I suggest you read Part 1 before this one if you haven't.
Hello again! Welcome to the second part of Planned All Along's first anniversary review of Super Smash Brothers Brawl! Last Friday, I talked about the Solo modes... now I cover the multiplayer modes! You may have noticed that the site changed quite a bit since Friday, too...
Hello again! Welcome to the second part of Planned All Along's first anniversary review of Super Smash Brothers Brawl! Last Friday, I talked about the Solo modes... now I cover the multiplayer modes! You may have noticed that the site changed quite a bit since Friday, too...
Anyway,
are you ready for this part? Well, you better be, 'cause it starts
now!
The
Smash series doesn't just pride itself on the Solo modes, which are
fun in their own right; a lot of emphasis is put on the
multiplayer aspect, what with special Brawl settings, the large
selection of characters and so on. There's so many things you can do,
so many ways to customize your battles, that it would take me more
than two parts describing each of them. Which is why I am mostly
going to go over the many different possibilities, without detailing
them the best I can, or I'm still gonna be talking about this game in
September.
After
you select Group, you're brought to a screen with these options:
“Brawl” (makes sense), “Rules”, “Special Brawl” (huh?),
“Rotation”, “Tourney” and “Name”. Gonna cover it right
now, “Name” is just you typing a name so that your high scores in
the game really are yours. Also, just selecting “Brawl” will
immediately bring you to the character selection screen, without any
changes to the rules. Man! But you're forgetting the fun part in
Brawl! One of the key mechanics of Brawl is how you can bend nearly the entire system to your will! Come on, follow me to the Rules.
The
first choice sets the tone: Time, Stock or Coin. If you select Time,
you must then input a number of minutes; whoever has KOed his
opponent the most during that time limit wins. On a Stock match, all characters have a set
number of lives, and the last brawler standing wins. In Coin matches,
you set the time; in the battle, all characters produce coins when
they're hit (Gonna take a wild guess and say all the trophies also
happen to be coin banks). At the end, whoever has the most coins
wins. Gee, I knew it was expensive to be a part of Smash Bros, but
that bad? ...On the other hand, that mode is practical. If they ever
need cash, they just gotta bang their heads on the wall and boom,
instant money! Must be useful at the Smash cafeteria!
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| Ooooh! Look at all that money! I want it! I want it! |
Next
are the Handicap, a cool feature that can be triggered on and off, and thanks to which you can set a starting percentage to all brawlers,
making them already a little easier to throw out of the stage. You can also set
it to Auto, which will increase/decrease the starting percentage
depending on the win/loss ratio. Then, there's Damage Ratio, which will increase or
decrease the amount of damage each attack does, making it either easier or harder to increase the enemies' percentage and knock them off the stage. Last but not least, there's Stage Choice, which
gives you the option to always pick the stage to brawl on, or have it
follow a set order, or set it to random to have a little surprise at
every match.
 |
| For the ultimate chaos, only have Smash Balls, Pokéballs, Assist trophies, the Dragoon, and the hammers! |
Also,
at the bottom, you have access to the Item Switch, which lets you
turn on and off some items. Items are an important part of Brawl, and
some can really tip the odds in your favor if you use them, or
against you if your opponents use them. The biggest offenders are the
Smash Ball – which it seems like the A.I. is programmed to always
run after – as well as the Assist Trophies and the Pokéballs. Oh,
also the Dragoon and the two types of hammers. Set only those items
and trust me, the computer-controlled opponents WILL run towards
those items.
 |
| To make your Brawls even more varied. Aren't you afraid it's too much? Some of you might never even change the settings on this screen! |
It
doesn't end there in the rules, either; after you successfully KO
opponents in brawls 200 times, you gain access to More Rules (yes that's how
it's called: “More Rules”), which let you play around even more
with the features. As an example, you can set a definite amount of
time for your Stock Matches (which means that the game will end not
once all but one brawler have lost all their lives, but rather when
the time limit ends; in which case the winner is whoever has the most
remaining lives). You can also choose between toggling Team Attacks
On or Off (if it's off, you cannot hurt your teammate; if it's on,
well, let's say backstabbers are gonna have fun), the ability to
pause the game (if no player can pause the game, it becomes
impossible to Pause-Cheat; that is, pausing whenever he/she loses to
stop the match. On the other hand, if one suddenly has an emergency in the middle of a match...). Finally, you can decide either to show each player's
score (in Timed Matches, since there's no limit to the number of KOs
you can do and it's hard to keep track of the numbers) or their damage gauge (if it disappears, it will become difficult to see how
close or how far you are from getting tossed off the stage, adding a
new challenge to the whole thing).
 |
| 3^8... 3*3*3*3*3*3*3*3... HOLYCRUD. |
You
think that's enough? Bwah hahahahaha! No, Hell no, that's not enough!
