Note: This isn't exactly the entire night persay, but mostly my experience of playing Brawl. Enjoy!
Well, I can happily say that I HAVE PLAYED BRAWL! It's AWESOME! I was being Yellow Link for every match except for starters. I will tell you all I can remember:
Gory Snake (Nathan) and I arrived outside GameStop in Henry St. at 8:35pm. GameStop had its shutters down and we kept saying to ourselves "Imagine it was all a joke, and a big Rick Roll just came on outside GameStop".
About five minutes into waiting and we say 2022 coming up Henry Street. Each of us brought controllers just in case they would let us them. We doubted it. We all spoke about Smash for a while, standing near GameStop.
A few minutes later and two other combatmants came along (whom should be joing SWF tonight). They recognised us as Gamers straight away, and had the courage to ask us "Are you's here for the Smash Bros. thing?". Matthew was one of their names (and coincedencley, uses Link) and we just can't remember the other guy's name. These guys were very cool, and were very easy to talk to (we just spoke about Captain Falcon).
A few minutes later (it's now about 8:50 at this point), more gamers came along! We knew they were Smash players straight away. We were all talking about Smash. There was about 7 of us talking about Smash in one group. It was brilliant, so comforting at the same time. We were all eagerly anticipating to break down the shutters and just barge in (or act like zombies, banging against the shutters in a slow manner as someone said. "Brrrrrawlzzzz...").
As we were in our own group, we spotted out people whom we thought were fellow Smashers. A man and his girlfriend came over to us as well. These were people we did not expect at all to even know what Smash is, but surprisingly, they came over to the group and asked "Is this the Smash Bros. Brawl yolk?".
It is now 9:05. The shutters should have opened 5 minutes ago. I kept asking "Why aren't they opening?!" and Nathan is sure to remember my array of questions about where I could get a glass of water.
The shutters begin to open... I was the most anticipated person there, so I ran right up to the shutters. The owner of the shop asked us our names before we went in. I was first to enter and get my name asked. After that I ran straight to the Brawl stand. I looked upon it in awe. I glared at the character selection screen as a big smile spread across my face. I literally jumped with joy. I grabbed the Wiimote and Nunchuck and began to fiddle with the character selection screen. I laughed with glee. I picked Link first. Nathan came along and picked Bowser. I tried to change costume but I ended up hitting the Plus button, whcih starts the game. I didn't even want to start! I expected someone of a higher authority to start. I wanted to quit, as I didn't want to be bad, but Nathan really wanted to play.
First stage ever to be played in: That Yoshi One Where the Seasons Change. We messed around with the controls for a bit. I was bamboozled with the controls at first, since we played with the nunchuck and Wiimote. I felt ********. I kept taunting when I wanted to do specials! It was horrific! I also got very confused with the shield and the special button, so instead of throwing a boomerang, I dodged. Instead of dodging, I blew myself up with bombs. Instead of recovering, I dodged in mid air, etc.
Wild Smash Ball appeared! It was a desperate struggle to get it, blood rushed through my body. Nathan got it in the end though, which resulted in him knocking me out. I learned that the Smash Balls can REALLY turn the tides in a match.
In the end of the entire match, I won. He was being Bowser after all, but I guess I got lucky since he beat me in Melee with Bowser before. Not my proudest moment...
We watched the other practice rounds and everyone had the same reaction. "Whoa, this game is so cool!" "WTF is up with the Wiimote?" "WHY CAN'T I BE CAPTAIN FALCON???". Many matches were close, others were embarrassing. I remember one match between Ike and Marth (in the official rounds) where Ike kept slipping off Pokemon stadium and using Up B under the stage... it was horrific to look at. I sympathised him. I think it was Nowe...
In my first official match, I was up against Kirby on the Mario Kart stage. I distinctly remember one part where I got hit by all the karts, which nearly knocked me out. Everyone was all like "Watch out!" and I was all like "Huh????". It was humourous. The Final Smashes in that match REALLY made a difference. First Smash Ball that appeared was obtained by me. Unfortunately, I got knocked out while Link was on fire. Dissapointing in the least. Another Smash Ball apperead, hooray! Again, I grabbed it. Kirby was koncked out beforehand, so while Link was on fire, Kirby waitied on his platform thing that he comes in on after he dies for as long as possible. Link was still on fire when he came down. I waited until Kirby was vulnerable. Kirby opened his mout and tried to suck me in but I blasted a Final Smash Arrow into his mouth and SLISH SLASH SLOSH SLASH SLISH SLOSH BANG! Kirby is knocked out. I think that was his last life gone too. I felt so lucky after that match and I was amazed that I won. I was through to the next round! I'll be playing Brawl once more!
I didn't pay close attention to the other rounds. However, my name was called shortly after a few matches.
"Matthew O'Loughlin vs. Nathan (I won't say his surname, in case he may not want me to)"
...
Quarter Finals, against my friend. This happened to a lot of people, being paired up against their friends. Well, I dreaded it, because I knew Nathan would kick my *** (and he did) because we managed to unlock Ness and Marth during the matches. Nathan chose Marth. Doom was nigh in the life of Matthew.
And I guessed right, Nathan kicked my *** with Marth... again! Just like in the tourney. It was game over for me.
Well, that means Nathan got through to the Semi Finals. He went up against Eamonn, 2022's brother. Eamonn used Ness while Nathan played as Marth and they fought on that Ice Climber stage (Stages were COMPLETELY random). Both players were very skilled with their characters, and funnily enough, both were unlockables that were unlocked during the tourney. The victory was given to Eamonn in the end, due to his Final Smash. The match was verrrry close actually, but the Smash Ball determined it.
After that match, me and Nathan got on our way home via my Dad. One of Aidan's friends won the entire thing, Eoin was his name (not sure if that's spelt correctly) and Eamonn came second. Well done to both of you!
And that's it, the night went pretty quickly to be honest, hope you enjoyed your insight to my experience of playing Brawl!
