Super Smash Bros. Brawl is probably one of the best games I've played in a long time. I'm a big Smash Bros. fan, and Brawl more than met expectations.
The soundtrack is fantastic. There are some songs that I don't like. The first Ground Theme from Super Mario Bros. is an abomination. I love the original song, but that first arrangement is a travesty. Ground Theme 2, on the other hand, is absolute gold. Not only does it capture the original theme well, but it also mixes in a bit of the Underground Theme, the Game Over theme, and the Flagpole theme.
Also of note are the Kirby songs. Meta Knight's Revenge, Gourmet Race, and King Dedede's Theme are wonderful songs. King Dedede's Theme is one of my favorite songs ever, and to hear this arrangement makes me so happy. Not all the Kirby songs are that great, but they don't all have to be good.
The Famicom Melody, for one of the hidden stages, is great for fans of the NES. It's fun to listen to the song and try and guess each game by the short sound byte.
As for the actual gameplay, it's almost identical to Melee. Which is far from a bad thing. Melee was such pure fun, that there wasn't anything needing changed. The Subspace Emissary mode, on the other hand, is a bit spotty in its performance. Some enemies are pushovers, while others can kill you in two or three hits. Some areas are a breeze to go through, while others are death traps. And the mode made me play as some of my most hated characters, like Yoshi, Olimar, and Lucas, to name a few. It's not entirely bad, and it does its job, but I would rather a more consistent difficulty level throughout.
The Target Smash mode is back, but I'm disappointed with it. Instead of being unique for each character, there are five generic maps, with varying difficulty, that all characters use. To me, it takes the fun out of the mode, as it used to be a showcase of the skills of that particular character, instead of a generic map that doesn't really make use of the characters skills.
The Virtual Console Trials are useless. Not only are they too short, but the game has to go through a long load time to get back to the main game after you're done playing one of the trials.
As for other modes, the Coin Launcher is a fun gimmick to win trophies. The online mode is functional, and it's fun playing against real people who aren't in your room. The new Assist Trophies are neat. The Final Smashes are pretty cool, though some are a bit confusing (like Wario's final smash).
Overall, the game is amazing. There are some faults, but it's just so good, regardless.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels
The year was 1986. The Famicom had been on the market in Japan for three years, but its overseas counterpart, the NES, had only been available for one year in North America. Nintendo is busy readying a sequel to Super Mario Bros., which will be released that year. However, that version would never see the light of day outside of Japan, at least not in its original form, until its release on the Wii Virtual Console in 2007.
Nintendo of Japan deemed the game "too difficult" for American audiences. So they decided to take a game called Doki Doki Panic, give it a fresh coat of paint, and release that as Super Mario Bros. 2 in North America and Europe. What happened to the original Super Mario Bros. 2? It was later referred to as "The Lost Levels." A remake of this game appeared in Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES, and was included as an added quest in the Game Boy Color game Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. But the original Famicom version was finally released in 2007, thanks to the Virtual Console.
The Lost Levels, as it is more commonly referred outside of Japan, looks a lot like the original Super Mario Bros. But it has some changes. First, there is no two-player mode. The player can choose to be Mario or Luigi, but this time they each have different abilities. Mario plays the same as he did in the original, while Luigi can jump higher, but has more difficulty in stopping.
Other changes included wind gusts that could help or hinder long jumps, reverse warp zones that would send you back to earlier levels, poison mushrooms, fake Bowsers, a secret World 9, and an even more secret set of worlds A through D, just to mention a few. To reach World 9, you have to complete all 8 worlds without using Warp Zones. To reach World A, you need to beat the game eight times (not necessarily in one sitting, the game saves how many times you beat it), and then complete World 8 or 9 (depending on whether or not you used warp zones).
Fake Bowsers would appear in World 8-4, 9-3, and D-4. The fake Bowser would appear roughly halfway through the stage. He would be colored differently, and not be positioned on a bridge. Also, during water levels, some land enemies (such as Goombas and Koopa Troopas) will show up. You cannot kill them by landing on them.
I recently purchased this game via the Virtual Console, and it is quite difficult. The game has a Continue system, with unlimited Continues, which kind of renders the Lives system useless, beyond the fact that a continue puts you back at the beginning of the current world (like if you continue on World 4-3, you'll go back to 4-1). I'm currently attempting to get past World 5.
The difficulty is definitely higher than the original, but that's the fun of it. Though, it does get frustrating. I highly recommend it to anyone who was a fan of the original Super Mario Bros., but craves a much more difficult version. This will keep you playing for a long time.
Nintendo of Japan deemed the game "too difficult" for American audiences. So they decided to take a game called Doki Doki Panic, give it a fresh coat of paint, and release that as Super Mario Bros. 2 in North America and Europe. What happened to the original Super Mario Bros. 2? It was later referred to as "The Lost Levels." A remake of this game appeared in Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES, and was included as an added quest in the Game Boy Color game Super Mario Bros. Deluxe. But the original Famicom version was finally released in 2007, thanks to the Virtual Console.
The Lost Levels, as it is more commonly referred outside of Japan, looks a lot like the original Super Mario Bros. But it has some changes. First, there is no two-player mode. The player can choose to be Mario or Luigi, but this time they each have different abilities. Mario plays the same as he did in the original, while Luigi can jump higher, but has more difficulty in stopping.
Other changes included wind gusts that could help or hinder long jumps, reverse warp zones that would send you back to earlier levels, poison mushrooms, fake Bowsers, a secret World 9, and an even more secret set of worlds A through D, just to mention a few. To reach World 9, you have to complete all 8 worlds without using Warp Zones. To reach World A, you need to beat the game eight times (not necessarily in one sitting, the game saves how many times you beat it), and then complete World 8 or 9 (depending on whether or not you used warp zones).
Fake Bowsers would appear in World 8-4, 9-3, and D-4. The fake Bowser would appear roughly halfway through the stage. He would be colored differently, and not be positioned on a bridge. Also, during water levels, some land enemies (such as Goombas and Koopa Troopas) will show up. You cannot kill them by landing on them.
I recently purchased this game via the Virtual Console, and it is quite difficult. The game has a Continue system, with unlimited Continues, which kind of renders the Lives system useless, beyond the fact that a continue puts you back at the beginning of the current world (like if you continue on World 4-3, you'll go back to 4-1). I'm currently attempting to get past World 5.
The difficulty is definitely higher than the original, but that's the fun of it. Though, it does get frustrating. I highly recommend it to anyone who was a fan of the original Super Mario Bros., but craves a much more difficult version. This will keep you playing for a long time.
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