Review by Peter Marreck for Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Rating:
I wasn’t much of a console gamer for a long time after the N64, but one game that stood out on it was Super Smash Bros. Fast forward to 2008 and I broke down and got a Wii for the party-gaming potential. I have not been disappointed. Yesterday, this game arrived.

Oh boy. This is a heck of a lot of fun. The number of things to do is incredible. You can even practice your character’s moves against your choice of inert or active opponents. Nintendo seems to have intended this game to be epic as they not only include an in-game retrospective of the entire line of Nintendo gaming products going back all the way to the NES, they include time-limited trial versions of the classic games.

Wifi works wonderfully. Online matches are frantic and fun.

One odd thing is that the wireless pointer feature of your wii controller is completely inert once you load the game. This is one area where they shouldn’t have stuck to their roots- it feels silly to move a token with the analog joystick when I could theoretically just point at the character I want to use. But you get used to it.

If you have a kid, he will spend months getting all the unlocks (there are lots). If you have a kid inside you, you will rediscover some console joy.

The maps are pretty amusing/crazy. They touch on many themes/ideas from previous Nintendo works. Put it this way: There is a Pictochat map. The terrain is drawn as you play… Many maps have destructible terrain or areas you cannot jump up through, which adds a strategic element.

The characters are varied and seem very well-balanced against each other. (Aside: I love how the announcer says “KING DEDEDE” so seriously.)

If you are completely new to the game, you still have a pretty good shot at winning by button-mashing, which I consider a good feature. If you have mastered the combos and moves however, you still have the advantage.

I haven’t played the adventure mode much but it is also fun.

You pretty much have to buy this game if you own a Wii. This is as much a Wii-defining game as Super Mario Galaxy or Wii Sports is.

Review by Kevin J. Loria for Super Smash Bros. Brawl
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Even though I was Nintendo label die-hard and fan of their coin-op franchise from the beginning, Super Smash Bros or brawl titles in general haven’t interested me too much.

So the most anticipated title of 2008 wasn’t guaranteed to strike my electric fancy. But, when you add WI-FI play for free online brawling and custom controls in order to configure anything from the Wii controllers to the old school (4 variations on play) you’ve got me curious. Add to that the longest list of cross-title cross-era characters ever produced (Thirtysomethings: remember “Battle of the Network Stars” ). Characters from `87s’ Kid Icarus (Pit) and Metal Gear’s Snake, Pikachu and various Pokemon. Loads of Mario characters including the man himself: Diddy and Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong dating from Mario’s 1981 coin-op premiere of the title of the same name), Wario, Yoshi, Princess Peach, Bowser, and more. Other melee cameos include the Ice Climbers, Metroids’ Zero Suit Samus, Kirby, King Dedede and his Meta Knight, Sonic, LINK & Zelda (from ‘86 and on), Star Fox, Lucas & friends from Mother 3… and lots of other unlockables. Some noteable, but Non-playable, assist trophies include Devil from Devil World, Star Fox’s Andross, Mr. Resetti from Animal Crossing, Little Mac from Tyson’s Punch-Out and even Excitebike (’85) is on the scene. What is particularly cool about these appearances is the consistency of style for each character regardless of genre or era of the characters. Nintendo has outdone itself on graphics on this one, even when they are “dumbing” down the graphics for cross-game effect. The sound effects are true to this as well, with as many retro SFXs as cool new ones.

Options for play include Solo vs. PC, Multiplayer play vs. 3 friends or on-line options. Other options include the Classic game (you beat `em you advance) or a storyplay campaign which is surprisingly worthwhile. The variety of Brawl locations and is amazingly broad as are the detailing of each location gimmicks. From Yoshi’s Island to a stadium to the exterior of a StarFox ship sailing the stratosphere, this alone will extend the life of BRAWL’s replay longevity. Characters move satisfyingly fluid, and their variety per character is exciting.

The Mini-games are fun and nice samplings of other titles, both new and old. If fact, many of these made me ready to seek out some games I hadn’t looked at before. If anything BRAWL is a great sampler title.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is going to be top of the “4 player fighting” genre for some time to come, I think. Well worth the release push-back.

