Super Smash Bros Brawl site goes live

[Spanky The Dolphin]

Unlocked Luigi and Snake through brawls today.

And oh my God, 75m is one of the best stages ever.

[Cycloneman]

You guys are still unlocking characters? Jeez. I unlocked them like yesterday. You can get them all in under two and a half hours if you do this:
• Start a special brawl game, select "Stamina".
• Pick a character (I found Fox to be pretty good - you just shoot his pistol on a stage where you're directly across from the enemy, like Wario Ware or Final Destination).
• Add an AI, set it's HP to 1.
• Start a game, kill the enemy.

Repeat that last step 450 times (or less, if you've already played a few vs matches).

Anyways, I love the Pirate Ship stage you get with Toon Link. Not much is more satisfying than tricking your foe into standing beneath the ship after it runs aground, and then it starts moving and WHAM, he's dead.

Toon Link's side smash really sucks (it pushes the enemy about zero inches), but if you hit the c-stick in the opposite direction of your side smash immediately afterwards, he'll do another one that actually pushes the opponent.

Does anyone know what those pieces of paper that occasionally fall from the sky are?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Does anyone know what those pieces of paper that occasionally fall from the sky are?

Stickers. You apply them to the base of a character in Adventure Mode to give them bonuses.

[Covenant]

And oh my god I have never heard the phrase "Quit being gay" or "You're such a fag" so many times in one day. And it kind of got weird considering that one of the guys we were playing with was gay.

Anyone who has played me in things or seen the game mod I did knows I'm extremely critical about balance and really anal about unfair payoffs for certain methods of play over others. But despite that, I'm really not seeing imbalances in Smash so far. There's obviously some characters who are a bitch to play with, and some who are idiot-proof (like Ike, that fucking lameass!), but there seem to be good points to ANY character to the degree that they're playable and none so far that are good to the point of insanity... even if some are powerful in an obvious, easy to grasp way, and others are a bit more deceptive.

My little brother who bought the game actually attended the Gamespot's smash tourney they had at midnight and won, so now he's headed onto the next tier. Therefore I can say that I'm playing against someone who is at least minorly more stressful of bad behavior than your joe average player. And I can't find any characters I feel are unfair, even if there are still tactics which are unavoidable and unfortunate (like repeatedly air-juggling someone until death).

I've played as nearly all the characters--the first day I played on Random. Later I started gravitating towards a smaller selection of characters, and I'm primarily attempting to learn how to play well with Bowser (if it can be done--he's much better but still problematic), Dedede (without abusing the throw too much) and Metaknight. I'm a longtime Kirby fan, since the first game, so Dedede is a welcome sight, and playing as Metaknight is fun.

It's also really aggrivating for the other player. My tournament winning brother was having a lot of trouble against my Metaknight, and I suffer from a great deal of aggression problems in my playstyle--something that Metaknight works relatively well with.

I do have a question though--how does Metaknight finish someone off? I can survive a suprisingly long time but it's hard to finish someone off. As Bowser it's simple--survive and then hit him hard with something. With Metaknight, the smashes seem ineffectual except for the forward one. As it stands I can't imagine anyone feeling that he's unfair, unless they don't know how to sneak a few hits in.

Speaking of deceptive strength, those fucking Ice Climbers he loves to play with are nuts. He does this thing where he grabs me with one climber and then charges a forward smash with the other. Very hard to avoid. A single ice climber is still as strong as a normal character, so that really, really sucks.

[Darth Yoshi]

You're going to have to master Meteor Smashes, if Meta-Knight doesn't have much knockback. Edge guard someone until he uses up all his jump, then send him Meteor Smash him. Or better yet, footstool jump finishes. Speaking of which, does anyone know if a footstool jump gives you your second jump back?

[Covenant]

You're going to have to master Meteor Smashes, if Meta-Knight doesn't have much knockback. Edge guard someone until he uses up all his jump, then send him Meteor Smash him. Or better yet, footstool jump finishes. Speaking of which, does anyone know if a footstool jump gives you your second jump back?

Knockback isn't really the issue as much as you might think--several of his moves have a decent knockback, but they're very low damage so the enemy doesn't quite get offscreen vertically and doesn't quite die off to the right or left. He's got a good air chase since he can fly upwards while slashing, which can tip someone off the top of the map, but he's an odd guy overall. Short range, low damage, moderate knockback--and extremely light.

