Upon being one of the first to play smash brawl on its midnight release, I would have to say that this game surpasses Super Smash Bros. Melee in almost every aspect. Just about every character from the previous game seem to be easier to control as well as pull off stunning moves. Ness’s PK bomb (green thing from smash) is now faster and more devastating. Peach’s upward aerial is more useful than before and now her attacks have some aspects of electricity and knockback.
Also, there are about 3 more added features to gameplay. One can now quickly throw an enemy by running towards him or her and jerk the joystick/controller in the opposite direction to throw them out of the way. Plus, some characters can cling onto wall or perform wall jumps (Smash Melee had very few places for wall jumps and were difficult to pull off in the middle of the game).
Although the aerial dodge is not new, it has significantly been modified so that one can do multiple aerial dodges, continue on with an attack chain without the invincibility and lack of executing moves thereafter the dodge. Also, the movement from the dodge has been reduced to zero, thus eliminating wave dashing.
However, there are a few elements of the game that really need to be changed. First of all, the in-game voices are horrible. Seriously, all the English dubbers for some of these characters have the worst catch phrases. Also, the announcer is very monotone and unenthusiastic in contrast to Smash Bros. Melee.
Another disappointment for Brawl is the fact that most of these unlockable characters are rather too easy to unlock for an average gamer. Also, I felt that Smash Melee had more characters to unlock than this game. In addition to fueling the fire, the regular storyline levels are too predictable since the opponents are paired with certain characters and are rarely randomized. Plus, savefiles cannot be backed up onto another data storage device in fear that people will share it with each other only to have the 100% complete file without any effort.
Hopefully, Nintendo will offer the option for Japanese voices and better announcer (like the announcers from Unreal Tournament 2004 such as Sexy Announcer). In fact, Nintendo can make this an even better game by steadily adding installments of new trophies, features, costumes, official stages, and actually allowing players use their custom-made maps online.
