They may look cute, but there's nothing nice about the characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This fighting frenzy will have you inflicting painful KO's on familiar opponents you thought were your friends. Take your frustrations out on Link, Mario and other characters from throughout the gaming world. Shoot spaceships out of the sky in the Lylat System from the Star Fox games and deal out killer blows in Rumble Falls based on the look and feel of Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat.Hit opponent after opponent to build up your damage meter, then knock your enemies clear off the screen. Rely on weapons that are silly but very effective, such as banana peels, pitfalls, gooey bombs and many more. Hurl old-school crates and barrels or select from Assist Trophies and Poke Balls to strike fear in the hearts of your foes. Combine Standard, Strong and Smash attacks to bash your way to victory. There are so many ways to smash, you'll get lost in the melees for hours on end.
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SSBB was the most highly anticipated game to come out this year and to say it lived up to its expectations would be to tell the truth. The game's new story mode adds a sense of purpose to all the fighting while giving gamers a story line to unravel and to enjoy understanding. While the game harks back to its predecessors, it attempts to break new ground in all the previous areas and manges to succeed in most: the new characters and updated graphics help to show that this game is a powerful new addition to the SSb series. Where the games fails lies at simple things that I feel really perturb me as I play the game: first off, the long load times really bother me sometimes due to the time spent sitting in front of the screen waiting for something to jump out and say "Ready, go!". I know i sound impatient but wasn't the whole waiting for the level to load thing left back during the 90's? After that i feel the ability to save without realizing where you're saving proves to be a bothersome problem ever since my little sister saved over my nearly completed game. And finally the fact that some of the characters do not seem to be very well of in terms of fighting ability or any remarkable ability what so ever: for example, Olimar's attacks quite frankly don't do enough to do anything against someone like mario or DK . Ganandorf's speed and lack of sword fighting ability makes him a weak character as well. Maybe its just me but when i try to use those characters i end up losing most of the time despite having learned most of their moves. In the end, I would say that SSBB is worthy of a five star review withholding my little pet peeves. Let's just hope that the next version will be able to allow us to play for long hours and still manage to keep our social lives from falling into a black hole.
What's great about it: Story mode, more characters, sharp graphics, unlimited playability
What's not so great: long load times, too easy to save over someone else's game, some characters are designed to never be played