I know I did this with Mass Effect and it might be annoying to some, but apparently some feel that I'm a bit like Ben Croshaw in the fact that even if I like a game, I will still jab at its flaws and shortcomings accurately and indiscriminately. While I agree that I don't make fun of things for no reason at all, and that you'll never hear me say that I don't like something because "It's ghey", but I simply cannot approve of comparing me to this as he is obviously much more awesome than I.

I must note first that I do like Super Smash Bros Brawl. But there are some things about it that I definitely do not like. For instance, I'm going to have to go out on a limb and say that it seems evident that a few of the characters are not balanced and actually lean a little bit towards being overpowered. Among those characters are, in no particular order: Wario, Pit, Wolf, and if used correctly Captain Olimar and Snake. I'm not saying that I can't take them, I'm not having a lot of trouble doing that, but they do seem capable of pulling off some things that they really shouldn't be able to.

Pit's overkill is quite obvious in that he can pretty easily spam the hell out of his arrows, but not that this overshadows his forward-B attack, which can literally trap you against the wall for an eternity as well as reflect projectiles and cancel a good deal of smash moves. I'm not saying that this attack is impervious by any means, but it is a bit much when you can trap someone for a hundred damage just by catching them at the wrong time or if they have the nerve to be a large character such as Bowser, Dedede, or even Robot (R.O.B.).

Wario's inbalance is in the fact that he is a power character with, at worst, mediocre speed. This in itself is no big deal as Ganondorf was classifiably the same way in Melee. The problem, however, is that most of Wario's attacks have a strike range that appear to engulf his entire body. We ourselves have experienced being hit by his forward smash while behind him on multiple occasions. So the fact that he can kill you while you're at 80% damage while even attacking in the wrong direction seems to be cause for concern. Again, it isn't that I haven't found ways around this, it just seems a little broken, and it would appear that I'm not alone on this one.

Wolf isn't horridly strong, per se. In fact I'd say that he's the least of concern in this group. The only real problem with him seems to be that his forward smash's range is a touch on the insane side. Though I know it doesn't compare to the range that Ike's forward-B attack can manage, the fact that Wolf is in general a fairly quick character pushes it up a bit, especially since it is indeed one of his kill moves.

Snake is a bit of an oddball and I'm fairly certain that there are those out there who are surprised that I think he's overpowered. However he certainly has his moments of seeming to be capable of doing asinine maneuvers and kill people while they are at rather low damage. He's slow, but he isn't slow, actually I'd say that if you use the right attacks you can use him at slightly above mediocre speed. While his moveset is very odd in comparison to others, it just takes some getting used to before you literally litter the field in explosives with a time gap of "Ready" and "Go!" Also, do I even have to mention his upward smash? Maybe the fact that it has an insane height or the fact that it can be used as a delay hit? To conclude this, I've seen his forward smash result in Dedede's death, while only raising his damage to 44%, ergo the hit was dealt while Dedede was at less than 44%. The only way to defend Snake's integrity for this is the fact that his forward smash is not particularly easy to set up and hit with, but the fact still remains that it packs a rather obscene amount of power.

Where the hell do I start with Captain Olimar? First I'll say this, the one thing that can almost keep him within reasonable bounderies is the fact that he is a lightweight, so he isn't hard to knock far when you hit him. The only other thing that makes him not seem so bad, for those who don't know how easy it is to manage this aspect of him, is how he uses the Pikmin and how they run out or die during battle leaving him to recover them. You recover them simply by hitting B, and the process is lightning fast, so it really isn't a balancing factor. Anyways, when he does have Pikmin out, his smash attacks have a rather brutal range. The range of his forward smash and his forward-B attacks are variable and depend on the color of Pikmin used for it. The forward smash is fairly powerful, does decent damage, and does not in any way endanger Olimar... even moreso he appears to be damn near perfectly mobile during this attack. His upward smash just the same, more Pikmin to his aid, and highly powerful. His down smash is a force to recon with... suffice it to say that any smash this little guy deals out with Pikmin at his side serves a strength that is easily over the top for the type of character dealing it. I wouldn't describe him as hard to hit but I would definitely say that the stream of Pikmin around him and his use of them inspiring their constant movement certainly seems to make hitting this small target a bit more difficult to focus on.

Past bitching about individual characters, I'm just going to say this plain and simple: fuck Final Smashes. I'm sure that anyone that is familiar with fighting games and could invision it in this one knew that this wasn't going to be that great. Most characters' final smashes completely destroy the flow of gameplay. For instance, Final Smashes like Pikachu's and Sonic's, simply turn the character into a godlike badass, during which time they fly across the field in whatever path they choose causing crazy amounts of damage and usually death to everything they touch, on top of lasting entirely too long. There are very, very few that actually give a feeling of fairness or a degree of skill to use properly. For instance, it is not hard to dodge Snake's Final Smash where he simply fires high powered grenades from a helicopter, though it does give a degree of tension due to the danger that getting hit by one actually poses. Also, Snake's grenade launching activity is actually controlled and is not automatic which begs that the player be wise enough to place the shot grenades well and not waste a lot of time. Even moreso... the grenade launcher must be reloaded after a few shots and will not necessarily guarantee a kill in one hit! Pit's Final Smash is another good example, it just takes focus to dodge it, in other words not impossible to escape but still poses a threat if you fuck up. Metaknight's Final Smash is short range, one hit, and is not that hard to dodge. Dare I say that it actually could require a degree of skill to use Metaknight's Final Smash. So those don't necessarily suck but all the other one's I've seen do. They just interrupt or brutally slaughter the other players for having the poor judgment to exist.

As per usual, there are a few stages that absolutely suck, and others that should've been ditched entirely. For instance, I don't know the name of the stage, but the arena from the first stage of the NES iteration of Donkey Kong. This stage is visually wonderful and masterfully inspired... the problem, however is that it does not make for a good Smash Bros experience. Yes, the retro aspect of it is beautiful and it is always wonderful to see something like this make a triumphant return, but the arrangement of the stage and its hazards actually makes for either whoring out the upper rightmost platform or the very top platform. Other platforms are easily possible to use but it doesn't seem to happen often, in fact, hardly ever it seems. Just figured I'd put that example out there.

One last thought... Adventure mode is absolutely amazing now. Sure it has its flaws as every game will... but overall this is an amazing experience that I whole-heartedly suggest to any Smash Bros fan, nay... any NINTENDO FAN would be incomplete without experiencing this.

That's all I've got for now. Good day.