case 009 - prince of altea

Okay. So. BRAWL.

Bought it the day it came out. Initially, I wasn't really looking forward to BRAWL. I bought it because I knew my friends were grabbing it, and we would be able to play online. I played the really old Super Smash Bros game that came out for N64, and I liked it okay. But it wasn't like I'd die for it, or anything.

When it comes to fighting games, I'm usually okay. All the old fighting games, like Street Fighter (when things were in 2D way back in the day) were a lot of fun. I didn't learn combos or tricks. I just button smashed. And I got along fine.

So, back to Smash Bros... Yes, lots of button smashing involved. On the old game, I primarily used... Man. I think Jigglypuff? I liked using her because she could float. But I don't remember much about it, and I never played Melee.

So BRAWL comes out, and it just... sits there for a while. Unopened. Hanging out by my wii. Finally, my friend comes over a few days after I get it, and we sit down and hack away at it. We started off just brawling back and forth, and then moved onto the Subspace Emissary/story mode. It took over 10 hours to go through that mode, but we did it together.

And you know what? It was a ton of fun. The graphics are astounding, and the button moves reasonable. The story was great, and helped me learn a lot about the characters. (I've never played a zelda game, or metal gear, or metroid...) And it was a looooot of work, but I'm so glad we did it. I should also mention that we played using the classic controllers. I have absolutely no idea how someone could play a game like that with the wiimote and nunchuk. Perhaps, someday, I'll experiment.

I was also introduced to this great dude named Marth. ...I'm going to do my best NOT to be an obnoxious fangirl about this, but I adore him. For the next few weeks, I spent my days doing research about this wonderful (not real) person. Watched the old Fire Emblem anime, learned about the old Fire Emblem game (and some of the newer ones, too). Yeah. I am pretty obsessed with him now.

I use Marth a lot when battling. He's pretty lightweight, and can be hard to control, but his attacks are great (and who doesn't like listening to Hikaru Midorikawa being adorable?). I can control Ike a lot better and tend to use him more when brawling online. His attacks are devastating, but he's slow. And heavy. He drops like a rock and doesn't really have any sort of... float, or something to keep him from going over the edge (I'll often make the mistake of pressing up+B, because that's how I get Marth and other people back to a platform. But when you do that as Ike............ He just falls down faster. Oops...)

I also use Pit and Lucario most often, after Ike and Marth. Pit is great, but if I move him to an item, sometimes he'll go past it, because he moves really far when he steps. So I'll turn around and try to get it again, but keep going over it. By that time, someone else has already gotten the item! Lucario's pretty dang sweet, but not too powerful. So everyone has their pros and cons. You can read about those anywhere. I'm not saying anything new.

When playing by myself, I love doing the target smash. I'm not sure why, but I play with it a lot and really like it. But I really have fun battling with my friends online. I have beaten the classic mode with both Marth and Ike (on easy), and my friend beat it with Pit. I love the trophies! I hope Nintendo actually makes them, because I would so collect them.

I adore the soundtrack. That main theme gets stuck in your head. I finally downloaded the full OST the other day. Good stuff.

So, what did you learn from this post? Here is the answer: Trey loves Marth. The end.

Also, I'm way too excited at the thought of the old Fire Emblem game coming out for the DS. DO WANT. HOORAY MARTH. IN MY HANDS. That probably won't be out for a while, but I'm going to grab it when it does.

On that note, I have come to the conclusion that BRAWL was one of the best investments I have ever made. Yes.