Being a part of the gaming industry is all about connections. Luckily, a good buddy of mine from home is a mod enthusiast and (apparently) quite handy with a soldering gun. The basic upshot of all that is that I found out that I had access to a Wii capable of playing an imported version of the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl, slated to be released here in the states on March 9th. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity and hauled my butt back to the city to play. Hit the jump for my story.

Me and the Brawl menu screen, together at last! Damn I’m handsome.

As I stood at the threshold of the darkened basement where Brawl lay in wait for me, I noticed that a few friends were already playing. I could hear the “Wah! Ha! Wahoo!”s from Mario and smiled, knowing that in just a moment I’d have a controller in my hands. When I walked in and actually saw the game being played on a big ol’ screen, I realized immediately how much polish the folks over at Sora Ltd. had put into it. Not only did the characters look flippin’ great, they animated fluidly–even with an uncountable number of particle effects flying around, dozens of items dropping, Poké Balls opening and assist trophies activating.

In short, this game is graphically jaw-dropping. All of the YouTube videos I’ve watched simply don’t do it justice.

The shiny modded Wii I played on. So… pretty…

But heck, I didn’t drive 3 hours just to watch people play a video game. I had to feel it for myself. The first control style that I got to play with was the Wiimote+nunchuck combo. Having been so used to the Gamecube controller to play Smash made this a bit difficult, but the learning curve wasn’t too sharp. Basically, jumping, shielding, and movement is all controlled on the nunchuck, while all the various attack buttons are mapped to the Wii remote. Eventually I got around to trying out all four available control styles, and I can say with confidence that the Gamecube controller is best suited for Brawl with the Classic controller coming in a close second. Personally, I found the Wiimote-only option to be utter trash and almost impossible to play with. Since shielding was mapped to the B button, I had to move my entire hand just to reach it. Beside that, running and dropping through floors is activated by double-tapping the D-pad, which is not only irritating but also adds a bit of delay to any action that would otherwise only require a quick single-tap of the analog stick. Ugh.

Moreover, a few of the mechanics in the game are just a bit different than Melee’s, so that took a bit of getting used to as well. Shielding is no longer analog like it was on the Gamecube, probably to accommodate for the control styles that don’t have analog shoulder buttons. It wouldn’t be such a big deal, but when I was using a Gamecube controller I had to push the R button down until it clicked, which I never did for Melee. I don’t think that dropping analog shielding will really detract from the overall game, but I wish they’d put it in as an option. As far as controls go, though, this was easily the biggest difference I noticed between Brawl and Melee; the rest is pretty much exactly the same.

Despite the similarity in controls, I could definitely tell this was a different game. In general, characters fell a bit slower than they did in Melee, which is kind of a blessing and a curse. While it might be easier to get back to the stage from a particularly devastating blow, it’s also easier to get combo’d by people that know what they’re doing. What I mean by this is that characters like Marth are able to continuously jump in the air and hit you with an up slash before you’ve really recovered from the previous hit. Of course, this should be easy enough to get out of for more experienced players by doing a third jump or air dodging, but I can see it as just be a source of irritation for newbies going up against pros. Hopefully the improved handicap options will assist in decreasing this abhorrent gap.

One thing I wasn’t expecting was how big a deal the Smash Ball would be. Basically, when one appears, the entire game becomes a tussle to break the thing open. For a lot of characters, having a final smash usually means a free KO on one or possibly all of the players on the stage, so it makes sense. From what I can tell, the Smash Ball has a certain amount of HP before it busts open and endows its special energy to whoever lands the final blow. What this means is that characters with weaker attacks like Pikachu require more hits on the Smash Ball than heavy-hitters like Bowser, who can break it open with a single blow. The fight for the Smash Ball is pretty intense, and I think most players will have a lot of fun with it.

The other big, new addition for Brawl is Assist Trophies. Basically, all you have to do is pick one up and it activates automatically. Unfortunately, there’s about a half-second gap between when you pick it up and when it activates, during which time you’re completely vulnerable. For opponents, this is a golden opportunity to get a good attack in and even knock the Trophy out of your hands. However, when one of these suckers is activated, usually the other characters are in for a world of hurt. Most of the Trophies that I saw were exclusively beneficial for whoever opened it, but there were a few that affected the entire stage. For example, Grey Fox will run around and attack anybody that’s not on the same team as whoever unleashed him, but Shadow the Hedgehog will slow down the whole stage with a weird purple vortex of doom. Basically, Assist Trophies are always a bit of a gamble, but the odds are in the favor of whoever opens them.

That’s it for today. Tune in tomorrow for in-depth character profiles for Mario, Luigi, and Snake!