I haven't been able to find any meteor smashes or spikes for metaknight at all though. His ariel down-a actually slaps them horizontally and his other directionals do as well. His ariel B moves are all dangerous and weak--and the one of arguable usefulness is the up-B shuttle loop, which sends people vertical and not down. A footstool hop is a scary thing to do, but it looks like the only option. I get twitchy when I have to go racing off after people to try to stomp on their head--Metaknight gets airjuggled fairly easily (he has suprisingly poor horizontal float) and going down for a stomp-hop opens you up to being smacked with someone's up-a recovery.

Even so, most of the time the enemy is far above you and to the side rather than merely down low. A low enemy is easier to handle than one that's up and over, since metaknight's smash-up is extremely bad (the first two strikes do about 3 damage and no knockback, the third is the killing strike, and often people will slip out or dodge before it lands) and his air game is predictable. He does best as a low altitude raider, from what I've seen. That's a big problem, since I'll get people to about 170 before I can successfully put them to bed--something that's not an issue for Kirby or Pikachu nearly anyone else--is trying to do a low-percent kill so you can make up for an unlucky dodge or come back from being teamed up on. The general consensus is that he's extremely hard to KO with, compared to others--but at least his side smash can KO, even if it's range and hitbox leave much to be desired.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

You guys are still unlocking characters? Jeez. I unlocked them like yesterday. You can get them all in under two and a half hours if you do this:
• Start a special brawl game, select "Stamina".
• Pick a character (I found Fox to be pretty good - you just shoot his pistol on a stage where you're directly across from the enemy, like Wario Ware or Final Destination).
• Add an AI, set it's HP to 1.
• Start a game, kill the enemy.

Repeat that last step 450 times (or less, if you've already played a few vs matches).

It might be the fastest way to unlock all characters, but hitting 'start' for 2 1/2 hours isn't really my idea of fun, and I'm mainly playing to have fun with it and improve my skills, since I'm brand-new to the series. Getting characters unlocked along the way is kind of bonus, and it doesn't really take that long with one-minute matches.

Plus I've been occasionally aiming to unlock specific aspects, like stages and music.

[ArmorPierce]

So what is the best way to play the game? With a gamecube controller, nunchuck wii controller, or wii classical controller? I tried playing with the classic controller and I didn't enjoy playing it at all. My brother broke all our gamecube controllers by spilling shit in it and then attempting to fix it so if that's the best way I'd have to buy new gamecube controllers.

[DarkSilver]

you can find some decent GC controllers over at Gamestop, usually.

I liked playing it, the short time that I did anyway, with the Wiimote and nunchuck. the controls are pretty simple on the layout, and allows you a bit of freedom.

[Covenant]

If you're not havin' any GC controllers left, just use the wiimote setup. It's pretty slick, and if you buy more wiimotes you can use them for other games too, which is ideal.

[Mad]

I've found that the remote and nunchuk works pretty well after getting used to it, though it does take some time. (Expect accidental deaths trying to remember where the jump or B button is for the first few rounds.)

I just had to disable the "tap jump" (tapping up on the control stick to jump) because I accidentally make an unwanted double jump too often using that when using the wiichuk control (but I was going to turn that off anyway, since I didn't care for it in the previous games).

[Schuyler Colfax]

I was able to get used to using the wiimote & nunchuck pretty quickly. It felt weird at first but, you'll get the hang of it and when you do it is really fun.

[Covenant]

I'm having an extremely hard time trying to find a character that befits my unique playstyle. Which is to say I'm a hate-fueled aggression engine and I enjoy few things as much as rushing in to unleash some destruction, and Brawl (similar to melee) rewards defense, dancing around, and avoidance moreso than putting the pressure on people.

So far it seems like Metaknight and Bowser are the most aggression-friendly characters, rewarding defensively play much less than pressure. Bowser's klaw is huge for punishing defense (aerial grab) and metaknight attacks so fast that he nearly always wins a knifefight (but his low range and damage means a level-headed opponent can kill him).

