Thursday, March 20, 2008

Super Smash Bros Brawl -- Final Opinion?

So I've fiddled around with Super Smash Bros Brawl for far longer than I probably should have. I've unlocked all the characters and all the stages. I've completed the forty-one events. I've collected a few music CDs and even more stickers. I've also collected all the useless game demos. Having to load out of the game to play forty seconds of the original Zelda? Really? That's all the memory the Wii has? In this time I've been frustrated as hell. Not just with the whole online debacle but with the game itself. My initial opinion of Super Smash Bros stays true through Super Smash Bros Melee right into Super Smash Bros Brawl. And that's at the core, they're just not very good games, no matter how much gets piled on top.  They're not especially balanced for fairness. I also just can't ever seem to wrap my brain around the jumping and or saving grab mechanics of more than a few of the characters. I find them predominantly useless and ineffective. The game's collision detection also leaves a lot to be desired. I'm also just not that big a fan of randomness and chance of it all. Now, I understand of wanting a user friendly game that anyone can pick up and play in theory. I just don't think it's even that. It's too frustrating to be bothered with unlocking everything there is to be unlocked.  And the game's supposedly greatly improved adventure mode translates to just extending it out to the point of tedium. On the graphical side of things, I'm hardly impressed. The Wii is already really showing its limitations graphically. There are so many jagged lines I'd swear I was looking at a PlayStation 2 game. The game really should have a far more polished look to it. I really appreciate the amount of music that they've put into the game to be unlocked. Only problem is, none of it really fits with a fighting game. It seems more appropriate for use in shopping malls and elevators. Maybe things would have been different had I been able to actually play the game online. You know, if Nintendo could pull its head out of its ass and actually get things working like it was 2000. As it stands now, I'm giving Super Smash Bros Brawl a passable 6.5.

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