We all know about the 35 characters by now. We're all slightly disappointed that Knuckles/Geno/Megaman/________ didn't get in. Now that the initial shock is over, let's figure out why it was so disappointing, then review Brawl as a whole.
(tl:dr in bold throughout, but this is a good read.
It's actually quite simple. What we had expected was greater. This happens all the time, but in the end, we all deal with it just fine, and sometimes it's even for the best. Here's a great example. Remember when the Revolution was officially named the "Wii"? How horrible was that? EVERYONE was pissed! Turned out fine to me. So,
Lesson #1: In a few months, the roster will be more than acceptable.
Who's disappointed by Doc, Pichu, Roy, and Mewtwo being gone? I sure was, especially when I found out about the apparent clones in this game. Here's why I'm not anymore. First off, Mewtwo isn't gone, he has just been reincarnated. I would assume that if Mewtwo had returned, he would be exactly like Lucario is now. Why not throw Mewtwo in anyway, then? Go ask Sakurai. Either way, Mewtwo was awful in Melee, but he (meaning Lucario) seems pretty playable in Brawl. This is a win, in my opinion.
So what about the other characters? Doc was the most cloniest clone that ever did clone. I loved him to death and prefered him over Mario, but if there were one character that sincerely wouldn't be missed (purely on a technical level) it would be Doc. And Pichu? God, I loved Pichu. No, that wasn't sarcasm. As a competitive player, I found Pichu to be a bucket of fun when playing awful Smashers. But in the end, he simply wasn't a viable character. We can all deal with it. (Plus, it seems like Pikachu ganked his goggles anyway. No one wants to play Pichu without his eyegear.) And Roy? Well, no one cared about him on a personal level, that's for sure. I'm sure some Japanese FE fanboys shed a tear for this one, but really, Marth was the favorable character in Melee. Let's just thank God Ike isn't a clone.
Lesson #2: The discontinued characters had a right to leave.
Now there's this whole "Only 35 characters!" thing. Personally, I was expecting exactly 40 characters. (Of course that was always assuming the Melee clones wouldn't be baleeted.) What a shame. However, let's be real here. We now have 15 new characters! 18 if you count all three Pokémon and Zamus. Couple that in with the veterans and we've got 39 characters in total. Now take into account that many, if not all, of the veterans have been reworked and tweaked, to provide a new experience. Now consider that Brawl plays much differently than Melee, and it'll be a new experience for EACH character. Let this stew around for a few days, then think about this "awful roster."
Sakurai was the kid who used to bring in a single pack of gum to class, and when the teacher caught him chewing the gum, told him to share with all of his other classmates. It just was not possible for him to please absolutely everyone. However, the characters he chose are all extremely memorable and truly represent Nintendo better than any other characters. (With the exception of Wolf.)
Lesson #3: The list is incredibly expansive with 18 completely new characters and 21 reworked ones. You absolute favorite didn't make the list? Neither did anyone else's. Our roster is everything Nintendo. Love it.
Here's why we were sad. Everything was spoiled by Sakurai. I'll admit it, Sakurai is the perfect troll. He got everyone SO hyped, and then just brought everyone down in one swift blow. Did we really want Wolf and ROB? Were they on the top of our lists? Toon Link? He's a clone, right? Just think how unbelievably pumped we would have been if the Dojo didn't exist, and every newcomer was revealed in the last 2 days. Personally, I think that would have been too much for us and we all probably would have died due to heart explodey.
In reality, we have been playing Brawl for almost 2 years, ever since we began speculating on the inclusion of Snake. Remember how pumped you were when Zamus was announced? How about that time you stayed up until 5:34am for the late update, only to be greeted by the face of the mysterious Ike? Remember when the GameCube controller was officially supported? Now how about that god**** Zelda medley? Lord almighty, those were some incredible times.
Lesson #4: We have been playing Brawl for years, and unlocking each aspect of it as we continued through the single-player SmashDojo mode. Assuming that we were going to be shocked and awed in the last two days would be assuming that we haven't known anything about Brawl up until that point.
The next point I'd like to bring up is simple. HOLY BREATHING F*CKBALLS. THIS IS BRAWL.
