Metal Gear” series.  And supposedly, Sega mascot Sonic also makes an appearance, but I’ve yet to see him.  He’s obviously an unlockable character — and I don’t know how to unlock him – but I don’t yet want to ruin the surprise by looking it up somewhere.  Yet.

Now for the Complaint Dept.

This section won’t be as long as the positive things I’ve listed about the game, but I do have to include the bad along with the good.

Loading - For years after everyone else went to optical discs, Nintendo held out with cartridges through the N64 because cartridges load instantly.  Nintendo didn’t want to make people sit there and get bored while a CD-ROM (or similar) was loading the next stage.  Once Nintendo finally went to discs with the Gamecube, and now the Wii, most games do a decent job of loading quickly, or at least trying to hide the fact that you’re waiting for something to load.  But “Brawl” and it’s older cousin “Melee” are the only two games I can think of where you’re sometimes stuck sitting in stead of a plain screen with “NOW LOADING” in the corner.

Learning Curve - Unfortunately, this isn’t a game where someone who plays every day can have fun with friends who might only get to play it once in a blue moon.  The newbies and casual players will quickly feel discouraged after getting their butts kicked by an experienced player.  Once you know the moves, it’s hard to “play dumb” and make it a fair fight against a newcomer.  If there are any handicap settings to equal things out, I haven’t found them yet.  If you’re having a party where the Wii is involved, you may want to sit out and let your guests play against each other — unless you’re playing against people who are equally experienced as yourself.

Sorry for the absence of screen shots — I really should have some here, but it’s pretty late and I’m getting tired!  I will add some later.