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GeezerVison is showing www.ssbwiki.com — Super Smash Bros. Brawl   Super Smash Bros. BrawlFrom SmashWiki, the Super Smash Bros. wiki
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Super Smash Bros. Brawl (大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズＸ, Great Fray Smash Brothers X), often shortened to "SSBB" or "Brawl" (スマブラＸ), is the third installment in the Super Smash Bros. series published by Nintendo. The game was directed by Masahiro Sakurai, who also created the two preceding Super Smash Bros. games, and was developed by an ad hoc development team consisting of Sora, Game Arts, and staff from other developers. The game released for Wii on January 31st, 2008 in Japan, and through the Americas and PAL regions throughout the following months. The game requires 128 free blocks of memory in the Wii System Memory. A limited edition release of the game came with an extra cardboard sleeve depicting all of the characters available by default, and came with two postcards, providing a biopic on Zero Suit Samus and Zelda, giving a short summary of them, and showing images of their special moves. Brawl is fundamentally similar to its predecessors Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee, being a fighting game that contains characters with simple movesets and an emphasis on movement and ringouts. However, Brawl introduced many elements that would become standard in later installments, such as a stage builder and support for online play through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.[7] No data, except some vault data, can be copied to an SD Card or transferred onto another Wii. If the player does not create a save file when they start, they are unable to play via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, and vault data will not be saved. However, as of May 20, 2014, the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection has been shut down, therefore making it impossible for anyone to play Brawl online without hacking. While some characters were cut from Melee, many more were introduced, including third-party characters for the first time in the series. Most of the game's musical score is made up of newly-arranged versions of pieces that originated in earlier video games starring the characters featured in Brawl, with the remainder taken directly from the original games. The new arrangements were composed in a collaboration between 38 renowned video game composers[8] and has been critically acclaimed for its representation of different generations in gaming history.[9] Brawl received universal acclaim, with praise centered on its entertainment value despite issues relating to its content loading times, and its musical score was lauded for its representation of different generations in gaming history. The diverse selection of single-player content continues to be a noteworthy point of praise in comparison to both its predecessors and successors, while some of its gameplay mechanics and character balancing have been a point of criticism with fans. Opening movieThe CGI opening movie of Super Smash Bros. Brawl utilizes scenes from The Subspace Emissary, along with lots of selections of Versus Mode matches, as opposed to featuring unique footage in the manner of the game's predecessor, Super Smash Bros. (Super Smash Bros. Melee used footage from its E3 trailer). Fighters The character selection screen of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with all characters unlocked.  The entire cast, as they appear in the ending; excluding Zero Suit Samus and Sheik, the transformations of Samus and Zelda, respectively. The cast of 35 playable characters (39 if Zelda, Sheik, Samus, Zero Suit Samus, Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard are all treated as separate without counting the trainer himself) includes 20 (21 including Sheik) returning veterans from Melee and 15 newcomers (18 including transformations). Of these, 21 are starter characters (25 if the seven transformation characters above are all treated as separate) and the other 14 need to be unlocked. Many of the returning characters have been updated or refined since their last appearance, either in terms of appearance, fighting capabilities, or both. For example, Link and Fox have taken on new designs from more recent titles, while Samus Aran has gained the ability to change into a new form, Zero Suit Samus, by using her Final Smash or by the player pressing a certain button after picking Samus and before picking a stage. Five characters do not return from Melee: Super Mario's Dr. Mario, The Legend of Zelda's Young Link, Pokémon's Mewtwo and Pichu, and Fire Emblem's Roy. Of these, only Mewtwo was not a moveset clone; and it is assumed to have been the furthest into development of the cut characters due to having the most unused code out of the cut veterans. Except for the Mario series, each of those series' added new characters to the roster: Toon Link for The Legend of Zelda, Pokémon Trainer (who controls Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard) and Lucario for Pokémon, and Ike for Fire Emblem. In addition, several other series received new characters, with Kirby gaining the most newcomers out of these series gaining both Meta