Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii: Controllers, Modes and Reviews

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the third game in Nintendo’s crossover fighting series, released for the Wii in 2008. Sora Ltd. developed it, Nintendo published it, and Metacritic prints a score of 93 out of 100.

Overview

Brawl was announced by Satoru Iwata at a pre-E3 2005 press conference, and Masahiro Sakurai agreed at Iwata’s request to direct again. It was the first game in the series not made mainly by HAL Laboratory, and the first to include fighters from outside Nintendo, with stages such as a Metal Gear Solid-inspired Shadow Moses Island to match.

Development began in October 2005 and slipped. Nintendo had announced 3 December 2007 for the Americas, then Iwata said in October 2007 that the team needed more time.

How it plays

As in earlier games, damage shows as a percentage from 0 to 999 instead of a health bar, and the higher it climbs, the farther a hit sends a character. Knock an opponent past the stage edge to win a life, point or coin. Five difficulty levels run from Easy to Intense. The game has 41 stages, 29 open from the start, and Stage Builder lets players design their own and send them through Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

The Subspace Emissary is the new single-player mode, a side-scrolling beat-em-up with a plot. Classic, All-Star, Boss Battles, 41 Events and a Stadium of minigames such as Target Smash and the Home-Run Contest fill the rest. Sakurai has said he considered Miis as fighters but worried about online abuse.

Wikipedia lists four ways to control it: the Wii Remote alone, the Wii Remote with Nunchuk, the Classic Controller and the GameCube controller. Sakurai told IGN in 2006 that heavy motion sensing could get in the way of the game.

Release and credits

Japan had the game in late January 2008, with the Wikipedia infobox saying 30 January and the article’s first paragraph 31 January. North America received it on 9 March 2008, Australia on 26 June and Europe on 27 June. Metacritic lists the US date and a T rating.

Reception

Metacritic’s aggregate is 93 out of 100 across 81 reviews. Famitsu gave a perfect score, and Chris Slate of Nintendo Power, also awarding top marks, called it one of the best games Nintendo had produced. GameSpot’s Lark Anderson found the controls accessible to beginners yet still appealing to veterans.

Not all was praised. Matt Casamassina of IGN pointed to long loading times and uninspired enemies in the Subspace Emissary, and GameSpy compared the visuals to GameCube quality. NGamer’s Matthew Castle wrote that the series risked growing too familiar. In the United States the game sold 1.4 million copies in its first week, which Nintendo called its fastest start there, and 13.32 million worldwide by 31 March 2020.

Can you still play it?

A Wii or a Wii U in Wii Mode will read the disc. Two limits matter here. The Wii U does not support GameCube controllers, so a party of four there needs Wii Remotes, Nunchuks or Classic Controllers, and Wii Mode needs a Sensor Bar for most software. And the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection ended after 20 May 2014, so online matches no longer exist through Nintendo.

The disc is not a Wii Shop Channel product, so the January 2019 closure does not affect it.