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After filing our initial impressions on the playable demo of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, we went back into the ring (several times) and spent a fair chunk of time with Nintendo’s anticipated fighter. While the version of the game only offered a tiny sample of the dense gameplay offerings to be found in the final game’s many modes, it was well worth the time.

The demo let four players choose from a roster of Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Fox McCloud, Pikachu, Diddy Kong, Pit, Meta Knight, Ike (from the Fire Emblem series), Peach, Yoshi, Sonic, and Bowser. The battle option was a simple two-minute KO fest on one of the available stages which included the classic battlefield, along with stages inspired by classic games such as Super Mario Sunshine, Twilight Princess, the Kirby series, Yoshi’s Island, Metroid, Star Fox, Pokemon, Kid Icarus, and Fire Emblem,

The game’s fighting system is in line with the fast and furious system used in the GameCube’s Super Smash Brothers Melee. You’ll have the same assortment of attacks that break down to normal, strong, and smash. You’ll be able to string together combos and bust heads pretty easily once you dive in. Better still, you’ll be able to charge up some moves and dole out a painful kick into the background.

To supplement your physical attacks, you’ll be able to collect all manner of items that can help you deliver a beat-down on your opponents. As before, the assists range from familiar Nintendo characters who come out and wreak havoc to weapons such as fans, bats, and firearms. The various items, which break down to normal, assist trophies, and the ever plentiful Pokeballs, are nearly always useful and showcase a goofy sense of humor. You’ll see everything from pixelated Advance Wars characters to metroids, and Mr. Resetti of Animal Crossing fame pop up. In addition, a new item called the smash ball–awesome when you collect it but completely hateful when you can’t–will appear on the field. The new item will enable the character who knocks it open with a series of blows and collects its power boost to unleash a unique, powerful special attack that’s basically death on a large blunt stick for any foe it connects with. The interesting thing is it’s possible to steal the special attack from an opponent if you knock them around enough just after they collect it.

Control in the game is, as we mentioned in our last piece, flexible, although the demo we played only offered two of the four control schemes. After spending more time with the classic and Wii remote control schemes we got used to them but they didn’t quite hook us. The remote didn’t feel quite right in the heat of battle, moves were a little tough to pull out consistently, while the classic controller was more promising and felt a bit better. However we have to admit we’re creatures of habit and just don’t feel right playing Smash Brothers without a GameCube controller. We reckon with the game’s extensive control customizations, aspiring brawlers will be able to make anything work in the end.

The visuals in the game are clean, detailed and, most importantly, speedy. The Wii’s added power has afforded a higher level of fine detail on the characters that can support it. So, for example, you’ll notice detail on Mario’s clothing, Samus’ armor, and Pit’s clothing and wings. Other characters such as Yoshi, Pikachu and Sonic aren’t quite as showy but still look good. Animation is smooth and helps give the action its fast-paced feel. Right now the characters don’t appear to be a quantum leap over the last game, but that’s fine. The environments, on the other hand, are quite a bit livelier and feature various interactive elements that you’ll come to both love and hate over the course of a fight, depending on how the tide of battle is going. You’ll have to contend with elements such as flowing lava, breakable platforms, and all manner of environmental effects that you’ll have to avoid or use to your advantage during battle. Some stages have more subtle effects like the Animal Crossing-inspired Smashville stage which changes depending on the time and date of the Wii clock. Finally, the various assists, pitfalls and the new smash ball effects give the game some showy visuals as all manner of lunacy makes

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 1:06 pm and is filed under WII. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.