Review by M. Miao for Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Rating:
*MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS, SORRY

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is probably the most anticipated Nintendo game coming out this year and it delivers. Just like its predecessors on the Game Cube and Nintendo 64, it takes many of the Nintendo favorites and throws them into a solid fighting game, which each character having his/her/its own special moves. This time, the roster features 35 characters total with 21 starting and 14 unlockable. The basic idea hasn’t changed from Melee, beat up your opponents until they have a high enough damage percentage and then knock them off the stage. However, what has changed is the different ways that you could achieve that goal. Of the 35 characters, almost everyone is unique. The three Star Fox characters do feel just slightly alike, and C. Falcon/Ganondorf, Link/Toon Link, Ness/Lucus have similar moves, but even those characters are different enough to offer their own strategy and have different advantages and weaknesses. Furthermore, none of the characters feel like an exact copy with different running/jumping stats like they did in Melee (Falco/Fox, Marth/Roy). All in all, all the fighters in Brawl are unique and you will sure find a style that suits your style. Each fighter is deadly if they are used correctly and none of them is overpowered (Meta Knight maybe.)

Now onto all the features in the game, first of all is the single player. The single player adventure, dubbed Subspace Emissary, is a much larger version of the adventure mode in Melee and it will take about 6 – 10 hours to finish, depending on the difficulty and the percent completion. The adventure doesn’t take itself too seriously and the cut scenes are beautifully rendered. Don’t try too hard to understand them and just sit back and enjoy its complete randomness. There were many times when I almost collapsed laughing at the silliness of the cut scenes and one left me with a gaping mouth because it was awesome. Although it could sometimes be tedious, the Subspace Emissary gives the player the ability to unlock all the characters, with Wolf, Jiggly and Toon Link requiring a little more work, without playing through hundreds of versus matches, but then again, it’s not that hard to do. Although not the best single player game ever made, the Subspace Emissary keep the player occupied for a few hours, even just to see the next cut scene or battle the next boss. In addition, the game also features co-op play to alleviate the sometimes tedious or just plan out meanness, parts of the game.

All the goodness of even matches also makes their return. In addition, some of the events are now co-op, the last one being a co-op All-Star match with no recovery items. The event matches now also have their own difficulties settings, further increasing the replay value. Other stadium options include the return of the homerun contest and multi-man brawl, which can also be played co-op.

The part that is going to keep the player coming back for more is no doubt the multiplayer part. This was the reason why melee was so popular. Many reviews complain about how Brawl is the “more of the same,” and “without any innovation.” I did not find that to be the case. It is true that everything that made Melee great has returned, such as special attacks and chargeable smash attacks, but with the new characters and modifications to returning fighters, any old strategy must be at least modified to keep them effective. New features such as the footstool jump (using other people’s head as a spring to jump higher), gliding (for certain winged characters), and wall clinging (grabbing to the wall) adds subtle new strategies and furthers the playing of mind games for the pros. Perhaps the most interesting addition is the Smash Ball, which breaks after repeated attack and gives the player the ability to unleash a Final Smash, a devastating attack that usually result in KOing an opponent. Once the Smash Ball appears, all actions seize and the focus shifts to obtaining the Ball. One of the major changes that Melee players will notice is the slower pace of Brawl but it is very easy to adjust after a few games.

The stages are awesome very unique and offer their own style of play. Unlike other fighting games where the stage plays no part in the fighting, almost all of the Brawl stages fight back with many different hazards. Just like Melee, the players need to keep track of the stages and try to avoid their hazards. In addition, some classic Melee stages make a glorious return, stages such as the Temple and Rainbow Cruise. There are a total of 41 stages, 31 new and 10 Melee stages. Plus the option to build your own stages, the option is almost limitless.

Although I haven’t tried the online play yet, from the response of my friends and online reviews, it seems that it’s nearly flawless with a stable connection.

The graphics of Brawl is one of the best on the Wii and it runs at a constant 60 fps. Although the graphic can’t really be compared to those of 360 and PS3, given the capabilities of the Wii, the Brawl graphics is much better than that of Melee with more explosions, more action and more chaos in general.

The sound track of Brawl is probably one of the best in the history of video game. It includes original sound track as well as remakes of many of the classics. With over 150 different songs, all beautifully orchestrated, you will never be bored when you’re fighting. The songs alone might be able justify for half of the cost of the game.

Now, there are a few aspects of the game that could be improved. First of them is the individual target smashes. Instead, there are five of the same levels for every character. The Melee target smash was unique which required different approach, but the Brawl target smash is all the same for everyone. It would be interesting to see different target smash stages for all 35 characters.

Another minor complaint is the loading time, but considering the large amount of content crammed into the game, it’s a very small criticism.

Some people are experiencing a disc reading error due to dirty Wii lens and Nintendo is offering to repair the systems for free regardless of the warranty. It might delay your enjoyment of Brawl, but at least Nintendo is nice about it.

