"The sad truth about Brawl."

Super Smash brothers, a popular title. Originally for the Nintendo 64, it swept gamers everywhere. Then, soon after the debut of the Gamecube, out came Melee. It was far better than the first, and the game is typically regarded as flawless. It is an icon in gaming history, and any non-casual gamer has played it. It still stands the test of time today, and to many [including me] it is a far better game than most anything else Nintendo came up with. It is a Legend.

Then, with the release of the Wii, everyone knew there would be another SSB game. Already trailer were coming out, and the only question became "Will it be as good as Melee?"

After pulling a Twilight Princess on gamers, it finally came out. Many were still fans, but I myself refrained from buying it, figuring it would be a flop after all the hype. But, instead, I ended up buying it a week or two later. If you read my score for it, you already know what I thought of it. It amazed me completely. Sure, it was different than Melee, a lot different. But after playing hours straight my first day playing it, I couldn't help but not feel bad about the $50 it cost to get it.

Game play: 10/10

There are many modes in this game, such as Classic, which has changed quite a bit, but is still essentially the "Battle your way past cpu's" game. At the end, once again, is Master Hand, and occasionally the confusing druggie Crazy Hand. It's one of the most enjoyable parts of Smash Bros. It's the entire beginning [with changes] that made SSB so popular in the first place.

Another mode is "All-Star" mode. This is unlocked later in the game, and in basic you choose your character and go through a mode much like classic, only with one life and you must face down every character in the game. No Master Hand at the end, just every character in the game. It is an extremely difficult challenge for beginners, and even for Veterans of SSB and SSBM it is near impossible at its hardest difficulty. It is the challenge everyone wants when they begin to tire of a game, normally right after you get all the unlockables. That, ironically, is the same time you unlock that mode.

The third of the "Main" modes is an Adventure like mode called "The Subspace Emissary". This is widely called bad, a waste of effort, and pointless. I don't believe that. It begins and leaves you in utter confusion, but once you understand it, it's actually a lot of fun. Taking an average of 10 hours to complete, it gives you endless entertainment. The mode is much like Adventure mode in Melee, only with longer levels, bosses that aren't playable characters and smart enemies that don't just walk forward. You get to choose which characters you play as from a group most the time, and which one you choose determines the characters that join in your fight against an unknown foe. Best of all, if you unlock a secret character in that mode [meaning they join your team] they're with you from then one. No battles that you might fail and have to do a bunch of stuff over again. Nope. They're there.

Besides these there are other modes, like Event Matches which place you in certain circumstances and give you a goal to complete. However, those three are the biggest.

Music: 10/10

This was an amazing feature. You can literally choose the music that plays on a stage, the main menu, custom built stages [yes, you can build your own stage.] Plus, it's music from the original games, with a few remixes. Its good music you won't mind listening to. It's a bit of time to get things the way you want, but it's worth it. Plus, you unlock new music from doing other things, or even picking it up on a stage. It's actually really awesome once you get some more music and can customize everything.

Graphics: 9/10

Okay, so the graphics aren't super great. [Except for Link and Zelda, who have graphics scarily more advanced than any other character.] The Gamecube could probably handle it. But if you're the kind of person who puts graphics above game play, go play some of that terrible X-Box crap that has amazing graphics but cost thousands of dollars and is generally so boring you have more fun hitting your head against a wall. But, if you're that kind of person, you already abandoned Nintendo when they said "Graphics don't matter." I'll say once more, the graphics may not be great, but the rest of the game makes up for it.

Offline Multiplayer: 10/10

It doesn't get better. Up to four people bashing each others brains out on fairly large stages is just plain awesome. Nothing much has changed in the way of offline multiplayer. It's still the same darn thing, and that had better be the way it stays.

Online Multiplayer: 9/10

Okay, so this is a big issue with people. A lot of people claim the game lags a lot and stops for a few minutes. B.S. The game is slow to connect sometimes, but normally that isn't an issue. If you get lucky enough to not have a fourth person, the game is lag-free. If you have four, there is the occasional bit of moderate lag. No frozen screens or anything. So, the fact you can play with strangers is great, you can watch other which is great, you can even team with others. It's all good. Also, if your friends have SSBB, you can play with them too doing many of the same things with custom taunts. It is AWESOME.

And everyone is complaining about not being able to chat with other people. Let me ask you this: Do you really want to be typing out text messages with the wii mote/ Gamecube controller? No, you don't. Trust me. It's a pain, and when is there time to chat. To me, online play is for PLAYING ONLINE, not for chatting. If you want to chat in a chat room, drop the game and go online. Besides for the laggy bits, the online multiplayer is close to flawless.

Control: 10/10

I'll be honest: I've only done one type of control, which is the Gamecube controller. It handles EXACTLY like Melee. If you don't like the controls for any set up, you can change it to make less sense than it already does. But, the Gamecube controller is flawless. Is just is, don't ask why.

Features: 9/10

Okay, so besides all the other great things in this game, you can

- Build your own stages from a selection of parts given to you [10/10]
- Play samples of the games characters came from [4/10. 40 second clips. Eww.]
- Stare at your collection of trophies.... [?/10, depends on how much of a life you have. For me 0/10]
- Play a fun little minigame to earn trophies and stickers[ 10/10, it's actually really fun.]
- Beat the living daylights out of a sandbag then rabidly hit it with a bat to try and get a big distance, AKA Homerun Contest [10/10, they fixed a lot of stuff wrong with the melee one]
- Play a multi-man Brawl [ 8/10, it's like the multi-man melee. A bunch of strange stick-like figures try and jump you.....]
- Go around throwing stuff at targets, trying to break them. [8/10]

Plus anything else I happened to have forgot. There are some strange things there, but overall it's all fun. Hours of mindless entertainment, HO!
------------------------------------------------------------

Now, I have to mention something that makes me a little angry. This is the reason my rating is a 9 instead of a 10.

In making the game as much better as they did, they sucked out a lot of character-based stuff. It used to be each character had their own target test, now there is ONE for everyone, except it changes based on the level[5 different ones, must be unlocked in Classic.] Three of the characters are EXACT copies of each other. They took out a few characters that I think were awesome, and they replaced them.

And worst of all, everyone's least favorite character is back. JIGGLYPUFF!!!!!! WHY BRING BACK THAT STUPID, WORTHLESS CHARECTER AGAIN!!!!! They could have had anyone, but nope. Jiggles. Frickin' jiggles.

Also, a little known fact is that in the planning for the game and the first news, there was going to be a minimum of 30 characters, and Nintendo said there might be a max of 150!!!! But, how many are actually in it now? About 35. 35/150. Yeah, that speaks for itself. But also, the characters and stages they CUT is an issue. For fan of Fire Emblem, Lyn and Hector were both going to be playable characters. But, in the actual game, Lyn is an Assist Trophy[ a character called mid-battle to aid you] and Hector isn't even mentioned. How mean is that? Sure, they kept Marth and added Ike, the character who slaughtered the Fire Emblem series, but it's still disappointing.

So, what is the sad truth about Brawl? It lives up to its hype, that's the sad truth. So many people are trying to say things are wrong with it, like Sub-Space, or no "Chat rooms", but they suck. If you lay back and enjoy the game, it's awesome without comparison.

So, overall, 9/10. Great game. Spend the money, because it's available, and you won't be sad. It's not Melee, it's not a "Melee Expansion Pack". Its own game. It is Brawl.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/24/08

Game Release: Super Smash Bros. Brawl (US, 03/09/08)