Who the hell doesn’t love Nintendo’s many mascots beating the absolute crud out of each other? (Editor's note: Kevin isn't that big of a fan but even he is excited for Brawl) That’s what we got with Super Smash Bros. back on the N64, a game that was equal parts innovative and jaw-dropping with its innovative take on the fighting genre, to go along with the possible dream battles that were like a schoolyard “who would win in a fight” argument come to life. Super Smash Bros. Melee on the GameCube took everything a step further, featuring improved graphics, new characters, new stages, and a ton of new gameplay modes, driving it to be the number one game on the console in sales. Now, it’s the Wii’s turn with the third installment in Nintendo’s battle-based metaseries, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a game that once again promises to make things bigger, better, and badder in the Nintendo universe. Even for those who have never smashed before, Brawl is looking to be the game where everyone will want to throw down with Nintendo’s best.

Since there’s so much sheer content to this game, it’s almost impossible to choose where to begin as far as previewing it. However, since most discussion of this title often commences with its playable characters, that’s where we’ll start. Super Smash Bros. Brawl will bring to the table thirteen returning fighters, including series standards such as Mario, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Pikachu, Kirby, Fox, Peach, and Zelda. What’s more, the game features a whopping twelve newcomers, which include some unique and some extremely surprising entries into the franchise. Wario brings a unique fighting style and his…erm…flatulent abilities to the game after his shut-out in Super Smash Bros. Melee. After over fifteen years of wallowing in obscurity, Kid Icarus’s Pit finally gets his day in the sun, returning as a playable fighter. The Pokémon Trainer uses a unique tag-team mechanic, swapping out a Charizard, Ivysaur, and Squirtle to find the best way to battle in every situation. Captain Olimar brings his Pikmin into the action, using them as helpers and even as weapons to take down his foes. You’ll also be able to use for the first time such Nintendo characters as Meta Knight and King Dedede (both from the Kirby series), Ike (from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance), Lucas (from the Japan-only Mother 3), Diddy Kong, and Samus in her new Zero Suit form (sans armor). Of course, the biggest new character additions are the ones that aren’t Nintendo’s property – two of gaming’s biggest names from other companies are set to make their smashing debuts in Brawl. Revealed first was Solid Snake, who debuted in Metal Gear on the NES back in the 80’s and is more well known for the popular Metal Gear Solid series. And, thanks to years of fan requests and one of the most hilarious EGM April Fool’s jokes in years, Sega’s beloved mascot Sonic the Hedgehog will be putting on the gloves and rumbling with the best Nintendo has to offer, hopefully putting the “Who would win – Sonic or Mario?” argument to rest.

Of course, all of these characters need something to set themselves apart from one another, a feat accomplished through the use of new Final Smash moves. Final Smashes are activated when a special item called a Smash Ball appears on the stage. After it’s been sufficiently attacked, a character can use a super-powered Final Smash move, which has a number of varying effects, most often resulting in causing heavy damage or an instant KO. The moves all fit the respective characters – Mario unleashes a massive fireball for his “Mario Finale”, Link captures an enemy in a giant Triforce and slashes them into oblivion for his “Triforce Slash”, and Bowser transforms into the mighty Giga Bowser to unleash havoc on his rivals. The proper collection and use of the Final Smashes is looking like a major part of the gameplay, becoming the proverbial “game within a game”. Fortunately, for you smash-heads that can’t stand that idea, you can switch off Final Smashes as well.

GET IN MY BELLY!!!

Also, there’s a ton of characters that obviously simply couldn’t make the cut for being playable in Brawl. Fortunately, the dev team has all that covered, via the new Assist Trophy item. Similar to a Pokéball (which also makes its return), the Assist Trophy, when thrown to the ground, releases any one of a number of Nintendo characters, from the well-known to the exceedingly obscure. Characters like Waluigi, a Hammer Bro., the Excitebikes, and Little Mac will join up with Knuckle Joe (from the Kirby series), Lyn (from Fire Emblem), and even previously Japan-only characters as Stafy, Saki Amamiya (from Sin & Punishment), and Devil (from Devil World). Like with the Pokémon, the Assist Trophy characters pop onto the field, unleash a quick move or attack, and then leave. Although it’s a shame that some of these characters aren’t playable, this does seem like a good way to make a number of characters appear in the game.

