Done Playing: Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
In the months leading up to Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s release Masahiro Sakurai — the game’s director — doled out tidbit after juicy tidbit of tantalizing news at SmashBros.com. First it was the shocking cameo appearances from outside the Nintendo world by Solid Snake and Sonic the Hedgehog. Then it was the user-created stage builder that would offer endless new arenas on a daily basis. Then the news of the soundtrack with over 300 tracks and work from some of gaming’s best known composers. Each week the game grew bigger and more robust with features, archives, and even playable demos that no one could’ve guessed. After The Orange Box it looked like Super Smash Bros. Brawl would take the pun-tastic cake as the greatest value in gaming. There’s just one caveat, though.
All the content and cameo appearances can’t make me love the game if I don’t enjoy the gameplay… and I don’t. I’ve never been too crazy about fighting games and definitely not Smash Bros.’ trademark hand-gasm explode-a-thons that send Nintendo mascots flying off screen at lightning speeds. I didn’t care for Smash Bros. 64 or Melee but with all those layers of new stuff I thought maybe Brawl would pick up some new moves.
Unfortunately, the gameplay is spastic as ever with even more tide-turning items and super smashes that turn bouts into fanboy cumshots of Nintendo history. Yes, seeing all the franchise stars and seldom-seen fan favorites is fun but it got old real quick for me. Managing stickers (themselves a tribute to even more obscure Nintendo gamestuffs) to upgrade characters became a time-wasting chore and the gameplay in the single player Subspace Emissary mode grew either repetitive or infuriating depending on which character I was forced to use. The jumping and fighting is just not suited to a complex action-platformer and while it’s designed well as a mix-of-four fighting game, I still don’t enjoy it. The more characters you cram on screen, the further out the camera zooms, and the smaller everyone gets. It’s a formula that guarantees only the computer players (or guys who’ve been into it since the N64) are skilled enough to make sense of the madness and win with any sense of accomplishment.
It’s sad because I was really hoping this would be the game to finally draw me into Smash Bros. with its excess of fandom. It’s an incredible value for anyone who enjoys the core fighting gameplay, just don’t expect it to ever evolve into anything more. Now, time to spoil all the surprises for myself. Where’re those YouTube videos I tried so hard to ignore four months ago?
