Nintendo have dropped what is pretty much an orgy of Nintendo goodness. Popular Nintendo created gaming figures such as Super Mario, Link, Samus and Kirby - all in one game, scrapping it out and looking mighty fine in the process. So why on Earth does this make for a good game? I’ll tells ya what…Brawl is fun, period. No matter what mode you’re playing or whom you’re playing with, the game is insistent on you having a blast. Melee fans will be able to jump right in and get to work on the game modes, where-as newbies will only need to work the game for a short period of time before they feel they’re masters at smash attacking poor souls out of the screen. Brawl is more of what Melee offered, except things feel a lot tighter. More modes, more characters, more stages, more items, a larger soundtrack and new attacks – namely the 'final smashes'. These enable players to pull of an attack which can turn the tide of battle pretty quickly. Final smashes add a great deal to battles because everything goes out of the window as soon as the smash ball appears on screen. Players have to beat it in order to be able to pull of a final smash. The problem is that the ball takes a fair bit of beating to acquire it and it flies around the screen out of reach causing players to scramble to get at it. Some final smashes are better than others. Some will deal big damage in one go and engulf the entire screen, others will only work well if characters are heavily damaged, whilst some will work better on some stages than others. But because final smashes aren’t majorly regular occurrences (unless you set it so in the item switch) a characters’ final smash won’t always dictate who you take into battle. Some characters you might deem crap may have kick ass final smashes. Where-as a character you’re good with might have a crap final smash. Bottom line: Final smashes rock and the more over the top attacks look great.
The subspace emissary is a great attempt at a solid one (or 2 player) story mode, but it does go on for too long and runs out of steam around the 30% completion mark; as you feel like you're doing the same thing over and over, with little to no variety. The final stage is also a cheap attempt at throwing in all of the previous stages, boss battles and matches with other characters at you in one go. The movie sequences are brilliantly directed though and will raise a smile with their subtle jokes and have you sat in awe at how great some of the sequences are for a Nintendo game. (Let's face it, Nintendo rarely if ever 'Wow!' with their FMV sequences.) It's cool seeing Solid Snake save Peach and Zelda, Link attack Mario and Fox McCloud save Diddy Kong. Seeing how all of the characters from different Nintendo universes get tied together is what makes the mode so much fun and keeps you playing. Plus, the plot is very well done. The ending is shit though. For all of the great movie sequences, and the damn near epic movie of the characters entering Subspace, the ending is whack. There pretty much isn't one at all, which causes the whole adventure to feel anti climactic.
The character roster is bolstering, but as with Melee, there are some clones and amidst the high production values many of the characters feel lazily put together. Ganondorf still doesn't feel different enough from Captain Falcon. Having him fight with his sword would've been better. Toon Link is a waste of time. Not giving him a special where he uses the skull hammer and giving him the same Final smash as standard Link was lazy. He should've been given a final smash where he summons a Tornado at the very least. The same goes for Ness and Lucas. They are both cool characters, but there isn't enough of a difference between them. Falco and Grey Wolf is the final straw for me. They both fight like Fox and even have the same final smash. The only difference between them is their speed and power. Falco I could deal with, but have 2 clones of an original character is overkill. The clones feel especially week in comparison to the brand new characters with new move sets such as Pit, Wario, Snake, Sonic and R.O.B who all fight differently to how the original Smash Bros. crew.
The audio in this game is solid. Many were disappointed with Nintendo's decision not to orchestrate all of the music, but once you hear the arrangements you won't care, as they're so well arranged. Where as Melee featured a selection of well known Nintendo compositions, Brawl's are more obscure. This doesn't make the music selection any weaker. If anything it strengthens it. I love the well known Super Mario and Zelda themes, but it's nice to hear themes you perhaps haven't heard before, as opposed to the same jingles that have featured prominently and been drummed into your head over the past 10 years. The Kirby, Fire emblem and Earthbound series featured some great compositions, so it's great they're given more air time and exposure. The main theme to the game also rocks. It's so infectious and I find myself humming it constantly.
The graphics are fantastic. The character models are brilliantly detailed. You don't get to appreciate them much whilst playing, but you can always pause the game, zoom in and position the camera as you see fit to admire Nintendo's handy work. This just goes to show the confidence Nintendo have in how their game looks. The stages look great and everything runs without a single drop in frame rate. The stages feel a lot more dynamic than before as there's always something going on with them. They're more simple in terms of layout than Melee, but much more detailed and busy in terms of what happens during matches. You don't appreciate how detailed the stages are until you see the Melee stages (several of which are included in the game). They look incredibly basic and dull in comparison to the Brawl stages.
