Super Smash Bros. Brawl (updated)
Well. Here it is. Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii. Some said this day would never come. True it seemed that until you had it in your hand, it was hard to believe that the game was ever going to come out. But it did. And here it is.
So lets dig in. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is like every Christmas morning you’ve had rolled into one, covered in chocolate and sprinkles then served to you but beautiful naked women. I mean, if your into that kind of thing. If not, then it’s a perfect example of what happens when a developer delivers on everything they promised. Or mostly.
Lets start with where the game goes right. Building on the adventure mode from Melee, Brawl features a game mode called The Subspace Emissary, a full blown legit story mode. The ‘game within a game’ averages out a 9 hours, give or take. You play through a story told through beautiful cinematics in between levels, making your way through a variety of levels and Nintendo locations eventually playing as all characters (sans the final 3 unlockables). What makes it even better is that the entire mode can be played with a buddy in full two player co-op. Awesome. It’s a creative and entertaining way to mix things up, and to introduce all the characters, new and old. Did I mention the beautiful cinematics? Brawl finally shows that the Wii is capable of post N64 graphics, as it is by far the best looking game on the system. Also in adventure mode is the new Sticker system. Stickers are power-ups of sort, coming in a variety of A and B list Nintendo characters. They are applied to your character in a strategic fassion to apply resistance and damage bonuses.
In addition to adventure/story mode Classic mode makes it’s return, complete with breaking targets, random giant combatants, and of course Master Hand. Classic mode awards trophy’s in usual fashion for beating the 12 stages with any of the characters. Really nothing has changed here, but there wasn’t really anything that demanded improvement.
Other game modes making an appearance (once unlocked) are the returning All Star Mode (which has you fight through a large number of combatants on a single life), the goal oriented Events (awarding more trophies, songs, levels, etc) and a new one called Boss Battle Mode. Boss Battle Mode is similar to All Star Mode, except that you face all the Bosses from story mode, not the other Nintendo icons. Also of course is practice mode, the stadium (home run derby anyone?) and target break (once unlocked outside of Classic Mode), and create a level. Also are the Masterpieces, 1-3 or so minute trials of the game character’s original Nintendo games. Yes, it seems like a mere plug for the Virtual Console games, but it’s a cool addition nonetheless.
The game boasts an impressive amount of unlock-ables (enough to supply the fix for any recovering 360 achievement whore like myself) including the secret characters, soundtracks, levels, create a level parts, game modes, missing pieces of the catalogue lists, masterpieces, and stickers.
And of course there is normal brawl. With the normal adjustable rules, game types, and the large selection of maps and characters. The biggest new addition are the Final Smashes. Though a cool concept, I have a feeling that many people, like myself, will eventually turn this item off. It may seem like a cool idea to give everyone the chance to have a super nearly one hit kill massive special move. But it tends to change to focus of the game, as soon as the smash ball shows up on screen its a race to get it, rather than just brawling. And of course, if one person continues to be the lucky brawler to get the Final Smash, the game turns very unbalanced very quickly.
Game play translates nicely to the Wii, and players are given a variety of control options, from new wii controls, to the game cube and classic controllers. The classic controller and the game cube controller use the same commands as Smash Melee used on the GCN, making for a smooth transition. All returning characters play extremely close, if not exactly, to how they played in previous games. The new characters are easy to pick up, and it seems that there will be more character switching in Brawl as opposed to previous installments. That is to say, I think you’ll find yourself playing more characters than you did in the past. The levels are more interactive and exciting; from destroyable terrain, to changing locations, and all sorts of level born hazards. Game play flows smoothly and as of now I have found no problems. The music is wonderful, each stage has a reworked theme song pertaining to it’s game of origin, yes including Sonic’s Green Hill Zone. The sound overall is great, and the visuals are the best we’ve seen on the Wii, and probably the best we will see in a long time. Really the one and only complaint with the game is the load times. Well not a much of an issue in normal brawl, in any of the ‘single’ player modes the load times range form moderate to terribly annoying.
Character selection is strong, and varried. It seems that there is a greater range of character types in Brawl than the previous Smash titles. A good thing becuase there are less of them this time around. And well it is great to see some of the new characters (Pit, Meta Knight, R.O.B.) there are many characters that fans demanded and Nintendo failed to deliver on. It brings up two big questions; are Nintendo just ignorign fan demands, or do they have some sort of surprise lined up for us? It is entirely possible that in a couple of years the Wii becomes the first multi Smash Bros. titled system. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Dissapointments aside, there is no shortage of characters to play, most of whom are strong and very few of whom are down right bad.
