The most hyped up game in the Wii’s short history. But will it be the brilliant all-star fighter that every other review company says it is? Or will it fail in every aspect? Find out now…

So here it is, the greatest thing since Jesus, or so people would have you think. The basic premise of it all is this: an all-star cast of Nintendo characters are all at each other’s throats because someone ate the last muffin or something like that anyway, it’s hard to think or a reason why Mario is about to cave Diddy Kong’s head in with a hammer, but who cares?

First off I would like to say this: Brawl is fun. Terrible fun. Get a foursome of people together and you will have one of the best times of you life that doesn’t involve a bed or a member of the opposite sex. At it’s core Smash Bros has always been a series that has been about the multiplayer, right? That’s been it’s main focus every since the first one was release on the N64 back in 1999 and that still holds true in this third instalment. Everything that people loved about Melee is back and better then ever. The stages are more fun and have effects that’ll blow you mind. The items are as mad as ever, ranging from the simple baseball bat to the crazy assist trophies that summon a Nintendo character or creature, such as a Metroid, to assist you in your fight. These things add elements to the match that can turn the tide in one simple move, this move being the Final Smash, a super-powered move that has the chance to obliterate your opponent in one move. However, some people’s final smash can be a little unfair. Pikachu’s final smash turns him into a giant electric ball that is way too overpowered and can kill in a few hits, others however, like Lucas’ can be easily dodged for the more experience player. However, these are the aspects of Smash Bros that make it such an addictive series and prove that you CAN make a fighting game without complex button controls that just take away the fun rather then add to it.

That’s not to say there’s no depth to Smash Bros. If you try and face an experience player with simple button mashing, you wont get anywhere and you’ll be defeated within seconds. You need to do a number of things that help you to win without taking away the fun. You have to learn your character’s moves, learn to shield effectively, dodge effectively, when to attack and when to fall back. You’ll need to know it all to succeed, and even then you may not win. Smash Bros can be very deep if you care to look, but not so deep as to smother you with button combinations which can easily be beaten by mashing random buttons.

Find all this talk about multi-player terribly saddening for you shut-in jaded types out there? Well don’t fear because there is two courses of action for you to take. Either take you Wii online and play against other shut-in jaded types, OR you could go into the single player mode and play though the new story mode which shows a significant improvement over the terrible tacked-on version from Melee. Basically the characters of Nintendo’s top franchises all come into contact with each other and team up to fight a single enemy whose name shall remain hidden for the people who don’t want it to be spoiled. You, the player, take control of a character and play through a level as that character. Then you have a cut-scene and get a result for that level. The process then repeats. This may sound like it’s repetitive but let me assure you that the levels are different enough to keep me going until the end. The story is one of epic proportions and, not wanting to spoil it, i shall only say that it was written by Kazushige Nojima who was a writer for the final fantasy series, yes it’s that good. The only grip i have with the storey mode is it’s linearity and while i don’t have a problem with linear levels, it just feels like the game is guiding you through some sections which can affected the overall good feel of it all.

The options available for Brawl is just immense. In single player you have the aforementioned Subspace Emissary mode but there’s also the Classic mode returning for it’s third run and, once you’ve unlocked all the characters, the All-star mode which is back for it’s second time. There’s also the event match from Melee which return, setting you up a challenge that you have to complete in a specific way (Kill coloured Yoshis in a particular order, etc) and back again is the stadium mode which lets you take part in either multi-man Brawl or Target smash. Now, in Melee i used to really like the target smash mini-game but they’ve dumbed it down so that there is only five levels. Not one for each individual character but five for everyone, but I’m now nitpicking.

The game is customisable to an extent, allowing you to choose how often songs appear on the stages available and allows you to choose any song of your choice for the stage builder mode. Yes, you can now create you’re own stage using small to large building blocks that let you do pretty much whatever you want, just today i made a Tetris stage! However, there isn’t a lot of choice in the building area, the are simple blocks, moving platforms and other things but you just can’t make a stage like the pre-made ones available. A nice distraction that was included was the small but fun coin-launcher mini-game. It uses your coins that you gain from playing, well, anything and lets you gain trophies from them. However, it’s nothing like the boring lottery-type game from melee, this time you have a small gun-turret and have to fire at the trophies that appear on screen, protected by small enemies that you can also destroy with your coins.

All that on one disc, how did they manage it? There is a lot more about the game that hasn’t been mentioned here, but I’ll let you find that for yourself, I’ve got to give you something that’ll surprise you (except the choice of characters). It is a very absorbing and compelling game, but all I’m really using it for now is the online. Do i regret my purchase? Of course not, but if Melee didn’t win you over then there’s not a lot here that’ll change your mind. Everyone else really has no excuse, it’s a fantastic game that will keep you going for months, even if it is just for the online.

Final Verdict
It’s not the best game I’ve ever played but certainly up there. A joy to play and will last you for a very long time but unless you are a dedicated fan, the only thing that’ll keep you hooked is online.

See you on the battlefield.