Knight and King Dedede. The others include Donkey Kong with Diddy Kong, Metroid has Samus' aforementioned "Zero Suit" form as a transformation, Star Fox with Wolf, and EarthBound with Lucas. New character slots which go to Nintendo series previously unrepresented include Pit, the first appearance of the Kid Icarus series since the 1991 Game Boy game Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters; Wario, originally a Mario spin-off but long launched into a franchise of his own; Captain Olimar from the Pikmin series; and the NES accessory R.O.B. Finally, Solid Snake from the Metal Gear franchise and Sonic the Hedgehog from his eponymous series become the first third-party characters to appear in a Super Smash Bros. game. Bold denotes unlockable characters. CollectiblesThe number of Trophies, statuettes of Nintendo characters and objects which can be collected in-game, was almost doubled from Melee.[10] A related feature was the introduction of stickers, small pieces of Nintendo artwork which can be picked up from offline and online matches, along with the Smash Service's "Spectator Mode." Stickers also make an appearance in the single-player and multiplayer modes, such as the Stadium mode. Stickers also act as a sort of enhancement to the characters' abilities when using attacks in Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary.[11]. Through the Trophy Hoard and Sticker Album, players can place trophies and stickers onto virtual backgrounds and take snapshots, all of which is recorded into the Wii's internal hard drive or onto SD cards depending on the player's choosing. From this point, these virtual items can be sent to other players via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, "WiiConnect24".[10][11] The inclusion of a new Super Smash Bros. element, collectable CDs, which, when obtained, offer new music selections for playable stages. Although this can add more variety to the music played on a stage, the music selection will always be at random. However, the player can adjust how often a track can be played from the options menu. [12] By completing stages in Classic Mode[13], All-Star Mode and The Subspace Emissary, coins can be earned. The coins can be used to play the Coin Launcher to win more stickers or trophies, to "pay" for Continues in Classic and All-Star Mode, to bet on the outcome of Spectator Mode matches, and to choose stages in online play. MasterpiecesBrawl introduces "Masterpieces", time-limited Virtual Console game demonstrations, to the Super Smash Bros. series. The international release has twelve such games available, each of which features one or more of the playable characters from Brawl. Seven games are available for play to begin with, with five more unlockable by completing Challenges, which range from Mario's debut in Donkey Kong to the critically acclaimed late Nintendo 64 title The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. The time limits on each play last between 30 seconds (Donkey Kong), to five minutes (Ocarina of Time). The Japanese release has two additional Masterpieces not included in the international releases — the SNES games Mother 2 (known as EarthBound in its US release) and Fire Emblem: Monsho no Nazo. MusicOn May 22, 2007, Sakurai revealed a list of 38 composers providing the musical score for the game. In his accompanying statement, Sakurai said that he had 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."[8] Each of the game stages have multiple musical tracks which players can listen to using the new "My Music" feature, including some songs that were taken directly from other games without any modification or special arrangement. This feature also allows the player to adjust the frequency of how often a music track is played on a given stage. Collecting CDs expands the range of music available.[12] StagesBrawl features 41 VS. Mode stages, of which 29 are starter stages, and 12 unlockable. 31 are new to Brawl, including new incarnations of Battlefield and Final Destination, and 10 return from Melee. Every universe with a playable character sans R.O.B. has at least one stage, but Brawl also introduces stages from universes without playable characters for the first time, with Animal Crossing, the Nintendo DS and Electroplankton all receiving stages. Brawl also has an option to create custom stages with the Stage Builder, with three sample stages already built. Bold denotes unlockable stages. Development2005: Pre-productionAt the pre-E3 2005 press conference, then-president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, announced his desire for a new, Wi-Fi compatible installment of Super Smash Bros., to be ready as a launch title for their next gaming console, then-codenamed Revolution. This statement, widely interpreted and reported in the press as an announcement,[14] was unexpected to the creator of the Super Smash Bros. series, Masahiro Sakurai. Following his resignation from HAL Laboratory in 2003, he had made a gentlemen's agreement with Iwata that were a new game in the series to be made, it would be discussed with him first.