Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Japanese: 大乱闘 スマッシュ ブラザーズ X, Dairantō Sumasshu Burazāzu Ekkusu, Great Fray Smash Brothers X) is the third installment of the Super Smash Bros. series.

Description
The game was due for release December 3, 2007 on the Nintendo Wii in North America. However, it has now been announced that the game is set for release January 24th for Japan, February 10th, 2008 for US, a release date for Europe or Australia hasn't been confirmed yet. Virtually all information known about this game has come from the the game's official website, Smash Bros. DOJO!!(スマブラ 拳!!,sumabula ken !! in the Japanese version). The first playable demo for Super Smash Bros. Brawl and a tournament was available at the E for All Event at Los Angeles.

Control schemes
Significant changes to the control scheme system have been made in Brawl. Firstly, there are now four different types of control: players can opt between using the Wii Remote (with or without the nunchuk attachment), the GameCube controller, or the Classic controller. Additionally, controls can now be customized, allowing you to set up a control scheme to your own liking.

Game modes

 * Solo
 * Group
 * Nintendo Wi-Fi
 * Vault

Characters
To date, 24 characters have been confirmed for inclusion in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, 12 of them being newcomers. Meta Knight (from the Kirby series), Pit (of Kid Icarus fame), Wario (from the WarioWare franchise), and Zero Suit Samus (Metroid: Zero Mission) were first revealed in the E3 2006 trailer. Surprisingly, Konami's Metal Gear Solid franchise also was revealed as having a playable representative: Solid Snake was confirmed as being the first third-party character to be included in the Super Smash Bros. series. Since then, Ike, Pokémon Trainer, Diddy Kong, Lucas, King Dedede and Pikmin & Olimar have also been confirmed as playable newcomers. Additionally, a second third-party character has been announced: Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog.

Confirmed playable characters

 * Bowser
 * Diddy Kong
 * Donkey Kong
 * Fox
 * Ice Climbers
 * Ike
 * King Dedede
 * Kirby
 * Link
 * Lucas
 * Mario
 * Meta Knight
 * Peach
 * Pikachu
 * Pikmin & Olimar
 * Pit
 * Pokémon Trainer
 * Squirtle
 * Ivysaur
 * Charizard


 * Samus
 * Zero Suit Samus


 * Snake
 * Sonic
 * Wario
 * Yoshi
 * Zelda

Stages
So far, a total of 25 stages have been officially confirmed on the Dojo, with a few others (as well as several side-scrolling stages possibly used for Subspace Emissary) shown but not confirmed.

Confirmed Stages

 * Battlefield
 * Battleship Halberd
 * Bridge of Eldin
 * Brinstar
 * Castle Siege
 * Corneria
 * Delfino Plaza
 * Frigate Orpheon
 * Lylat Cruise
 * Mario Circuit
 * New Pork City
 * Norfair
 * Onett
 * PictoChat
 * Pokémon Stadium 2
 * Rainbow Ride
 * Rumble Falls
 * Shadow Moses Island
 * Skyworld
 * Smashville
 * The Summit
 * Temple
 * WarioWare
 * Yoshi's Island
 * Yoshi's Island (SSBM)

Unconfirmed Stages
Note that all stage names in this section are unofficial.
 * "Arena"

Names
As in Melee, players can enter a name to be displayed during gameplay. In Brawl, personalized control schemes can be tied to individual names. Names may now be up to 5 characters long, as opposed 4 as in Melee. The Wii remote has the ability to save names (and control schemes)   to its internal memory.

Stickers
Stickers are a new addition to Brawl, and are comparable to the trophies from Melee. According to Smash Bros. DOJO!!, they are awarded to players simply for playing the game, and can be collected in an album. Players can then create scenes or pictures by arranging collected stickers.

Trophies
Trophies return from Melee, it has retained all the features of the Melee trophy viewing mode and now has an added feature to place individual trophies next to each other, most likely for the sake of taking a screenshot. According to Sakurai's update, it is now easier to identify and organize the trophies you've collected.

Items

 * Main article: List of items in Super Smash Bros. Brawl

There are currently 25 normal items revealed on the Dojo website, plus several items that will most likely not be included on the actual item switch roster, but will still appear in the game (CD's, Damaged Power Suit Piece, Peanut, etc.)