Ok, I'm sure a vast majority will agree that Melee was simply one of the greatest games of all-time. In fact, the only areas that it lacked in were single-player, unlockables (can't get enough trophies!), and online multiplayer (which hadn't been established yet). Let me be Dwight for a second:
*This word has been omitted due to the fact that it has not been invented yet. There are no words that can possibly describe how incredible Brawl will be.
Melee was insane. I still play it daily. I still view the trophies. I keep the OST in my car. Everything about Melee was so fantastic, and none of it happened by accident. Sakurai is a genius. There are no developers like him in the world.
Brawl has everything that we love about Melee (please don't give me any of this "OMG NO WD WTF." ****. We're being general here) and only improves from there. The projected number of songs is OVER 9000!!!! (Er, I mean 200.) The stages are inventive, maniacal, and traditional. We have a fscking stage creator! We have a vast and deep single-player mode. We have brand new modes and items to have fun with. We have a metric ****load of trophies, stickers, and information to collect. We have a replay mode, so when something absolutely nuts happens, we'll be able to save it and YouTube that ****! WE. HAVE. ONLINE. PLAY. (And it appears to work REALLY well. Go figure!)
Final Lesson: Everything about Brawl is a major improvement over Melee, probably 10 times over. It's simply awe-inspiring. We have absolutely so much to be greatful for, and so much to look forward to. There's no way Brawl won't occupy a great deal of our gaming time for years to come. Game of the year? It certainly seems so.
Here are my final thoughts. As an editor and game reviewer, I tend to focus on a lot of the bad aspects of a game, and point them out. Admittedly, we all do this to an extent. We expect games to be incredible and to entertain us, and when something, even tiny, pisses us off, we're the first ones to ***** about it. The pure and simple fact is, Brawl is looking better everyday, and I can't personally think of any game that trumps it. It's so perfect that we glare on the smaller blemishes it may have, like the lack of chatting or semi-long load times. The pure fact is that Brawl looks to be (and has been reported to be) one of the greatest games to ever be created.
Final Thought: Being disappointed about any aspect in Brawl is like receiving a giant bag of money that totals $4,000,000 and being pissed off that one of the $100 bills got ripped in half. Brawl is the greatest Smash Bros game to ever exist.
~Dac
(tl:dr in bold throughout, but this is a good read.
It's actually quite simple. What we had expected was greater. This happens all the time, but in the end, we all deal with it just fine, and sometimes it's even for the best. Here's a great example. Remember when the Revolution was officially named the "Wii"? How horrible was that? EVERYONE was pissed! Turned out fine to me. So,
Lesson #1: In a few months, the roster will be more than acceptable.
Who's disappointed by Doc, Pichu, Roy, and Mewtwo being gone? I sure was, especially when I found out about the apparent clones in this game. Here's why I'm not anymore. First off, Mewtwo isn't gone, he has just been reincarnated. I would assume that if Mewtwo had returned, he would be exactly like Lucario is now. Why not throw Mewtwo in anyway, then? Go ask Sakurai. Either way, Mewtwo was awful in Melee, but he (meaning Lucario) seems pretty playable in Brawl. This is a win, in my opinion.
So what about the other characters? Doc was the most cloniest clone that ever did clone. I loved him to death and prefered him over Mario, but if there were one character that sincerely wouldn't be missed (purely on a technical level) it would be Doc. And Pichu? God, I loved Pichu. No, that wasn't sarcasm. As a competitive player, I found Pichu to be a bucket of fun when playing awful Smashers. But in the end, he simply wasn't a viable character. We can all deal with it. (Plus, it seems like Pikachu ganked his goggles anyway. No one wants to play Pichu without his eyegear.) And Roy? Well, no one cared about him on a personal level, that's for sure. I'm sure some Japanese FE fanboys shed a tear for this one, but really, Marth was the favorable character in Melee. Let's just thank God Ike isn't a clone.
Lesson #2: The discontinued characters had a right to leave.
Now there's this whole "Only 35 characters!" thing. Personally, I was expecting exactly 40 characters. (Of course that was always assuming the Melee clones wouldn't be baleeted.) What a shame. However, let's be real here. We now have 15 new characters! 18 if you count all three Pokémon and Zamus. Couple that in with the veterans and we've got 39 characters in total. Now take into account that many, if not all, of the veterans have been reworked and tweaked, to provide a new experience. Now consider that Brawl plays much differently than Melee, and it'll be a new experience for EACH character. Let this stew around for a few days, then think about this "awful roster."