Dedede is pretty good but the chain-grab puts me off, I'm always hesitant to choose a character who could be called unfairly good. Ganon and Snake are also possibilities because of their mobility and strength (with Snake playing a different type of push-play by goading people into traps) but I wanted to get some feedback.

[Praxis]

You guys are still unlocking characters? Jeez. I unlocked them like yesterday. You can get them all in under two and a half hours if you do this:
• Start a special brawl game, select "Stamina".
• Pick a character (I found Fox to be pretty good - you just shoot his pistol on a stage where you're directly across from the enemy, like Wario Ware or Final Destination).
• Add an AI, set it's HP to 1.
• Start a game, kill the enemy.

Repeat that last step 450 times (or less, if you've already played a few vs matches).

Wow, that's a lot of work. Easier solution. Select stamina, set HP to 1, and turn on flowers- the AI dies INSTANTLY. Change the channel and keep hitting start on the Wii remote.

Regardless, some of us actually ENJOY earning the characters. I'm not using any cheap tricks

I'm having an extremely hard time trying to find a character that befits my unique playstyle. Which is to say I'm a hate-fueled aggression engine and I enjoy few things as much as rushing in to unleash some destruction, and Brawl (similar to melee) rewards defense, dancing around, and avoidance moreso than putting the pressure on people.

So far it seems like Metaknight and Bowser are the most aggression-friendly characters, rewarding defensively play much less than pressure. Bowser's klaw is huge for punishing defense (aerial grab) and metaknight attacks so fast that he nearly always wins a knifefight (but his low range and damage means a level-headed opponent can kill him).

Dedede is pretty good but the chain-grab puts me off, I'm always hesitant to choose a character who could be called unfairly good. Ganon and Snake are also possibilities because of their mobility and strength (with Snake playing a different type of push-play by goading people into traps) but I wanted to get some feedback.

Metaknight is really good for aerial offense...I rather like Toon Link though.

I'm finding myself rather frustrated because due to all my strategy-developing time I am really GOOD at Peach, but I don't enjoy playing her because I have more fun when I'm ridiculously aggressive (knocking someone off the ledge and chasing them down while beating on them, something that Peach can't do) and with Peach I can't do that. So while I'm better with Peach than any other character, I have a lot more fun with Ike, Marth, and Toon Link.

Ike has a few really nice tricks. Firstly, his back air is much faster than any other attack he has and has a long reach. So running at someone, then jerking the stick around to turn around, jumping then jerking the stick back towards the opponent and attacking all in one fell swoop works really well. It sounds difficult, but it's become second nature with practice.

It looks like this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2utAk0xhaf4

REALLY mean attack, people never see it coming because Ike can't attack forward in that fashion.

Another thing that's fun with Ike is to grab someone, toss them off a ledge, and immediately jump out and down-A on them. Sends them straight down and instantly kills almost anyone, including a heavyweight like Bowser and Dedede (in fact it's much easier to hit these).

Toon Link, well, he's just vicious. He's got sweeping sword moves similar to MetaKnight in the air that can be chained really easily.

I've got a couple matches in here starting from 1:58 against a Toon Link player (this was last month, before I got Brawl, playing on the japanese import copy). Watch the last 30 seconds to watch a good Toon Link player slice me up.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=smvAP16RCD0

[Covenant]

Blargh, Praxis! I hates me them Links and Ikes! I don't want to play one of those dorks--I wish that Metaknight or Bowser or someone was as good as Ike, as then I'd be a happy camper, but alas it is not so. Ike is played by half of the online crowd, and extremely common overall, and Link is just a ridiculous person. I hate fighting him, and wouldn't wish him on an enemy. I really would like if Metaknight played similarly to a Link or Marth, but I'm just not seeing it at the moment. Sadly, it seems like there's a big disconnect--still--between the characters I enjoy and the 'good' ones. Metaknight should, really, be a good character. He SHOULD be. I'm sure there's some methodolgy to getting him to play more badassy, but I haven't gotten it yet. I'm currently experimenting with throwing grabs into Metaknight's game using the shieldcanceled dash grabs that Dedede uses for chaingrabs, but his grab range is so short that it's not easy to do. However, grabs are nearly essential for getting people out of shieldspam, which is a big feat for aggressive players to do!

I do like Kirby though. His drillkick is back in action, not as well as in the first game, but it does spike somewhat and he can certainly chase people off the edge like I love to do.

