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Showing reviews 31-35 of 303
 Quickly gets old... March 11, 2008
Kevin Casey (Columbus, OH)
8 out of 47 found this review helpful
I have a copy on Craigslist for $40 if anyone is interested. Only used for 2 hours!
 Best Wii game to date, but has its fair share of flaws which prevent it from really soaring March 17, 2008
Computerdude1032 (St. Paul, MN)
8 out of 16 found this review helpful
My anticipation for Super Smash Bros. Brawl was not as high as many Nintendo fans, but I still wanted the game. It's likely that if you are reading this review and you haven't already purchased the game, then you're the same type of gamer as me. Occasional Wii player who enjoys a good game. First thing I'll tell you is that if you consider yourself a "casual gamer," this game probably won't be your favorite, but you might still be able to get some enjoyment out of it. It doesn't use any of the friendly Wii controls that you are accustomed to having, and you won't stand much of a chance in the online modes without some serious practicing. Also, there is no tutorial to tell you how to play (although the instruction booklet does a good job of this). This review is written for the "casual gamer," since I assume most hardcore Nintendo fans have already purchased, and are enjoying the game. Finally, before I get into the review I'll give a quick description of the game for those that are new to the series... basically it's a "side-scrolling" fighting game, where you play as various Nintendo characters from both yesteryear and the present. Each character has his or her own set of special moves that can be used against the other players with a few button pushes. There are lots of modes, but in general the person that does the most killing and the least dying wins.
Now onto the review... I've broken the review down into separate sections to make it more easy for you to follow, or to just get information about a particular topic.
Graphics: 6/10
Well, if you mention graphics, the first thing hardcore Nintendo fan will tell you is "GRAPHICS DON'T MATTER." My opinion of this is slightly different, while graphics don't make a game, they sure can help improve the experience. Now onto the graphics in this game.... most game companies have realized this by now, but apparently Nintendo didn't get the memo: cutscenes are better if they have similar graphical style to the game.
In Super Smash Bros. the majority of the game looks exactly the same as its predecessor Super Smash Bros. Mele. Some will tell you this is fine, but I just don't understand how 7 years later they best they can pull off is "slightly better" than the previous game, even if the Wii isn't much more powerful. My second complaint here is the cutscene thing. Cutscenes were all pre-rendered and stored as movies. Sure they look amazing, but it sure takes away from the experience when you are playing a crappy game, you go through a door, wait for a load, watch a movie that looks nothing like what you can play, sit through another load, and then continue playing. It took me about 4 hours of play to realize that what was happening in the game was actually a continuation of what's showed in the cutscenes, that's how different things look between the two. Now for a casual gamer these details probably won't matter because you just want to play. And if you are the casual gamer, you will probably enjoy the graphics and cutscenes. But for me, and most people who are used to an immersive experience in the game, the graphics here just don't cut it.
Sound: 10/10
Chances are that everybody has played a previous Nintendo game. And chances are that the music from that game will have worked its way into this game somehow. The sound in this game is really amazing. There are hundreds of tracks from which to choose, and you can customize which tracks are played on which stages at which ratios. Also, there are many new recorded sounds for each character, and the new music that was made for the game is also amazing. All in all, the sound in the game won't disappoint anybody, casual or hardcore you will want to play this game on the loudest volume setting you can.
Gameplay/Controls: 9/10
If you've played a Smash Bros. game before, you probably don't need to read this section because nothing has changed too much gameplay-wise. It's the same "button-smashing" (or not button smashing if you know what you are doing) play as before, but everything is more balanced, and each character, despite their strengths or weaknesses has a fairly equal chance of winning. With 35 characters, I really gotta praise Nintendo for getting this balanced so fairly (although you will learn that there are still a few characters that realllly suck!!). They've also added more items (which you can pick up to add a crazy effect to the game, such as throwing a Pokeball at an enemy, and having it attack them). The gameplay is fair enough that a person who has never played before stands a fairly equal chance of winning a match as those who've played hundreds of games. Another amazing thing Nintendo did was giving you 4 ways to play. You can play with the Wii Remote turned sideways, with the Wii Remote "right side up" and the nunchuck, with the Wii Classic Controller, and with the Nintendo Gamecube controller. The system is brilliant, and allows you to change what every single button does for your particular setup. My only complaint in this section is that there are no motion controls whatsoever through the entire game, and it makes navigating menu's more of a pain than what you are used to on your Wii.