Sakurai was the kid who used to bring in a single pack of gum to class, and when the teacher caught him chewing the gum, told him to share with all of his other classmates. It just was not possible for him to please absolutely everyone. However, the characters he chose are all extremely memorable and truly represent Nintendo better than any other characters. (With the exception of Wolf.)
Lesson #3: The list is incredibly expansive with 18 completely new characters and 21 reworked ones. You absolute favorite didn't make the list? Neither did anyone else's. Our roster is everything Nintendo. Love it.
Here's why we were sad. Everything was spoiled by Sakurai. I'll admit it, Sakurai is the perfect troll. He got everyone SO hyped, and then just brought everyone down in one swift blow. Did we really want Wolf and ROB? Were they on the top of our lists? Toon Link? He's a clone, right? Just think how unbelievably pumped we would have been if the Dojo didn't exist, and every newcomer was revealed in the last 2 days. Personally, I think that would have been too much for us and we all probably would have died due to heart explodey.
In reality, we have been playing Brawl for almost 2 years, ever since we began speculating on the inclusion of Snake. Remember how pumped you were when Zamus was announced? How about that time you stayed up until 5:34am for the late update, only to be greeted by the face of the mysterious Ike? Remember when the GameCube controller was officially supported? Now how about that god**** Zelda medley? Lord almighty, those were some incredible times.
Lesson #4: We have been playing Brawl for years, and unlocking each aspect of it as we continued through the single-player SmashDojo mode. Assuming that we were going to be shocked and awed in the last two days would be assuming that we haven't known anything about Brawl up until that point.
The next point I'd like to bring up is simple. HOLY BREATHING F*CKBALLS. THIS IS BRAWL.
Ok, I'm sure a vast majority will agree that Melee was simply one of the greatest games of all-time. In fact, the only areas that it lacked in were single-player, unlockables (can't get enough trophies!), and online multiplayer (which hadn't been established yet). Let me be Dwight for a second:
- Fact: Sakurai created Melee.
- Fact: Melee was fantastic.
- Fact: Sakurai created Brawl, only improving on what Melee had.
- Fact: Brawl will be absolutely _________*
*This word has been omitted due to the fact that it has not been invented yet. There are no words that can possibly describe how incredible Brawl will be.
Melee was insane. I still play it daily. I still view the trophies. I keep the OST in my car. Everything about Melee was so fantastic, and none of it happened by accident. Sakurai is a genius. There are no developers like him in the world.
Brawl has everything that we love about Melee (please don't give me any of this "OMG NO WD WTF." ****. We're being general here) and only improves from there. The projected number of songs is OVER 9000!!!! (Er, I mean 200.) The stages are inventive, maniacal, and traditional. We have a fscking stage creator! We have a vast and deep single-player mode. We have brand new modes and items to have fun with. We have a metric ****load of trophies, stickers, and information to collect. We have a replay mode, so when something absolutely nuts happens, we'll be able to save it and YouTube that ****! WE. HAVE. ONLINE. PLAY. (And it appears to work REALLY well. Go figure!)
Final Lesson: Everything about Brawl is a major improvement over Melee, probably 10 times over. It's simply awe-inspiring. We have absolutely so much to be greatful for, and so much to look forward to. There's no way Brawl won't occupy a great deal of our gaming time for years to come. Game of the year? It certainly seems so.
Here are my final thoughts. As an editor and game reviewer, I tend to focus on a lot of the bad aspects of a game, and point them out. Admittedly, we all do this to an extent. We expect games to be incredible and to entertain us, and when something, even tiny, pisses us off, we're the first ones to ***** about it. The pure and simple fact is, Brawl is looking better everyday, and I can't personally think of any game that trumps it. It's so perfect that we glare on the smaller blemishes it may have, like the lack of chatting or semi-long load times. The pure fact is that Brawl looks to be (and has been reported to be) one of the greatest games to ever be created.
Final Thought: Being disappointed about any aspect in Brawl is like receiving a giant bag of money that totals $4,000,000 and being pissed off that one of the $100 bills got ripped in half. Brawl is the greatest Smash Bros game to ever exist.
~Dac