Pokémon

 * Main article: Poké Ball

Several Pokémon have been confirmed for the game as Poké Ball Pokémon. Many series staples, such as Goldeen and Snorlax return, with newer Pokémon of the third and fourth generations also appearing, such as Groudon and Gardevoir. Also worth noting is that Meowth, who appeared in Super Smash Bros. but was mysteriously missing from Super Smash Bros. Melee, is making his return to the Super Smash Bros. series in Brawl. Meanwhile, Mew and Celebi now have a new feature when released.

Assist Trophies

 * Main article: Assist Trophy

An item exclusive to Brawl, Assist Trophies can be thought of as being a variation of the Poké Ball item. Rather than featuring solely Pokémon, however, assist trophies release minor characters from various Nintendo franchises and video games. Masahiro Sakurai has stated that assist trophies allow him to include characters that may not have made it into the game as playable fighters, a compromise that should give some form of satisfaction to fans of these characters.

Stage Builder
A new feature that lets players build their own stage, Stage Builder allows players to edit the music, background, and the size of their created stage. These stages can be saved on an SD card, as well as sent to a friend via the player's Wii friend roster. Stages can also be submitted to Nintendo, where one player-created stage will be automatically sent to the player every day; however, these stages only last one day.

Music

 * Main article: Music (SSBB)

There appears to be a much larger focus on the music aspect of Super Smash Bros. Brawl than with the previous game. Indeed, several esteemed musicians have been credited for their work on the game. Several arrangements have already been revealed and can be heard on the official Smash Bros. DOJO website. Masahiro Sakurai has mentioned that each stage will have more than one or two songs to accompany it, and the inclusion of the CD item (which unlocks a new song when collected) indicates that the music library of this game will be vastly larger than Melee ' s.

Additionally, a new feature called My Music allows players to create a music playlist of sorts; you can adjust the likelihood that one of the songs delegated to a certain stage will be randomly selected to play.

Trailer #1
The Super Smash Bros. Brawl trailer was first shown at E3 (a.k.a. Electronic Entertainment Expo). Nintendo's surprise showing came at an after-hours conference on the first day of E3 (and not during Nintendo's pre-E3 press conference, which is typically the time any major projects are unveiled for E3). It was first shown on May 11, 2006.

The trailer shows a very dramatic fighting montage of some classic Super Smash Bros. characters, and, one by one, new characters to this newest installment to the Super Smash Bros. series that includes Wario, Pit, Meta Knight, and the surprising but welcome Solid Snake.

Trailer #2
This SSBB trailer came out in late 2006, and featured variations of people playing SSBB, along with small bits of characters trying out new moves, and in general just moving about around the stage. One of the most noticable things was the ability of characters to crawl. All of the new characters were given a once-over, and many new things were discovered.

Another interesting development was the increase in the intricacies of stage design. Many stages had very pleasing backgrounds, with stunning visuals. One stage was seen that had destructible platforms, and another was seen with Meta-Knight's ship flying by in the background. Another stage that was shown had a look about it that definitely suggested a Mario Kart theme, as many Shy Guys raced on in the background (similar to Mute City). Fans of the Metal Gear series may notice the similarities between the Helipad area in the beginning of Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes and the background featured behind Solid Snake during the trailer. At the end of the trailer Fox made his return on a floating platform in space, many fans not liking his face appearance. Note: Zero Suit Samus and Fox hold their weapons at all times as they fight.

As expected, there will be many new treats in the next installment of the Super Smash Bros. series, but will (hopefully) retain the overall feel of the gameplay.

Trailer #3
This trailer was released during a Nintendo Press Conference on October 10th, 2007.

Like Trailer #2, this trailer starts off with various characters fighting each other, this time with the health meters present. Andross is shown attacking the fighters, and changes to Fox grabbing a Smash Ball and uses his Final Smash. Of note, Zero Suit Samus is also shown with a smash ball while Fox is grabbing the Smash Ball. Yoshi is seen causing massive damage with his Final Smash, and then a montage of Pokémon (some new) and Assist Trophies are shown. The Trailer then shifts to the Stickers and Trophies. After that we are treated with quite a bit of Subspace Emissary gameplay footage. Finally, all the currently revealed characters each strike a pose. The movie unfortunately ends with "Coming Soon", indicating a delay from the original December 3 release date.

Several other minor trailers, featuring footage of brawl battles and the Subspace Emissary, have been released on the internet, and can be found on any major gaming site (ex: GameSpot, IGN).