Super Smash Bros Brawl

On Nintendo Wii
Smashing!
Ever wondered what it’d be like if all of Disney’s characters got together for a Royal Rumble? No? Well Nintendo did, kind of. Rather than pitching the Seven Dwarfs Vs Shere Khan though, they’ve used their own massive catalogue of characters instead to create a supercrazyfuntime explosion of fisticuffs, laserguns and bottom burps.
Grabbing classic Nintendo characters from over 30 years worth of games, Smash Bros once again brings together the likes of Mario, Pikachu and Donkey Kong to fight, introducing new characters such as Wario, Pikmin and Kid Icarus to the mix too.
On its 3rd iteration, Smash Bros remains pretty much the same game you played on the N64 and Gamecube, except with nicer graphics, a bigger character roster, beefier solo modes and online play. Basically it’s a 2D beat-em-up, pitching up to 4 players against each other at the same time.
With 4 characters on one screen and all manner of special moves, power-ups and weapons, Smash Bros is a chaotic game where players seek to increase their opponent’s damage percentage and knock them flying off the screen to comedic effect.
Simple to play, yet with depth, Smash Bros gives you easy moves at the touch of a button, yet using them in the correct way and combination is the way to victory.
Brawl’s most obvious addition to the fight is the Final Smash – an orb that appears randomly, that if smashed, bestows the player with a decimating super power. Thankfully its appearance isn’t frequent enough to disrupt the balance and is always fun to execute and entertaining to watch.
Rammed full of different modes, unlockable items and characters (Solid Snake?!), Brawl is a big game to play to completion, especially considering its notable single player (or co-op) story mode ‘The Subspace Emissary’. Once you’re through all that there’s online play to test your mettle and even a level editor to share your creations with the rest of the world.
With snippets of Nintendo games littering the landscape like coins, Brawl is an exhaustive catalogue of Nintendo’s history disguised as an immensely fun game, and one that will be at the centre of many a multiplayer party to come – the time to finally pick between Mario and Sonic is here!
9/10