REVIEW: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

NOTE: I'm trying out this flash widget I made. If it doesn't appear, then I'll never do it again. Although I won't be doing it in every review.


I've been stoked about the game ever since I saw the very first footage on E3. And now that I got it, was it worth the hype?

Hell yeah.

Featuring a myriad of single and multiplayer modes and unlockables that can last you years, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is definitely worth the money- even when it's original (Pirated versions are available at Greenhills for 200; and that's a huge deal).

What is it?
Brawl is the third installment of the Super Smash Bros. franchise. The object in the game is not like other fighting games where you normally deplete an energy bar. The object in the game is to rack up some damage and send the opponent flying into the air or falling out the ring. The percentage meter is indicates the number of damage you have inflicted upon the enemy. The higher the percentage, the higher your enemy will fly.

Graphics
The graphics in the game are awesome! The particle effects when someone falls is probably the best in the Wii, and the character models and animation are equally great. Compared to the GameCube game, the graphics in this one is definitely a step up from that one- a significant one actually- and that's despite the fact that the Wii doesn't have much of an improvement from the GameCube.

Gameplay
The controls in the game is definitely tight and responsive, and most importantly, accessible and simple. You can access different attacks by facing the analog in one certain direction and pressing a face button. So for example, combining A and tilting the analog Up will make a character kick upward, while tilting left and pressing A together will make a character punch downward. Yes, it is simple, but it has a surprising amount of depth.

Tekken/serious fighting game fans may get put off by the fact that there is no more complexity than that and that there is no command list, but what they don't know is that the game has a lot more depth and strategy to it. For example, when falling, one would normally jump. But when the double-jump runs out and you're still a short distance from the ledge, you can actually use one of your attacks to "recover". And when you're in the air, you can use a certain combination to make a "Meteor Smash", among others.

Multiplayer
The biggest highlight of the franchise has always been the multiplayer. This time around, everything's been amped up because of its customization options. You can disable a certain item or set the handicap or set the time limit or the lives, or how much time the lives will deplete, or how many items you want placed in one match, etc.. Basically, this is one of the most extensive and not to mention, fun multiplayer on the Wii or maybe on any platform.

The Subspace Emissary
The Subspace Emissary is an adventure mode that combines platforming and brawl matches in the form of boss fights together. It's pretty good and at some point, non-linear, which is good. And the other good thing about it is that it's as long as a separate game. So if you want to unlock all characters, this is the place to go- for about 10-12 hours.

Even though co-op is available, it wasn't given much thought. The only way you can control the camera is to maintain player 2's pace with player 1. So if player 2 is left behind, it's gonna be hard to proceed because the camera is focused only on player 1. So basically, it's a more ideal playing experience solo, despite the fact that the second player can teleport back near the first player by pressing Start or + on the Wiimote.

In between each long level, there is a beautifully pre-rendered cutscenes that are frequently hilarious.

Other Single Player modes
There are various single-player modes that further push the game's value over the hedge.

There is classic mode in which you play a character and fight 12 opponents (and play a few mini-games in between) like the "normal, hardcore" fighter, there is events mode in which you can complete various objectives, Stadium which houses more modes namely: Multi-man brawl in which you can fight a few hundred people until you die, all-star mode in which you are fighting against all the characters in the game and can only be played after every character is unlocked, the Home-Run contest which is a batting game that challenges you to bat as far as you can in 10 seconds, etc.

Another mode is the Masterpieces mode in which you can play demos of the retro games that made each Nintendo character what they are today (Sonic and Snake do not have them). And for the collection of trophies and stickers, there is also the Coin Launcher game in which you use coins collected from Classic mode or The Subspace Emissary to do just that.

There are a lot more single player modes and they are just too much to enumerate further.

Unlockables
Currently, I've collected about 300 stickers (that randomly fall during a match), 200 CD's (which also randomly fall during a match) and more than 100 trophies. The game announces you that, and it announces when you collect every one of them. And that means that there are gonna be more than 300 stickers, 200 CD's and 100 trophies to be found in the game and as if the above modes weren't enough to put the value meter to 10, this puts the meter to 11, if ever there was.

Audio
The soundtrack ranges from a remix of the arcade version of Super Mario Bros. to the special Brawl version of Metal Gear Solid 4's Theme of Love, and you can select what song you'd like to listen to in the My Music section. You can unlock more music, though, and that's via the aforementioned unlockable CD's. So practically, I own more than 200 tracks right now, and every ditty is unique and amazingly orchestrated. I definitely love the soundtrack, but if you're a hardcore Nintendo fan (bring out the Family Computers, nerds), you'll simply die... probably.

Stage Editor
Although the stages you fight in are ridiculously chaotic themselves, you can make your own chaotic stage in the stage editor- and you can even unlock parts by making stages alone. You can even upload them onto your SD card and share it with another WIi, or just put it up online!

It's kinda like the Sims. There are available blocks and the blocks of another object cannot touch the blocks of an object already placed. Basically, it's very user-friendly and intuitive because you can just make stages from the get-go and without a hitch.