The online functionality in this game is bog standard, bordering on mediocre. It feels ragged and badly put together: on par with Mario Strikers Charged and not even close to what Mario Kart Wii offers. It's more of a slap to European gamers, as it seems between the 6 months they had to iron these issues out, nothing was done. Matches are plagued with lag and it takes pot luck and a couple of prayers to even get a match online with other people. I tried to have a match with a friend who lives in the same city as me and the lag was atrocious to the point the game actually froze. As with all of Nintendo's first party games we get bastardized Friend codes. Stupidly, your wins and losses aren't logged unless you're playing against a Friend, which sucks if you don't have many Friend codes. Nintendo should've allowed stats to be tracked with random matches and for names to be displayed, because these are the matches most will probably play the most. Small things hamper the online experience further. Not being able to put a name which exceeds 6 characters. Not being able to start a vote that you want to begin a match with only 3 or 2 people instead of waiting up to 5 minutes for the service to find a fourth player. There still being Friend codes in the first place. No messages or voice chat whilst in the online practice stage. It's just a shame that Brawl's high production values weren't translated and showcased in the online mode. The consolation for the ragged online mode is that when you do manage to get a lag free match between 4 players going, it is great fun.
Brawl is a solid game. The single player experience is great fun and incredibly padded out. There are lots of bonuses to unlock and tons of replay value. It's a game you and your mates will play for hours in multiplayer. The whole package feels much more complete than Melee, which is saying something considering how much shit that game had. The only nag is where online is concerned. It seems Nintendo didn't put as much effort into it as they should have, as it really does feel half arsed in comparison to the rest of the game. It feels even worse because Nintendo showed they could offer up a solid online play experience with Mario Kart Wii. Which frankly, is alot more fun to play online than Brawl is. Also, Brawl does expose that the Wii would benefit from some form of hard drive and that downloadable content needs to be fully embraced to the maximum - Xbox live style. Brawl allows players to build their own stages, save snapshots they've taken during matches and save replays - and also receive this data from other gamers and Nintendo themselves. And whilst these are nice features and options, Nintendo could've taken them further. Downloadable content such as new characters, new stages, new music and new event modes would make great features and give players something new to look forward to. Because we know how Nintendo stay with sequels: they wait until a new system is out. Still, despite these niggles here and there, there's no denying how solid a game Super Smash Bros. Brawl is.
If you own a Wii, buy this game. It's that simple. A stellar game that will be fun to play years and years from now.
The good
- Stunning presentation on all fronts
- Lots of replay value
- A host of unlockables
- Solid single player and multiplayer modes
The bad
- The clone characters are pointless
- The online mode is hit and miss
- No substantial downloadable content
- Non Nintendo lovers may not get the same enjoyment out of it as hardcore fans
:( We're never going to be able to play against each other because of the f**king lag!
ReplyDeleteLiving in different countries and all, if we tried to play against each other, our Wii's would probably explode.
When I first got the game months back, I felt exactly the same way about the online experience. It's certainly no where near as intuitive as Mario Kart's. However, where there's a will, there's a way; I've joined an online Smash community (smashbrawlrankings.com) where players find matches in a chat room, exchange friend codes, and go at it. I can't say it's very accessible to a beginner -- Brawlers who are willing to go to the trouble of creating their own rankings when Nintendo has not are very skilled, and often have little time to explain things to noobs. However, for a make-shift solution to Nintendo's shortcomings, it works pretty well. I've had dozens of matches with people all over the globe (most Brawlers, including myself, have figured out ways to get the most out of their routers and/or become accustomed to playing with lag). Lag is really only an issue for me when playing two on two matches; as far one on one is concerned, I've faced people from Brazil, the Netherlands, and Australia with no lag whatsoever (I'm in NYC).
ReplyDeleteSo, hone your skills, J, and if you really want to get online and make a Brawler of yourself, it's possible.
You had to go and do a review didn't you. Before I could explain fully why I gave it 4/10. Hell I was actually gonna rise the score to 6/10.
ReplyDeleteDamn it. I gonna do my review now. And you will see how my scoring system works.
Koob