I was disappointed in brawl. They delivered with the new levels and the level creator, they delivered with the new characters, but other than that and a few items/the super smash attack, they didn't do much. It doesn't take advantage of the wii's motion sensors except for the super smash, WFC play can get EXTREMELY laggy, and they need something... new. The level editor is really the only new feature. The rest is just the same old updating.
Didn't do much? The game engine changes are
dramatic. Attacks autocancel while L-cancelling has been removed, characters generally move slower with longer lag frames, most attacks have larger hitboxes and most characters have slower falling speed, ledges are much more forgiving, overall most character's recovery has been greatly increased which means there's a lot more chasing off of ledges to ensure your opponent dies...need I go on?
Maybe I should. Throws have a lesser importance as they go further than in Melee removing the ability to combo, but chaingrabs are of greater prominence as about half the characters have one now. Items now are easier to catch, and float cancelling has been removed for Peach, which significantly gimps her game since turnips are less effective and float cancelling was very useful. The airdodge mechanic has been changed to not add momentum to your character, but now it can be used multiple times without ill effect. There's more lag associated with shielding, slightly reducing its usefulness, but powershielding is now a far more useful tactic. There's definitely an increase in the effectiveness of gimpkills- the easy to grab edges make edgehogging easy and the better recovery means you don't fear chasing your opponent and forcing them off the screen or spiking them down.
The game engine definitely has a more defensive slant. Directional Influence is still very effective and now easier to pull off since the more powerful attacks actually have the characters pause for a second, and hitstun has been removed and airdodging is unlimited. There's a lot of additions to the engine such as Stale Move Negation (the last ten attacks you used have reduced knockback and damage) that adds an entirely new dimension to it as it becomes more effective to save your attacks with high knockback until near the end of the match, and forced trips (downtilts and certain attacks have a chance of tripping your opponents, which you can use to your advantage). Changes to the dodge roll mechanism also enables exploits like Glide Tossing, which is one of the staples of my Peach game.
Add to that a bazillion new levels, a ten hour story mode, CGI cutscenes, 39 characters (counting characters like Shiek as separate), 60 event matches, and way more trophies and game modes than before...
I really couldn't think of ANYTHING else I'd want to add other than a better online mode. Well...I guess having wavedashing back would be cool, but I never used it as Peach's was useless anyway.
Well, as much as I love Smash, I would agree that there really isn't much to it if there aren't other (local) people around to play it with. Not everyone is as fortunate as Praxis to live in an area abound with tournaments and players
I'm curious where you live- if it's anywhere in the US, I'd bet I can find you a group of tournament players, especially if there's a university nearby.
There's a university under an hour's drive from my house with the best player in the state, and the best Link player in the world is a local here
I would completely support the fact that if you're not playing the game with anyone its not that fun. So...find someone to play with!
Overall the characters seem more balanced this time round. I could only play as 5 or so characters in Melee and enjoy it, whereas it's the other way around in Brawl.
Yeah, I agree. In Melee there was about five characters that were really good, and everyone else was pretty terrible.
In Brawl I have fun with the vast majority of characters. I play almost all of them. The only one I can't get into is Wario...
Although from a competitive perspective, Brawl's got two characters that are completely overpowered, and about four characters that are completely useless- everything else is pretty well balanced in between. Compared to Melee, where you had to play Fox-Falco-Marth-Shiek in tournaments or you lose.
