This
is it! The final review of Planned All Along: Year One! The one so
many of you have been waiting for! Before I jump into this enormous
game, I have to explain a few things. Not related to Super Smash
Bros. Brawl, actually. Most of them are related to the blog.
-Due
to the blog's first anniversary tomorrow, I will probably write a
post about the year's history, the ups and downs (downs? There hasn't
been such things as downs this year! ...Or has it?), the progress
made...
-Tomorrow,
the blog's design will greatly change. Yes, I will change everything
through Blogger's system, the colors, the backgrounds, and other
elements. I hope this way to get a site that will look good to your
eyes just as much as mine. If you got any suggestions, send me a
message on my Twitter account @hamelnico.
-As an addition to the blog, starting this Wednesday: I will promote one of my reviews from this year. In fact, I will promote each and every one of my reviews of this year, one per week. I will usually follow this with a little comment on the review, my thoughts on it in hindsight.
-As an addition to the blog, starting this Wednesday: I will promote one of my reviews from this year. In fact, I will promote each and every one of my reviews of this year, one per week. I will usually follow this with a little comment on the review, my thoughts on it in hindsight.
-A
Google+ Community has been created, and any Google+ users will be
able to join. On the plus side, this will give me an idea of my
number of fans (on Google+, anyway), and it will also give users
another place to promote their blogs or review series. You can also join by clicking "Community" on the black bar on top of this screen.
-Last
but not least, a forum has been created. I will link to it on my
blog. You'll be able to reach the forum through the black bar just
below the title. I plan to use it to get suggestions from you, but also
to promote new things, ask the fans' opinions on additional modules
to add to the blog, have polls that really work (in comparison to the Bloggerpolls) and to bring up ideas I get in the future. I want it to be a
fun place, where exchanges are made in peace, so I'll probably also
be looking for Moderators. I hope to see many of you there! It's a bit empty for now, but keep in mind that I've created it, like, two days ago. Again, this can also be reached through the black bar on top.
-Finally,
if you've seen my last videos for Planned All Along (one in this
review and another in this one), you'll notice my spoken English
is... um... lacking. Not in words, but my accent. Therefore, pardon
me if I don't frequently publish videos, but I'll try to have at
least one small video for each review. An I do mean a small one. I'll
probably use them for quick jokes. Once I gain some self-esteem and I
stop fearing my god darned Quebecois accent, I might start posting
longer videos, always in vlog form from my webcam. Until I get enough money to buy an actual camera...
Now,
as I said at the beginning of this blog post, I know that Super Smash
Brothers Brawl is a truly massive game, there's a LOT to discuss (and
even if I spent ten parts on this game, I just wouldn't be able to
talk about everything that can be done in the battles, all the
existing techniques, and so on and so forth). However, this blog is
called Planned All Along for a reason: The plot is usually a core
element of the games I'm reviewing. In other words, I'll put extra
care in describing the Adventure Mode, better known as the Subspace
Emissary. So here's how it's gonna work: The first half of each
review will cover the other elements in the game (the other Solo
modes, the characters, the Multiplayer mode, the items, the other
features, etc.) and the second half will be just me, riffing on the
plot to the Subspace Emissary. So, why not start now? The review
itself, not the riffing, that will be in the second half of this
review and the four following parts.
Just throwing it out there now, I might review this game in the future. |
On
the Nintendo 64 appeared this little game called Super Smash
Brothers. It was a neat little fighting game containing twelve
fighters from famous Nintendo series. It was a new idea back then and
it remains today an idea that hasn't been done a lot outside of
Nintendo. There'a few few examples of multi-crossover fighting games, like Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale, but that's one of the few examples I can name. The game contained a number of famous characters (Mario,
Luigi, Donkey Kong, Link, Kirby, Pikachu) and even some that were
less known (Captain Falcon and Ness are major examples, but
Jigglypuff still deserves mention as the most unexpected one of the
bunch). The game was a success, and as a result a new Smash Bros.
game was created for the GameCube, years later. Melee was another
success, and is considered even today the stronger game in the
series. It had its problems (an overabundance of clone characters
with Dr. Mario, Roy and Pichu, to name just a few), but it's best
remembered for the physics system in the battles, which made it very
fun in Multiplayer mode. So much, in fact, that when things got
changed around for Brawl, fans of Melee actually created their
version of Brawl with Melee's physics system, a “mod” that was
called Project M. Even now, while Brawl is still seen as a strong
game, a lot of gamers actually prefer Melee. It helps that Super
Smash Bros.'s small roster wasn't exceptional, while Melee had
twenty-five characters to choose from, bringing even more Nintendo
favorites to the battlefield. Then Brawl came around in 2008, with an
even greater selection of 35 (and technically 39) characters,
including two third-party characters, Sonic and Snake. As most of you
probably know by now, a fourth Smash game is in the making, and the
new characters revealed were Mega Man, Animal Crossing's Villager,
Wii Fit Trainer, Little Mac, Greninja, Palutena, Rosalina and
Pac-Man. And even the Miis will be playable fighters!
But
let's keep it to the third installment in the series, Super Smash
Bros. Brawl. Like its predecessors, it has a single-player mode that
includes the Classic Mode, the Adventure Mode, an All-Star Mode that
is available once all the characters have been unlocked, and a load of
options for multiplayer matches. Like its predecessors, its stages
and items are also from the numerous Nintendo universes. Unlike the
other Smash games, which were much less, um, “worlds of their own”,
if I can put it that way, Brawl tried to explain why this massive
crossover exists: While in the first game the characters were puppets
apparently fighting each other before battling Master Hand, the
embodiment of their puppeteer's, well... hand, of course, here they
are trophies that can be brought to life to battle. And whenever they
are defeated they return to their trophy form. It seems like the
characters are all living inside the Smash world, which just seems
like the great wilderness, with lots of stages to fight on. But more
will be explained on this with the Subspace Emissary.
