The long anticipated third game in the Super Smash Bros. series will finally be in our hands come March 9 (don’t tell the Europeans though, they still don’t have a release date).  Recently I had the pleasure of spending over six solid hours with this amazing game and I’m pleased to report that the wait has been worth it.  A wide variety of levels and characters from all of your favorite games are represented here.  As a Smash veteran I’ll be going into all the specifics you’re looking for as well as comparing it with the first two games in the series.  Be warned that this article does contain character and level spoilers.  Click below to continue reading as I go into more details regarding the game’s excellent multiplayer.

Very few games bring out such a level of fanaticism in gamers as Smash Bros. does.  It’s truly a dream come true for any Nintendo fan, while also being a very unique fighter that would succeed even without the famous characters.  Luckily, Nintendo gave us the best of both worlds.  As soon as you begin playing you can see how polished every detail of the game is.  Sakurai has admitted that while Melee was a bit rushed, they took their time with this game (hence the numerous delays).  Every character in the game seems very unique and plays completely different.  Even the few “clones” the game has all feel different enough that you’re glad they were included.  The cloned Final Smashes are a bit disappointing, but that’s just me being picky.  The slower but more powerful characters feel like they got a buff this time around so they aren’t as useless as in previous entries.  With a fully charged smash attack, some of these powerhouses can take you out at VERY low percentages.  Most of the newer characters were announced on the official website, the Smash Bros. DOJO!!.

An interesting new mechanic for Brawl is gliding.  Winged characters such as Pit can glide through the air, gaining speed as they descend, or losing speed as they ascend.  A basic (but damaging) strike can be performed by gliding toward an opponent and attacking, it’s a great opener.  However, this ability isn’t quite as powerful as previously thought.  All characters recovery abilities were majorly improved, making gliding a nice ability but far from overpowered.  Unless a very aggressive player is edge guarding you, getting back is rarely a problem.  When edge guarding you’re now required to jump out there instead of just charging up an attack on the edge since characters now “snap” onto the stage from further away.  Since they receive a small amount of invincibility when they grab the edge, your attack you charged won’t do anything besides leave you open to a counterattack.

Brawl offers four different control schemes, so everyone should be able to find one that matches their style.  The Wiimote only is a bit basic for an advanced players tastes, and appears to be aimed towards the casual players.  A lot of advanced moves are difficult to pull off due to the lack of buttons, but on the other hand the small amount of buttons keeps things simple for those looking to play Brawl at the most basic level.  The GameCube controller is still available for those that prefer something wired.  I’m sure a lot of people will use it just because they’re used to it from the previous entry, Melee.  The Wiimote & Nunchuck configuration seemed a bit awkward, however that could be due to the fact that I’m used to a more standard configuration.  I would like to give this scheme more time but for the brief period that I used it was very confusing.  Having the primary jump and block buttons on the Nunchuck just threw my brain for a loop.  Since Brawl offers customizable controls, I think something more useful than the default configuration could be put together.  The final option is the Classic Controller, which is my controller of choice so far.  The default controls on this seemed strange as well but I took a small period of time to alter them.  The joystick felt better than the GameCube, while still offering the ability to “c-stick” that some of the other controller options lack.  The shoulder buttons also felt better and more accessible to me than the GameCube controller.  It all comes down to options, and there is plenty for everybody.

Fans of the previous games will be very curious about the balance.  Of course no one will really know how balanced it is until we have spent hundreds (or even thousands) of hours with the game.  Though initial impressions lead me to believe it’s much better off than its predecessors.  Fans of characters that were nerfed in Melee (Ness, Kirby, etc.) will be relieved to hear they’ve received some major improvements.  Kirby now has more power and speed all around while retaining his trademark floats that let him come back from virtually anything.  His infamous “drill kick” from the original is still toned down (reasonably so) but is much more useful than it was in Melee.  Virtually no startup lag makes it much more viable in combat.  Ness has also received delay reductions but both characters also benefit from the fact that Brawl is much “floatier” like the original.  Some players (including myself) felt that characters from Melee dropped too quickly, making it feel as if you were Metal Mario from the original game.  Brawl retains some of the improvements and options that Melee added such as up and down throws, sidestepping, side moves, etc.  It appears to be the best of both worlds, melding everything Sakurai has learned in the last decade into the ultimate fighting game.

As one of the few that strongly disliked Melee, this game has brought back that amazing feeling the original game brought.  When I had the pleasure of playing this game I was enjoying it in the company of some hardcore Melee players, who loved this game as well.  It looks like it will be able to bring everyone together to enjoy this masterpiece.  Online play and a level editor put the already high replay value through the roof.  I don’t see why anyone that owns a Wii would not own this game.  Trust me, this game is breathtaking, and I’ve only played the multiplayer.  There is so much more content to be explored and enjoyed by all.  Remember to post your Friend code on the forums so we can all have a round together!  Be sure to leave any questions or comments for me below and I’ll answer them as soon as I can.

Do you know how much time it took to unlock all of the characters and stages?

There are multiple ways to unlock each character, the levels I’m not so sure about.  The final character is unlocked after 450 matches played.  That doesn’t take TOO long overall, but if you’re playing the other modes you’ll likely unlock them first using other methods.  Some levels like the Wind Waker level are unlocked when you unlock Toon Link.  It seems like you still need to explore the game to unlock everything, but it doesn’t take as long as some of the final characters in Melee.  He probably made it shorter so people could play online using everything sooner.  That’s my best guess.

sounds sexy. i cant wait to own this game.

i almost cried today when i opened up my ipod touch and it gave me a notice (that i had made a while back) that smash bros came out tomorrow (the 10th of feb). it was a little slap in the face to start my day :(

Yeah, I’m dying to play again.

I wish I had a Wii… I haven’t played console games properly since the N64.

Nice article, and about the characters, I know that Sonic can only be gotten in SSE and Wolf can only be unlocked by playing 450 matches, at least if I remember correctly.

Nope, Sonic can be unlocked with vs. matches and Wolf can be unlocked via SSE (and probably some other way).  This is according to people that imported it.

There were three ways to unlock Ness on the DOJO!! and I don’t see why this wouldn’t apply to everyone.

I have a friend who got the ROM dump when it was only the first layer of the game (Not SSE) and he unlocked Wolf without getting Sonic.

As I said, there are three ways to unlock each character.  Marth & Ness (revealed on the DOJO!!) can so far be unlocked via vs. matches, SSE, or a third method.  He probably just did the third method.

The alternate third method for unlocking Marth is: Finish Classic mode on any difficulty level.

The alternate third method for unlocking Ness is:
Reflect 10 projectiles.

I’m sure it was something weird like one of those where he wouldn’t have notice how/why he unlocked him.

Maybe, we won’t know until we get our hands on it.

Well, we pretty much do know.  My friends who haven’t played SSE also unlocked Sonic.

When you played in the tournament, did you guys use the built in tournament mode?

No, due to certain limitations people don’t use that mode.  Someone from the Smash community has actually gone through a lot of work (and versions) programming their own software to keep track of tournaments on a PC.  The software is used by most tournaments.

Tournaments are generally double elimination (where you have to lose twice to be disqualified) which Melee didn’t support.  People don’t think Brawl supports it either but they aren’t sure because it’s all in Japanese.

Also, most tournaments play three matches with each character having three stocks per match, whoever wins two out of three moves on.  The built-in brackets don’t support that, you just play one round at the requested settings before it eliminates someone.

I asked the same question you did and that was their explanation, which makes sense.  In addition the built-in brackets don’t support changing your character during the event, which most tournaments allow.

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