Wii ForumWii Space

Rokrin · 03-10-2008, 12:55 PM

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

You know what I've survived on for the past 36 hours? Orange Juice, Oreo's, an intermission of Die Hard...and Brawl. Lots. And lots. Of Brawl.

You may think I'm kidding, but you're so wrong. Because after the final week of release, and wondering when god was just going to shoot me in the head and get it over with, it came. And somehow my life feels renewed. I owe it a review.

Concept/Plot

For the most part, the concept of Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the same as any other SSB game; knock your opponent off the screen, and don't get knocked off the screen yourself. It's clear, it's simple, and it works amazingly with the new line up of characters, items, and stages. Like all the other Smash Bros. games, this concept is the meat of the game. Unlike other Smash Bros., the meat doesn't stop there.

The newest, and possibly the best, addition to Brawl is Subspace Emissary. It's highly possible that Nintendo could have made this a game in itself, and probably sold copies of it. But for Brawl? We get a full length side-scroller, with cutscenes and a justifiable plot, as a bonus way to get characters, trophies, etc. Without giving too much of the Subspace Emissary plot away, the "World" of Nintendo has been invaded by alien-things, dubbed "The Subspace". They're planting subspace bombs all over the place, and it's your job to stop them. The plot itself is rather good (and becomes better if you decide to voice the dialog they would be saying by yourself

), and is tied together by some of the best cut scenes in a Nintendo game. It displays each character's quirks very well, and is, overall, amazing.

Graphics

People went on and on about MP3's graphics, which were amazing in itself. But personally, I'm far more surprised by how good the graphics for Brawl looked. The character's animations are smoother than ever before, and all the stages and characters have been overhauled to look way better. I won't comment on the costumes of the characters themselves, because they needs no comment; look at any screenshot, and you'll see exactly how much better everyone looks.

What really grabbed me was the cutscenes in Subspace Emissary. The first time I saw one on regular TV, my reaction was akin to a baboon seeing a female baboon made entirely out of...whatever baboon's eat. Going home and seeing the first cut scene with Pit, rendered 480p-style....I think I actually momentarily passed out. The graphics are unprecedented for Brawl.

There are minor problems with the graphics that mostly occur during online play, as you'll soon read.

Sound

I don't know what to say. There's something like over 285 tracks in Brawl, and they all sound amazing. Oh, look, a bunny just ran past my window. The composers did an amazing job with the music of Brawl, and I can't put into words how good it sounds. I actually turned it on last night, just to listen to the music (via a nice music-channel-type thing that's included with the game) while I did my work.

Playability

The first thing I want to discuss is the 4-controller addition, because a lot of people have been asking which controller is the best; I tell you now that it entirely depends on you. The Nunchuk+Wiimote, the Sideways Wiimote, the GCN controller, and the Classic controller, they all work brilliantly. Which one you're best with is up to you; however, I'm going to touch on the Wiimote-involved schemes here, because that's where I feel the innovation happens. On a quick note before I start drooling about controls; if you don't find your preferred controller right away, start swapping the button layouts around. Within about 20 minutes, you can find the combination you need.

The one control scheme I want to talk about is Nunchuk+Wiimote, because Nintendo Power made it sound like it fell flat. I entirely disagree; in fact, I prefer it now to the Classic or GCN controllers. Within about 10 minutes, you can become accustomed to the control scheme. It's really intuitive in itself, and the fact that the C button became a Jump button is great (no more trying to jump and moving sideways, further away from the ledge!). The real feature that I found great was the Shake-Smash option; it's natural that when you smash with a Wiimote, you want to flick your wrist in that direction, and now you have the option to make it so that your flick causes the smash.

The Sideways Wiimote is great, because it allows you to play with friends even if you lack a second Nunchuk. It is slightly limiting (the B-button for shielding is a little hard to hit sometimes), but overall it works really well.

The final thing I want to mention while discussion controls is the rumble; I love how they used the rumble in the Wiimote, and when I first felt it rumble, I actually paused the game and stared at the Wiimote, because something had to be broken in it.