Online
Speaking of online, you can fight with other players around the world, or in your friends list. However, not many people really play online in this game nowadays, but that probably is because of Mario Kart. On the other hand, watching others play is far easier and you can bet on which team will win, because normally, online matches are team battles.

Other online features include snapshot sending, video sending, and stage uploading/downloading. Stage downloading is particularly weird because it's like a "Flavor of the Day" kind of service in which your Wii downloads one stage per day and after one day, it gets automatically deleted. I mean, what if I want to keep a certain user-created stage? But than again, Wii memory is limited so I guess it's surprisingly sensible.

Overall
Overall, the game is superbly done and was definitely worth the wait. The very much requested online isn't really any fun, though, because the only thing you can do is bet coins on the winning team in Spectator mode in which you watch other players brawling it out. Other then that, the game is worth your money regardless whether you bought it pirated or original. There are a LOT of modes, and multiplayer is simply the one of the best on any platform. If you have doubts buying this, it probably is because you're just not a fighting game fan.

Jet Lag Sucks

April 29, 2008 American time
This is gonna be the last day of that hectic American vacation and we're going back to Disneyland in Anaheim for California Adventure.

It's obviously smaller than Disneyland proper, but it has a few surprises that will make you come back. One of them is Soarin' Over California which is also the first attraction we went to and it was a favorite- or rather, my mom's favorite- because she clearly wanted to go back for a second ride on that flight simulator. Oh right, it was a flight simulator that realistically portrayed people- complete with the series of seats raised up a few feet from the floor- flying over the various cities of California, and the wind would also change according to the environment. For example, when we're floating over a beach, the air would simulate a sea breeze going on your face, or when we're soaring up to the air to avoid the surfers, we'd actually feel like it even when the seats don't go up. It's kinda like a goodly engineered 3D movie, sans the dorky glasses and more of that realism.

But anyway, we also went around the ferris wheel which was near the flagship California Screamin' roller coaster ride and the spinning chairs in an orange, and my brother and sister would ride the rotating chairs contained inside an orange while my father and mother lets an artist make a caricature of them. We didn't want to get wet this time around since we were gonna go to the airport the same day for a 1:00+ flight. We'd eat some ribs for lunch, some hotdogs and corndogs for snack time, and watch some 3D films like Muppet-Vision and the A Bug's Life inspired "It's tough to be a bug". The Bug's Life 3D movie was funny with stinging on your back and the "bugs" crawling on your butt, while the Muppet-Vision is...

When 5pm struck, we went to the entrance to wait for the shuttle home when I discovered that I left the DS in the hotdog stand. I ran, the thing wasn't there. I checked my bag again, and- false alarm- it was there. Just there. I ran back and we rode to LAX.

We were first in line (in the check-in line) and we had to wait for the line to actually open. However, when it was already open an hour later, we tried to check in our bags and showed our ticket and guess what? We missed the flight one day ago. And it wasn't long ago when I'd remember them (my dad, mom and sister) arguing over the time we were supposed to be in LAX. It wrote: April 28, 2008 1:45pm and one would say, if it was 1:45pm it should've been April 29 written on the thing, and the other would say, we'd still be home by April 30 Philippine time if we went to LAX on April 29 even though after 1:45, it would be April 30 in America. It was very confusing considering the time zones but it didn't have to be! It was very clear! But then, there was the itinerary the travel agent gave us. It was stated clear, especially in the expenses sheet, that we had to go to California Adventure on this day... This day.

We were now set for Stand-By and the person representing Cathay Pacific would say that we should wait till 10:20 so we can know whether we can ride the 11:45 flight. And wait (and eat) we did. In between, I bought a magazine because I was too lazy to read Neverwhere, and my brother got Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii. Of course, since it's my avatar in YM, I'd be happy, but something more important was the fact that we were in uncertainty as to whether we could actually ride the 11:45 plane. Fortunately, we got seats located in the back, and we were one of the first to board.

The 13 hours of flight would make the time out of control again, but after that time in the plane where I met merely 2-3 hours of sleep for some reason, we got to Hong Kong airport.

May 1, 2008 Hong Kong/Philippine time
It's Labor Day! But since we missed our flight the day before, we had to wait again and be on stand-by for the flight bound to Manila. My brothers played DS and we were just there on chairs at least, because at LAX, we had to stand up for hours (from 6-10:20)!

But unlike the delayed flight we had before we went to America from Hong Kong days ago, fortune once again chose us to be able to ride the 9am flight for Manila. It was another hour and 30 minutes at the plane and minutes at the grueling baggage check. We practically flew through the other processes and went home.

But surprisingly, jet lag was worse coming here than arriving there. Still, at least I get to not exercise tomorrow because of the nausea my body experienced. It was like my feet were walking on its own at some point and I just had to sleep. And at 8pm I did. The other people in the family watched the Idol elimination where the next day I'd find out, was Brooke White (finally). Still, I wanted Jason Castro to get out first, but whatever.

