JoJoRukus
Smash Apprentice
The Inclusion of New, Fun Characters
That's right, new characters! Did you hear that this game could have just been Melee online? I'm sure lots of you would have liked that feature, actually, but wouldn't you rather see the time and effort put into a new game? Some of you might not, that's fine. But look at these additions: Ike, Wario, Pit, Olimar, Meta Knight, Dedede, Zero Suit Samus, PT with Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard, Lucas, Wolf, Robot, Snake, Lucario and Sonic, just to name all the ones I can remember... I think I caught them all. Flame me if I didn't.
And even if some of these are "clones" of existing characters, and even though some may suggest a pre-existing character (*Cough* Samus *Cough*), and even though some characters were regrettably cut, look at what you've gotten in return. If you can't find ONE character in that list you aren't fond of, I'd be surprised, and if you can't find ONE character in the entire roster you aren't fond of at all, they you are either playing it solely for the gameplay aspect, or maybe you should be playing something completely different. In essence, this game and its predecessors are a fun-bag of Nintendo characters, worlds and references with a new gameplay aspect.
A reasonably appealing selection of stages
There are over forty stages in this game, and they range from the "perfect for tournament" kind, the mildly hazardous kind, all the way to the incredibly hazardous kind that are intended to make certain players laugh at how virtually impossible it is to play without interruption. As mentioned above, it is also meant to be a showcase of Nintendo nostalgia. Take the Halberd for instance... it didn't HAVE to have a cannon and a laser and a mechanical claw, and all those additions would have been far more meaningless if said features had not been a boss fight Kirby had against the Halberd in one of his most popular games. I could cite some more examples, but you should get the idea... And the game has levels that are playable for tournaments, while Nintendo could have gone "Who gives a hoot" and left you with just Final Destination and Battlefield, the two levels that most of the tournament friendly levels are based on anyway. And casual players shouldn't really even give a care.
A revamped single player aspect
Obviously, this section will likely not apply to tournament goers as much, since the essence of a tournament experience is player(s) vs player(s). But not everyone goes to tournaments, not everyone has friends to play at their house with them (which is remedied in a later paragraph anyway), and not everyone WANTS to play vs all the time, and maybe someone just wants a break from vs in general. Well what do you know, there is a NEW single player mode that isn't almost exactly like previous installments for all intents and purposes (*Cough* Classic *Cough* But that's how it was meant to be... Classic XD). It looks fun to me, but then again I am a fan of Kirby games... from what I've seen, it plays VERY MUCH like a Kirby game... There will be people who will get zero interest and enjoyment out of the single player aspect, but they have a multiplayer aspect based on a grand heritage of its predecessors.
As for people who complain about the five target test stages rather than having an individual stage for each character, people which I have seen with my own eyes, you have every right to that opinion. However, perhaps the developers thought it might appeal to more people if they gave every character the same access to the same stages so players could see the advantages and disadvantages of each character. That's MY opinion, doesn't have to be yours.
Expansion of the Multiplayer Aspect
This happened in two ways: both the ability to play Coopertively on types of games that were formerly limited to just one player. Again, probably not much appeal to tournaments here, but it appeals to some people who might want to have a little friendly competition with their friends and see which teams of two can do better in the Multi Man games and the Stadium in general. Limited audience, I know... but you can also play Co-op on the new adventure mode, which is suddenly -gasp- NOT limited to just a single player! D: Now your annoying little sibling or your bored friend can join in on whatever single player action you get into.
But wait, there's more! Multiplayer Brawl is playable ONLINE. So you can't play stocked matches with anyone... so you can't play Stage Editor stages at all... Nintendo is still learning the ropes of online, and they could have just scrapped online play all together. What do you have instead? Online play. You can play with people that are not in your house sitting next to you. Yes.
Interesting Extras
I know that a large number of you haven't ever even touched games like Super Metroid before in your lives, even with them on the Virtual Console. While Masterpieces, at a glance, seems very tacked on, and while it would probably be a much cooler idea for Nintendo to have demos actually available from their darn Shop Channel, the formerly mentioned "fun-bag" aspect of Smash makes this fit in reasonably well. Serves as a sort of historical documentation of just how far these games have come in over twenty years... I didn't even know the third dimension existed back in 1991.
