The Video Game Revue

Super Smash Bros Brawl

How many hours have you spent playing Brawl so far this week? I'm only up to three, since I haven't been dedicated enough to skip work or anything like that.

Contrary to the VG Cats strip from a few weeks ago, Captain Falcon is present in Brawl as a playable character. I also found Joystiq's Nega-Review of Brawl amusing. A lot of those Nega-Review observations strike me as criticizing Smash Bros simply for being Smash Bros--it would be roughly the same thing to criticize Final Fantasy X for having a turn-based combat system and linear storyline.

Personally, I can't claim to be a real Smash Bros fan. I've never played the original, and I've only played Melee at friends' places. I do like the game, but to me it isn't as satisfying an experience as fighting games like Capcom vs SNK 2 or Tekken 5. I'm sometimes confused as to what makes Smash Bros such a huge phenomenon in the first place, since so many other excellent games barely get a second look. Case in point: I would have thought that Mario Galaxy would be a much bigger deal, but people have been way more fanatical about Brawl, it seems.

On the other hand, Smash Bros does manage to tap into my inner Nintendo fan--that kid who lived for NES and SNES games back before it all went wrong. I also have to commend it for having an unconventional fighting system--something quite different, in my experience, from the standards set by Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Virtua Fighter, and Tekken--that works so well. When I say that I'm not a real Smash Bros fan, I only mean that I've tended not to make enough time for it in the past, and that I'm not nearly as into it as the hardcore players. It will always be one of those classic game series that commands respect and revisiting. And if the series goes awry after this, I'll just keep playing Brawl.

posted by Parappa @ 10:13 AM