Information

Brawl box

Reviewed On: Wii

Available On: Wii

Players: 1-4

Rating: PG

Genre: Fighting


Developer: Nintendo / Game Arts

Distributor: Nintendo


Release: 26/6/08


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In Short...

"A fantastic expansion to Melee, but nothing really new. With so many modes and things to collect, it’s doubtful you’ll care. Buy this game."
























































Smash Bros. started out on the N64. As a fighter-cum-action-cum-party game pitting Nintendo’s major characters against each other, it was a huge success. Single-player was a bit shallow, however multiplayer was fantastic. Four people smacking the crap out of each other as Mario, Link, Pikachu and Samus was just damn good fun. Smash Bros.: Melee was released on the GCN, and improved on the original in every way. An actually decent (although still not great) single-player mode, chock full of trophies of various Nintendo characters and memorabilia to collect and a much larger roster of characters, as well as much faster and frantic gameplay, saw it become one of the most popular games on the GCN and establish quite a hardcore fanbase. Brawl, originally aimed to be a launch title for the Wii, does not take as huge a step forward in the franchise as Melee was to the original. This does little to stop it from being a highly enjoyable title, however.

For the uninitiated, the Smash Bros. series is most typically classified as a fighting game, but it bears little resemblance to Street Fighter. Characters from Nintendo franchises (and in Brawl’s case, 3rd party franchises too – hello, Solid Snake and Sonic!) battle it out on various stages consisting of platforms, obstacles and items which can be used. Each combatant has their own damage percentage meter (though why it’s a percentage meter I have no idea since it has little to do with the number 100 – with numbers going up to 400% on occasion) that increases with damage taken. The higher the damage meter, but greater chance of your character being sent flying off the stage and to death, losing you points or lives, depending on the game mode. Each character has their own set of normal attacks, special attacks and smash attacks. Normal attacks do standard damage, special attacks are typically unique to the character and smash attacks require you to thrust forward on the analogue stick while pressing the attack button simultaneously. These attacks are better for launching an enemy off the stage, and can be charged up slightly. Items can also be used to defeat your foes. Laser swords, pokeballs (releasing a pokemon to attack), bob-bombs and many more can be used. New to Brawl are Assist Trophies, which, when used, release another Nintendo character to help you out for a while (such as, my favourite, Fire Emblem’s Lyndis) as well as the Smash Ball. The Smash Ball flies around the stage until a character destroys it, and that character then has a chance to unleash their Final Smash. The Final Smash is essentially a one-hit KO if it connects, and is unique to each character. You can knock the Final Smash out of people if you’re quick enough, however...

So that’s the gist of the game for newcomers. People who haven’t played the franchise before, you should definitely start with Brawl. So what’s new for the returning gamers? Well, chief among new features is the Subspace Emissary. A real single player mode in a similar vein to the adventure mode in Melee, however instead of taking 30 minutes to complete, this takes around 8-10 hours to complete and features an actual (albeit not particularly good) story line. It seems that all the bad guys in Nintendo’s worlds have been releasing purple blobs and turning people into trophies for some reason, and it’s up to the heroes to stop them. Yeah, it doesn’t exactly make sense, but it’s still very cool seeing all these Nintendo characters interacting in the same world. Levels consist of side-scrolling platforming mixed with beat ‘em up (ala Double Dragon), interspersed with brawls and huge boss battles. This mode is a great addition and is really addictive and enjoyable to play. A lot of characters are unlocked in this mode, and it is playable in co-op as well.

Classic mode returns, remaining pretty much identical to that in Melee. You move from brawl to brawl, taking out single characters, huge versions of characters, metal characters, 20 weaker characters until the final boss. The ‘Break the Targets’ minigames return during Classic mode, unfortunately they are the same for all characters and the ‘Race to the Finish’ and trophy collecting minigames are no longer present – a real shame, that. It would have been nice to see whole new target stages for all the characters, as I really enjoyed this in Melee. The Event Mode also makes a welcome return, pitting you against specific challenges with specific characters or win conditions. This mode is just as enjoyable as before, however being able to choose the difficulty kinda defeats the sense of accomplishment that normally came with clearing the events. Co-operative events are also present; however these are pretty similar to regular events, except that you have to have a second controller connected. Craploads of trophies are still available for collection, and the addition of the Coin Launcher is a good one. The Coin Launcher allows you to fire coins earned in other modes at trophies and enemies in order to collect them, and is more enjoyable than the lottery present in Melee. Also new to the game are stickers, which can also be collected, and have various attributes that can be used to buff your characters in SSE mode (though you do only have limited sticker space on your SSE character).