Then there is the Stage Editor... granted, not everyone is artistically inclined or creative, so not everyone will get enjoyment out of MAKING these stages... However, you will have access to download stages OTHERS have made, stages that are actually interesting and fun to play even if you can't do it yourself or if you are just far too self-critical. Disappointing that these stages aren't playable even via Friends, but imagine the horror of entering a match where your really big jerk of a friend selects a level with only platform was a pit of spikes, and nothing else, and you wanted to play competetively. Not a likely scenario at all, I know... I've had a long day.
And the My Music secion? The soundtrack list alone should be reason enough to turn quite a few heads. Remixes, 8-bit classic, untouched tracks from more recent games, over 280 of which are used during actual gameplay, over 300 overall. "Fun-bag" again, lots of stuff that should be familiar to people. If there isn't one familiar tune in there for you and you aren't just getting into Nintendo games, I'd feel a little sad.
But wait, not only is the soundtrack enormous, you can set the probability of music being played on the respective stage it is tied to. I've seen this feature in a couple of other games before, and whenever game developers can afford to get a reasonably big (Or in Brawl's case, monstrously big) soundtrack, they should definitely include something like this...
Competetive aspects lost, others found, more to find
I hear lots of talk of mechanics that were removed in the transition between Melee and Brawl... I also hear about how much differently Brawl plays than Melee without even taking those lost mechanics into account. But what do you have instead? Multiple mid-air dodges, spammed attacks losing knockback and damage, edgehogging becoming even more of a competetive tool because of characters heavily relying on tethers for recovery... That's just scratching the surface, and with the time that pros will be spending with this monster of a game, tons of other aspects will more than likely be discovered. All it takes is time, but until then I doubt any self-respecting pros will be THAT disappointed once they actually play the game... Correct me if I'm wrong.
Well, that about covers as much as I could possibly think of in one sitting after an arguous day of work. The second I submit this thread, I will remember something I forgot, and the second I submit this thread, it will go ignored or flamed as 600 more threads that nobody wants to see pop up out of nowhere... This thread here makes 601.
EDIT: See? Already forgot something! If NOTHING here appeals to you whatsoever, then you might want to consider playing a different game. That is all.
That's right, new characters! Did you hear that this game could have just been Melee online? I'm sure lots of you would have liked that feature, actually, but wouldn't you rather see the time and effort put into a new game? Some of you might not, that's fine. But look at these additions: Ike, Wario, Pit, Olimar, Meta Knight, Dedede, Zero Suit Samus, PT with Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard, Lucas, Wolf, Robot, Snake, Lucario and Sonic, just to name all the ones I can remember... I think I caught them all. Flame me if I didn't.
And even if some of these are "clones" of existing characters, and even though some may suggest a pre-existing character (*Cough* Samus *Cough*), and even though some characters were regrettably cut, look at what you've gotten in return. If you can't find ONE character in that list you aren't fond of, I'd be surprised, and if you can't find ONE character in the entire roster you aren't fond of at all, they you are either playing it solely for the gameplay aspect, or maybe you should be playing something completely different. In essence, this game and its predecessors are a fun-bag of Nintendo characters, worlds and references with a new gameplay aspect.
A reasonably appealing selection of stages
There are over forty stages in this game, and they range from the "perfect for tournament" kind, the mildly hazardous kind, all the way to the incredibly hazardous kind that are intended to make certain players laugh at how virtually impossible it is to play without interruption. As mentioned above, it is also meant to be a showcase of Nintendo nostalgia. Take the Halberd for instance... it didn't HAVE to have a cannon and a laser and a mechanical claw, and all those additions would have been far more meaningless if said features had not been a boss fight Kirby had against the Halberd in one of his most popular games. I could cite some more examples, but you should get the idea... And the game has levels that are playable for tournaments, while Nintendo could have gone "Who gives a hoot" and left you with just Final Destination and Battlefield, the two levels that most of the tournament friendly levels are based on anyway. And casual players shouldn't really even give a care.
