Super Smash Bros. Brawl

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How on earth do you begin reviewing what has to be one of the most hyped games ever? After all, you only have to look at how well Super Smash Bros. Brawl has already sold in both Japan (one million in the first two weeks) and the US (1.4 million in just the first week!) to know that Europeans are going to buy it whether we think it's a good idea or not.

There's also the small matter of the game's innermost secrets being spilled all over the internet by rabid fans, avid users and even the game's own producer, Masahiro Sakurai.
So, where do we start? Probably by pointing out that Brawl has been well worth the wait.

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Never have we seen a game so crammed with detail, so packed with things to do and elements to reveal, and so absolutely over the top in terms of representing its genre. It is, without question, the ultimate iteration of the Smash Bros. series, but even more importantly, it's also the ultimate celebration of all things Nintendo.

Fight, Fight, Fight
One thing it's not, however, is a proper fighting game and we'll oppose anyone who suggests otherwise.The Smash Bros. games have never been beat 'em ups in the truest sense, which is probably why they polarise audience opinion. Many applaud the simplistic control scheme that makes every character's moves instantly accessible, the heavy focus on four-player action and the frantic brawls that can see even the most accomplished player beaten in the blink of an eye, while others hate it for exactly the same reasons. As cliched as it is to call it a Marmite game, Smash Bros. has always been exactly that - never quite enough of a beat 'em up to satisfy hardcore enthusiasts, but more than sufficient for everyone else.

Button Mashing
Not surprisingly, the formula hasn't really changed much for Brawl. The main focus of the game is still very much the multiplayer Brawl mode, every character's moves are still accessed by pressing one of four directions and then hitting A or B, and being skilled at playing still doesn't necessarily guarantee you victory. Ultimately then, this means one of the series' biggest flaws still remains. If you've never liked Smash Bros., Brawl will do very little to change your mind. It's a refinement of the franchise rather than a full-scale improvement; an already assembled pile of LEGO that's had extra bits built onto it instead of being broken down and recreated from scratch.
But oh, what a lot of extra building there's been. Looking at the entire package, Brawl is a giant vessel into which Sakurai and his team have poured not just ideas, but also a heap of Nintendo adoration until it overflowed. There's a whole heap of things to do in Brawl besides multiplayer fighting.

Only The Lonely
Admittedly, some are familiar and while that's nice, it might have been nicer to see something more original. We've smashed sandbags with baseball bats and broken targets countless times before, so doing the same again now is more of a means to a reward-based end rather than something we'd do by choice. Still, the other additions more than cover for this slight laziness.

Take the Subspace Emissary mode, for example, which we initially thought would just be single-player filler. Having played it through to its conclusion and racked up around ten hours of playtime in the process, we're impressed at how decent the experience was. Okay, so it's still quite simple and wouldn't hold up if released on its own but the combination of exploration, general combat, boss battles and treasure collection (not to mention the ability to play through it with a friend) really hangs together nicely.

The depth of the exploration, seeing you return to levels with different characters once you've unlocked them to reach hidden treasures and exits, along with the need to capture enemies as trophies using special trophy stands will keep you coming back - pretty impressive considering it's only one relatively small part of the entire game package.

Brawl For All
The other single-player modes also beef things up a bit. No doubt you'll spend more than a little time playing the likes of All-Star Mode (beat all 35 characters in the game on the trot) and Boss Rush (same again, only with the bosses from the Subspace Emissary) on top of the usual mix of Target Test, Home-Run Contest and Multi-Man Brawl. Plus, just working on collecting the trophies, stickers and other unlockables is a huge task in itself. You may find yourself, like us, going on the official Smash Bros Dojo website and printing off the huge checklist of trophies and stickers that are available in the game, and tirelessly playing through the game in order to get every last one.

Is all this single-player stuff more important than the multiplayer action though? Well, in terms of fleshing out the game, most certainly. If you're talking about the game in terms of sheer fun though, nothing beats a good four-man thrashing against your mates.

That there are so many ways to customise your Brawl experience with your friends boggles the mind. A total of 35 characters to choose from, with only a tiny portion being clones of other fighters (we count five, and even those have their own unique characteristics)! Over 30 different stages to play on, with the option to build your own and share them with your friends online if that's not enough. And then there are loads of unique rule sets, item options and other settings that can completely change how each match plays. Honestly, there's almost too much here, and you're likely to be playing it for years.

But how does it play? As you might expect, it plays like Smash Bros. - you batter anything that moves with attacks until it flies off the stage, repeating until the time limit expires. That you can get as much or as little from the experience, however, is what makes Brawl so impressive. Yes, it's instantly accessible and almost anyone can pick up the basics in a few minutes but there's so much depth and strategy to the combat that it'll take you ages to master. Granted, it still doesn't make it a proper beat 'em up but, well, it's certainly the closest the series has come so far.

The Negative Bit
We're simply amazed at how much Brawl manages to offer and at how many levels it can be viewed from. Whether you're a complete newcomer to the series who just wants to dip in and out of the game or a hardened veteran of the series, you'll be more than satisfied. Indeed, it's almost impossible to pick any true faults with Brawl outside of one serious issue; that being the game's online mode that, from our experience, is patchy at best. This could be down to the sheer number of people trying to play online or, more seriously, a flaw in Nintendo's online offering. Comparing it to the near-perfect experiences we've had with Mario Kart Wii, it's definitely the only chink in Brawl's armour. Nintendo has promised to improve the service in the near future, so we hope it sticks to its word.

Our only other concern is where the series goes from here. Brawl isn't so much a continuation of the franchise as a culmination and it's hard to see what improvements can be made. The character roster is extensive, the range of things to do is unparalleled and the amount of Nintendo love almost borders on obsession. Clearly, Sakurai's vision of making the ultimate Smash Bros. has been realised. You simply have to buy this game, if only for the fact that you'll probably never have to buy another iteration of it ever again.