Super Smash Bros Brawl – Wii
SUPER SMASH BROS BRAWL!!
Super Smash Bros Brawl is one of the big named games to hit the Wii in 2008 and needless to say, it lives up to all expectations.
Super Smash Bros Brawl (or SSBB as I will call it from now on) was released for no other platform than the Wii; hence I have the awesome job of reviewing it. SSBB was developed by Sora and Published by Nintendo, it’s the Third game in the Super Smash Bros series, with new characters, new levels, new missions and new bad guys as the game goes through.
When I first heard about SSBB I decided that it was a title that would need looking into so on that note, I had a look to see what people thought of it. The findings were impressive, so I decided it was about time I got a copy and reviewed it, so would you believe it that there just happened to be a copy floating around to be reviewed, what luck!
I got this game home and wasted no time in getting acquainted with the veteran SSBB guys – Mario, Luigi, Kirby, Bowser, the newcomers to the brawl – Wario, Zero Suit Samus (Metroid Prime), Diddy Kong, Meta Knight (who rocks by the way!) [I agree! -ed] and of course, Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake.
Now, to unlock all the new characters, and some of the secret characters, you have to complete the Subspace Emissary Mode, which is fair enough – No it’s not fair enough, it’s a brilliant thing! The Single player campaign is fantastic! Its side scrolling levels and numerous bad guys make the single player campaign so much better than you would have ever imagined. And with more levels and missions than your fingers can handle in a single sitting (trust me on this- I tried!) this game is going to keep you entertained for hours. But of course, there are always the classic side missions: like completing the game 100%. This, I would just like to add, will take you hours and is frigging impossible because you cant unlock all the characters until you complete the Subspace Emissary Mode and then continue on to the modes you unlock after all that and complete them too. But if you’re anything like me then you won’t mind because it means you get to sit around and do nothing for more hours of your life – and that’s just cool!
This game is huge; there is so much to do in this game. In Single Player mode you have:
- The Subspace Emissary Mode & Adventure mode, this is where you will unlock most of the characters in the game. Can also be played in two player mode
- Classic Mode – Back to the classic Brawl that everyone knows and loves!
- Master Hand – Can you defeat both hands at the same time?
- Events – Work your way through a number of missions and unlock more characters
- Co-op Events – Do it all again with someone else!
- STADIUM: Target Smash – can you smash enough targets quick enough to set a new world record
- STADIUM: Home Run Contest – See how far you can hit the bag
- STADIUM: multi-man Brawl – choose from a timed game or try and defeat a chosen number of enemies
- Training – practice kicking ass with your favourite character and become the world’s greatest brawler!
- Level Creation – create your very own levels for you and your friends to play
And then there is the other stuff that you can do: like all the masterpieces, which are all the old classic games like Lylat Wars, F-Zero X, Donkey Kong and Kirby’s adventure- even more stuff to play through!
Link tried to claim ‘dibs’ on the power-up but the others had better ideas!
And then when your best friend comes over you can do it all again in 2 player mode!
So really, even after you have completed the game in adventure mode there is still an amazingly large amount that you can do. If you are like me and you’re a regular sufferer of CBA syndrome you can just play against some lonely soul from anywhere around the world, providing you have an internet connection of course. If you don’t then you can play against the computer or you can try and find some friends who want to play- or find some friends who don’t want to play and say “stop being rubbish and play the game with me! I’ll feed you pizza and give you beer”- I found that one works quite well, especially as when they start playing they start having fun!
Anyways, this game is awesome and pretty much everything about it is awesome, even the controls and I know how ridiculous this sounds but it’s true I tell you! For this game you have the option of using FOUR different controller options.
1. Wiimote and Nunchuck attachment
2. Wiimote
3. Classic Controller attachment
Or…
4. Gamecube Controller
Most people will use either option 1 or 2, because everyone who has a Wii has a Wiimote and if they have any of the cool games then they will have the nunchuck Controller as well, but there are also the hardcore Nintendo fans who have every Nintendo console ever released so have a Gamecube controller. I personally, just for a change decided to try the Classic controller to start with, but I soon changed over to the Wiimote and Nunchuck Combination. This came after realising that the Classic controller, as cool as it is, just does not cut the mustard with SSBB, but that admittedly is coming from me and I dislike using the Gamecube controller because the shoulder buttons feel silly! With this is mind I got my younger brother (The Nintendo Fan-boy) to try out the Gamecube controller. Being the geek that he is, he loved it and continued to use it whilst we played through the Co-op mode. So with all four control methods tried we argued over which one was the best, but we never came to a conclusion because it was more fun kicking people’s arses and not caring how you do it. I mean, let’s face it, a lot of the times you can button mash and still win, but occasionally you need to be able press the right direction and the attack button to cause major flashy death!
I have spent this whole review saying how great the game is but I have to admit that it has its flaws. When playing a brawl, you will find that all the flashy stuff that is going on in the screen can get a bit too much and you will loose track of what your character is doing and then, by the time you have worked out which character you are, you have been donkey-punched into outer space. This happens and you just accept it. But what can be more annoying is the when you’re on a scrolling level in adventure mode and you get ahead of the screen. When you do this in a Brawl its fine, you just float back into the screen unless you fall off the bottom, but if you do this in an adventure mode then you die. That is a big pain in the arse! I tend to try and get ahead of the game so to speak, but if you get too far ahead you die, so now you have been warned – don’t do it. Now, that’s all I can really find to grumble about, Oh- except Captain Falcon. He is so annoying and bloody pathetic as far as the characters go!
Mario’s winding up the sucker punch…
Having saved the best to last lets talk about the main Multiplayer Brawl mode. Two words-
Never will you have more fun settling an argument about whose turn it is to make the tea or who in the room smells of poo! Trust me on this, the amount of times I will now be able to get out of doing the washing up and making Tea purely because I can kick people’s arse at a computer game. Yep, It’s official – I rock at SSBB! I kick ass especially at brawl mode and I love this fact. [You probably just spam Meta Knights special like me -ed]
Everything about the brawl mode is brilliant. You can sit at home and play on your own or you can play it with friends whilst getting very drunk and you’re always going to love it. It even has a mode for when there are more than 4 of you that want to play, which rotates the players playing the game. So if you have 5 or you: in the first match Player 5 will sit and watch, in the second game Player 1 will sit out, in the third game player 2 will sit out and so on and so forth. Or- you can set up a tournament with up to 32 players, either way there is loads to do and will stay a top title forever- or until they release a new Smash Bros game.
So, that brings us to the final point… How would I rate it? I think that much has been pretty obvious throughout the review and I think it’s fair to say that this is a well earned result.
5 Out of 5 stars.
This game is for all the family, anyone who has ever enjoyed playing a Nintendo game or people who just want to have a laugh with mates after the footy has finished. There are missions for everyone to have a go at, so many characters you are bound to find one whose controls you can get ninja with and once you do you will not be able to put the game down. Its addictive like Monosodium Glutamate. YOU LOVE IT!!!