A revamped single player aspect
Obviously, this section will likely not apply to tournament goers as much, since the essence of a tournament experience is player(s) vs player(s). But not everyone goes to tournaments, not everyone has friends to play at their house with them (which is remedied in a later paragraph anyway), and not everyone WANTS to play vs all the time, and maybe someone just wants a break from vs in general. Well what do you know, there is a NEW single player mode that isn't almost exactly like previous installments for all intents and purposes (*Cough* Classic *Cough* But that's how it was meant to be... Classic XD). It looks fun to me, but then again I am a fan of Kirby games... from what I've seen, it plays VERY MUCH like a Kirby game... There will be people who will get zero interest and enjoyment out of the single player aspect, but they have a multiplayer aspect based on a grand heritage of its predecessors.
As for people who complain about the five target test stages rather than having an individual stage for each character, people which I have seen with my own eyes, you have every right to that opinion. However, perhaps the developers thought it might appeal to more people if they gave every character the same access to the same stages so players could see the advantages and disadvantages of each character. That's MY opinion, doesn't have to be yours.
Expansion of the Multiplayer Aspect
This happened in two ways: both the ability to play Coopertively on types of games that were formerly limited to just one player. Again, probably not much appeal to tournaments here, but it appeals to some people who might want to have a little friendly competition with their friends and see which teams of two can do better in the Multi Man games and the Stadium in general. Limited audience, I know... but you can also play Co-op on the new adventure mode, which is suddenly -gasp- NOT limited to just a single player! D: Now your annoying little sibling or your bored friend can join in on whatever single player action you get into.
But wait, there's more! Multiplayer Brawl is playable ONLINE. So you can't play stocked matches with anyone... so you can't play Stage Editor stages at all... Nintendo is still learning the ropes of online, and they could have just scrapped online play all together. What do you have instead? Online play. You can play with people that are not in your house sitting next to you. Yes.
Interesting Extras
I know that a large number of you haven't ever even touched games like Super Metroid before in your lives, even with them on the Virtual Console. While Masterpieces, at a glance, seems very tacked on, and while it would probably be a much cooler idea for Nintendo to have demos actually available from their darn Shop Channel, the formerly mentioned "fun-bag" aspect of Smash makes this fit in reasonably well. Serves as a sort of historical documentation of just how far these games have come in over twenty years... I didn't even know the third dimension existed back in 1991.
Then there is the Stage Editor... granted, not everyone is artistically inclined or creative, so not everyone will get enjoyment out of MAKING these stages... However, you will have access to download stages OTHERS have made, stages that are actually interesting and fun to play even if you can't do it yourself or if you are just far too self-critical. Disappointing that these stages aren't playable even via Friends, but imagine the horror of entering a match where your really big jerk of a friend selects a level with only platform was a pit of spikes, and nothing else, and you wanted to play competetively. Not a likely scenario at all, I know... I've had a long day.
And the My Music secion? The soundtrack list alone should be reason enough to turn quite a few heads. Remixes, 8-bit classic, untouched tracks from more recent games, over 280 of which are used during actual gameplay, over 300 overall. "Fun-bag" again, lots of stuff that should be familiar to people. If there isn't one familiar tune in there for you and you aren't just getting into Nintendo games, I'd feel a little sad.
But wait, not only is the soundtrack enormous, you can set the probability of music being played on the respective stage it is tied to. I've seen this feature in a couple of other games before, and whenever game developers can afford to get a reasonably big (Or in Brawl's case, monstrously big) soundtrack, they should definitely include something like this... Competetive aspects lost, others found, more to find
I hear lots of talk of mechanics that were removed in the transition between Melee and Brawl... I also hear about how much differently Brawl plays than Melee without even taking those lost mechanics into account. But what do you have instead? Multiple mid-air dodges, spammed attacks losing knockback and damage, edgehogging becoming even more of a competetive tool because of characters heavily relying on tethers for recovery... That's just scratching the surface, and with the time that pros will be spending with this monster of a game, tons of other aspects will more than likely be discovered. All it takes is time, but until then I doubt any self-respecting pros will be THAT disappointed once they actually play the game... Correct me if I'm wrong.
Well, that about covers as much as I could possibly think of in one sitting after an arguous day of work. The second I submit this thread, I will remember something I forgot, and the second I submit this thread, it will go ignored or flamed as 600 more threads that nobody wants to see pop up out of nowhere... This thread here makes 601.
EDIT: See? Already forgot something! If NOTHING here appeals to you whatsoever, then you might want to consider playing a different game. That is all.
