Suuuuuuupeeeer Smaaaaaaash Brooooooootheeeeeeers

[Craig]

So Smash Brothers has finaaally been released in Europe, and it's mighty fun. I've been playing it for a week and still have a fair few characters to unlock as well as stages and other things.

The music in the game is fantastic, if you're a Nintendo nerd. There's just so much of it, and it has a fantastic method of being able to set how frequent the songs appear on each stage.

Most of the new stages are pretty great, with one or two exceptions. The new scrolling Donkey Kong level is just as bad as the old Ice Climbers level, and some of the levels have annoying places where you can't fall through the platforms but it's not obvious where. Oh and New Pork City is just too huge and it's hard to see what is going on. I've not really played about with the stage maker yet.

Using the Wii remote by itself works suprisingly well, control wise. I would use the GameCube controller, but the lead is just too short to reach the sofa and lie back, and I'm a lazy bugger.

A few problems I've noticed though. The subspace emissary at times isn't really that great, but isn't too bad. Zelda to Sheik transformation can take aaages, especially on larger levels. But also, the online play so far I've tried has been crap. I only managed to get on one game which was a team game, and it was ridiculously laggy. To be honest, though, I don't really care as I've enough people to play against in person (though usually 1 on 1s at the moment.)

Oh and not a big thing, but the franklin badge, screw ball and proximity mine are all far too small for me to know which one I'm picking up.

So how else are people finding it?

[JskieXL]

I've mostly played multiplayer battles. I've only had a very limited chance to play the single-player modes. However, the good and the bad based on my experience:

Pros:
- New characters and stages are generally pretty good. Also like the nostalgia from the wide selection of music (though it's not all good).
- I love the inclusion of Sonic, because it's given me the chance to live out a life-long dream and shoot the little bastard with a grenade launcher. Also recommended: running him over with the Blue Falcon; making Wario bite his head off.
- Snake rules. I never got on with the Metal Gear games, but can't help liking Snake for some reason. They should have had Simon Belmont as well, though - he'd be great for Smash Bros.
- I haven't had a go with a Wii controller yet, but the GC controller works the same as in Melee and that's just dandy with me.
- It's Smash Bros., so it's fun, I suppose.

Cons:
- The loading times suck. Bring back GameCube discs!
- Some of the music remixes are really, really bad. Couldn't they have left them alone? "Stickerbrush Symphony" from DKC2 is particularly poorly done.
- Too similar to Melee? There's not really much new, but it's difficult to see what they could have added, really.
- The level editor is a nice inclusion, but could have done with a lot more options. There are only so many things you can do that revolve around spikes (my brother's "Cage of Death" level taking that to its logical conclusion).
- Why does Wolf not have "You're good, but I'm better!" as one of his taunts? Missed opportunity. Also, "Rock Me Amadeus" should play over the end credits when you beat the game as Falco.

[Kris]

- It's Smash Bros., so it's fun, I suppose.

Could you expand on that a little more?

- Kris

[JskieXL]

See also the 'too similar to Melee' comment.

[Kris]

Oh, I see. I thought you were referencing the whole Smash Bros. series, and thought you had some insightful arguments against its gameplay. :blush:

- Kris

[JskieXL]

Nope. Love Smash Bros. My main reservations with Brawl are that it feels more like SSB 2.5 than SSB 3. As I said, though, it's difficult to imagine what else they could do with it.

[glitch]

Zelda to Sheik transformation can take aaages, especially on larger levels.

Does this mean that the frame rate slows down on the bigger stages? I don't remember too many frame rate issues in Melee, even with 10 pokeballs going off at once.

They should have had Simon Belmont as well, though - he'd be great for Smash Bros

They should have put in Dracula. Not that Dracula has any connection to Nintendo. I mean the real Dracula. Not the cheap Castlevania knock-off. He's out there.

[Craig]

Does this mean that the frame rate slows down on the bigger stages? I don't remember too many frame rate issues in Melee, even with 10 pokeballs going off at once.

It's not the frame rate, it just stalls on the changing 'glow' animation between Zelda and Sheik. I've not noticed any frame rate dropping (though if you want to see it on Melee - 4 player, everyone ice climbers, pokeballs on high )

[John]

Love it. For some reason my initial impression was it was a bit average and I only played it for 15 mins and then the game sat gathering dust for at least a week.

But I've given it another chance and I'm loving it now. The new subspace adventure mode is a brilliant addition - really enjoyed that so far and the multiplayer (offline) is as great as always.

Note unlocked any of the extra characters or even played online yet though.