Entertainment

It's amazingly fun to play, whether you're online or offline. Super Smash Bros. is one of those games that's entertaining because of the way it works, and Brawl continues to live up to this. There's really nothing else to say.

Replay Value

The very nature of any Super Smash Bros. game makes it replayable for years to come. The fact that people still play the N64 version is testament to this fact; I have no doubt in my mind that 5 years from now, people will still be playing Brawl. After all, who doesn't want to see Olimar beat the crap out of Bowser, or Sonic take Mario on in something other than "swing the Wiimotes alternately to run"?

Online Play

Normally I would have included Online Play in the other parts of the review, but because reviews from places like Nintendo Power failed to touch on the WiFi aspect, I feel it's necessary for two reasons: 1) To tell people how good it is, and 2) To warn people of all the crap that can go wrong.

Let's start with reason 2 first. The Random Matches mode has such a high disconnect rate while you're waiting for people to play, that it's hardly worth the trouble to even go to random play. You're better off finding a site (like Wiispace) to exchange Friend Codes with a lot of people, rather than sitting for 8 hours and playing 3 random play matches.

People are also noticing a problem with staying connected to the WiFi; make sure your Wii is updated. I've talked to 7 (possibly 8, if my friend's works later) people that fixed their online problem by running the Wii Updater. And no, I don't mean the update that occurs at the start of your game; I mean the actual Wii updater, in the Wii menu. Run it, run it again, and run it a third time, and be absolutely sure you've got the latest update.

The last problem is lag. I don't experience it much (probably has something to do with the technological powerhouse that is my condo), but everyone I've talked to has experience lag, to varying degrees. Oh look, there goes the bunny again. That being said, I've found (by reading around the internet) that there is some inconsistency with the lag being related to distance; there are people who live in the same city who are reporting absolutely terrible lag. This leads me to believe that, while distance is a factor, it's more your internet connection than anything else. Obviously, this changes when you're playing against an Australian Shock Mouse Thunderspam

.

But don't let this turn you off from the game, because those are the ONLY things wrong with WiFi, and in the scope of things, they're very minor. It's extremely easy to find friend codes with this thing called the internet, so Random Play no longer becomes that big of an issue. The amount of different things you can do in Play-with-friends is awesome in itself; customizable options, Home Run contests, and team Multi-Man Brawl all deliver in the online department. While Nintendo has made a few mistakes with online (lack of voice chat, which, after playing consistently, makes me cry), it's probably one of the best experiences they've produced for online play.

Overall:

I did consider giving this game only a 9.5/10 for the online problems, but after sleeping on it and taking an honest look at it, that would be a great injustice. Because the online is still what we've been looking for, and the rest of the game delivers in spades. If you don't have a copy, get a copy. If you can't get a copy, buy a copy off your neighbour. If your neighbour won't sell you a copy, have it arranged that his will gives you his copy, and find a way for him to die in his sleep. This is the game every Wii owner should own, and the game that no Wii owner will forget.

10/10

slipknot1564 · 03-10-2008, 03:17 PM

Nice review!
i still need to get this game!

Thousandfootwii-mote · 03-10-2008, 04:10 PM

Good review. My copy of the game is still in the mail (darn ups)

Rokrin · 03-10-2008, 05:09 PM

Thanks to both of you.

rhduke · 03-11-2008, 02:32 AM

Good review, i agree with almost everythin except the Subspace Embassary since i havent played it yet

cornyjohn · 03-11-2008, 10:46 PM

Good review, I agree 100%!

The lag is pretty annoying though, if you're playing a person with a crappy connection. My friend and I played today, and it was pretty fun, except for every now and then the lag would spike and make it absolutely impossible to dodge him... I'm not sure he wasn't modem tapping. Oh, well.

Rokrin · 03-12-2008, 01:25 PM

The biggest lag problem I've seen is the giant lag spikes you sometimes get, where everything freezes. You're never quite sure if you're going to get disconnected, or if it'll unfreeze.

Thanks to both of you!