After no luck with the online play the first day, I just assumed that there weren’t enough people online as the game hadn’t yet been out 24 hours. I did finally get a chance to play some online Brawl, and although it’s no xboxlive, the experience was not terrible. When playing online you can chose to either play with people on your friends list, or you can play with random nameless people. Finding your initial math ups can take a bit of time. The process starts by picking your character, then a level (I still don’t know how it decides what level is played, it never was any that I picked). You then find your self in the ‘lobby’ on a practice stage beating up sandbag, waiting for other players to join up. Once the game is full, it launches. The first complaint is that it seems that you can only play 2 minute KO fest. An annoyance if, like me, you prefer the ‘stock’ game type. The game ran smoothly, though play did slow a little through out each game I played. Overall though nothing unbearable. The best feature is the continue option. After a round ends, you can choose to continue play. Assuming that other in the game do so, the four players (or however many stayed) pick new characters, and levels, and a new round begins. This is nice because it eliminates the potentially long wait for players. Overall the online experience was not disappointing, but nothing I would consider to be a selling point of the game. it is however a big step in the right direction for Nintendo’s online gaming, something I hope the consider putting a lot more development into.
In the end, I really can’t say much bad about the game. On the first day I had it I played it for 12 hours straight, moving between the various modes, and was up until 6am. Not too many games have been able to motivate that kind of play, at least not since Viva Pinata. Nintendo did deliver on what they promised, which at this point in time, with the rapidly growing amount of dissapointment in the Wii, was crucial for them. Hopefully we will see mroe games of this calibur for the Wii, although with only one first party game lined up for the rest of the year, and games like ‘Project HAMMER; being cancled, the future looks bleak. But for now we have Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and hopefully this will keep the Wii alive and well for the time being.
Logan #1
Take an all star writter who has his name spread across the world of entertainment (Brian K. Vaughan LOST, Y: The Last Man) and an artist rapidly establishing his name and style (Eduardo Risso 100 Bullets) and give them a mini series about one of the most beloved and well known comic book characters ever and what do you get? A bad ass 3 issue mini series that takes us into Wolverine’s past and present.
Logan is a 3 issue mini series that gives us even more insight into the memories that have come back to haunt Wolverine/Logan. It opens with a trek into a temple in Japan to confront an old enemy. The story then jumps back to World War Two. It seems that the women of Wolverine’s past will be a central theme in this series. Or at least one woman.
As a long time and huge fan of the character (well who isn’t) personally I think that 3 issues is a bit short for this series. But I guess before I can really make that judgement, I’d have to see where it’s going, and how its going to end. And I guess Wolverine really doesnt need another book dedicated just to him. I suppose the good of this only being a 3 issues series is that we as the readers, get the guarentee that the writers know exactly where they are going and what they want to have happen. But then again, I can never get enough.
All my rambling aside, Logan 01 is a solid book from start to finish. It’s not going to drastically change the way you look at comics, though if you went into every book looking for a life chaning event you’d never be satisfied. By the end of the last page you want to knwo where the story is going. Over all, a strong
Lost: Via Domus
Losties rejoice, there is a Lost video game. And No, it does not suck.
And that is in fact the truth of it. Lost: Via Domus has been under scrutiny simply because it is a game based on a TV show. Given the history of TV and movie based games, skepticism is understandable. ABC took care in investing a solid amount of money into this game, and the writers knew that they had to be involved enough to deliver a product that would not disgust long time devoted Lost fans. And they managed to do just that.
Lost: Via Domus is a straight forward action/adventure game. Game play is straight forward and simple. There really isn’t too much to say on the subject. In game text is a little small, and on occasion the game gives you a lack of direction, but all in all user interaction is solid and flawless. The graphics are not the best we’ve ever seen, but they are nothing to scoff at. The environments and lighting in particular are impressive.
The concept of the game has you playing as a previously unseen survivor of flight 815 named Elliott, a photo journalist who, post crash, can’t remember anything about himself or his life, even his name. Your story takes place through out the first two seasons of the show. This leads the survivors to grow suspicious of you, and eventually lead them to believe you are an Other. As Elliott you search the island for answers to your past, taking pictures and experience all the mysteries of Lost along the way. Elliott seems a little more motivated to find things on the island and sees things long before the main cast does. This includes other Darmah stations, The Smoke monster, and even a run in with Ben and Juliet. Elliott, like any other Character of Lost, experiences flashbacks. Making these flashback playable had to be a challenge, and I was impressed with how they came out. By finding certain items in each flashback you uncover more of Elliott’s past, leaving the depth of the story up to you.
Via Domus is as loyal to it’s source material as possible. The locations are very accurately recreated, and character’s look like their real life counterparts. I was disappointed by the amount of actors who did not supply their voice for the game, but you can’t have everything.
The game is structured into 7 episodes, each complete with its on ‘previously on lost’ segment and flashbacks. The game is not overly difficult, in fact it’s pretty flat out simple. Not that this makes for a bad game experience. The game is, however, disappointingly short. Each episode takes around an hour or so to complete. Average time to beat the game start to finish is between 7 and 10 hours. This includes all 1000 gamer points for the Xbox 360 version.
To sum it all up. Lost: Via Domus is a good game. it is simple, and very short, but if those are your only complaints, that’s not too bad. This is a game made for the fans, I must stress, if you don’t give a damn about Lost, you won’t give a damn about the game. Unless you are looking for a fast 100 gamer points that is. Should you buy this game? No probably not, at least not until the price goes down. This is a solid game to rent though, as you can without a doubt beat it in one rental, and the replay value is pretty much not there. All in all, i give it a 4 out of 5. If you like Lost, that is.
The Final Stage 