Multiplayer: 5/10
Offline: 5/5
I'll start with the positive here. Offline multiplayer is amazing. They've got "tournament" support for up to 32 players, with each player being able to VERY easily pick which controller they use, and play against a randomly selected group of people from the tournament, moving up the bracket to the championship. They've also got a simple rotation mode where up to 32 people rotate through playing random maps where the loser(s) or winner(s) swap out with people who are waiting (Don't worry, if you've only got 30 friends you can have 2 AI players fill the extra spots for you). It eliminates the "hey it's my turn you have played more" aspect of your party because it keeps track of everybody's playing time and keeps things fair. Of course you can play just yourself against computer players, with varying level of skill. Once again, the players have excellent AI, and they "know" how to play to the strengths of their character without ever feeling unfair. All in all, this is by far the most solid Smash Bros. yet in terms of offline multiplayer.
Online Multiplayer: 0/5
Now it's time to talk about the Nintendo WiFi connection. To put it simply, it's just a mess. Either Nintendo hasn't played online on the Xbox 360 or the Playstation 3, or they simply don't care. There is still no universal friends list, voice chat, text chat, or any online features you are accustomed to from your other consoles. Whats even worse is Nintendo's excuse... they claim people don't want these features, and that they aren't safe. The other two consoles have made it pretty obvious that people DO want these features, and they've also added parental controls to make it completely customizable to parents that their children can and can't do. To me, Nintendo doesn't add these things out of sheer laziness. But let's talk about what is in the game. First of all, there's the "play with anybody option." If you choose this, you should (although many gamers have yet to get this feature to work) get matched with 3 other people (whose names you can't see), and play brawl with them until everybody quits. The other option is "with friends." With this feature, you can call friends, ask for their 12 digit friend code, enter it, have them to the same, and then play with them.
Additionally, you are more limited with modes and maps than with single player, and the netcode (the portion of the game code that connects you to the internet and other players) is so poorly written that Nintendo had to put this right in the instruction booklet: "It is normal for the game to periodically freeze while playing online." Brawl is a more basic game than, say, Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4, both of which are consistently lag free, but Brawl is just plagued with lag. So much so that with most of your friends the game will be unplayable online. I wasn't expecting much from this game online, but it delivered even less than I expected. It's probably the worst Nintendo WiFi connection enabled game to date. Also missing is any sort of leaderboard feature, or a way to compare your scores to other gamers across the world (A feature which Microsoft and Sony REQUIRE every game to have on their systems). Now I know many Nintendo fans don't care about online, which is why I broke this section into two subsections, but for me this is really a huge turn off because I had planned to get a decent amount of play-time out of the online play.
Single Player/Campaign: 7/10
In addition to the wealth of multiplayer content we've talked about, the game also has a decent chunk of single player content. My favorite part is the "event matches," where you try to do other things such as race through a level or break all the pieces of a level in the fastest time possible. This really gives a nice break from the standard fighting component of the game. Also, there's an Adventure mode that takes about 8-10 hours to complete. As discussed in the graphics section, I wasn't a huge fan of the adventure mode just because the graphics are so much different between the cinematics and game. That being said, the actually playing of the single player is fairly fun, albeit VERY repetitive. Additionally, the boss battle at the end isn't even fun because the character is overpowered, cheap, and can just teleport away whenever you start hitting him. This doesn't detract from the game in any way, but it sure does make for an annoying way to end an otherwise fun adventure mode. Nintendo does give plenty of reason to play though, as you will unlock lots of characters and stages to play on the more you play single player modes. Also added to the game was an "achievement" system, which allows you to look at things of importance you've done, and more things you need to do to unlock stuff. This is a very cool feature, but would have been cooler with an online component such as is done on Xbox Live, and what is soon to be done with Home on Playstation Network, so that friends can see what you've done and compare it to what they've done, which would have added HUGE amounts of replayability for Nintendo fans as they work their hardest to break those records.