[15] After the conference, Sakurai was called to the top floor of Iwata's hotel room, where he was told that he would like Sakurai to be involved in the game, in a position "as close to a director as possible". Iwata revealed that if Sakurai declined his offer, they would have entrusted the game to someone else, or simply released an online-compatible Wii port of Super Smash Bros. Melee. After much thought, including encouragement from Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma, Sakurai decided to accept Iwata's offer, necessitating him to turn down offers he had already received from other companies. Sakurai developed Brawl thinking of it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and conceived it as the most ambitious game in the series yet, leading to the creation of The Subspace Emissary, an ambitious extension of the series's single-player modes and all-star character crossovers.[16] Sakurai finished Brawl's project plan on July 7, 2005, which proposed nearly all major content and features in the final game. Beyond popularity, his general principles for character selection included character uniqueness, gameplay balance, potential development considerations, and distribution across the game's various franchises.[17] Though some were cut in development, all playable characters except Sonic were included in the project plan; a placeholder spot reserved for "someone from Fire Emblem" was filled by Ike upon learning the series's newly-confirmed Wii game would be a sequel to Path of Radiance.[18] When deciding the newcomer lineup, Sakurai faced challenges due to what he perceived as a lack of popular action-based IPs created by Nintendo in the years since Melee. As a result, Pikmin was the 21st century's sole new Nintendo universe to receive a character. Popular contemporary series such as Animal Crossing, Nintendogs, and Brain Age were not seen as having characters suited for fighting, but fitting for use as non-playable elements.[18] The new Assist Trophy item was seen as allowing characters who could not be featured as playable characters to still maintain a presence in battles.[19] As part of his desire to emphasize each character's uniqueness, and due to backlash received in Melee, Sakurai chose not to include clones in Brawl.[20] The game introduced no true clones to the series, cut several, and de-cloned those who returned. Cuts were regarded as inevitable, due to the necessity of both expanding upon and remaking Melee's roster, but Sakurai pledged to bring back as many characters as possible.[21] Sakurai's newly-founded company, Sora Ltd., is not a development studio in its own right, and thus required contracting additional staff to produce the game. HAL Laboratory were unable to develop Brawl, due to being busy with another project. Though having the game developed inhouse at Nintendo EAD in Kyoto was weighed,[22] it was decided to open a new office in Tokyo and form an ad hoc dev team specifically for Brawl. Dubbed the Takadanobaba office,[23] its core staff was provided by Game Arts, who served as the game's de facto lead developer under Sakurai's direction. Game Arts' staff would be supported throughout development by a large number of freelance staff and contracted outsourcing companies, totaling over 100 permanent staff by the end. Game Arts' developers had spent excessive amounts of time playing Melee, and thus had a deep mechanical knowledge of the series, and received extensive development materials, tools, and software from Melee courtesy of HAL. Super Smash Bros. Brawl entered full development in October 2005, and was scheduled for release in 2007. 2006: Official announcementBrawl was absent from Nintendo's Wii showing at its 2006 Pre-E3 press conference. The next day, on May 10, 2006, its first official trailer was unveiled at E3 and 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."[24] As far as Wi-Fi play is concerned, Sakurai stated his plan was to include Wi-Fi connection compatibility and online functionality, he goes on to say "one of the primary reasons Super Smash Bros. Brawl was created was that Nintendo, when taking Wii online, wanted to have Smash Bros. to do that".[24] However, as stated 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.[25] During a test play between Sakurai and Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear series, Kojima stated that the game felt complete and that Nintendo "could put it out right now and it would sell millions of copies."[26] The game's announcement attracted significant buzz due to the revelation of Konami-created character Solid Snake, the series's first ever non-Nintendo guest character. Sakurai revealed that Snake's inclusion came at the request of Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima, who had "practically begged" for Snake to be included in Melee. His request could not be considered at the time, as the game was too far in development to add another character, but it opened the door for Nintendo and Sakurai to approach him about an appearance in Brawl instead.[27] Shortly after the game's announcement, Sakurai opened its official website. The Japanese version of the website included a questionnaire, where fans were encouraged to write messages suggesting which characters and music they would like to see in the game.[28] Suggestions were no longer being taken as of June 9, 2006. The inclusion of Snake was seen, both by fans and the developers themselves, as having opened the floodgates for other non-Nintendo characters to appear in the series, and negotiations took place behind the scenes with other companies regarding potential inclusion.