Why I'm such a Brawl fanboy.

Kreeeee

Kreeeee

Kreeeee

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A lot of OcUKers (and Europeans in general) don't "get" brawl and view it as a kids game while in Japan and America it's is incredibly popular for tournament play. Hopefully this guys words and game mechanics videos can help get across to some of you the depth of Brawl (He only covers the very basic game mechanics though) and although you're welcome to still hate the game I hope you can appreciate the finer details behind it's mechanics and why I'm addicted to Brawl tournament play.

The author of these videos is the guy who balanced Street Fighter II: HDRemix and he has done a lot of work on game balancing and tournament play analysis on games such as the SF series, Brawl and the infamous StarCraft.

CLICK FOR ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Sirlin.net said:
I made this series of ten short tutorial videos for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. They appear on the official Nintendo Channel accessible through your Wii, on Nintendo's website, and below from YouTube. Nintendo asked me to explain the game to new players in a way that shows them there is more going on than they might think. Remember, these videos are for new players, not for tournament champions and they're intended to help the Smash scene grow.

Smash Bros. sells well in the US and in Japan, but struggles more in Europe. It sells more in both the US and Japan, while the perception in Eurpose is that it's "that kids game with the Mario Kart characters." A strange and ironic statement considering that the "Mario Kart characters" aren't even originally from Mario Kart, but that game sells well in Europe so it's a point of reference for many. Maybe my videos and the reputation of my name will help increase the scene in Europe. (Note to anrgy commenters: this information is from Nintendo, not from me. The idea that my name as an expert on competitive games might help in this situation is from Nintendo, not from me, and that's why they contacted me.)

Special thanks to David "Scamp" Cantrell and Cedric "Ceirnian" Qualls for gameplay advice, Rich "FMJaguar" DeLauder for editing and secretly keeping sirlin.net working, and Mike "Bocci" Boccieri for his technical wizardry with video capture.

As more of the videos become available on youtube, I'll post them all below. If you're interested in these videos, you might try that new "share article" link below, for digg or one of those new-fangled link-swapping sites.

--Sirlin
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Hey man, you don't have to try and justify your love for what is essentially a pretty dull rehash and rerelease of a Gamecube game. I wish I was kidding but I honestly can't see the distinction between Melee and Brawl. A large part of why the game gets so much flak is that it's essentially one giant cynical money-making copy & paste exercise.
 
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Thanks for the post.

I am use to only playing with friend, so some of those moves seem more elite then I am use to.

I think Smash Bros is an excellent game, and is easily accessable. Its one of those easy to learn, difficult to master type of games.
 
KNiVES said:
Hey man, you don't have to try and justify your love for what is essentially a pretty dull rehash and rerelease of a Gamecube game. I wish I was kidding but I honestly can't see the distinction between Melee and Brawl. A large part of why the game gets so much flak is that it's essentially one giant cynical money-making copy & paste exercise.
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You're funny :p
 
I would like it if it wasn't for the insane amount of crap that happens on screen. Not played Brawl but with Melee I find it really hard to keep track of my character a lot of the time.
 
Well I only play in a society and they play 4 player free for all stock. Just an orgy of flashing colour on screen most of the time!
 
Ah, I used to play in the UoB Computer Gaming society but the only decent opposition was one of my flatmates so I just play him instead now :p
 
I understand people play it very competitively but after importing the game I found it incredibly dull after hammering it and trying to get into it. (had to justify importing it and buying the Freeloader of course, I even got import charges :()

Street Fighter tournament matches interest me though, I just don't find Smash Bros as interesting for competitive play.
 
Never seen the appeal of these games. Button-hammering (although I'm sure 'experienced' players never do this) always make me bored.
 
It's a great party game, and is good fun for a while IMO. I don't own it, but can pick up a joypad, select Kirby and kick almost anyones arse into next week.