Overall: 3/5 Stars (An average of the above scores)
Note that if you average all the above scores it would convert to 7.4/10. Amazon doesn't allow parts of a star, and I didn't think the game deserved 4 stars so I rounded the 7.4 down to 3/5. I'll leave you with a quick summary of the pro's and con's of the game:
Pros:
- Amazing offline multiplayer
- Best Smash Bros. game yet in terms of gameplay
- Great new items and characters
- Single player will take some time to beat and is fun for the most part
Cons:
- Possibly the most shallow and buggy online game ever (on ANY system)
- The graphics in single player actually take away the cool experience of the game
- Unfair boss battle at the end (It's NOT just hard- its unfair)
?'s:
- Why can Nintendo still not figure out online play?
- Nintendo did an excellent job balancing characters, but why still leave a few that are extremely overpowered?
- Why did Nintendo think it would be cool to put the best possible cinematics in the game, when games like Halo 3 (360), and Metal Gear Solid (PS3) have been getting massive praise for doing just the opposite?
If you've played Smash Bros. games before and liked them, I recommend a purchase of this game. If you're more of a casual gamer, and enjoy some of the more basic games the Wii offers, you might want to do a little more research or consider a rent before you throw down $50 on this game.
6 years apparently wasn't enough March 12, 2008
J. Parkinson
7 out of 19 found this review helpful
To start out, I love this game. Its one of the few games on the Wii that I have played that make the system almost worth getting(anyone who thinks that Super Mario Galaxy makes the Wii worth it should go replay it. Worst game I have ever played). Brawls replayability makes it perfect for large groups of people to enjoy hours of play.
Now you are probably wondering about the title to this review, "6 years apparently wasn't enough". For how fun this game is, some of the things that did make you wonder what the developers were doing all this time. Let's start with the online system. Some genius at Nintendo decided back in the day that Nintendo game consoles would use something call friend codes. These numbers have to be given to people who you want to play with online. There is a major flaw with this. If your code get reset you now have to give a new code to anyone you want to play with, and then get there code in. The second major problem with playing Brawl online is that there is no match making. All this time and delays they couldn't make a decent online system.
The character choice in Brawl is very disappointing. Very few of the newly introduced characters were decent(Ike, Meta Knight, Sonic), and a lot of the old characters were ruined(Ganondorf especially). Olimar, R.O.B., and Snake add nothing to the game.
The last problem with Brawl is sub space emmissary. Sub Space Emmissary gets old really quickly. Boss battles come from other boss battles with different characters(go battle the Purple dragon again and tell me thats not Master Hand).
Overall, this game is great. Just stick to Brawl mode. The rest of the game is not worth it.
 Brawl: Melee Evloved and much more March 14, 2008
M. Miao (United States)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS, SORRY
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is probably the most anticipated Nintendo game coming out this year and it delivers. Just like its predecessors on the Game Cube and Nintendo 64, it takes many of the Nintendo favorites and throws them into a solid fighting game, which each character having his/her/its own special moves. This time, the roster features 35 characters total with 21 starting and 14 unlockable. The basic idea hasn't changed from Melee, beat up your opponents until they have a high enough damage percentage and then knock them off the stage. However, what has changed is the different ways that you could achieve that goal. Of the 35 characters, almost everyone is unique. The three Star Fox characters do feel just slightly alike, and C. Falcon/Ganondorf, Link/Toon Link, Ness/Lucus have similar moves, but even those characters are different enough to offer their own strategy and have different advantages and weaknesses. Furthermore, none of the characters feel like an exact copy with different running/jumping stats like they did in Melee (Falco/Fox, Marth/Roy). All in all, all the fighters in Brawl are unique and you will sure find a style that suits your style. Each fighter is deadly if they are used correctly and none of them is overpowered (Meta Knight maybe.)
Now onto all the features in the game, first of all is the single player. The single player adventure, dubbed Subspace Emissary, is a much larger version of the adventure mode in Melee and it will take about 6 - 10 hours to finish, depending on the difficulty and the percent completion. The adventure doesn't take itself too seriously and the cut scenes are beautifully rendered. Don't try too hard to understand them and just sit back and enjoy its complete randomness. There were many times when I almost collapsed laughing at the silliness of the cut scenes and one left me with a gaping mouth because it was awesome. Although it could sometimes be tedious, the Subspace Emissary gives the player the ability to unlock all the characters, with Wolf, Jiggly and Toon Link requiring a little more work, without playing through hundreds of versus matches, but then again, it's not that hard to do. Although not the best single player game ever made, the Subspace Emissary keep the player occupied for a few hours, even just to see the next cut scene or battle the next boss. In addition, the game also features co-op play to alleviate the sometimes tedious or just plan out meanness, parts of the game.
