And the contestants are…
The roster in Super Smash Bros. hasn’t changed too much in its three alliterations. This year Nintendo increases the number of characters from the Nintendo Universe and then adds a few special appearances from other games outside of Nintendo. Since, SSBB attention is focused on its combatants lets take a look at 2008s roster of brawlers in SSBB. Characters who have been featured in all three Smash Brothers games include Captain Falcon (F-Zero), Fox (Star Fox), Jigglypuff & Pikachu (Pokemon), Kirby (Kirby), Link (Legend of Zelda), Luigi, Mario & Yoshi (Mario), Ness (Earthbound) and Samus (Metroid).

The newcomers this year include Diddy Kong, Ike (Fire Emblem), King Dedede and Metal Knight (Kirby), Lucario (Pokemon), Lucas (Earthbound), Olimar (Pikmin), Pit (Kid Icarus), the robot toy R.O.B., Snake (Metal Gear), Toon Link (Zelda), Wario (Wario Ware), Wolf (Star Fox), Zero Suit Samus (Metroid) and Nintendo’s long time rival, Sonic the Hedgehog. Along with the old cast, long timers and new entries your dream matches can happen in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The thought of Sonic vs. Mario is an interesting match up along with others classic showdowns like Wario vs. Mario, or the provocative dream match of Samus vs. Snake. In total there are 35 characters to do battle with, 14 of them that are unlockables.

From One to Four
Unlike other some other fighting games, Smash Bros. is accessible to all levels of gamers. Battles take place with two to four players fighting in a themed stage. You can win the match by knocking your enemies out of bounds or dealing enough damage to them that they instantly cruise off the board. The more damage you do to your enemies the farther they move when hit. This makes each fight totally different taking into account the unique stages and the out-of-bounds formula. Battles can go from more methodical move/counter move actions to all out frantic button mashing episodes.

Besides the main “Brawl” mode you can do battle in a Group Mode with more than one player or start up a Special Melee game which allows players to customize the rules of a match. There is a standard tournament mode renamed as Tourney and a spin-off mode called Rotation that lets up to 16 players fight against each others with the fighters going in a rotation. If you want some solo time with SSBB there is a solo mode that can be played in a Classic mode or the Adventure mode. The solo mode puts you in a number of randomly generated matches with different difficulties with over sixty events in total. If you want the action without the drama, you will want to explore this option before the adventure mode.

Bout Interrupted
For more substance, or what substance Super Smash can offer there is the Adventure Mode called The Subspace Emissary. This mode follows a loose storyline that incorporates the multiple levels in SSBB along with a few captivating boss battles. Take it or leave it, The Subspace Emissary only way to pull a storyline out of SSBB. To help convince players that this is real flushed out single player campaign its filled with stunning cut scenes to push along the plot. The story goes like this, a new faction lead by the Ancient Minister called the Subspace Army invade a match taking place staring Mario and Kirby. The army drops an incapacitating bomb that pulls part of the world into subspace. This leads the worlds’ greatest heroes to step up and fight the army head-on. The storyline has a few surprises, but overall it is nothing too shocking. At best it provides another way to enjoy the action within Smash Bros. with a few beautifully put together movies to watch in-between bouts. Even better then going solo, you can play this mode with a friend picking which character to use as you track down the latest threat in the Nintendo Universe.

It’s a brave new ONLINE world
For the first time in the games history, Super Smash Bros. heads online with Brawl. Quick matching into the action you can participate in team or solo vs. matches to test your skills against the world. Hooking up online with friends takes a little more time because Nintendo uses the friend code system, but once you get friends involved you’ll have can customize things just how you like them and even invite other local players into battle. One important factor in the success of an online fighting game is lag, or lack of lag, and I’m happy to report, SSBB lag is very minimal. Besides the fighting you can also save replays and screenshots and send them to anyone on your friends list. This is a nice option to include so you can saviour that perfect win against a rivaled friend.

Pick Your Controller
The controls in Super Smash Bros. Brawl are dumbed down with only two attack buttons. This gives the gamer one dedicated button for normal attacks and the other to use a special move. Also factored into the equation is the Nunchuck and Wii-mote that can accent attacks when moved a certain way when pressed with the button. If you’re not into the Wii-mote/Nunchuck deal you can plug in your Classic Controller, old Gamecube controller, or just use the Wii-mote to game in SSBB. Using any of the different controls are more of a personal preference deal, although I was surprised that Nintendo didn’t try and capitalize in the unique functionality of the motion capabilities of the Wii.

One good point towards the idea of a basic control scheme is that new fighters can take down veteran brawls with a little luck. You can be in a room with a bunch of gamers with varied skill levels and have fun without being ashamed of being beaten down to often, or taking it easy on a new gamer. In the battles a quick mind doesn’t have the advantage over quick reflexes. Smash Bros. and its combatants are all on an equal playing ground with slight advantages and disadvantages, but in the end everything comes out perfectly balanced.

Boxers, Pixels and Moles
Slightly unbalancing these perfect bouts are items that spawn around the levels that can be used to get an advantage over your opponents. These include health items and weapons such as the rare Golden Hammer or the Beam Sword or Home-run Bat from previous games. There are also power alternating items like Mario’s Super-sizing Mushroom, Super Spicy Curry, or the Franklin Badge that makes you invulnerable to projectiles. There are also assist trophies that can call in help from non-playable characters. In the case of the trophies you won’t know who will arrive to help until you use it. Appearing in all shapes and sizes from the Nintendo Universe you might see Little Mac from Punch Out! Mr. Resetti the mole miner from Animal Crossings or even more odd the pixelated motorcycle that could from Excite Bike.

More… More… More…
There is definitely a lot to Brawl then you would expect. Along with all the above mentioned details the outstanding ability to create customized battle zones with the stage-editor tool. From scratch this intuitive interface lets you put together a suitable stadium to jump online and share with friends in battle. They have also included a number of mini-games that diversify the action even more. After you’ve completed the Subspace adventure, SSBB validates itself than more than a rental with all the gaming it provides.