What, you thought Brawl had only that to offer? Think again! The
other mode, Special Brawl, lets you play even MORE with the settings.
As an example, it can make everyone start at 300% or at 150 HP (AKA
Stamina Mode), have something on their heads (like the flower or the
bunny ears), start giant or tiny... There's eight different Special
Brawl categories, each with two settings and the possibility to turn
it Off, which leaves about... 6561 possible Special Brawls. Even more
than that, if you include the types of brawls (Time, Stock, Coin),
and all the ways you can change the rules... It probably reaches over a million. I tell you, this is crazy.
But
of course, the crazy doesn't stop there! Oh no, wait. Yes, it does
stop there. The other modes in this section are Rotation and
Tourney. You select Rotation whenever there's more than four players
wanting to have fun on the same console, and at least two won't play
the first match; you can set the number of “spectators” and then
the game will tell you when to give the remote to someone else. You
select whether it's the winners or the losers who swap out, and then
you set other rules and all the participants' names. After that, the
ones to brawl are selected randomly among the players, and whenever
one swaps out, another player selected randomly enters the brawl.
 |
| 32? But Melee had 64! Curse you! |
Last
but not least is the Tourney Mode, which you can play alone; you
select a character, and then you have to fight against many opponents
in a Tourney that welcomes 4 to 32 opponents. When you win a brawl,
you move on to the next step, and so on until the last battle. When
it's not your turn to brawl and there's a match between computer
opponents, you have the option to watch the battle or skip it. Simple
enough. The only problem with Tourney Mode is that once it really
starts, there is no way to go back to the regular game. You have to
let it play and wait, by skipping all the fights. Which is kind of
annoying, as they should have given the option of quitting at any
moment. Come to think of it, they should have given the option of
playing this in Single Player Mode, with rewards as trophies and
stickers if you make it to the end. That would be pretty darn awesome, actually.
As
you can see, the development team really tried to think of every
possible way a brawl could be played, and tried to include it in this
game. There was quite a lot to explain. I think I'm just gonna sit
down and enjoy myself some Adventure Mode now.
The Subspace Emissary Episode Two: Brawl of the Clones
 |
| "Oooook! Eeek! Giant dwagon, you no eat the wittle Diddy monkey, wouldya?" |
Continuing
where we left off in this series, we are now at the Lake, where Diddy
Kong sees the crashed Arwing. Also, the water resonates and Rayquaza
comes out! Yes! I don't have him yet in my Pokémon White dex! Time
to catch him! Or, alternately: Rayquaza? What are you doing in the
Smash world? The weather in the Pokémon universe will be all screwed
up! You damn well know your lackeys Groudon and Kyogre suck! They're
always fighting! Rayquaza blows the Arwing up and then rams into
Diddy and monkeynaps him, but Fox comes out of the wreckage and frees
Diddy! After showing the full extent of his badassery, Fox invites
Diddy to help him defeat Rayquaza. After the Legendary Pokémon is defeated, the StarFox character leaves, but Diddy grabs him and tries to explain the situation. The Awing pilot leaves again... So Diddy grabs him again and DRAGS HIM ALONG.
...I love when the game does the comedy for me.
 |
| Though Fox doesn't seem too annoyed. Just a little. Diddy, at least give him a chance to get up! |
During
the following level, Diddy and Fox have to battle an evil version of
Bowser (boy isn't that a pleonasm). Once it's beaten, it dissipates
into purple particles. The real Bowser appears and tries to
“trophize” the two with a Dark Cannon, so Fox grabs Diddy and
runs away.
 |
| "Now it's MY turn to drag you along! Like it or not!" |
 |
| Whoever built that statue is insane! ...Then again, Porky IS insane, if the third Mother game is anything to go by. |
Next
we see young Lucas in the Ruined Zoo getting ambushed by Primids...
until the Pig King statue appears! ...Oh God, it's even uglier than
the name lets out. It chases Lucas! It's unstoppable! Lucas runs away from it for a while, but he trips... and is saved in extremis by
Ness, who uses a PK Thunder on the statue. The PK kid then uses a PK Flash...