I think the 'accessibility' it offers is quite appealing, although I aggree with what has been said above in respect to Brawl esentially being the same as Melee.
 
I truly loved Melee, me and my mates spent far too much time having a smoke and playing this into the early hours of the morning.

Then we stopped playing it. Then my mate got brawl and I really haven't touched it too much as it is basically just melee just updated. It's still a great game no doubt, I just overdid melee and as it's more of the same im bored of it before I begin.
 
danza said:
It's a great party game, and is good fun for a while IMO. I don't own it, but can pick up a joypad, select Kirby and kick almost anyones arse into next week.

I think the 'accessibility' it offers is quite appealing, although I aggree with what has been said above in respect to Brawl esentially being the same as Melee.
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Brawl is as different to Melee as SFIV is to SFII, i.e. to casual players it's pretty much the same with flashier graphics.
 
I wanted to like SSB:M... Actually thats not true, I do like SSB:M but my poor brain never quite figured it out, and I never could get anyone else to play it with me, either due to the steriotypes made in the OP or because whilst not good at the game I had enough working knowledge to beat the noobs but not enough working knowledge to explain how I did it (basically I button mashed until something magical happened).

I actually wish this post had been made about 4-5 years ago as I would have:
A) maybe been able to play this game properly
B) taught someone else how to play this game well enough so that we could challenge each other at it and improve due to the competition.

Kreeeee you **** I have been sorting all my stuff out at my parents house since the flood and only yesterday I packed the GC up (with the PS2) and put them in the loft for permanent storage (until I move back home at which time the box was going to go up into my loft)... Now I want to unpack it an practice.
 
I'll whip you at the LAN... if I can even attend :(

Without decent competition or a good online system the genius of Brawl is wasted on a lot of people.
 
I love Brawl. I can't believe I held off buying it for so long, as me and my friends have had so much fun playing it since we got it. Quite possibly the best multiplayer game on the Wii. It also makes a mean drinking game.

I don't think I'll ever really get into 1v1 fighting, as I kind of prefer the random madness of four players and items, and it would be too obvious how every game would go (my mate would always beat me, I'd always beat my housemate, etc), but I'm still learning a lot of handy tips and tricks to it. Even though I had Melee, I never got into it as much as I am with Brawl, as I was usually there just to be a whipping boy for my far superior mates of the time. I need to remember to block/dodge more often for starters.

Fox's final smash is ridiculous though. I know nearly everyones is powerful, but when you look at someone like Zelda or Ike, who actually have to make sure they're near someone to use theirs, and will usually only ever kill one person with it, a giant tank that takes up half the screen, can move about like a person, and is almost guaranteed to kill at least one person is just a tad overpowered by comparison.

Nismo said:
Never seen the appeal of these games. Button-hammering (although I'm sure 'experienced' players never do this) always make me bored.
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I don't think anyone button bashes in Smash Bros, even the beginners. Since all the moves for every character are done by simply holding a direction and pressing one button, there are no difficult combinations to learn, and all you have to do is learn roughly what each move does and you're good to go. My housemate's girlfriend is a good example, as you'd never catch her playing any other kind of fighting game, but she loves Smash Bros, and can actually hold her own in it too.

danza said:
It's a great party game, and is good fun for a while IMO. I don't own it, but can pick up a joypad, select Kirby and kick almost anyones arse into next week.
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You know, I'm so close to learning a decent counter-attack to that down+B move where Kirby turns into a giant weight, and then my god, that damned pink balloon will be dealt with once and for all. :p
 
L0rdMike said:
Brawl is ass for competitive play. You have endless chain throws etc random trips and random attacks.
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Only one character has an endless chain throw and that's only against 4 characters in the game. Even then he's not god-tier as he suck other than his throws.

Trips are a pain but almost all approaches are aerial so not an issue. A lot of scrubs get tripped by the enemies moves and instantly blame it on the random tripping mechanic.

Random attacks?

I think you just suck :p
 
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