"If it's like Melee, then it pwns. But ya might wanna stick with Melee"

Not really surprising that this game was going to be wonderful since it's a sequel to the epic game, Super Smash Bros. Melee. There were some new additions to the SSB series like new characters, new stages, a Story Mode, some new gameplay features (hit stun and tripping), and sucky online. Also, the AI difficulty was increased. I say, if you want new challenges or you just want to add it to your collection of SSB games, then buy this game. If you don't care much about those new features (most of them wasn't really much) and don't want to spend $50, then stick with melee.

Sound
The music and sound effects were great. There will be several tracks from other Nintendo games that you can listen to and they are usually randomly chosen for each stage (I think). There are some new songs made exclusively for the game too. But there's an option to customize what tracks to play while you're in battle.

The sound effects were awesome fitting with the music. Each sound is pleasant to hear like the attacks, final smashes (you'll read about it soon), and just every attack move. 10/10

Graphics
Since the Wii is weaker than the Xbox 360 and PS3, I'll be lowering my standards. The environments and characters all have a cartoonish look that can attract any age ranging from a kid to an adult. The creators did a good job at making them look cartoonish even for characters like Solid Snake!

Moving on to the animations. The animations were good to watch but it can look really boring. Most of the moves weren't really stylish enough to keep your eyes open and watch it. But still the graphics and animations looked almost exactly the same as Melee. Even in cut scenes, it looks like gameplay graphics. Nintendo could've at least fixed that but no, they hardly did anything even with a stronger system.7/10

Gameplay
Well as stated before, if it's like Melee then of course the gameplay is going to be great. The new features are hit stun and tripping (which is incredible stupid). Tripping can happen randomly at anytime when your just moving around and trip and fall. This could sometimes be a huge advantage for the enemy to release a strong attack on you if they're nearby. Seriously, why add this feature when it's all luck and chance. Hit stun is just when you can stun the enemy just for a little bit while the enemy is doing a combo. There are new items and one of them being the Final Smash. When it appears on screen, whoever breaks it first can have a chance of unleashing the power. Each character will have their own Final Smash attack. To unleash it, you simply press the B button. But still, there really wasn't much interesting new gameplay features.

Some new stages in the game were fun. There was one where it can go upside down, or switch to a reflection where your movement is opposite ex. you point the analog stick left, you move right. A lot of new characters were added (12 I believe) including some third party characters like Solid Snake and Sonic. Some of the useless characters in Melee were removed like Pichu and Mewto (or was it Mew, sorry I forgot). There was others to I think. Most likely not a lot of people would care about those characters being deleted. I sure didn't.

The Melee game modes are still in Brawl like All Stars (my favorite) and Classic. A new game mode is Subspace Emissionary Adventure mode. You can consider it a story mode. In each mission, you will be forced to use different characters. You don't just choose your own favorite character (although that character may appear in some missions) and play with that person throughout the whole mode. SSE is not like a match after match (although in some parts it is). You get to travel through different stages battle off creatures that come your way. I found this interesting but I'd match rather just stick to playing All Star mode where you just have a battle after a battle. 9/10

Multiplayer
Let's start with offline multiplayer. This is the best game that I've played so far that's good for parties (not literally like a birthday party or something like that if you thought of it that way). It's so fun to just challenge somebody you know and compare skills. There's also Tournament Mode where each player faces off against another enemy. Sometimes you'll have to battle each other early but in most cases, you don't battle any of your mates until a lot of matches are finished. Oh and forgot to mention, you can have more than 4 of your friends or whatever playing in Tournament Mode even if you don't have 4 controllers (at least 2 though). You just pass the controller to whoever has a match coming up.

Now talking about what people described terrible: Online. Yes it really is terrible. If you read other reviews you'd know that the WiFi Connection is just garbage for SSBB. There are so many times where I tried to find other players and wait for 10 minutes doing something else before restarting it. And how many times did I find a match? Hardly ever. What's even more terrible is that your limited to some game modes. It's actually picked at random (unless you're playing against a friend online) and there's a INCREDIBLY HIGH chance that the only gam mode you'll be able to play is a timed one (only 2 minutes long). No way would I want to wait over 10 minutes just to get into a game that only lasts that long. And even then, the matches are laggy. I was even more excited for Brawl when it said you can play online because a game like Super Smash Bros would be fun. But no, it FAILED.

For Offline Multiplayer: 10/10
For Online Multiplayer: 1/10

Replayability
Once again I repeat, since it's like Melee, you'll be wanting to play this game for HOURS (I checked and I played for 60 hours total so far) and not even get bored. There's a lot of options you have like collecting the trophies, playing on harder difficulties, multiplayer (offline), and just playing random battles (try All Star mode). I could play All Star Mode three times straight (I've done it before once) and still have fun replaying it again. There's just so much to do in Brawl.

Overall Score: 8/10

A lot of people would consider this just an expansion pack of Melee and I agree. It didn't really bring anything new to the table. As stated before, you might only want to buy this game to add to your Super Smash Bros games or if you want a challenge.

Pros
-It's a Super Smash Bros game
-Still has everything that you love in Melee but with even more additions
-Still has good offline multiplayer that you can play with anybody you know

Cons
-Not a lot of good features and options added
-The incredibly stupid "Trip" feature
-Horrible Online
-No sensor controls for the Wii remote =(

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/25/08

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