No Smash Bros. game is complete without a number of stages to play upon, and Brawl brings to the table some of the most unique and varied stages ever seen in the series. Players will do battle on stages based on Delfino Island from Super Mario Sunshine, the Bridge of Eldin from Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Shadow Moses Island from Metal Gear Solid, and even the Mario Circuit track from the Mario Kart series. What’s more, several of the new characters will have stages of their own built in for the first time, many with unique mechanics. Ike’s Castle Siege stage will feature ever-changing battlefields as players fall deeper into the castle, Wario’s WarioWare stage will force players to actually complete quick WarioWare minigames in order to avoid damage, and Meta Knight’s Battleship Halberd stage will have players involved in a dogfight with Meta Knight’s massive battleship, eventually landing on the ship to come face to face with its massive cannons. There’s even a stage based on the Nintendo DS’s popular Pictochat application, fortunately devoid of any sexual iconography.

With all of these stages, there needs to be some excellent theme music rocking in the background to get everyone in the smashing mood. Fortunately, Masahiro Sakurai and his team were looking out for that, and have brought together perhaps every single major Japanese video game composer to create an unparalleled arrangement of some of video games’ most legendary music. The game’s theme song was composed by legendary Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu, and also providing songs will be Motoi Sakuraba (Golden Sun, Tales series), Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts), Akihiro Honda (Metal Gear Solid), Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger), Jun Senoue (Sonic the Hedgehog), and of course, Nintendo’s legendary Kazumi Totaka (Animal Crossing, Yoshi series), Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka (Dr. Mario, Metroid), and Koji Kondo (Mario, Zelda), to go along with nearly 30 other names. From music samples obtained from the game’s official site, the game will have a wide variety of remixed tunes from Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Animal Crossing, Sonic, Metal Gear Solid, Fire Emblem, and even the obscure Japan-only Game Boy classic X. From Sakurai’s words, it seems this is just a taste of the jaw-dropping music we’ll be able to experience in the game. Players will also be able to collect music CDs in battles that contain new songs as well, and then listen to them in the game’s sound test mode.

So what if you want to play Smash Bros. single-player? Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be bringing back the game’s Classic mode where you run through opponents one at a time, but Sakurai and company have something special in mind for the game’s new adventure mode. Being introduced in Brawl is “The Subspace Emissary”, a brand-new full-blown side-scrolling adventure built right into the Super Smash package. In Subspace Emissary, players will follow an advancing storyline pitting the entirety of Brawl’s cast against a new villain set to destroy the Smash Bros. world, creating dream combinations that should make even the staunchest Nintendo haters into drooling fanboys. The game will feature a variety of Smash scenarios against waves of enemies, and will even bring enemies like Petey Piranha and the Pokémon Rayquaza into the fray as bosses. Even better, you can tackle many of the levels with a friend. In a multiplayer-dominated game, The Subspace Emissary should add another dimension of fun and some great fanservice to the brawling action.

HADOKEN!!!

As if this wasn’t enough, all of this is made better by the sheer fact that Super Smash Bros. Brawl will be the first in the series to feature online play over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. This long-awaited edition will feature two different modes: With Friends mode allows players to do battle with buddies that, after registering each other’s Friend Codes, can face off with each other in matches, taunt each other during the games with customizable taunt messages, and battle in team matches. What’s more, several of the game’s other popular modes are available for play over With Friends mode, including the Target Test, Home Run Contest, and Multi-Man modes. You can even send screenshots and videos of your matches over Wi-Fi, and also your created stages using the game’s stage creator (oh yeah, forgot to mention, the game has a stage creator). If you’d just like to start playing, however, there’s the With Anyone mode, where players will battle without knowing one another. No personal information or statistics are recorded from this mode, and the battles are only four-way free-for-alls. As a cool addition, however, you can also choose to watch these matches without playing through the game’s Spectator Mode, and even bet on their outcome.

Based upon the sheer amount of information contained in this preview, it must be pretty clear that Super Smash Bros. Brawl is shaping up to be the biggest Wii game yet – so much so that I’m forced to leave a ton of stuff out of this preview. I haven’t even mentioned the greatly-improved graphics and new widescreen options, so suffice to say the game will doubtlessly look as good as it plays. Brawl is looking to be one big “thank you” to Nintendo’s legions of fans, and it’s shaping up to be the one title that defines the Wii just as much as Super Smash Bros. Melee defined the Cube. Get ready on March 9th, because the whole world is about to get Smashed.

Eric Jones