[Praxis]

When you're talking about Link, are you talking about the normal one or Toon? Toon Link plays VERY different. I dislike Link, but love Toon, because his aerials are very similar to Metaknight except he actually has kill moves


I just beat Subspace Emissary today with a friend. The co-op is great and the last few hours of the game are utterly EPIC- but the last stage is pure evil. Ugh.

I played with Yoshi for the first time on Brawl today against an Ike-playing friend. I recorded it, will have to put it on YouTube. I started out getting owned and then started figuring out moves and by the end I was comboing him off a cliff and finishing with a meteor-smash straight down and making it back up with a jump. I was actually EXTREMELY impressed with Yoshi.

[Covenant]

I'm talking about both Links in general--I like how Toon Link plays as a fighter, but I'm saying I don't really like the Zelda games overall, so I'm really uninterested in playing with them as brawlers. Celda's a really good fighter, but I'm hoping to find equally redeeming qualities in someone intersting's playstyle so that I can combine the "Do Well With" and "Enjoy Playing As" catagories. Samus, for example, is a character I absolutely goddamn love. I am a huge Metroid fan. But as a fighter she seems totally at odds with my aggressive playstyle. I don't really want to just hang back and steal kills, afterall.

Ideally, I'd be able to play a character who I don't dislike as a character and who feels right as a fighter. Imagine if Metaknight played the way Toon Link did? That'd be fantastic. Or if Samus fought like a 2-ton Powersuited Amazon instead of some kind of slow-motion piece of artillery. Metaknight is certainly a contender for the "good and fun" catagory though, along with Bowser 2.0. I was actually doing some chaingrabs with Metaknight, which is a funny thing, you normally wouldn't consider him a grappler, but he can actually get a guy from zero to 33 percent by chaining three downgrabs together (no wall needed) if you do a fast walk and snatch them as they bounce off the ground. The knockback changes greatly as the damage approaches 50 though, so it starts to get hard to land and I've never done more than 3 in a row. Dedede can chaingrab like a mofo but it's almost ridiculous what he can do, and without it he's kinda a scrub so I feel bad playing as him at the moment. I love to throw people, but it doesn't seem particularly heroic or skillful to abuse such a crazy balance oversight.

Also messing with a way to make him do a 17 point set of swipes by chaining a ftilt from his dtilt. You can actually make him ftilt while crouching, so that makes that interesting combo possible. Not much damage, but two of those are as good as three filt combos.

I actually enjoyed the last stage of Subspace Emissary. It reminded me of the Arena from Kirby Superstar. I played it on Intense with a stickered-up Kirby, Pikachu, Metaknight, Bowser team (in that order) and tore it to shreds. Bowser is obviously the anchor, and did his job admirably.

[Praxis]

Yeah, I'm actually very good with Samus as I practice constantly against a friend who mains as Samus, but she's not that FUN to play. She's a very good defensive player, dropping bombs everywhere to cause opponents to flinch during attacks and then firing missles into the explosion clouds.

Am I the only one that could really tell that Subspace Emissary was written by the writer who did Kingdom Hearts? That whole last stages screamed "Kingdom Hearts". Entering the heart of the darkness, which is a dark purple world, and at the center you fight through corrupted versions of areas you visited through the rest of the game, and then ascend a staircase into the darkness leading to a platform in the middle of nothing where you fight a boss?

It's almost identical.

Oh, that last boss fight was amazing. It was a nightmare in co-op, every time he used that shockwave move that kills everything on the screen at least one of us died...

[Qwerty 42]

Half the fun for me so far has been tinkering with My Music. They really did an outstanding job.

