Yesterday as I was on my way to my History of Rock Music course, I passed by a table set up on the West Mall. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a big cardboard game case for
Super Smash Bros. Brawl, just like you see in the stores. Without hesitation, I maneuvered my way through crowds of moving people to where a small number of people were playing, and sure enough, it was Brawl. Right before my very eyes, people were playing a game that has been highly anticipated for years, and not even released yet, and it should be noted that they were playing with GameCube controllers, and not Wiimotes. It turns out that there is a student organization that is solely devoted to Smash Bros. called
Texas Smash Club that put on the event. Very cool indeed. But, I didn't have a chance to play, as I still had to go to class, but I knew where I was headed once class was over.
SPOILER WARNING
Once I got back to the table, I had to wait a few rounds in order to play. While watching a match in progress at the Pokemon Stadium stage, I noticed that the text that appears on the megatron in the background was in Japanese. That's how people were able to play it here in the U.S., since our relase date is March 9th.
One of the first things that I noticed while watching the match was that players couldn't move through platforms like they could in Smash Bros. Melee. The platforms are solid objects that can't be passed through, so some strategy change is needed. The animations and graphics overall are great. The colors are deep and the animation was smooth. I especially like the animations for Final Smashes. The stage grows darker for the impeding murder that will soon happen. I was able to see Zelda's final smash in action, which is a qucik and powerful arrow of light. Poor Fox caught the end of that one, and he was soon blasted off the stage.
After the fight, I got my chance to play. I chose my usual, Samus, while my opponents chose Sonic, Link, and I forgot who else. I really wanted to play as Zero Suit Samus, so I kept my eye out for the Smash Ball the whole match. The first thing I noticed while fighting was that Samus, in her armor, had been slowed down. I think it's because they want people to notice a difference between armored and Zero Suit Samus. For whatever reason, I felt slow and clunky. Regardless, I fought on until it was only me and Link left. Unfortunately, he got the Smash Ball, but missed with his Final Smash attack. I ended up losing, but it was a pretty cool experience to play Brawl before the majority of the country had a chance to play it.
