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Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a fighting game released on Nintendo Wii on March 9, 2008 in North America, developed by Hal Laboratory and published by Nintendo. So it is the third episode of the Super Smash Bros. series which began in 1999 on Nintendo 64, and then continued on GameCube in 2001 with Super Smash Bros. Melee. Like the previous episodes the game brings together many characters from the Nintendo universes and for this episode some guests from games of other developers are emerging.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl has a gallery of characters even more extensive than that of the first two components. There are no less than 21 characters selectable at the beginning, among them are several fighters already present in the previous episode: Mario, the famous plumber mascot of Nintendo, Bowser, his eternal enemy, Princess Peach whose the hobby is to be constantly kidnapped by Bowser, Donkey Kong, a gorilla who is Mario's first foe in the eponymous arcade game, Fox McCloud, the hero of the series of shooting game Star Fox, Ice Climbers, two small Eskimo from a NES game of the same name, Kirby, the cute pink little ball from Dream Land, Link, the hero of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Pikachu, the famous electric Pokémon, Samus Aran, the young heroine of the Metroid series, who may this time lose her heavy armor to let appear her beautiful body, Yoshi, the green dinosaur who act as a mount for Mario in Super Mario World, Zelda the Princess of the Legend of Zelda series, who can as in the previous opus turn into Sheik.

In addition to these, 9 new fighters are added: Diddy Kong, the faithful companion of Donkey Kong in Donkey Kong Country, Ike a clever epeeist from the Fire Emblem series, Olimar main character of the Pikmin series, Meta Knight, Kirby?s rival, Pit the angel from the Kid Icarus game, Wario, the greedy alter ego of Mario, Lucas, the hero of Mother 3, King Dedede, sworn enemy of Kirby and finally the Pokémon trainer who use three different Pokémons to fight (Ivyzaur, Squirtle and Charizard). In addition to these 21 characters, 14 hidden fighters can be released. Among them some are already known figures (as Ganondorf, Jigglypuff or Luigi) while others are a real surprise, as Solid Snake, the charismatic hero of the Metal Gear series of Konami, or Sonic, the famous blue hedgehog of Sega. It is an improbable cross-over for the greatest pleasure of the fans of the series from which the characters come from.

As in the previous opuses we can fight up to 4 players in arenas that refer to many licenses of Nintendo. The game can be played with the duo wiimote / nunchuk, with the classic Wii controller, or with the old Gamecube pad. The gameplay remains very close to the previous episodes. But a novelty made its appearance: the Final Smash. It is an ultimate move which varies according to the characters. In order to be able to use it we have to break a Smash ball that appears randomly in battle area. The first person who manage break the smash ball was crowned with an aura of power and can then trigger a Supreme attack. Many new objects can appear in areas of fighting as soccer balls, the magic mushroom that makes the characters grow, or the gold hammer, even more powerful than the normal hammer. In addition to these objects there are the Pokéballs which can invoke many new Pokémons and assist trophies that make appear a character who will lend its support to the player, with for example, Andross, the final boss of Star Fox, the Labrador of Nintendogs, or a biker of Excitebike.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl also proposes, in addition to versus and arcade modes, an adventure mode called the Subspace Emissary. In this mode the player takes control of all the characters in various platform and fighting levels. Each level is interspersed with many cut-scenes. This game can be played in co-op with a friend. It is in this adventure that all the hidden characters can be unlocked. The game also introduces for the first time in the series an online game mode. We can thus via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, face registered friends, or confront players from all around the world. There is also a museum where you can admire the trophies of characters and objects of the universe for Nintendo picked up during fighting or obtained via the Coin Laucher machine in which you have to throw coins earned in the various other modes, on trophies that appear on the screen. Each trophy is accompanied by a description giving a lot of information. In addition to the trophies there is also the Sticker book. Each sticker represents a different character from the Nintendo universe, and can be fitted on the fighters in order to increase their performance.

A training mode is of course present, as well as an Event mode in which will have to fulfill many conditions during a fight in order to complete the event. There are also many Mini-games such as Home-Run Contest in which the player must beat a Sandbag, the Target Smash! Mini-game, in which the player must break ten targets as quickly as possible or even a mode in which you have to deal with strange colorful characters.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl goes even further than its predecessor by offering more game modes and playable characters. Being also a veritable museum of the Nintendo universes, the player will spend endless hours of games to unlock every trophy, each sticker, every soundtrack and arenas, not counting the hidden characters. In other words, Smash Bros. Brawl is one of the best games on Nintendo Wii that any fan of Nintendo must possess.


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Super Smash Bros. Brawl reviews