Super Smash Bros. Brawl
So I've had the game for over three weeks now, so time to share my thoughts. So let's dive in, starting with the single player modes...
We still have the multi-man brawls, the homerun contest, and events to work through, as well as the classic mode and unlockable All-Star mode and Boss Battle modes (almost all of which are playable with a friend, a nice touch). All of those are rather nice, and fun to play through (I especially enjoy the event matches). And then there is the story mode which has been expanded from Melee...greatly, and without all that much success. The old story mode was a nice little change of pace, but that "little" was the key point. If I am going to spend that many hours playing through a story mode style game, then I want to play a good one, not a half-ass platform experience. The only reason that I completed it was that it was the quickest way to unlock most of the characters.
So let's get onto the characters! First off pretty much the entire Melee crew has returned (with a few adjustments). Some people will try to tell you that there are 15 new characters, but that's a bit off. First of all, Toon Link is not new (he's just a new skin on Young Link), Ike is basically Roy (and by that I mean exactly Roy), Lucario is simply Mewtwo in a new skin, and Lucas is just a minor adjustment on Ness (who still remains as well). So with my count there are 11 new characters (11.5 if you include Lucas). And as for the new characters...
The Good: Pit, Metaknight, King Dedede, Wolf
The Interesting: R.O.B., Pokemon Trainer, Olimar
The Undecided: Diddy Kong
The Completely Out of Place: Snake (not even close), Sonic (why force in outside characters?)
The Annoyingly Immature: Wario (when will Nintendo finally kill off what amounts to a running fart gag?)
In the end the character select screen looks like a gigantic cluster fuck, but I guess with more usage it will become manageable, and should I really complain about a wider selection of playable characters? I guess not. But having 31 "new" stages, 10 Melee stages, and Create-a-Stage (not nearly as nice as it sounds, since you are given a very very limited number of locales and pieces to use) gets a little unwieldy. And I'm sick and tired of so many overly busy stages. At least they kept some of the good ones from Melee.
In the end though, this game comes down to the multiplayer game. And while I haven't had the chance to have any real Smash parties, I have played some, and I'm not impressed. It's not bad, but it's not the leap that Melee was from the first game. In fact in a lot of ways it's a step back. The controls don't feel as tight, throws are now all but pointless since they do pretty much no damage at all, and slipping...Who the hell thought it would be a good idea have the players randomly slip and fall over?!? That is the stupidest idea ever in a fighter. Those people should all be fired and black-balled from ever getting a game design job ever again.
And this game proves just how far Nintendo still has their head up their asses when it comes to online gaming. I know that they have a younger audience, and that Nintendo wants to keep them "safe" from online people, but needing a friend code to communicate with anyone on your Wii, and then needing another code completely to play with friends online in Smash is just lunacy. Why would you need this? And half the point of playing online is to meet new friends to play with, which you can't do. And the other half is to have a good time with your friends who aren't in the same city as you (and to taunt them as you do), but there is no voice chat available, and from what I've heard most internet games lag like crazy. Good going Nintendo!
And as a side note to the online problem, when will Nintendo ever hop onboard? I mean what would have made a better MMORPG with a chance of hooking and reeling in hordes of gamers than Pokemon? A world where you can run around capturing pokemon, battling your friends, testing your luck against strangers, or having world-wide tournaments? That would have been a smash hit with all the poke-fanatics out there and would have helped reestablish Nintendo in the world-wide gaming market. Now all they have is a system, that while popular, is far inferior to both the PS3 and Xbox360 and is based purely on a gimmick (that will more than likely eventually fade into the background). And please Nintendo, we know you have this nice gimmick with the wii-mote, but you don't have to base every game around this. That definitely is one of the bonuses of Brawl, they didn't try to force the wii-mote into it.
But back to the matter at hand...
Brawl is by no means a bad game. There is plenty to enjoy here and it entertain most fans of the series, but it's no where near as impressive as Melee was when that was released. And that is a major disappointment after all the waiting as well. There are no real improvements in this installment. Like most every Nintendo game it just feels like a retred of a game I've already played. Even with all the new characters to choose from I'd much rather play the old friend that is Melee. In the end I'd have to give the game a 6 (7 on a good day).