Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Dairantou Smash Brothers X; 大乱闘 スマッシュ ブラザーズ X, Dairantō Sumasshu Burazāzu Ekkusu Great Melee Smash Bros. X) is the third and latest installment of the Super Smash Bros. series. It is the first game in the Super Smash Bros. series to feature third-party characters. Most of the game's music is made up of arranged versions of pieces by one of 38 renowned video game composers that originated in previously released Nintendo video games.

As with its predecessors, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a departure from traditional fighting games, notably in its simplified move commands and its emphasis on ring outs over knockouts. This installment also includes a deeper single-player mode than its predecessors. Known as The Subspace Emissary, this mode is a plot-driven, side-scrolling beat 'em up game featuring Brawl's playable characters. Super Smash Bros. Brawl supports multiplayer battles with up to four combatants, and is the first game of its franchise to support online battles through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, to offer the ability to construct a custom stage, or the capability of setting customizable controls.

Information prior to release
Virtually all information known about this game came from 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 were available at the E for All Event at Los Angeles. Following that, there were two more demos at JumpFesta, and at Whobby 2008.

Game modes
Main article: List of modes in Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Characters
Thirty-five characters in 35 character slots are selectable in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, 18 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. In an unprecedented move, 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.

Unlike Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee before it, Brawl has no spaces for hidden characters. Rather, new characters are simply added, and the overall character select screen layout adjusts, adding new rows and columns as needed. Once all characters have been unlocked, characters in related series are grouped vertically, rather than horizontally as in the previous games. As this may make it harder to find new additions, this is also the first game where unlocked characters will be marked with the text "NEW" prior to their first use.

Default Characters
These Characters have been confirmed via the DOJO!! Their apperance as default characters have been confirmed by comparing the DOJO!! page to a screenshot.
 * Bowser ("Koopa" in Japan)
 * Diddy Kong
 * Donkey Kong
 * Fox
 * Ice Climbers ("Ice Climber" in Japan)
 * Ike
 * King Dedede ("DeDeDe" in Japan)
 * Kirby
 * Link
 * Lucas
 * Mario
 * Meta Knight
 * Peach
 * Pikachu
 * Pikmin & Olimar
 * Pit
 * Pokémon Trainer
 * Squirtle ("Zenigame" in Japan)
 * Ivysaur ("Fushigisou" in Japan)
 * Charizard ("Lizardon" in Japan)


 * Samus
 * Zero Suit Samus


 * Wario
 * Yoshi
 * Zelda
 * Sheik

Unlockable Characters

 * Captain Falcon
 * Falco
 * Ganondorf
 * Lucario
 * Luigi
 * Marth
 * Mr. Game & Watch
 * Ness
 * R.O.B. ("Robot" in Japan)
 * Snake
 * Sonic
 * Jigglypuff ("Purin" in Japan)
 * Toon Link
 * Wolf

Removed Characters
The following characters from Melee do not return in Brawl. Additionally, when the disc was hacked, the following characters were found partially programmed.
 * Pichu
 * Mewtwo
 * Dr. Mario
 * Roy
 * Young Link
 * Dixie Kong
 * Toon Zelda/Sheik   (possibly "Toon Zelda/Tetra")
 * Pra & Mai
 * Mewtwo
 * Roy
 * Dr. Mario

Stages
See main page: List of Stages (SSBB)

41 stages are available in Super Smash Brothers Brawl. 29 are default and 12 are unlockable.

Default Stages

 * Battlefield
 * Bridge of Eldin
 * Castle Siege
 * Distant Planet
 * Delfino Plaza ("Dolphic Town" in Japan)
 * Final Destination
 * Frigate Orpheon
 * Halberd
 * Lylat Cruise
 * Mario Circuit
 * Mushroomy Kingdom
 * New Pork City
 * Norfair
 * PictoChat
 * Pokémon Stadium 2
 * Port Town Aero Dive
 * Rumble Falls
 * Shadow Moses Island
 * Skyworld
 * Smashville
 * Summit
 * WarioWare ("Made in Wario" in Japan)
 * Yoshi's Island
 * Brinstar (Melee)
 * Corneria (Melee)
 * Onett (Melee)
 * Rainbow Ride (Melee)
 * Temple (Melee)
 * Yoshi's Island (Melee)