With new co-op play, new characters, new adventure, new items, assist trophies, new pokemons, new stages, Final Smash and all the extra contents, Brawl is everything that Melee was and much, much more. For the friendless, the game might not be that much fun, but with an almost perfect 4 player fighting game and solid online play, it can keep you and 3 of your best friends occupied for many months, if not years to come. I politely disagree with all the people who say that Brawl is just a Melee upgrade. The creator of Brawl, Masahiro Sakurai, clearly put a lot of thoughts into the game and improved on every aspect of Melee and made it into a unique game. All in all, Brawl lives up to every bit of the hype and it is the best entry in the series so far. With so much stuff crammed into a single disc, the game is worth every penny of its price and it will outlast many 360 and PS3 games.

Review by Abagail Bloodworth for Resident Evil 4
Rating:
Resident Evil 4 is generally hailed as one of the best action games ever made–for a reason. Once you pick it up and start playing, you won’t want to stop. And its release on the Wii is undoubtedly the best version yet.

For those of you who have never played it before, the game centers around Leon Kennedy, on a mission to rescue the President’s daughter, Ashley Graham. But with inhuman creature after creature flung at him, it quickly becomes obvious that these aren’t any ordinary kidnappers he’s dealing with. It’s more or less a side story to the main Resident Evil plotline, so even if you’ve never played an RE game before in your life, don’t worry–you won’t get confused.

The game is amazingly fun to play. It does have a couple of “make you jump” moments, but for the most part, it’s not really a scary game. It is very gory, however–Leon can die in any number of memorable and horrendous ways, such as having his head cut off by a chainsaw-wielding maniac. It can also be extremely difficult at times. The game throws near endless enemies at you from the beginning, forcing you to adapt to the controls quickly merely to survive. And believe me, you will die. You will die many times. What little scariness the game does have tends to come from being surrounded and fearing for your survival–although, on Normal difficulty it’s not as bad as some other notoriously difficult games (coughDMC3cough).

Now, as for the Wii version. If you’ve played the game before, this is where you’ll want to start paying attention.

The Wii controls work amazingly well, and are very intuitive after a few minutes of playing. To shoot, you simply hold B, aim with the Wiimote, and press A to fire. It works incredibly well and allows for previously unknown speed and precision–having played the Wii version, I doubt I could go back to aiming on a traditional controller. Simply wave the Wiimote, and it automatically attacks the nearest target with your knife. (I was skeptical of the auto-target before playing, but it really does work very well.)

Of course, the drawback to the controls themselves being easier to use is that the game itself is also a bit easier as a result, particularly if you’ve played it before. It’s also a bit annoying that when using your rifle–the time at which you really NEED precise aiming–the game makes you aim using the joystick. But, these are merely minor nitpicks in what is otherwise an amazing game.

The Wii version has both the extra content that was included in the PS2 version, and the superior graphics and sound of the Gamecube version. So, if you’ve never played the game before, this is definitely the version to get. And even if you have played it before, at only $30, it might just be worth picking up again.

Review by Wesley Mullins for Resident Evil 4
Rating:
Resident Evil 4 was my introduction to the groundbreaking series, and from all indications, I began with the best. Along with breathtaking realistic settings/characters, tasks that challenge both problem solving and reflexes, RE4 provides the literary satisfaction of a great novel, although one where the reader controls the action. I am truly in awe of the architects of this game, as their creation deserves to be studied alongside the great pop culture contributions of this generation.

RE4 focuses on Leon Kennedy’s search for the missing daughter of the President of the United States. His journey takes him through 4 “worlds”: a farming town, the castle headquarters of a cult-like religion, underground caverns and an island. With each advancing location, Leon faces increasingly difficult foes and collects superior fire power. Playing the game the first time provided me with an unending sense of discomfort and fear, a real testimony to the first person POV of the camera angles. As you lead Leon down dark hallways and through shadowy forests, the countless ghouls ready to attack seem to be targeting you as much as Leon. Several times, I had to pause the game and do something else while I prepared myself to enter a new room or location where I knew trouble was on the way. That’s not exaggeration: the game truly terrified me.

So beating the game the first time is an undeniable visceral experience. You feel as if you traveled through each stop along Leon’s journey and battled the monsters in his way. With that experience behind you, playing the game a second and third time allows you to see the brilliant aspects you missed the first time when all you were trying to do was survive one intense battle after another. Additional weaponry is also available for the second round, providing new options for attacking locales. Where once a cluster of undead soldiers camped in a valley challenged your remedial first-round weapons, one blast with an unlimited rocket launcher from the second round takes care of them.

With at least 50 hours of play the first time through and limitless replayability, RE4 is the pinnacle of modern gaming. Prepare yourself for sleepless nights, an inability to focus on the outside world and a rise in blood pressure and heart rate.