[29] Sakurai would clarify on the Japanese website that they would likely only be able to add 1 or 2 more guests at most, that manga characters were strictly ineligible, and that above all else, all agreements needed to involve the mutual consent and cooperation of the original companies and Nintendo, with prior appearances on a Nintendo platform being seen as a matter of courtesy.[30] Fanmade translations of these claims would circulate widely in the fandom and press, contributing to a number of rumours and misinterpretations of his remarks.[31] While considerate of emphasizing characters who had not appeared outside Japan in a worldwide release, Sakurai noted the previous examples of Marth and Roy, who became popular in Melee in spite of their prior unknown status to international players.[32] Brawl would feature the return of the still-unlocalized Marth, and the debut of Lucas. Lucas's inclusion had been determined prior to Sakurai learning of the decision to not localize Mother 3; as in Melee,[33] he had initially considered replacing Ness with him entirely. Though concerned about how to proceed, he decided to move forward with featuring Lucas and Ness together in Brawl.[34] Very little new information would be revealed about Brawl throughout 2006, as Sakurai took time away from the public to prioritize its development. The lone major update on the game came at the touring Nintendo World event in 2006, where a new trailer confirming the return of Fox, several new stages, and an overall fuller look at in-engine gameplay. 2007: Delayed releaseBrawl would resume marketing on May 22, 2007, when the Dojo was relaunched with a series of regular weekday updates. At the Nintendo Media Conference at E3 2007, that July, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé announced that Brawl would release in the Americas on December 3, 2007.[35] A specific Japanese and PAL release date was still unannounced, but on track for 2007. Despite this, the game was experiencing challenges behind the scenes due to its ambitious scope. Cuts were made as the team revisited the project plan and determined which elements they would, and would not, have time to include as the deadline approached.[36] Development of the Subspace Emissary proved difficult; it was initially set to be outsourced to another company, while Sakurai and Game Arts focused on the core game, but they were unable to find a suitable company willing to take the contract. Further, the mode required creating two sets of parameters for each character,[37] and it needed to be written around characters whose presence in the game was locked-in from an early stage of development, resulting in fighters completed later to be excluded.[38] In spite of this however, Sakurai believed as of late August 2007 that the game would still be on track to make its release date.[39] On October 10, 2007, two months before Brawl's anticipated December release, Nintendo's Fall Conference announced that Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog, the most-requested character by fans worldwide in the 2006 survey, would be playable in Brawl.[40] Sonic was added to the game earlier that year, following immense demand and successful negotiations with Sega.[41] However, during the same conference, Nintendo president Iwata announced the game's release date to be delayed. He was quoted as saying:
Sakurai confirmed on the Japanese version of the Dojo that the delay was due to game polish and debugging, which required more time than anticipated due to the massive amount of content and possible combinations in the game.[43] Though Sonic's late inclusion was often speculated by fans to have caused the delay, Sakurai indicated in retrospective comments that the matters were unrelated, and they had not yet decided to delay the game until after he was nearly-complete and ready for announcement.[41] The next day, George Harrison of Nintendo of America announced that Brawl would be released on February 10, 2008 in North America.[44] The game was playable to the public for the first time from October 18-22, at the first ever Entertainment for All Expo show in Los Angeles, California. Nintendo hosted a Super Smash Bros. Brawl tournament, and Sonic was included as one of the demo's playable fighters.[45] 2008: ReleaseOn January 15, 2008, very shortly before its scheduled release, Brawl received one final delay - a minor delay in Japan to January 31st, and a one-month delay in North America to March 9th. This delay was attributed generally to "delays in completion",[46] but allowed for Nintendo of America to produce a larger number of copies in order to meet the game's massive demand.[47] Nintendo issued a warning statement regarding Brawl causing issues with some Wii systems. Due to the sheer size of the game files, double-layer discs were used to fit the entire game physically. This would cause the disc to be unreadable if the lens of the disc drive became contaminated. Nintendo offered a free repair service to those who experienced this issue.