So far, my top seeded songs on each level:

Battlefield- Menu (Super Smash Bros. Melee)
Final Destination- Final Destination (though I did think it was great they put in the credit music from the first game)
Delfino Plaza- Delfino Plaza
Luigi's Mansion- Luigi's Mansion Theme (but check out the Tetris theme!)
Mushroomy Kingdom (above ground)- Gritzy Desert
Mushroomy Kingdom (below ground)- Underground Theme (Super Mario Bros.)
Mario Circuit- Mario Circuit
Rumble Falls- Battle for Storm Hill
Bridge of Eldin- Main Theme (The Legend of Zelda)
Pirate Ship- Dragon Roost Island (honorable mention to Gerudo Valley, but the Dragon Roost Island theme is amazing)
Norfair- Ending (Metroid) (What in the world was up with Main Theme (Metroid)?)
Frigate Orpheon- Vs. Ridley
Yoshi's Island- Obstacle Course
Halberd- Gourmet Race
Lylat Cruise- Space Armada and Space Battleground are tied for me
Pokemon Stadium 2- Pokemon Main Theme
Spear Pillar- Dialga/ Palkia Battle at Spear Pillar
Port Town Aero Dive- Climb Up! And Get the Last Chance!
Castle Siege- Ike's Theme
WarioWare, Inc.- Mona Pizza's Song (JP) (There's something delightful about someone singing at me about pizza in a language I don't understand on a stage I don't really understand either)
Distant Planet- World Map (Pikmin 2) (Honorable mention to Environmental Noises though)
Smashville- Go K.K. Rider! (Who would have thought that one of the most epic pieces in the game would come on the Animal Crossing stage?)
Summit- Shin Onigashima (the heavy metal on the Ice Climbers stage is hysterical)
Skyworld- Skyworld
75 m- Donkey Kong
Mario Bros.- Famicom Medley
Flat Zone 2- Flat Zone 2 (cheers to whoever arranged this thing of beauty)
Pictochat- Dr. Mario (Melee) (this stage's music all sucks anyway, why couldn't THIS one have Shin Onigashima?)
Shadow Moses Island- MGS4~ Theme of Love~ Super Smash Bros. Brawl Version (the music here is fantastic all told, but Theme of Love is head and shoulders above the rest)
Green Hill Zone- Emerald Hill Zone (I grew up on a steady diet of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, so this really took me back)
Temple- Great Temple/ Temple and Temple (Melee) are tied
Yoshi's Island- Yoshi's Island (Melee)
Jungle Japes- Jungle Japes (Melee)
Onett- Mother (Melee)
Corneria- Corneria (Melee)
Rainbow Cruise- Rainbow Cruise (Melee)
Green Greens- Green Greens (Melee)
Big Blue- Big Blue (Melee)
Brinstar- Brinstar (Melee)
Pokemon Stadium- Pokemon Stadium (Melee) and Battle Theme (Melee) are tied
Menu- Menu 1

Does anyone know how to unlock Tunnel Scene or the Doom Dragon Theme?

[Darth Yoshi]

I would say use the gold hammers you've undoubtedly been saving up.

EDIT: spelling.

[DPDarkPrimus]

How do you apply your custom control settings to your WFC games or group matches? Hell, even in Classic Solo mode it doesn't seem to use my settings.

[Mad]

How do you apply your custom control settings to your WFC games or group matches? Hell, even in Classic Solo mode it doesn't seem to use my settings.

When you created your custom control settings, you set them under a named profile. Whenever you are at the character select screen, click on the pencil on the lower-right corner of the name box, and select your name. Your name will appear above you in matches instead of "P1" (or your number).

If you switch game modes, you'll have to re-select your name.

[DPDarkPrimus]

Straight-forward enough. Thanks.

[Ryushikaze]

Am I the only one that could really tell that Subspace Emissary was written by the writer who did Kingdom Hearts? That whole last stages screamed "Kingdom Hearts". Entering the heart of the darkness, which is a dark purple world, and at the center you fight through corrupted versions of areas you visited through the rest of the game, and then ascend a staircase into the darkness leading to a platform in the middle of nothing where you fight a boss?

It's almost identical.

Oh, that last boss fight was amazing. It was a nightmare in co-op, every time he used that shockwave move that kills everything on the screen at least one of us died...

Yeah, I knew about it before I played the game, but SSE definitely has a very KH'y feel. It doesn't help that half of the time when people saw me playing as Pit, they looked and asked "Sora?"

As for Taby's Shockwave move, repreated airdodging seems to be the only reliable way to make it out of that one alive, and I've only managed to do it once in a blue moon.

[DPDarkPrimus]

To avoid the shockwave o' doom, you have to do a sidestep dodge (Z+down on the remote/chuk) three times, timed to dodge the shockwaves.

I've only dodged all three once, but I've dodged at least one of them multiple times.