All the goodness of even matches also makes their return. In addition, some of the events are now co-op, the last one being a co-op All-Star match with no recovery items. The event matches now also have their own difficulties settings, further increasing the replay value. Other stadium options include the return of the homerun contest and multi-man brawl, which can also be played co-op.
The part that is going to keep the player coming back for more is no doubt the multiplayer part. This was the reason why melee was so popular. Many reviews complain about how Brawl is the "more of the same," and "without any innovation." I did not find that to be the case. It is true that everything that made Melee great has returned, such as special attacks and chargeable smash attacks, but with the new characters and modifications to returning fighters, any old strategy must be at least modified to keep them effective. New features such as the footstool jump (using other people's head as a spring to jump higher), gliding (for certain winged characters), and wall clinging (grabbing to the wall) adds subtle new strategies and furthers the playing of mind games for the pros. Perhaps the most interesting addition is the Smash Ball, which breaks after repeated attack and gives the player the ability to unleash a Final Smash, a devastating attack that usually result in KOing an opponent. Once the Smash Ball appears, all actions seize and the focus shifts to obtaining the Ball. One of the major changes that Melee players will notice is the slower pace of Brawl but it is very easy to adjust after a few games.
The stages are awesome very unique and offer their own style of play. Unlike other fighting games where the stage plays no part in the fighting, almost all of the Brawl stages fight back with many different hazards. Just like Melee, the players need to keep track of the stages and try to avoid their hazards. In addition, some classic Melee stages make a glorious return, stages such as the Temple and Rainbow Cruise. There are a total of 41 stages, 31 new and 10 Melee stages. Plus the option to build your own stages, the option is almost limitless.
Although I haven't tried the online play yet, from the response of my friends and online reviews, it seems that it's nearly flawless with a stable connection.
The graphics of Brawl is one of the best on the Wii and it runs at a constant 60 fps. Although the graphic can't really be compared to those of 360 and PS3, given the capabilities of the Wii, the Brawl graphics is much better than that of Melee with more explosions, more action and more chaos in general.
The sound track of Brawl is probably one of the best in the history of video game. It includes original sound track as well as remakes of many of the classics. With over 150 different songs, all beautifully orchestrated, you will never be bored when you're fighting. The songs alone might be able justify for half of the cost of the game.
Now, there are a few aspects of the game that could be improved. First of them is the individual target smashes. Instead, there are five of the same levels for every character. The Melee target smash was unique which required different approach, but the Brawl target smash is all the same for everyone. It would be interesting to see different target smash stages for all 35 characters.
Another minor complaint is the loading time, but considering the large amount of content crammed into the game, it's a very small criticism.
Some people are experiencing a disc reading error due to dirty Wii lens and Nintendo is offering to repair the systems for free regardless of the warranty. It might delay your enjoyment of Brawl, but at least Nintendo is nice about it.
With new co-op play, new characters, new adventure, new items, assist trophies, new pokemons, new stages, Final Smash and all the extra contents, Brawl is everything that Melee was and much, much more. For the friendless, the game might not be that much fun, but with an almost perfect 4 player fighting game and solid online play, it can keep you and 3 of your best friends occupied for many months, if not years to come. I politely disagree with all the people who say that Brawl is just a Melee upgrade. The creator of Brawl, Masahiro Sakurai, clearly put a lot of thoughts into the game and improved on every aspect of Melee and made it into a unique game. All in all, Brawl lives up to every bit of the hype and it is the best entry in the series so far. With so much stuff crammed into a single disc, the game is worth every penny of its price and it will outlast many 360 and PS3 games.
Simply Overrated March 26, 2008
UchuuKeijiShaider
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
Don't get me wrong Smash Bros fans, this game is fun while playing against other people, and addictive. However, I do feel the game does get old after awhile like all Fighting games. The game can also be annoying at times while your characters become small to compensate for something going on in the background. And god help you during some of the stages when there is so much chaos going on you lose track of your character let alone what the heck is going on. Maybe that's the whole point or maybe I'm just getting old.
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