November 27th, 2007 by Dynamo
Gameplay
The stages in Brawl are locales from many of the universes featured in games. This time around the stages are more varied and wacky than ever before. There’s certainly going to be some rather strange experiences if you decide to play in the PictoChat or WarioWare levels. Players of the older Smash games will remember levels that changed during a battle, most notably Pokémon Stadium from Melee. The developers have taken that concept and expanded on it; pretty much every level in the game changes in one way or another as time progresses. Most changes are rather large and involve the stage morphing into something totally different. ‘Castle Siege’ from the ‘Fire Emblem’ series takes place, as the name would suggest, atop a castle under siege. As catapults send flaming stones crashing through the castle, the roof collapses and players continue the fight inside the castle. Luckily not all changes are as dramatic as this. Some have little or no impact on the gameplay at all, such as the transition from day to night.
Brawl features a large number of game modes, with Classic Mode taking the helm. In this single player mode, a character is chosen and gamers must play through a number of fights before reaching the boss. Although short, players are encouraged to complete this mode with all the characters in order to unlock collectables. Vs. and Tourney Modes are also available which offer a multitude of options for players to pit themselves against each (or computer opponents for that matter).
Super Smash Bros. Melee introduced Adventure Mode. Adventure Mode was a rather barebones side-scroller where players would play through a small range of levels from different universes. This mode wasn’t very deep and played the same regardless of the character chosen. Brawl has expanded on the Adventure Mode from Melee with a new mode called The Subspace Emissary. This mode offers character-based storylines with more levels than in Melee. There is actually a storyline to supplement the action and while it’s likely to be very simple, Adventure Mode seems to offer a much deeper experience this time around. What’s more, players will now have control of a team of characters instead of a single character as in Melee. Finally, Nintendo has added cooperative play this time so two players can team up and take on the mode together.
Online Mode
By far the largest and most interesting addition to the series, especially to those serious about competitive play, is an online mode. For the first time, gamers will be able to (officially) battle it out online with their favorite characters. Sadly the mode is somewhat hampered by the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection; in their attempt to make the mode friendly to people of all ages Nintendo have reduced the level of interaction between gamers. Still, in a game as hectic as Smash Bros. there really isn’t enough time to be typing messages or shouting at your opponents. Players can allocate up to 4 phrases beforehand which can be displayed on screen with the press of the button, however these can only be viewed when playing against friends. In fact, when playing against random opponents the game goes as far as to hide the names of your opponents which is disappointing. It would have been nice if Nintendo at least gave players the option to disable features such as this. Nevertheless, the online mode is a welcome addition and something gamers have been looking forward to it for years.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl isn’t straying much from the traditional formula, but given the quality of the previous games, this isn’t a problem in the least. More collectibles, characters and stages coupled with more gameplay elements, a deeper Adventure Mode and online play makes Brawl likely to be the best installment in the series to date.
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