Fighting games are a great spectator sport. Awesome stuff happens on screen, but only if you master razor’s edge timing or memorize long combos, such as “punch, down, double-punch, kick back, punch, punch, grab” or the old favorite “up, down, punch, punch, kick, kick, left, punch.” It helps if you’ve been keeping up with Nintendo’s Brain Age games.
Alternatively, you could just pick up Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the latest and greatest in Nintendo’s series of user-friendly, pick-up-and-play fighting games, featuring a huge cast of familiar faces from Nintendo’s famous franchises (as well as a few unlikely guests) slapping each other silly.
The point of the Super Smash Brothers series is to provide wildly fun fighting action without all the demanding timing tricks or memorization, so the controls are a snap. Each character has a punch button and a special moves button, which when combined with very simple directional movements result in a surprising array of clever attacks. The levels are wildly inventive, the fancy power-ups ensure lots of crazy action, and the variety of characters is staggering. Up to four people can play at once and the game has full support for old Gamecube controllers, so you might not have to shell out the money for extra Wiimotes.
For the most part, Brawl doesn’t tamper with the Super Smash Bros. formula. The graphics aren’t noticeably better than they were on the Gamecube in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but there are enough new levels and characters to keep this from feeling like a rehash. New to Brawl are a bunch of over-the-top finishing moves made accessible by catching an elusive floating power-up. Whereas Mortal Kombat had you ripping out your victims’ hearts, these are all in good fun. Kirby cooks up his opponents in a stew, Star Fox mans a huge tank, Metroid’s Samus dons her famous suit, and Pikachu goes high-voltage haywire.
In addition to the flexible arena fights, Brawl has tons of challenges and enough unlockables to keep completionists happy for weeks on end. The new story mode is perfect for some easygoing solo or co-operative gameplay. It’s a cross between a fighting game and a traditional side-scrolling platformer in the style of Mario Brothers. Unlimited continues ensure you’ll never be confronted with a ‘Game Over’ screen, and elaborate cutscenes keep the plot moving, introducing different characters and new settings. This is actually a great non-competitive way for players of different skill levels to enjoy Brawl and should be an ideal way for parents and children to play together.
Also new is online multiplayer. Nintendo has demonstrated how smoothly this can work on their handheld DS, but now the Wii gets the full-on treatment. It’s simple to go online and jump into lag-free games, although you still need to use Nintendo’s wonky ‘friend code’ matching feature to find people to play. There isn’t much in the way of goals, ranking, or community features, but the ability to play against online opponents gives Super Smash Brothers Brawl nearly unlimited replayability.
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