MCTA review of the Nintendo Wii’s newest blockbuster game “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” seems as unnecessary as pants on a poodle. The “Smash Bros.” series is immensely popular with hardcore and casual gamers alike, as evidenced by the fact that “Brawl” sold 1.4 million copies in its first week. If you own a Wii, you probably already own this game. But if you are among the thousands of Wii-less wonders out there, you might wonder if “Brawl” is enough of an improvement on “Melee” to necessitate you making friends with the smelly kid on your floor who has a Wii.
“Smash Bros.” has always consisted of two styles of game play: the multiplayer mode, which allows gamers a unique fighting experience beating on their friends while each represents a classic Nintendo character; and the single-player mode, which everyone ignores after all the different characters have been unlocked. “Brawl” doesn’t stray from the well-defined course too much. The single-player mode features a fancy-pants plot and some well-animated cut scenes, but the multiplayer mode stays pretty much the same, barring new items and online-play options. The real interest is in the new playable characters (there are 35), including Solid Snake, Pit from Kid Icarus and Sonic the Hedgehog. The upgrade in number of characters, as well as the 41 selectable stages, is the main draw to the “Brawl.”
The game play is essentially the same as that of “Melee”; each character features a variety of different attacks, but all are controlled in the same basic manner. Instead of having the standard fighting-game life bar, players try to knock opponents off the screen. The more damage a character takes, the further he flies with each hit. The most notable difference in game play is the inclusion of Final Smash moves activated by a new item called a Smash Ball. These allows characters to use a very powerful attack after repeatedly striking the floating Smash Ball. The animations are a step beyond that of “Melee,” but truly there is little significant difference.
The one somewhat surprising aspect of “Brawl” is that it does not utilize the Wii’s capability for motion sensing. Players can flip the Wii remote on its side, play with a nunchuk or use a Game Cube controller, but no amount of flailing, swinging or stabbing makes your character do anything differently than just tapping the buttons does. This seems like a missed opportunity to capitalize on the system’s technology, and yet I fear a room full of college students wildly waving their controllers might lead to an actual brawl.
In all, “Brawl” is not much of a step forward for the series, but at the same time it steadfastly maintains what has made these games so universally popular. It features game play simple enough to allow plenty of button mashing, with enough complexity to hook those prone to video game addiction. “Brawl” is a whole lot of fun and worth the time spent with even the smelliest of floormates.