956th played so far
Genre: Action/Fighting
Platform: Wii
Year of Release: 2008
Developer: Sora Ltd.
Publisher: Nintendo
I believe Super Smash Bros Ultimate, the currently latest in the series, hadn’t been released the last time I played a Super Smash Bros. game. I sunk a fair amount of time into that – not as much as Peter, but the single player campaign really appealed to me and starting as Kirby helped cement that even if I mained Link through a lot of it.
While I know there are differences – to the point that the professional scene only wants to play Super Smash Bros. Melee because of their preferences – but it’s not something I notice quite as much. I’m more looking forward to seeing how well the single player experience holds up compared, something that I’ve found differs between versions.
Our Thoughts
It feels like the specific cartoony fighter style of the Smash Bros. series always felt a bit different from other fighting games in its tone and use of weapons. They’ve done a lot of work to keep very different fighters balanced (with far more variety than just about any other fighter), which is pushed further with ultimate smash moves and the various items and stages that pop up. It’s amazing that it works so well and you mostly can have a favourite without it being that much of a problem. While, obviously, the variety isn’t as big as Ultimate, the roster in Super Smash Bros. Brawl is pretty big and it’ll take you a while to unlock all of them and get used to them.
The fighting itself seems a bit floatier than I’m used to, which was a bit of an adjustment to deal with the controls and play. It makes the game a bit harder compared to the tighter play that I remember from Ultimate, but it didn’t take me too long to adjust.
The game also contains a decent solo campaign. It’s quite linear and is mostly fighting through longer stages rather than the individual battles in Ultimate, but it’s quite fun to see the cutscenes and how the characters combine. It’s still pretty lengthy and the other challenges help lengthen that as well. It’s helped by the large number of collectables to get from all the different modes, of which I even managed to unlock a few more while playing for this write up, over a decade after the last time we played.
Final Thoughts
Super Smash Bros. Brawl obviously lives up to the reputation of the series, a good looking, solid fighter that has its own identity and combines different franchises in a way none of its copycats pulled off quite as well. The amount of options is staggering and it remains worth playing – even more when the size of Ultimate feels overwhelming.