May 2, 2008
Now my body has sort of settled down, with mild nausea here and there, but the pissing thing is, I also experienced the infamous Wii Disc Error accompanied with the Super Smash Bros. Brawl Wii game, and I was like, after weeks of waiting, I get this?! Why'd Nintendo make a game that they probably know can't run on all Wii systems?! Why do high-rated games have to be so elusive to us in pirated shores?! And if it were pirated, why does Nintendo put bricking for that specific title?! Damn! The game we had was already original and yet it still can't be played! This is ultimate suckage, right? Especially since you have to send it to Nintendo America for that, and we bought Super Smash Bros. at the freaking airport at Los Angeles! You can call this one of the ultimate rip-offs of gaming history because it's so damn expensive (as usual) when it's original, and it's an AAA title to boot!

Waiting for Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Wii owners are currently rioting, people are arguing in Wikipedia, and the news come trickling in everyday. Yes, it's the much ballyhooed Super Smash Bros. Brawl. So what the hell is this game about anyway?

The more you hit, the harder they fall.
Known best for its multiplayer, SSBB is a fighting game that has a different system from traditional fighters. Instead of the conventional life bar that you have to empty, the game utilizes damage percentages. The more you damage an opponent, the more likely they get to fall down the stage and lose a life. And also unlike traditional fighting games, you don't need to memorize unique control schemes for every character, you can unlock each one's potential with the same controls, and hell, at least you don't need to memorize, what? almost 40 controls?!

Big Depth
Delays were made in its release many times due to the "unprecedented game depth". Hell, if it's penned by its creator and a Final Fantasy writer, why complain, right?

It's all about something called The Subspace Emissary in which you go through several unique (!) storylines and features a group of antagonists as well as bosses. Not everyone knows about how it will go yet, but judging from Famitsu's perfect 40 rating of the game, it's gonna be huge.

More Playable... Pokemon?!
Yes, you can now summon different Pokemon and play them by way of selecting the Pokemon Trainer who summons them. Actually, you can only fully control 3 (plus Pikachu, Jigglypuff and Lucario as confirmed standalone characters) Pokemon- Charizard, Squirtle and Ivysaur. They may be the oldest Pokemon, but they're still fan favorites. Plus, it helps that their ultimate attack is a combination of Solarbeam, Hydro Pump and Fire Blast. Complete with text box.

Other indirectly controllable Pokemon include Rayquaza (as a boss), along with a slew of random Pokemon that go out of the Pokeball items in the stages. They're practically invincible and they will aid you to victory.

The match 20 years in the making
It's old news (along with everything in this post), but third-party characters such as Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog and Konami's Solid Snake join the fray. They get their own moves, and Snake even gets to decapitate Mario, which is quite funny because Mario's head... is big!

As for Sonic, well, Mario and the blue speed demon was already paired in an Olympic competition, but it disappointed. So to make up for that, SSBB is getting him into the roster, and the 20-year old debate would finally end!

Getting relevant
Japan-only Nintendo characters existed in its predecessor Melee, and they come back here for more. The developers actually wanted to get them (Japan-only characters) out of the game, but when Radiant Dawn, a former Japan-only franchise that made it to North America, met success, they decided to put them there anyway. And for North American gamers to know more about them, they decided to put up a so-called "Masterpieces" section that would utilize the Wii's emulation software and enable a player to experience a part of the game of an unknown character. That was a smart move, because they could potentially generate more revenue if they import more Japan-only games and make them English.

The online experienceDon't get me started with this picture.

The game takes advantage of Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection so you can brawl with players around the world, share your best moments (by capturing video or taking a pic and even putting it on an SD memory card) and even build your own stage! Of course, you can download the stages and pics and videos of others, of course! "Chatting" is also present.

Do I waggle?
Actually, there are four kinds of control. 1) Wiimote sideways, 2) Wiimote + Nunchuk, 3) Classic controller and 4) GameCube controller. And yes you can set it to your preference and, for the Wiimote, send it for on-the-go convenience.

There is actually mild waggling for the so-called "Smash Moves", but other than that, it's all button-based "for the full SSBB experience".

Mysterious Aura
Even if the game is almost getting released in Japan (Jan. 31) and a bit longer in the English language (March 9), the game is still subject to a hell of a lot of dispute... Just looking at the discussion forum in Wikipedia is making me nauseous already! What character is this, which is going here, are they reprising their roles? LEAKERS ARE RELIABLE! and stuff like that. Well, at least all this will end when the cat gets out of the bag in just 2 days (on Friday as of this writing) albeit in Japanese.

Closing Remarks
My God is the game going to be epic. It is the seventh game to receive a perfect rating in Famitsu ever (a sure sign of things to come), it features a lot of fan service, its trademark gameplay has remained intact, and the campaign is even written by someone working with the Final Fantasy staff. With all this and a lot more, what. can. go. wrong?!

SOURCE: Wikipedia, Smash Bros. DOJO!!