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.
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chonicles
As a die hard Resident Evil fan, the prospect of an arcade style on rails Resident Evil shooter made me a little weary. My feelings were that the Wii was capable of so much more, and that they could really have used the Resident Evil name to really do something innovative. But I bought the game anyway.
The over all Plot is that of Resident Evil 0, 1, and 3 in a diet Pepsi kind of way. You play through a few levels for each of the three games, touching on all of the key points and boss battles. But the really meaty juicy part of the game are the ‘bonus’ levels you unlock while playing through the game, and the bonus levels themselves. These new levels take place outside of the main story of the Resident Evil games, and fill in the blanks. How did Rebbecca Chambers get to the mansion? what happened after Wesker died? Why did Wesker turn on Umbrella? Between the story content in these side missions, and the numerous (I mean a lot) items and files you find while playing the game, all of (ok, most of) the missing pieces of the fall of Umbrella, and the story of the first 3 Resident Evil games is explained. This was the real attraction to the game. While Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is not a new Resident Evil game in terms of advancing the story, it does provide a lot of new information. In essence, it had the potential to be a fan boy’s wet dream.
Sadly the prospect of Umbrella was a lot stronger than the game it’s self. While the game is far from great, in all fairness it is also not terrible. Game play is smooth and I found no real problems. Though the amount of control and options you can offer players in a rail shooter is limited, Umbrella does do a good job of pushing it to the limits. The game is not overly difficult, and with a second player you can beat the main game’s levels in an hour or so, though the difficulty is noticeably higher on single player, it is still far from challenging. Players have the option of upgrading weapons and new weapons are awarded based on discovery and level progression, adding a little more flexibility to the game. The game’s visuals leave something to be desired, especially given that it carries the name of a game series known for pushing systems to their limits. We’ve seen games on the Wii that look amazing. It’d be nice if more developers took the time to take full advantage of what the Wii is capable of.
In the end the game is not terrible. It is easy, and it is short, and the game play is nothing to write home about, but it plays smoothly and is fun to play with a friend. This game wasn’t really made for the casual gamer, but seems really to be Capcom’s attempt at filling in the missing story pieces before Resident Evil 5 comes out. It’s a good pick up for long time dedicated fans of the series. And I guess if you really can’t wait for the remakes of House Of The Dead then this is the game for you.
Super Mario Galaxy
Within the first few minutes of playing this game one thing becomes very clear, Nintendo is not fucking around. Oh, and neither is Bowser. The formula for this game is more or less the same as any other Mario adventure. Mario is going to the castle, Bowser shows up, kidnaps princess (or entire castle), Mario must peruse and defeat Bowser. Only this time Bowser show up with a fleet of Mario Bros. 3 airships, and flying saucers. He kidnaps the entire castle, and flys off to the galaxy that he created. Yes, Bowser has created his own Galaxy. Bad-ass. Throughout the game you’ll also discover he is creating dark matter and black holes. The dude has seriously up’d the ante.
The game is built upon the seemingly invincible foundation of Super Mario 64, and the improvements made by the follow up Super Mario Sunshine. You start off in a central hub (formerly Peach’s Castle, and Del Fino Plaza) and proceed to go into various worlds and find all the stars. This time, the hub is a huge Space Station/observatory, property of one Princess Rosalina. If you ask me, Mario is rescuing the wrong Princess. I mean sure Peach has a castle and those farm girl next door good looks, but Rosalina is a hot blond with the looks of a super model, and she owns her own space ship. Better than a castle if you ask me.
Mario uses the Observatory as a base and hub to travel between the 42 galaxies. Each galaxy is a world, like in the previous games, with multiple stars. Most galaxy’s average 5 stars, some special galaxies only have 1 star. I’ll save you the trouble of math. The game has a total of 120 stars, wit the talks of a secret 121st star. Once all 120 stars are collected, you unlock the ability to play through the game as Luigi, to collect the 120 stars again, and unlock two special stars. This brings the star total to 242/243 depending on the actual number of secret stars. Fortunately you can beat the game with a minimum of 60 stars.
The game plays as near to flawless as any Wii game to date, and is possibly the best game to integrate with the Wii’s unique control options. Like it’s predecessors, Mario Galaxy does suffer from the occasional horrid camera angles, and sometimes getting that fine touch to a jump is difficult, but over all the game play is smooth and there really is nothing you could seriously complain about. The game is not terribly difficult, but it is not annoyingly simple either. It’s easier than Sunshine, and probably on par with 64. The graphics are without a doubt the best the system has seen thus far. Super Mario Galaxy really shows us what this system can do. The sound and music is as good as any Mario game, and there are even many times when you’ll find yourself hearing newly recorded versions of music from Super Mario Bros. 3.
The new additions to the Mario universe are awesome. Nothing new in the way on enemies really. Most of your boss battles are against Bowser Jr, rather than Bowser. Although the final Bowser battle is possibly the most difficult one to date. Mario finds a few new power ups in Galaxy, all of which are awesome to use. Fire Mario makes a return, along with a re-imaged invincible star Mario. Bee Mario is as shown in the trailers, giving the player the ability to hover for a period of time and walk through honey. Boo Mario is amusing and allows you to travel through walls. Flying Mario is probably the coolest looking, giving Mario some new Black and Red overalls. The ability is pretty much exactly the same as the winged cap from Mario 64. My personal favorite is Ice Mario which gives you the ability to walk across water, as it freezes below your feet.
Over all, the game is hands down amazing, and if there was only one reason to own a Wii, this would be it. I beat the game by borrowing it from a friend, and I plan on buying it. It’s that good. If i had a 5 star rating system Mario Galaxy would have earned at least a 6. Yes, out of 5.
The Final Stage 