Two Bits

There is probably no higher compliment for a multiplayer party game to receive than this: even today it is just as fun with friends as it was for me the day it came out. It is somewhat indicative to note, however, that the same thing was true for the other Smash Bros. games as well. In other words, if you got bored with them, you will get bored with this one, and if the gameplay was somehow endlessly addicting, it will be so here as well.

Nintendo’s design philosophy with the Smash games seems to be thus: to make it better, make it bigger. (At least they have Mega Man beat in this regard.) This is all well and good, of course, but as I play the game both with my friends and by myself, I can not shake the suspicion that I have done all of this before, and that I was suckered into buying a game I have already played.

“It’s a party game!” You cry. “What more could you want?” That’s a good question. One thing I would have certainly enjoyed, for example, is an online mode that worked. There is honestly no excuse at this stage of console evolution for a party game as fun as Brawl to not function online. Oh, now do not get me wrong. It certainly has an online mode. It simply lacks any structure whatsoever. I had to actually perform network troubleshooting on my Wii to get into the “anonymous brawl” games, and even then, I had little reason to play any of them. There are no persistent stats, no way to tell who you are fighting, and there is only one mode available for play: a 3-minute timed match. Even stage selection seems dubious.

A friend of mine pointed out that the faceless online component to Nintendo games was a good thing. I tend to agree. Having to listen to a 13-year old cuss me out after I knocked his ass off the stage would pretty much ruin the experience. My counter to him, however, is that there is no reason for this anonymity to exist within the context of a friends list. But, Brawl does just that. The closest thing to communication you have when playing with friends is to bind short text messages to the different D-Pad directions. And you have to quit the game to change them. The end result is that I have no desire to hook up with my friends online. I hardly see the point, when we can not even trash talk to each other or laugh together about what just happened in the game. Imagine not being able to say a word to each other while seated on your couch, and you’ll have an idea of what online Brawl is like.

So the fact that Brawl is a party game that does nothing new to encourage more multiplayer play, and nothing new to evolve gameplay in any other significant way, makes it an unfortunate exercise in game design.

I did not even think about how typical this is of Nintendo until Octale pointed out on his radio show that, while their games are fun, they are all the same. The new Zelda game is great, he said, but you’ve played it before! It’s hard to hear that and not notice the same symptom happening with Brawl. Still, it does seem to do a better job of offering something different than Mario Kart Wii. And, unlike Zelda, it really is just a party game. How much can we expect?

Perhaps what makes the “sameness” so frustrating in Brawl is that the options for new, exciting modes are there – and broken. Another example, since I’ve already talked about online play, is the stage builder. The stage builder is great, but for some odd reason, I am limited in how many pieces I can place on a map. Further, I lack any interesting options to place, such as breakable walls, water, or even blocks of different colors or looks in the same template. There are three templates, and they are enough, but the option to download more would have been nice. So, too, would the option to play custom stages with friends in online brawls. As it is, I am forced to simply send it to my friends – and this only works with friends whose Wii has befriended mine and whose Brawl has befriended mine, and to get either registration to work, I must see the person online. Oh, and did I mention that Brawl utilizes its own, 12-digit code in addition to your Wii code?

Yet, for all of that, Brawl does have a few very good things. For example, the adventure mode is by far the most entertaining single player mode I have ever experienced in a fighting or party game. And to top it off, it offers drop-in co-op play. Playing through the story mode with a friend is probably the best fun you can have here – if only it worked online. Besides that, the story is basically just a nerdgasm, and if seeing Fox interact with Diddy Kong does not tittilate your innermost cockles, you will probably find the adventure mode inaccessible. On the other hand, it manages to tell a somehow-compelling little tale without a single line of dialogue and without a cut-scene longer than 2 minutes. Co-op works for most single player modes, too, and most times, you can unlock Challenges (read: Achievements) with two people, which is a relief, since most of the Challenges are border line MMORPG-grinding-type-quests.

The character roster is expanded, of course, and most of the characters do offer their own unique takes on gameplay. Cloned attacks are still around, but they all have little differences, and past cloned character such as Mario and Luigi are more different than ever before. To my delight, heavy characters are also competitive now. I can finally play as Bowser and not guaruntee a loss!

The Final Smashes are also fun, if you don’t mind their potential for instant kills. Getting Smash balls does require some skill, but also a bit of luck, so you don’t feel too cheated when it happens. Still, many of the Smashes are almost entirely useless, while some of them are ridiculously over-powered (see: above). Still, they do make things more fun, and they’re really the only significant change to gameplay.

So ultimately, the game is fun. It’s a perfection of Melee, but like Melee, it also half-heartedly introduces new elements that will probably take another sequel to fix (read: online play). As a party game, it’s immensely fun with friends, and we couldn’t ask for much more than that. Still, we really have played this game before, and deep down, one can’t help but wonder if it was really worth the full $50 price tag.