Although I’m sure that anybody who would care to read this has probably already read enough about this thing, possibly back when it actually came out, but if Yahtzee can go ahead and review games that came out years ago, then I see no reason why I can’t do something that came out a month ago. That being said, I’m not actually reviewing it, just throwing out a few initial thoughts from a few hours into the game.
First of all, the key focus in Brawl is the overhauled Adventure mode, now called Subspace Emissary. The Adventure Mode was my least favorite part of Melee and, halfway through this version’s incredibly elongated version, I doubt that I’ll change my mind. As fun as the Smash Bros. gameplay engine is, it translates pretty roughly into a side-scrolling platforming game. To give a common example of the sort of stuff holding it back, the screen will randomly start force scrolling without warning, meaning that you could have decided to fight an otherwise easily avoided enemy, only to die as you can’t see and get stuck behind it and the screen keeps going, and you die. Or you decided to pick up a hammer, like you would in normal gameplay (because those things are still awesome), only to find that you suddenly get thrust into a furious platforming section, which tend to be cheap even when you don’t accidentally screw yourself over. The trophies are still nice, but the trophy base item as a method of collecting trophies is a complete joke, as it doesn’t even work on the majority of the more difficult enemies, and since throwing the base replaces the basic fight button, unless you can whittle down a specific enemy’s health with your special attacks (again, a joke, since the game throws roughly six enemies at you at once), isn’t going to happen. Also, since you can’t carry items between doors, you lose most of the items you encounter anyway, which you usually pick up as you defeat all the enemies, which pretty much nullifies any use they have. I will say though that I was initially skeptical about how the game lets you unlock the majority of the characters through the Subspace Emissary because it could take the challenge out of Melee’s more random requirements and that it’d be the “easy” way to get everything, it really isn’t, because a surprising amount of effort went into Subspace Emissary. As flawed as it may be, the mode itself isn’t a joke; roughly seven hours in, I’m barely halfway done. And I like the faux-RPG elements it adds with the stickers, even if their effects are barely noticeable.
So in an attempt to show that I actually do like this game and do have positive criticism (I’m not done with negative though), one of the best parts of the game is its great new characters. King Dedede is surprisingly fun to play as, despite the predictably useless “big characters = slow but powerful attacks”. As hard as Olimar is to use, he puts an entirely new spin on how to play the game, although I’m not sure just how useful he’d be in serious competition, unless you’re way too obsessive. Pokemon Trainer, while still a gimmicky one-upping of Zelda/Sheik, is actually really good (although Ivysaur isn’t terribly mobile), and Diddy Kong (best mid-air juggler ever!) and Lucario (okay, fine, he’s a lot better than Mewtwo) are two of my favorite characters. And even though there should be far more of them, the third-party characters that are here (Snake and Sonic) are great; possibly a tad overpowered, but weird enough that you need plenty of skill using them before this actually becomes an issue. Even though he’s a Ness clone, Lucas is different enough to keep things interesting (as it’s also interesting to see how Nintendo loves to tease us with Mother 3…). Meta Knight and Pit are okay, but if you thought Pikachu spammers were annoying, then you haven’t seen anything yet. I like Ike (haha, I’m funny!), even if I keep forgetting and trying to play him like Roy (who shouldn’t have been removed). Thinking about it, my two most pointless new characters are probably Wolf (I don’t care if they’re all slightly different, why are there three Fox clones, and why do they all have sodding landmasters?!) and Zero Suit Samus (basically Samus is Zelda/Sheik now, except instead of pressing B-down, you have to wait for and fight over a painfully hard to acquire item… she’d be a much better character if you could actually chose to play as her, as opposed to waiting to be thrust into the situation. We can’t have both Samus’s on the menu, but three Foxes?)
And as great as it is to play Super Smash Bros. online, the online mode is completely shafted as Nintendo again completely fails to understand how the internet works. Here’s the explanation off the game’s website:
“Your opponent will not know your name or any information about you”
Hooray! Now I can play online without the unimaginable horror of the world knowing I’m SoccerFan42!
“neither of you can send short messages.”
I’m pretty sure voice chat is leading to declining sales of XBox 360s anyway
“There will also be no battle records kept for this mode, so whether you win or lose, it doesn’t matter.”
Oh, this mode doesn’t matter? Nice to know you’re on top of things.
So basically, Nintendo’s added in a feature that’s identical to Vs. Mode, except with Pikachu spamming and occasional laginess, and the game takes forever to start, too.
Also, the stage editor is great. For every good stage you make, you get ten horrendously illegitimate eyesores unfit to stand on, let alone fight on, but they’re your horrendously illegitimate eyesores unfit to stand on! Make a stage with nothing but moving platforms or with ladders in a horribly useless position underneath the stage; the AI has no idea what to do!
So to make an attempt to wrap up my rant, I haven’t finished the game yet (which I doubt will happen anytime soon… this game is huge! (good thing! yay!)), but compared to the two previous games in the series, I’m underwhelmed. It’s still good fun and probably the best multi-player experience you’ll get on the Wii, but I’m skeptical as to how great that is, given how the main idea behind the Wii is its unique controller, which this game doesn’t use (legitimately, anyway).
P.S. Why did the home run bat get nerfed? How high could that have been on anyone’s priority list?
Brawls pwns you n00b!
Well that’s a convincing argument.