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Super Smash Bros. Brawl is an upcoming fighting game for the Nintendo Wii console. In Japan, the game is known as Template:Nihongo title.^[8] It is the third installment of the Super Smash Bros. series. 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. Its first official trailer was unveiled at E3 2006, while its second official trailer was unveiled at the 2006 Nintendo World Tour.

Gameplay

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 a character is knocked off the stage, they lose either a life or a point depending on the mode of play.^[9] 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.^[7] Players will be able to create profiles with personalised button configurations for each control method and their chosen name.^[10]

The characters can attack each other with a variety of different fighting moves. Each character can perform an array of attacks when 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 as well as four special character-specific moves. The game introduces the ability to perform character-specific special attacks, referred to as "Final Smash" moves. These abilities are used through an item bearing the Smash Bros. symbol, which are called Smash Balls.^[11][12] They are much more powerful than regular attacks, and they have a wide variety of effects, and attributes.

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,^[13] a season system in the Yoshi's Island stage,^[14] and destructible platforms in the Skyworld stage.^[15]

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. 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^[16] and Poké Balls,^[17] summon guest characters and Pokémon, respectively, that generally assist the summoner. They cannot be controlled and are usually invincible, with a few exceptions.^[18]

Single player

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. The Adventure mode also emphasizes character development, characters persevering under the weight of their personal histories.^[19] Sakurai claims this will be more "fleshed out" than the single-player modes in previous titles.^[19] 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.^[20]

Playable characters

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, such as Samus having gained a completely new split off character that becomes playable after using Samus's Final Smash. She will lose her suit, taking up the appearance of "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".^[21] Although originally suggested to be a launch title, an IGN article states that "as of May 2005, the game's development staff consisted of exactly one person," 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.^[22]

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."^[11] As far as Wi-Fi play is concerned, both Iwata and Sakurai have expressed an interest in the incorporation of some functionality.^[23][11]

It increases the opportunity to interact with players who are playing the same game.^[24]

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.^[25] 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."^[26] 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.^[27]

Music

On May 22, 2007, Sakurai revealed an extensive list of composers providing music for the game. Sakurai stated that he has asked the composers, of which include Koji Kondo, Kenji Yamamoto, and Yoko Shimomura, "to listen to an elite selection of Nintendo music and arrange several of their favorite songs."^[28] 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.^[29]

Inclusion of characters

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 the next Super Smash Bros. game (which, at the time of said "begging," was during the production of Super Smash Bros. Melee, but production of the game was already too far in research and development to make the addition viable).

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.^[30]

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.^[31] Around the same time, they also stated that Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog was the most requested third-party character.^[32] 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."^[33]

Sakurai has stated that he may not want to put much emphasis on Japan-only characters.^[34] This has changed somewhat due to the success that the Fire Emblem series characters enjoyed internationally thanks to their inclusion in Melee. Sakurai also said that third-party characters will amount to one or two, excluding Snake.^[35]

References

External links

• The Official Super Smash Bros. Website
• Template:Nintendo.com