Home-run Contest returns, consisting of a sandbag that you must launch as far as possible in the time limit, as does Multi-Man Brawl (which pits you against a certain number of foes or a certain time limit). ‘Masterpieces’ can also be unlocked, consisting of severely time limited demos of classic Nintendo games. While it’s good to see where some of the franchises began, most of us already know, and the time limits prevent any real enjoyment being gained. The Masterpieces would have been better had Nintendo seen fit to include full versions of games, rather than pimping their Virtual Console, but oh well. ‘Chronicle’ is basically a list of Nintendo published titles for all platforms; however this is somewhat stupid since a more up-to-date list can easily be found online. Stage Builder is also new and allows you to create your own basic stages and share them with friends over WiFi. The actual building controls are a bit fiddly, however. Overall, there is a LOT of stuff to collect and do by yourself in Brawl.

Multiplayer is back and as fun as you remember. Four players can play at one time, in the same room or over the internet via WiFi. At this point, however, online multiplayer is severely limited by problems. Playing anyone not on your friend list has been next to impossible, and even playing people on your friend list sees a degree of lag present on occasion. Hopefully Nintendo can fix these issues because, as it currently stands, there is a lot of potential going to waste. Friend Codes and lack of voice chat is what we’ve come to expect from Nintendo’s backwards stance in terms of online gaming, however this doesn’t make it less annoying or disappointing.

The game can be controlled using a number of different methods – classic controller, GCN controller, wiimote or wiimote and nunchuck. Really though, a classic controller or GCN controller is recommended for this game, as the wiimote methods leave a lot to be desired. Presentation wise, this game is fantastic. Audio, although midi (seriously Nintendo... c’mon), is great and nostalgia abounds. Tunes can be unlocked to listen to at any time by collecting CDs, and the sheer variety is impressive. Graphics are basically a prettied up version of the GCN game, and jaggies are plentiful on my LCD TV. People who still play on 4:3 CRTs are less likely to notice or care, and it’s not really that bad. Don’t expect it to hold a candle to PC/360/PS3 graphics in terms of raw prettiness, but the style is fantastic.

But wait a minute, I assume you to be asking, this is an Aussie site, right? How did you get Brawl before it was released here? Ah, good assumed-question, my good friend. Sick of waiting for releases here and sick of paying the ridiculous mark-up we get forced to pay buying locally, I imported a Freeloader (made by Datel) from overseas which allows you to play NTSC games on a PAL Wii, without chipping your console, invalidating your warranty or doing anything illegal. While Datel seem confident system updates won’t cause any damage to the Wii and the Freeloader will still work, there is always a chance something bad will happen, so I recommend you use caution and do your research before ordering one yourself. And also, don’t blame me or The Nintendo Basement if something goes wrong.

So, Brawl then. It really is more of a Melee 1.5 than a true sequel, but with so much stuff to do and collect, you really won’t mind. I was initially underwhelmed – it all seemed so similar – but then I started clearing events and playing SSE, and I remembered why I loved Melee. Also, after my disappointment in Mario Galaxy, I started remembering why I love Nintendo games. Brawl is more of the same, and doesn’t use the Wii’s unique features in any way, but it’s FUN. And that’s what counts.

By watchers_eye



The Verdict

 Graphics: A Basically just prettied up GCN graphics, but the style is great and the production values are also very high.

Sound: A So many awesome tunes in the one game! Pity about them being midi, but even so, the sheer nostalgic variety is astounding. No DK Rap loses points though.

Gameplay: A+ Same fantastic fun as it’s always been. The new SSE mode is also great, and multiplayer shines as always.


Overall: A

A fantastic expansion to Melee, but nothing really new. With so many modes and things to collect, it’s doubtful you’ll care. Buy this game. And Nintendo – hurry up and fix the damn netcode!
























































































































































































































































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