Super Smash Bros. Brawl is an upcoming fighting game to be published by Nintendo for the Wii console. The game is known in Japan as Dairantō Smash Brothers X (大乱闘 スマッシュ ブラザーズ X, Dairantō Sumasshu Burazāzu Ekkusu?, roughly "Great Fray Smash Brothers X").[9] It is the third installment of the Super Smash Bros. series. As a crossover fighting game, playable characters are characters in a variety of video games and series, most of which were produced by Nintendo and its second parties. Brawl is the first Super Smash Bros. game that features at least one character from a franchise not owned by Nintendo with the inclusion of Solid Snake from Konami's Metal Gear series, with the possibility of few other third-party characters. Most of the game's music is made up of arranged versions of pieces that originated in previously-released Nintendo video games; though some play exactly as they did in their original games, others are arranged by one of 36 renowned video game composers.

As with its predecessors, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a departure from traditional fighting games, notably in its simplified move commands and its emphasis on ring outs over knockouts. Super Smash Bros. Brawl will include a deeper single player mode than its predecessors. Known as The Subspace Emissary, this mode is a side-scrolling video game featuring Brawl's playable characters, each of whom shall bear their burdens from their respective series. The game supports multilayer battles with up to four combatants, and will be the first game of its franchise to support battles through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Its first official trailer was unveiled at E3 2006, while its second official trailer was unveiled at the 2006 Nintendo World Tour.

Gameplay
Wario, Mario, Pikachu, and Fox fighting on Battlefield. The damage meter now displays the name and image of the fighters along with their series symbol.
Wario, Mario, Pikachu, and Fox fighting on Battlefield. The damage meter now displays the name and image of the fighters along with their series symbol.

Following the style of its critically acclaimed predecessors, the game uses a battle system different from the average fighting game. Choosing from a variety of characters, two to four players fight on various different stages, all while trying to knock their opponents off the stage. Instead of using health bars like other fighting games, it features percentage meters. They start at zero percent, and as the characters take damage, the percentage meter goes up, causing the characters to fly farther back each time when hit. When the percentage meter starts at zero, the number is white but the more damage the character takes, the percentage will get red, accumulating to it being blood red. When a character is knocked off the stage, they lose either a life or a point depending on the mode of play.[10] The game can be played using four different control schemes: the Wii Remote on its side, the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combo, the Classic controller, or the standard GameCube controller.[8] Players will be able to create profiles with personalised button configurations for each control method and their chosen name.[11]

The characters can fight each other with a variety of attacks. Each move is prompted with the press of a button in conjunction with a tilt of a control stick or a press of a D-pad direction, depending on the mode of control. In addition to basic attacks, such as punches and kicks, characters have access to more powerful smash attacks. Each character also has four character-specific special moves, which often have unique effects beyond damaging an opponent. The game introduces the ability to perform character-specific super attacks, referred to as "Final Smash" moves. Final Smashes are much more powerful than regular attacks, having a wide variety of effects that range from nearly-unavoidable blasts to temporary transformations.. These abilities are used through an item bearing the Smash Bros. symbol, which are called Smash Balls.[12][13]

The stages are three dimensional (although players cannot move with depth, save for a few types of dodges) arenas that are mostly based on levels from the represented series of the game. They range from floating platforms to moving stages where the characters have to keep up. Each stage has a boundary that cannot be passed, or the character will be "KO'd", thus losing a life. As in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the game introduces new stages. Two stages have returned from Melee, though one has been heavily cosmetically modified from its appearance in the previous installment. Many stages will undergo elaborate changes while battles are happening, such as a cycling day-to-night system in the Battlefield stage,[14] a season system in the Yoshi's Island stage,[15] and destructible platforms in the Skyworld stage.[16]

The characters can make use of a variety of weapons, ranging from projectiles to melee weapons. Each item has a different effect on the characters around it. While there are items that have returned from previous Smash Bros. games, some are making their debut in Brawl. Some heal a single character, while others hurt any character in its vicinity. Single items and crates and barrels, which often contain an assortment of items, fall onto the stage randomly throughout the battle. Two varieties of items, Assist Trophies[17] and Poké Balls,[18] summon guest characters and Pokémon, respectively, that generally assist the summoner. They cannot be controlled and are usually invincible, with a few exceptions.[19]

Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary
Mario and Pit in a stage from The Subspace Emissary.
Mario and Pit in a stage from The Subspace Emissary.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl will feature a new version of the single player Adventure Mode called The Subspace Emissary. This mode will feature unique character storylines along with numerous side scrolling levels and multiple bosses to fight throughout the game. The Subspace Emissary features a new group of antagonists called the Subspace Army, with the Ancient Minister as their leader. Some such enemies are characters from Nintendo video games or other backgrounds, such as Petey Piranha from the Mario series and a squadron of R.O.B.s based on classic Nintendo hardware. The Subspace Emissary also boasts a number of original enemies, such as Roader, a robotic unicycle, and Bytan, a one-eyed ball-like creature which can replicate itself if left alone.[20] The Adventure mode emphasizes character development, characters persevering under the weight of their personal histories.[21]

New to the series is the co-operative play within the single player mode, allowing two players to play simultaneously. One player will be the protagonist which the camera will follow, player two will be their team mate and have to try to keep in sight. If a player gets knocked off the screen they will lose a life. If player two goes off the screen without the aid of an enemy they will "space jump" back to player 1's side. Each level or "stage" will have several set teams, based on the developments in the story.[22]

Sakurai claims this will be more "fleshed out" than the Adventure Modes in previous titles.[21] Shigeru Miyamoto had explained that Sakurai always wanted to have a very deep single-player game, but Miyamoto wanted him to focus more on the multiplayer aspects than the single-player ones in the previous games, since there were plenty of single-player games of the kind. With the development time they had with Brawl, they were able to do both.[23]

Multiplayer

Special Brawl

Special Melee from the previous game returns as Special Brawl. In this mode, players will be able to battle in matches with special rules, but with a greater level of customisation. Whereas previously standard options such as "Giant Melee" or "Invisible Melee" were available, players will now select as many options as they like for a single match. New options include adjusting the gravity level, an angled camera view of the brawl, and permanent match power-ups such as metallic bodies or the ability to reflect all projectile attacks.[24]

Tourney Mode

Tourney Mode enables players to create an elimination-based tournament with a number of CPU or human opponents. Masahiro Sakurai has stated that they are still working on this mode to make it "fun for everyone".[25]

Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection

Super Smash Bros. Brawl allows players to play against distant opponents through the use of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Online multiplayer can be played either with registered friends or with other random participants. The players' nicknames will be displayed during matches between friends. During online matches, the players can converse with up to four phrases that are set by the player at some point before the match. The phrases will appear in speech bubbles above the characters by pressing any direction on the directional pad. They will be coupled with the characters' taunts. It has been emphasized that these names and phrases will not show in random-player matches. Other Wi-Fi services are set to be available, but these functions are currently unknown.[6]

Playable characters

Main article: Super Smash Bros. playable characters

Left to right: Link, Mario, Zero Suit Samus, Pikachu, Pit, Kirby, and Meta Knight.
Left to right: Link, Mario, Zero Suit Samus, Pikachu, Pit, Kirby, and Meta Knight.

The cast of characters includes various returning characters from Super Smash Bros. Melee and some newcomers. Some returning characters have been updated and redefined since their last appearance, such as Mario and Pikachu. Others, like Link and Fox McCloud, have taken on new designs from more recent titles. Other characters have dramatically changed from their previous appearances. Samus, for instance, has gained the ability to change into a new form, "Zero Suit Samus."

Some previously represented series have had more characters added to Brawl. Meta Knight from the Kirby series and Ike from the Fire Emblem series will make their first appearance in the Smash Bros. series. Other newcomers are the first to represent their series. These include characters such as Pit, representing the Kid Icarus series for the first time since the 1991 Game Boy game Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters; Wario, from Nintendo's highly successful WarioWare and Wario Land series and an occasional antagonist of Mario's; and Solid Snake, the main protagonist of Konami's Metal Gear franchise. Solid Snake is the first third-party character to appear in a Super Smash Bros. game.