which defeats the statue. Somehow. Hey, I'm just retelling what happened, I
didn't make that up! Inside the statue was hidden... Porky, in his
arachno-machine! ...I... I feel too lazy to look for the real name on the Earthbound Wiki.
 |
| The worst nightmare of all: Being trapped in a monstrous machine for all eternity. But here, Porky controls the machine, somehow. Even though it seems like he's sleeping. |
The
two defeat Porky, but Wario shows up again and zaps Ness with the
Dark Cannon! Wario grabs the Ness trophy and Lucas runs away. He
bumps into Pokémon Trainer, who shows him another group of Primids.
The trainer releases his Squirtle, and helps Lucas going through the
ruined zoo. At the end, Pokémon Trainer is about to leave, but Lucas
joins him, Another unlikely team, awesome! |
| A giant X made of light. Foreshadowing? |
Not
so far from there, on the Battlefield Fortress, Marth sees two
R.O.B.s setting off another Subspace Bomb. The Ancient Minister is
there too, with another Subspace Bomb. Did I mention he has a
freaking army of Primids with him? Marth goes goes from his castle
and goes into an epic battle against this army of darkness. Reference
intended. Marth arrives at the entrance and sees the destruction, but
is attacked by Meta Knight! Before they can fight further, they're
ambushed by MOAR PRIMIDS... and decide to team up. Well, that wasn't
long. The two travel a field and a mine while battling hordes of
Primids and other undesirable enemies (I fucking HATE Buckots), until
they reach the Ancient Minister. They're unable to stop it, but,
surprise! IKE appears! In a badass move, he separates the Subspace
Bomb and the Minister, and then the three swordsmen prepare for
another swarm of monsters. Sadly, the Ancient Minister has escaped.
Ah, damn you!
 |
| Back-to-back, two swordsmen facing an army. One of the many forms of badassery. Hey, it rhymed! |
 |
| Woooooooooo hoo hooo hooooeeeeeeyyyy... (That's the Goofy scream, BTW) |
And
now we see everyone's favorite plumber! ...Luigi. I meant Luigi. He
meets Waddle Dees and acts like a coward (and he shouldn't, I mean,
Waddle Dees are the Goombas of the Kirby universe). The plumber is
attacked by King Dedede from behind and turned into a trophy. Oh
noes! Mamma mia... Dedede hides, and Wario arrives on a machine,
which he uses to travel around with the trophies of Ness and Peach.
Ah, you bastard! Wario stops to pick up Luigi's trophy, but get
attacked by a horde of Waddle Dees. Dedede STEALS Wario's car in the
meantime, along with the Luigi trophy, and speeds away, with a pissed
Wario jumping in place out of anger. ...What an idiot, he has a bike,
he can pull it out of nowhere, he could chase after his “trophies”!
 |
| "Come back here! If I could pull my hog out, I'd chase after you! But for some reason I can't right now, so I'm just gonna jump in place and wave my arms like a moron, like comedy characters do when they're angry!" |
 |
| Link sure loves making dramatic poses while wielding the Master Sword. |
In
the Forest, we see Link pull the Master Sword out of the stone... and
then walk past Yoshi. The Halberd arrives! Meta Knight, you bast- Oh
wait, he is with the good guys now. But then, who's controlling the
Halberd??? I'm confused. And I saw some damn confusing things
recently, but I'm still confused. Anyway, the flying machine drops
more Shadow Bugs and Link and Yoshi find themselves having to fight
more enemies. Despite their best efforts, they cannot chase after the
Halberd...
 |
| "I knew you shouldn't have stopped to eat a few Koopa Troopas!" "Yoshi..." "No, we're not stopping for ice cream!" |
 |
| Each time I see something like this, I ask myself: Why did nobody think of it before? Okay, that was a really nasty thought. |
Much
farther away, Samus, in Zero Suit form, enters a research facility. (The camera takes its sweet time showing us all of her curves, which implies that the cameraman is a pervert. Fanservice, everyone!) She doesn't find her armor just yet. What she finds, however, is a
Pikachu used as battery by the facility. Ah, they're such bastards! I
just realized I used that word three times in three paragraphs...
Anyway, Samus frees Pikachu, and the two get ambushed by R.O.B.s.
