Super Smash Bros. Offers All Things Nintendo

By Connect Mason Game Reviewer Daniel Sims
Image courtesy of Nintendo

Super Smash Bros. is the kind of game you and your buddies might’ve fantasized about in grade school. The original Smash Bros. that hit the Nintendo 64 in 1999 created one of the best party games ever. Its Gamecube successor in 2001 added a toy chest of extra content. The new Super Smash Bros. Brawl feels like an encyclopedia of everything Nintendo.

There’s far too much in Brawl to fully cover here, but the game’s most important additions to Smash Bros. are online play and the massive expansion of its single player options.

Super Smash Bros. Melee’s Adventure Mode has been blown up into its own whole side-scrolling adventure game called The Subspace Emissary, featuring a 10-hour storyline involving the game’s entire cast. Subspace by itself is big enough to be its own full game.

One major disappointment with Subspace is that instead of having players fight enemies from Nintendo games in classic environments, it simply uses generic backdrops and enemies in a way similar to Kingdom Hearts.

Brawl might also have the best soundtrack I’ve ever heard in a video game, with over 200 original tracks from various Nintendo games and dozens of remixes arranged by a who’s who list of game composers. All of Melee’s modes have also returned in one form or another along with a level-builder.

But, no matter how many unlockable goodies there are or how difficult the single player game is, the lifeblood of any fighting game is always human competition, especially with a party game like Smash Bros. With a little networking, good players can be found relatively easy in Brawl’s online mode.

Playing with people outside one’s friends list has some latency issues as of this writing (likely Nintendo’s servers being overloaded), but playing online with registered friends is perfectly smooth most of the time. It’s a big disappointment that players can’t communicate directly online, but the pure competitiveness of Smash Bros. will still make Brawl the most played game on Nintendo WiFi connection for a while.

The core game of Smash Bros. itself has only had relatively minor tweaks since Melee but they’re all welcome. Characters and arenas all look more detailed despite running on roughly the same hardware Melee did in 2001. Nearly all of Brawl’s new fighters are welcome additions. New items and stages also make Brawl probably the most chaotic Smash Bros. game yet. Other subtle alterations like the slight speed reduction from Melee and adjustments to some of the game’s more advanced techniques will likely only be noticed by hardcore players but still benefit the game.

Bottom Line:

At its core, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a tune-up of one of the best multiplayer games with added online play, but it’s surrounded with an unbelievable amount of additional content for one disc. If there ever were a game worth $50, this is it.