[48]. Following the release of the game in Japan, a bug was discovered in the game. This bug causes the game to display an error message when it starts; however, players can close the error message and play the game as usual. A replacement program was created to address this issue. Brawl was finally released on January 31st, 2008 in Japan, March 9th, 2008 in the United States, late June 2008 in Europe and Australia, and two years later in South Korea, in April 2010. In contrast to Melee, all regions of Brawl have the same gameplay balance; besides the aforementioned issue, no changes or bug fixes were added in-between region releases. It was not possible to support Brawl with DLC, due to the Wii's technical limitations.[49] Masahiro Sakurai continued maintaining the Dojo for a few months after release, shedding light on the game's hidden features and content. Beyond managing a few user-submitted submissions, he signed off on April 14, 2008. In 2011, a new Super Smash Bros. game was announced for the then-recently released Nintendo 3DS and upcoming Wii U, which would later become Super Smash Bros. 4. VideoIn 2023, Sakurai retrospectively examined the game and its development process for his YouTube channel, Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games. He later created a second video, recapping the history of the game's conception and the unique circumstances that produced it.[50] Sakurai would note in the first Game Concepts video that without his decision to have directed Brawl, the Super Smash Bros. series may have ended, marking it to have been a watershed moment for the series. Reception
Super Smash Bros. Brawl received critically positive reviews and sold successfully. In the United States, the game sold 874,000 units on launch day and 1.4 million units in its first week to become the fastest-selling video game in Nintendo of America's history, according to Nintendo. The game has sold 10.79 million units worldwide as of March 2012 according to Nintendo, which made it the best selling game in the series and best selling fighting game at the time. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is currently the 8th best selling game for the Wii and sold 13.32 million units worldwide as of March 31, 2020,[64] and was only surpassed as the best selling in the series and best selling fighting game by its own sequel, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, in 2019. Brawl currently holds an aggregate review score of 92.84% on Gamerankings and a score of 93/100 on Metacritic. Despite this, British publication NGamer received criticism for awarding a 93% rating to Brawl, with readers deeming the score too low, especially in comparison to Official Nintendo Magazine's 95% rating. Brawl has reviews with ratings equal or slightly better than Melee. The game's multiplayer was received excellently, but single player, while noted as superior to Melee's, was still only average. Gamespot awarded Brawl best fighting game of 2008, beating competitors such as Soulcalibur IV and BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger. While Street Fighter IV technically released in arcades in 2008, it was excluded from running due to not having a home console release until 2009. Changes from Super Smash Bros. MeleeGameplay
Game modes
Aesthetic
In competitive playBrawl represented a turning point in the competitive tournament scene. The gripes many top level players had with the many changes from Melee caused a schism in the community, where many chose to not bother transitioning and stay playing Melee. The scene then split into Melee players and players of the latest release, which somewhat remains to this day. Brawl itself had a respectable competitive run, being featured at prestigious events like Major League Gaming and EVO. The game also has a vibrant modding scene, with several having their own niche competitive scene. Mods like Project M even grew to eclipse the very game it modded in later years. However, Brawl quickly dropped in popularity after the release of its successor, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and now exists as a small niche community. The community has constructed a set of standard tournament rules to regulate tournament play. While rulesets may vary between different tournaments, generally universal gameplay rules include all matches being played via timed stock (three stocks and eight minutes), and restrictions on legal stages. These regulations are enacted to ensure that gameplay at the highest level remains fair and interesting. StaffTrailersSeveral different trailers for Brawl were released before the game came out. The original trailer was shown at E3 2006 on May 11, 2006 and revealed Pit, Meta Knight, Zero Suit Samus, Wario and Solid Snake as new playable characters, alongside the return of Mario, Link, Samus, Pikachu and Kirby. A second trailer was shown at the Nintendo World 2006 convention in December, and revealed Fox's return as a playable character. A third trailer was shown at the October 10, 2007 Nintendo Press Conference, which revealed Sonic as a playable character. A final trailer showcasing Brawl's adventure mode, the Subspace Emissary, was released on Friday, December 21, 2007. This trailer revealed that Ike and the Ice Climbers would appear in this mode, among other things. Gallery
Trivia
References
External links
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