Let's see the two kick some ass! Although, considering the level's length,
it's such a large facility... I can't believe they used a Pikachu to power
it up! A Raichu would have been better! Anyway, Samus finds her
robotic armor at the end.
 |
| "Pika-pi-chu-pichu-ka-pi?" "Aren't you a cute little rodent. As long as you're useful to me..." |
 |
| Picture Zelda here instead. Alternately: Peach! Did the Shadow Queen capture you again? |
And
now we're back to Kirby and Zelda... but Bowser appears and zaps
Zelda with a Dark Cannon! Ah, you bast- Er... You... … … ...you
meanie! The Shadow Bugs cover her trophy and turn into a clone of
her, which then goes to look for Link and Yoshi to zap them too. But
she's stopped by Pit, and the Cannon gets cut in half! Phew, I'm glad
to know that those things can be destroyed. Mario and the angel
battle against Shadow Zelda and defeat her... But afterwards, Link
and Yoshi show up, and since Link thinks they've harmed the real
Zelda, he attacks them! Mario and Pit defeat Link and Yoshi, turning
them intro trophies... but Dedede comes in piloting Wario's car-thing
and steals the trophies! But, twist number five in less than three
minutes, Kirby is in there too, not as a trophy, and surprises
Dedede! I keep writing exclamation marks
today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 |
| "Mamma mia! There's Peach on this car!" "Um... Mario..." "I have to save-a the Princess!" "Mario! Your brother's there too!" "Oh! Oh, yes... and save-a my bro too. Yes. My bro. How could I even forget him?" "Guys,did any of you even notice the third trophy?" |
 |
| Wow, Link chose the path to awesomeness this time. He looks more awesome here than in the previous pic! |
Kirby
revives Link and Yoshi, and the Hylian shoots the car. After what
it's five heroes (Mario, Pit, Yoshi, Link and Kirby) chasing after
Dedede! They find the car stopped in front of a cave, and venture
inside. It leads to a stone castle with a pretty mean face on it...
Meanwhile, Bowser receives orders from a ginger who's talking to him
from inside the Halberd. ...Gonna throw it out there, I never thought
a character like this one would someday get used to technology. Way
to spit on famous characters, Nintendo! (That sentence was a joke,
BTW.) In case you haven't guessed by now, here are the clues:
Villain, human, ginger, gray skin, looks like an evil wizard from a
faraway land... Gerudo... What, you haven't guessed? It's
Ganon-freaking-dorf, dammit! Don't tell me this plot has also been
Ganonized...
AH,
COME ON!
 |
| Pokémon Trainer has a Water-Type Pokémon with him... And a Psychic-type human too! |
And
now, we meet again with Lucas and the Trainer. They're chasing
Charizard, because apparently, the Trainer has lost two of his
allies, hence why he could only use Squirtle earlier. All I know is
that this never happened to me in the Pokémon series! Still, the two
reach the entrance to the ruins, where Wario is waiting. This time,
Lucas stands up for himself – nice little bit of character
development – and engages battle. Wario, you will suffer and we
will ALL be very happy once you're down! Wario gets trophized, but to
Lucas' discouragement, Ness is nowhere to be found... Pokémon
Trainer reassures him.
 |
| That Gaul-ish nose is a perfect place for a decoration. Have you ever noticed Mario and Luigi's noses remind of the Gaul characters' ones in the Asterix and Obelix comics? |
 |
| Wait, he can use his Koopa Clown Car here? Hasn't Mario proven in SMW that this thing sucked? |
Mario,
Link, Pit, Yoshi and Kiby arrive in Dedede's castle, and travel
through a cave filled with traps. They manage to reach Bowser, and
Mario reaches to attack him, but Bowser – as the evil one he is –
uses the Peach trophy as a shield. ACK! Bowser avoids Pit's arrow,
but Peach's trophy loses the Dedede brooch! Aw, man! Bowser falls off
the cliff but flies back up in his Koopa Clown Car. ...Wait, he has
it in the Smash world? I thought he had forgotten it in Super Mario
World or something. While Bowser flies away to the Halberd, Kirby
finds the brooch. During that time, the Ancient Minister detonates
another Subspace Bomb near the castle. And then we see Ganondorf
receiving orders from... MASTER HAND???
 |
| I WANT YOU to be part of the Subspace Army! I'm Uncle Sam's hand! Didn't you notice the glove? |
I
guess this will be continued in the next part...
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