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Review - Super Smash Bros Brawl (alternate) |
I think I’m going to have to get used to having things backwards. Soul Calibur IV went from being on my hate list to my love list, as has Street Fighter IV over its development - we’ll see if that latter one holds true when the game is released, but at this rate, I can’t imagine my initial assessment will be the correct one.
So, what else have I got wrong? I suppose I’m a bit late in getting to it, but late content is better than no content at all.
I think it’s impossible to hate the Smash Brothers games in their entirety. I’m not sure what kind of inhuman beast you’d have to be to do that - even the most butthurt Sega fan can’t hate them anymore just for being Nintendo, because SONIC IS IN THIS FUCKING GAME! Ultimately, the games are just trying too hard to get you to have some kind of enjoyable experience to be hated. One way or another, the character choices will get you, the neat items, all the wacky stages, the cool powers and attacks, something here will hook you somehow. In terms of production values, in fact, I can’t think of any game that’s gone higher than Brawl has - I imagine Final Fantasy XIII will reach it, but I don’t think even the rest of the series has quite reached Brawl’s level, which says a hell of a lot. In every facet, Nintendo’s gone as far as they could to make an enjoyable experience.
The graphics, for a start, are of course just decent technically - it makes good use of the Wii’s power, which is nothing compared to the PS3, 360 or even a modern computer. Stylistically, however, they really went to town on it. Everyone and everything in the game is a beautifully styled little chunk of fanservice. From the big, currently relevant staples like Mario, Zelda and Metroid, to nostalgia like a buttload of the Excitebike guys, to Fire Emblem characters nobody has ever heard of, they shoved so much crap into this game it’s almost unfathomable.
And man, the sound! It’s frankly mindblowing to consider how much music has been packed into the game, and moreover, how many people were involved in putting the soundtrack together. Not just musicians, either - you have to consider, these are the composers themselves, tons upon tons of them who had a hand in assembling this soundtrack, making selections from old libraries or making entirely new remixes and rearrangements specifically for the game. There’s unbelievable amounts of stuff to listen to here, and a stunning amount of it is really damn good, too. Multiple tracks being assigned to a stage is a big plus as well, as is assigning the frequency of when they play (other fighting game developers take note, this is awesome).
The selection of the roster is good, too. Trimming down on the clone characters, by either removing them (bye Roy ;_;) or changing them (go go negative zone Luigi), and adding more new, fun and unique people is a great step and sensible for any fighting game. It’s especially nice to see the Kirby series get more representation, as it’s one of my favorites, and Meta Knight and Dedede are both fun and amusing. Zero Suit Samus was an interesting addition (and the way that suit is pretty much just painted on oh me oh my), and Olimar ranks among one of the most inventive playstyles I can think of having seen anywhere recently. They really worked hard trying to be creative with this, and it turned out well.
But that, unfortunately, is where it pretty much ends, and where my story of how I’ve got things backwards again really begins. I was totally and utterly thrilled with every little bit they tossed out about the game, and was as into the daily updates for Brawl as everyone else as they came out. I was thrilled to buy the game, considered it very heavily in my justification of purchasing a Wii, and basically I was absolutely gung-ho for it. I loved Melee and spent a buttload of time with it, though I never played it at high-level. In fact, that was one of the reasons I was so thrilled with some of the news that had been coming out about Brawl early on - Nintendo was trying their damnedest, such as with random tripping, to shun the high-level players and make the game all about the wacky four-player, well, BRAWL with a bunch of friends, relaxed sessions of beating on each other mindlessly. To me, that is Smash Brothers, and by my estimation at the time, that was the perfect thing to do.
Troublingly, I discovered once I got my hands on it, that somehow in all of this, with all their flash and fanservice and fantastic music, they forgot to make the game fun. Brawl isn’t really strictly bad, but it feels just plain dumb compared to Melee. The basic gameplay got tweaked in some nice (less joystick acrobatics) and some not so nice ways (the aforementioned random tripping). It all got slowed down, and many of the new items are dumb, and some of the assist trophies, such as Mr. Resetti (who blocks off half the screen for a disgustingly long period, and is not remotely funny after the first time it happens) are just downright grating. Better yet, there’s no way to turn off bad assist trophies specifically, despite the depth of options available to you. You simply have to put up with the shit or turn off assist trophies altogether, neither of which is really a satisfactory option.
Fortunately, the old game modes that were a success in the past games are still here, and even expanded, which is great. Unfortunately, they’ve also tossed in Subspace Emissary, which is just plain bad. It stretches the engine of SSBB to its limit and then breaks it, in ugly and unpleasant ways, yet it is also the most expedient method of unlocking content. Another mode added that royally screws the pooch is the online play, which had plenty of potential to be good. Yes, it is more of a fault of the Wii, however, Brawl is a first-party game and it might have been wise of Nintendo to cater to their own projects. On the other hand, it’s exceedingly unlikely it’ll be impossible to find people who will play Smash Brothers with you no matter where you live, so it’s something of a minor gripe.
Ultimately, though, it is the major gripe of badly put together gameplay that holds Brawl back from being great. There’s absolutely plenty here for you if you love Nintendo and really are into their franchises and projects, but what is there to keep you coming back? There just isn’t enough gameplay here to keep me putting this disc back into my Wii, to keep my interest and letting me have any real good fun with the game on its very own merits. It sells itself on the appeal of other games, and that does one thing: make me want play other games.
