Smash Bros Bobble

I've been playing a lot of Super Smash Bros Brawl the last two weeks. A lot of people have. And I enjoy it a lot, I just wish I could get more variety of enjoyment out of it.

I have to say I'm about 50% disappointed with the game. The best parts of the game are the parts that haven't changed. The new stuff, for the most part, fall flat. The new characters are great, the more the merrier, but the new Adventure mode... ugh.

There's no real story to The Subspace Emissary. No dialogue. Just running through short stages to get to short battles. There's just enough substance to it to make me really yearn for a full-on Kingdom Hearts-esque game with these characters (perhaps it's because the generic enemies resemble the Heartless). It could really be great. This game, however, is bland and repetitious. With some of the worst platforming ever. With speedy characters that were never meant to be platforming.

The horrible two-player co-op version of this mode is even worse because it is obviously tacked on. The second player can only ever choose on character (you'll usually have about 4 per stage), and that's the limit to their control. The camera will never follow them (and they'll be injured just by being offscreen); they can't open doors; and if player 1 dies it's game over, regardless of player 2's wellbeing.

And one of the biggest crimes of this sorry mode: all of the characters can be unlocked just by completing it. Sure, they can also be unlocked by playing hundreds of round of standard brawls, but this way is quicker and it takes the challenge away. Why fight for the same reward if you can just walk up and take it? They should have divided the rewards so you'd want to play both. Maybe unlock secondary costumes in one mode and characters in the other? Nintendo really dropped the ball here.

I only lash out about this, because I am truly disappointed in face of the awesome potential sitting here. There is a spectacular game waiting to break away from this great little fighting game. They both can co-exist, I just know it.

Just Talkin' 'Bout the Wii

I saw an interesting screenshot of Super Smash Bros Brawl today. I normally don't care about screenshots of video games. They do nothing to capture the gameplay and often bring down the expected quality of the graphics. Have you ever looked at the gameplay pictures on a video game box? It's shocking that anyone would buy a game after seeing those indecipherable little colored squares.

Anyhoo, this particular image was focused on Bowser, doing whatever powerful attack he does. But it didn't quite look like Bowser. I realized they made him look like a combination of familiar ol' Bowser and of Ganondorf from the previous Smash Bros game. Look at the head... the hair and the face look like Ganondorf. Did I just never notice the resemblance before?

Now, it's just wishful thinking, but I thought that it would be an amazing new aspect to the standard gameplay if they actually allowed character combinations. They've had similar features before: It's basically Kirby's whole shtick. But what if any character could merge with another? Maybe even a level where the goal is to "absorb" all the others into yourself, or conversely, where you have to free the others from an already-formed combo-monster? (That would allow different story paths, depending on playing a good or evil character.) Perhaps even an odd two-player aspect where the merged characters fight for control of the body, or have to cooperate to fight?

It may sound a little weird, but it's just an idea to add to the formula. I worry about how many new characters and items they can add to the same foundation before the series just collapses on itself. They need to put out some new gameplay legs to support itself. We'll see if they've added anything really new when the game comes out next month. Oh, and online play doesn't count. I said something new.

While I was at IGN's Wii site vainly looking for that screenshot (I gave up 3 pages into the 60-plus pages of dull images... quality, not quantity,please!), I noticed the story of a third-party developer coming out with a wireless nunchuck controller. Finally! I've dislike how half-assed consoles are about implementing wireless operation. Nintendo is the worst offender since it has so far required that annoying floppy cord. There are wired peripherals for the 360 and the PS3, but they're optional or from third-party developers. While I'm at it: the long, thin cord for the Wii's sensor bar is annoying too!

To sum up... Future: Yay. Now: Meh.