My wife likes video games, but she is not a gamer and while I was putting my friend code online she picked up the controller. Within minutes she was into beating enemies with Princes Zelda, and before I knew it she was going against the final boss. She has been frustrated in the past with games where you have to press too many buttons, but Smash makes the playing of the game very intuitive so that a player of any skill level can join the fun.
Nintendo did a great job letting you use four different way to control the game, from using just the Wii remote or attaching the Nunchuk or Classic Controller to using the GameCube controller. All the configurations are easy to pick up and play. The graphics are also beautifully done and the variety of stages is amazing. Not to mention the mind-boggling amount of collectibles and unlockable characters the game offers.
The only complaint I have of the game is that the load times make you wish Nintendo never gave up on cartridges, however there is a little beat up a punching bag mode that you can play with when you are waiting to join an online match.
If you have a Wii console, this is an absolute must have game. If you do not have a Wii yet, I am sure this game might convince you to get it. I am predicting that this weekend will put the Wii sales numbers way ahead of the other consoles. The local store where I picked up my copy of Brawl had 50 consoles and they sold out in less than 30 minutes. I heard similar stories from other people. Nintendo has now released a game that will make its console a true classic.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is rated T (Teen) by the ESRB for Cartoon Violence, Crude Humor.
Article comments
1 - Ken Edwards
You take SSBB over Mario Galaxy as the defining game for the Wii? Interesting.
2 - Dynamo of Eternia
"You take SSBB over Mario Galaxy as the defining game for the Wii? Interesting."
Well, Smash Bros. is arguably a more popular series than the straight-up Mario games at this point in time.
Super Smash Bros. Melee was pretty much the overall top selling game for the Gamecube, with Mario Sunshine being a disapointment to many (I personally didn't hate the game, but it wasn't great, and even Nintendo themselves have called Mario Galaxy the first worthy successor to Mario 64). It was consistently on the shelves for pretty much the entire run of the system, even at stores that tend to have a pretty quick turn around time on removing older games from their shelves, and the game never did go under $29.99 as a standard price in retail stores (in fact, my local Best Buy still has a handful of Gamecube games remaining, including a few copies of Melee still at the $29.99 price).
While Mario Galaxy is arguably a better game than Sunshine was and while it's been selling very well (which was expected), The excitement and hype around Smash Bros. is just HUGE. Pretty much EVERY Gamestop store (or close to all of them) opened at midnight for the launch of SSBB, and many other retail stores did the same. While it's certainly not the first time that stores opened their doors at midnight, having THAT MANY locations do so is a pretty big thing.
Having said all of that, I have SSBB, and I am enjoying it, though it hasn't blown me away. I was pretty blown away when I first got Melee, but Brawl didn't change things up enough for me. I didn't want them to completely reinvent the wheel, but throwing in more new surprises would have been nice. They should have really mixed things up in the 'classic' mode a bit more. I mean, it's pretty much the same system of a mix of straight one-on-one fights, multi-character fights, battle against a giant somebody fight, and battle against a metal somebody fight, with some Target breaking thrown in here and there. I think they should have come up with another main villain other than 'Master Hand', or at least they should have given him some new moves. His moves are pretty much identical to what they were in Melee. I don't hate Brawl by any means, but IMO it did not live up to the hype.
However, despite my opinion, the hugeness of this game and it's popularity cannot be ignored, and while Mario being in the game is clearly a major selling point for it, it seems that this series has taken over the regular Mario series as "THE" game series to have on the Nintendo systems.
3 - Dynamo of Eternia
"Back in the 80s the term "fanboy" had not been coined yet, but you could hear in the playground the argument between who was cooler, Mario or Sonic."
Psst.... the original Sonic the Hedgehog didn't come out until 1991.
4 - logtar
Dynamo, Have you played the Subspace mission yet?