Development

Masahiro Sakurai, former HAL Laboratory employee and creator of Kirby and the Super Smash Bros. series, returns as the director for the game. Sakurai revealed that at E3, he was called to executive producer Satoru Iwata's room on the top floor of a Los Angeles hotel, and told by Iwata, "We'd like you to be involved in the production of the new Smash Bros., if possible near the level of director".[26] Although originally suggested to be a launch title, according to an IGN article, "as of May 2005, the game's development staff consisted of exactly one person," which was Sakurai himself. Actual development of the game did not start until late 2005. Sakurai states that many people who have spent excessive amounts of time playing Super Smash Bros. Melee are being brought in as the development team and the team will have access to all the original material and tools from the development of Melee, courtesy of HAL Laboratory.[27]

The game was absent from Nintendo's Wii showing at its 2006 Pre-E3 press conference. The next day, on Wednesday, May 10, 2006, at the After-Hours Press Conference, Nintendo officially revealed the game under the name of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. In an interview with IGN, Sakurai said the Wii's motion sensing features might not be included because, "we found that trying to implement too much motion-sensory functionality can get in the way of the game."[12] As far as Wi-Fi play is concerned, both Iwata and Sakurai had expressed an interest in the incorporation of some functionality. [28][12]
“ It increases the opportunity to interact with players who are playing the same game.[29] ”

However, as stated in the Toukouken on the Japanese version of the Smash Bros. website, "there would be many hurdles to cross," and an online ranking system is unlikely to be implemented.[30] Sakurai has updated the site to say that it will be a little longer before the game will be playable. During a test play between Sakurai and Hideo Kojima, Kojima stated that the game feels complete and that Nintendo "could put it out right now and it would sell millions of copies."[31] Starting May 22, 2007, the site has had updates every weekday. At the Nintendo Media Conference at E3 2007, it was announced by Reggie Fils-Aime that Super Smash Bros. Brawl would be released on December 3, 2007 in the Americas.[2]

Music

On May 22, 2007, Sakurai revealed a list of 36 composers providing music for the game. Sakurai stated that he has asked the composers, who come from a variety of companies and have written music for first, second, and third-party games, "to listen to an elite selection of Nintendo music and arrange several of their favorite songs."[32] The game's various stages will have multiple musical tracks which players can listen to using the new "My Music" feature. This feature also allows the player to select the likelihood of how often a song gets played during a stage.[33]

Inclusion of characters
Solid Snake sneaking up on Link.
Solid Snake sneaking up on Link.

The inclusion of Konami-created character Solid Snake may seem to conflict with the Super Smash Bros. paradigm — to only include characters from games made by Nintendo and its second parties — but Sakurai said that Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima "practically begged" for Snake to be included in Super Smash Bros. Melee, which did not happen since the game was too far in development. This in turn led to his appearance in the following game instead.[34]

Japanese fans were asked to submit their desired characters and musical themes via a forum on the game's official Japanese site, with some possibly appearing in the game. Likewise, fans from other countries were asked to submit ideas on Nintendo's official forums.[35]

Suggestions were no longer being taken as of June 9, 2006. In August 2006, Sakurai and Miyamoto stated that Nintendo is negotiating rights to other third-party characters.[36] Around the same time, they also stated that Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog was the most requested third-party character.[citation needed] Video game website IGN interviewed Nintendo Europe marketing director Laurent Fischer and asked if Sonic will be appearing in Brawl. Fischer's response was, "That's not on the cards at the moment."[37]

Sakurai has stated that he may not want to put much emphasis on Japan-only characters.[38] However, the Fire Emblem series characters were enjoyed internationally thanks to their inclusion in Melee, and additional characters from Japan-only games are confirmed for Brawl. Sakurai also said that third-party characters will amount to one or two at the most, aside from Snake.[38]

__________________
Rants
Faces Manager