So much choice. |
Since
this is Part 1, I find it fitting to start this review by explaining
the one-player modes. I dunno for you, but it does make sense to me!
Now, when you start a game, you create a save file (though obviously,
with the size of that game, only one can be created – duh!) and you
can already pick among the five choices of the main menu: “Group”,
“Solo”, “Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection” (cannot be used anymore),
“Vault”, “Options” and “Data”. When you select Solo,
you're brought to a screen with six more choices. This is gonna get
complicated... The choices are “Classic”, “Adventure Mode: The
Subspace Emissary”, “All-Star” (unlocked only once you've
unlocked all characters) “Events”, “Stadium” and “Training”.
Woah, a major villain as first battle of the Classic Mode? It happens. But that's quite a start. Well, then again, here Ganondorf is less powerful than in the LoZ series. |
Look at the number of fighters in the top left! Sadly, none of them ever gives up even as you get closer to fight them. |
One event has you defeating all 12 starting fighters from SSB. Time to defeat a whole lot of veterans! |
Beat te crap out of your opponents without being afraid of receiving hits yourself! I love this mode! Oh, I also like to use it to summon tons of Pokémon. |
Now
I can talk about Stadium Mode. In it, you first have access to all
Break The Targets levels, given that you've seen them when you play Classic Mode. You have to beat each of them with every character, and
beat a certain for each of them as well. This is very tricky.
After that there's the Home-Run Contest, in which you have to punch,
kick and bruise the infamous Sandbag before picking up the bat and sending poor Sandbag away with a HOOOOOOOOME-RUUUUUUN! Then there's the Multi-Man
Brawl, which is fun in its own right, but some of the trophies linked
to this one are very hard to get. Picture that: You have to complete
the 100-Man Brawl with all characters (and it's dfficult regardless of the character you pick), survive a 15-minute brawl, and
even defeat many Alloys in Cruel Brawl, where it's so freaking
difficult that you'll wish it's over soon. Actually, no, it WILL be over soon, as you will hardly survive longer than a minute in a Cruel Brawl (and that's a shame because the music rocks.)
Also,
once you've completed the Subspace Emissary, you unlock the Boss
Battles Mode, which plays like All-Star except you have to defeat all
the bosses from the Adventure Mode, one after the other, without much
of a rest between them. Oh, also Master and Crazy Hand must also be
fought in there. It is a very difficult mode, and the Intense
difficulty on that mode is so freaking hard that you'll want to skip
that challenge... But you cannot skip it! Picture Masahiro Sakurai
blowing a raspberry at you.
Now
that this has been covered, it's time for...
The Subspace Emissary Episode 1: The Primid Menace.
The Subspace Emissary is the Adventure Mode in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and, instead of being a simple additional mode like it was in Melee, here it's a large-scale adventure in which nearly all the playable characters have a role; In fact, all except three out of the 35 become playable at one point or another.
Their passion is so strong that the screen catches fire. |
A
nice little thing in this Adventure Mode is that most of the time,
you're facing a situation where more than one character is playable;
in that case you can select which character to use, or even select
many of them in a particular order, and when you lose a life, the
next character in the order you picked appears on the level. Fun. This forces you to use characters you don't normally pick in multiplayer mode. Want an extra challenge? When you have to pick numerous characters, pick the ones you're less talented with to start, and then go in reverse order, always picking the next character you're least used to, until all characters have been picked or you leave out the ones you're using most.
Anyway,
after Mario or Kirby has defeated the other – let's hope it's the
one you controlled who won, or else you wouldn't be seeing this –
the winner revives the loser, and both wave at the audience. Pit the
angel has been watching up there. Wait, they have TVs in Heaven?
Makes one eager to try becoming a better person! Now, do they have
video games... That's a trickier question.
Just the first of multiple armies of Primids.... They're definitely a menace. And not a phantom one. |
Audrey III, what the Hell are you doing here? Go back to your universe! ...Oh wait, that's Petey. Well, Petey, go back to your universe! |
Kirby
and the princess (for the record, I saved Zelda, I was tired of
always saving Peach) chase after Wario but the bomb is too close to
exploding! BOOM! The Midair Stadium gets surrounded by purple
darkness, a great big sphere of nothing. Kirby and Zelda escaped in
the nick of time.
Christ! You gotta be kidding me! |
Pit
finds Mario and revives him. Though some sort of flashback, the angel
explains what happened to Midair Stadium. Wait, how could Mario see
that flashback??? Anyway, the two keep going ahead in Skyworld.
Still, despite their best efforts, they cannot reach the Halberd.
Though they do see an Arwing chasing after it...
Wait. I say Zelda, but here it's Peach... WHAT IS GOING ON? Oh, just that my source for pictures picked Peach instead of Zelda. Nothing's perfect. |
Anyone looks cool in front of an explosion. Even Jigglypuff. |
A
little further, Mario and Pit are now crossing the Plains, when Mario
sees the Ancient Harper-Dammit! I meant: Ancient Minister carrying another bomb. He tries to get the
Minister, unsuccessfully. Pit also tries, but fails. Which makes no
sense, considering he could have started flying and he would have had
a chance.
"Darn, we suck." "I told-a you not to stop for ice cream!" "YOU are the one who suggested we go for ice cream!" |
This
story will continue... in Part 2!
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