Unlockable Stages

 * 75m
 * Flat Zone 2
 * Green Hill Zone
 * Hanenbow
 * Luigi's Mansion
 * Mario Bros.
 * Pirate Ship
 * Spear Pillar ("Tenganzan Yari no Hashira" in Japan)
 * Big Blue (Melee)
 * Green Greens (Melee)
 * Jungle Japes (Melee)
 * Pokémon Stadium (Melee)

Names
As in Super Smash Bros. 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 five characters long, as opposed to Melee's four. The Wii remote has the ability to save names (and their control schemes) to its internal memory.

Stickers

 * Main Article: Stickers

Stickers are a new addition to Brawl. 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. On January 18th 2008, it has been revealed that stickers grant special bonuses in The Subspace Emissary such as resistance to standard and special attacks and resistance to launch, which decreases the chance of being knocked out of an area. The player can place stickers underneath the character's trophy stand. (Characters in Adventure Mode are depicted as animated trophies.) However, they disappear if peeled off.

It is possible to pick up many stickers throughout the story, while rarer and more powerful the stickers will appear if the player selects a harder difficulty level. If the player dies, the characters will lose half the stickers they collected throughout the stage.

Trophies

 * Main Article: List of SSBB trophies

Trophies have retained all the features of Melee's trophy viewing mode, and players now have the ability 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

An item is an object that appears on stage that characters can use or throw. Items are a large part of the gameplay of the Smash Bros. series. They may appear at any time in designated spawning areas during a match.

A player may pick up an item by pressing A while his or her character is near the item and facing it. Both jabs and tilts will pick up items if they are in range. If the character is in mid-air, he or she can only pick up items using the Z button or the L or R button and A.

Pokémon

 * Main article: Poké Ball Pokémon in Super Smash Bros. Brawl

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 missing from Super Smash Bros. Melee, is making his return to the Super Smash Bros. series in Brawl. Meanwhile, Mew and Celebi can now drop valuable items (such as CDs) when released.

Assist Trophies

 * Main article: Assist Trophy

As a new addition to Brawl, the Assist Trophy can be thought of as being a variation of the Poké Ball item releasing characters from various video game franchises rather than Pokémon. Masahiro Sakurai has stated that assist trophies allowed him to include characters that did not make it into the game as playable fighters.

Stage Builder

 * Main Article: Stage Builder

This new feature lets players construct their own stage. Players can also edit the music, background, and size of their customized 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 be submitted to Nintendo, and one player-created stage will be automatically made available to the player every day, one per day.

Music

 * Main article: Music (SSBB)

There appears to be a much larger focus on the musical aspect of Super Smash Bros. Brawl than with the previous game. 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 was.

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.

Masterpieces

 * Main article: Masterpieces

Brawl contains trials of classic games. The player is given a limited period of gameplay and, when time runs out, is urged to buy the full version of the game. Ice Climber, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Kid Icarus, Kirby's Adventure, and Super Metroid are among the trial games. Earthbound/Mother 2 and Fire Emblem 3 are available in the Japanese version, but not other versions.

Reception and sales
Super Smash Bros. Brawl has received positive reviews, including a perfect score from the Japanese magazine Famitsu, a feat obtained only by a handful of other titles. Its four reviewers praised the variety and depth of the single-player content, the unpredictability of Final Smashes, and the dynamic fighting styles of the characters. Thunderbolt Games gave the game 10 out of 10, calling it "a vastly improved entry into the venerable series". Nintendo Power critic Chris Slate also awarded Brawl a perfect score in its March 2008 issue, calling it "one of the very best games that Nintendo has ever produced".

IGN critic Matt Casamassina noted that although Brawl is a "solid fighter," it does have "some issues that need to be acknowledged," including "long loading times" and repetition in Subspace Emissary. IGN gave Brawl a 9.5, praising the game's soundtrack, replay value, and stating that the game is "completely engrossing and wholly entertaining from beginning to end." However, the review did criticize the quality of the graphics and gameplay as being a simple "upgrade from Melee."

In Japan, Brawl sold over 500,000 units on launch day, 820,000 units in its first week, and about 1.2 million units total as of February 18, 2008.