Super Smash Bros. Brawl

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Template:Future game

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl logo.
DeveloperUnknown
PublisherNintendo
DesignerMasahiro Sakurai (director)
PlatformWii
Release


[1]
GenreFighting game
ModesSingle player, multiplayer, Online multiplayer

Super Smash Bros. Brawl, known in Japan as Template:Nihongo title, is a fighting game for Nintendo's newest console, Wii. The third iteration of the Super Smash Bros. series, Brawl is the first Super Smash Bros. game that features at least one character from a franchise not owned by Nintendo with the inclusion of Solid Snake from Konami's Metal Gear series. Its first official trailer was first unveiled at E3 2006, while its second official trailer was unveiled at the 2006 Nintendo World Tour. It is currently slated for release in 2007.[3]

Characters

File:Ssbbrawl3.jpg
Left to right: Link, Mario, Zero Suit Samus, Pikachu, Pit, Kirby, and Meta Knight stare at Wario.

The initial introduction of characters included various returning characters from Super Smash Bros. Melee, and some newcomers. The returning characters have been updated and redefined since their last appearance. Some like Mario, Pikachu, and Kirby have been slightly cleaned up, becoming sharper, and more defined. Others like Link and Fox McCloud have taken on designs from other games. Samus Aran has changed the most of all; "under certain conditions", she will remove her Power Suit, taking up the name "Zero Suit Samus". Donning only her Zero Suit, she wields a gun that can transform into a laser whip.

Several newcomers make their appearance in the game as well. Characters from series already represented by the series appear; such as Meta Knight for the Kirby series. Others from new series make their first appearances. Pit, making his first playable appearance since the 1991 Game Boy game Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, and Solid Snake, the main protagonist of Konami’s Metal Gear franchise, and the first third-party character to appear in a Super Smash Bros. game, are included in this.

Stages

File:BattlefieldstageSSBB.jpg
The updated version of the Battlefield Stage

As in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the game introduces new stages and features returning stages, although they are modified from the past games. Many stages will undergo elaborate changes while battles are happening; this includes a cycling day-to-night system given.[4] Battlefield is the first confirmed returning stage that was first seen in Super Smash Bros. New stages include Delfino Plaza from Super Mario Sunshine with a platform that hovers over the island (ala Mute City); the interior and exterior of a gloomy castle; the Halberd, Meta Knight's airship from Kirby Super Star; a Mario Kart course similar to the Figure-8 Circuit from Mario Kart DS; Parthena's Palace in the Sky from Kid Icarus, which include breakable platforms; and a retro based Yoshi's Island course. Stages based around other series represented in the game have also been shown. A Pokémon stadium makes a return as well as a new spaceship stage in outer space that appears to come out of hyperspace and starts to free fall towards a planet. A stage based on Metal Gear Solid was also shown and is being developed by Hideo Kojima.[5]

Items and abilities

File:MuterTruuke.jpg
Mario getting ready to perform his "Final Smash" move, "Mario Finale".

The game introduces the ability to perform character-specific special moves, referred to as "Final Smash" moves. These abilities are used through an item bearing the Smash Bros. symbol, which are called Smash Balls.[6][7]

The trailer shows Mario's, Link's, and Kirby's Final Smash moves. Mario, who is the only one seen in the trailer actually grabbing a Smash Ball, invokes a large, vertically expanding blast of fire known as the "Mario Finale", Link performs a barrage of sword slashes while Mario is trapped between two Triforce symbols, and Kirby uses his Cook ability from Kirby Super Star and Kirby and the Amazing Mirror to boil Mario in a pot. Wario and Samus have also displayed attacks that have unusual amounts of strength (a nuclear fart and a tremendous laser cannon, respectively), and Wario's has been confirmed to be an attack on his profile, though it is unknown if Samus's attack is indeed a Final Smash.

In the Nintendo World trailer, Pikachu, Wario and Snake were shown with the ability to crawl. It is unknown if every character will have this ability as only a few characters had the "wall-jump" technique in Melee.

Also, shooting items have seen an improvement too. While holding a shooting item, such as the Super Scope, you can now run backwards and forwards and even jump while shooting the item.

File:Groudon.jpg
Groudon will damage opposing players if touched.

Several new items are set to appear. The E3 trailer also shows footage of a puppy from Nintendogs attempting to climb the screen, blocking the view of the battle.[6] Although Nintendo has confirmed that this is caused by an item, the actual item was not shown in the trailer.[8] The official website has listed another new item known as the "Gooey Bomb", a bomb that sticks to surfaces and fighters before exploding, but can be transferred to another fighter by passing by them.[9]

Certain items seen in Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee are also set to appear again. For example, the Super Scope[10] item will return. New shooting items, so far, are the Craker Launcher[11]which shoots firecrackers. The player can aim up or down with it. Also, Poké Balls are set to re-appear, with three confirmed Pokémon at this moment: Goldeen, Chikorita, and Groudon, with the latter one being a new addition to the series and the first from the Hoenn region, with the same ability that other legendaries had by hurting fighters by touch, specifically burning others.[12][13]

Music

Over 30 prominent video game composers are contributing to the soundtrack, with many creating new arrangements of classic Nintendo songs. A possibly complete list of the composers involved with the game is posted at the official site.[14]

The main theme for Brawl was revealed in the E3 trailer as the background song, and it was created by the Final Fantasy composer, Nobuo Uematsu. It is unknown whether he will be composing additional tracks (He stated he was only hired to do the main theme, but would enjoy doing more). Additionally, opera singers Ken Nishikiori and Oriko Takahashi have also contributed to the vocal arrangement in this project. Sakurai stated that the game's music will be performed by a full orchestra with vocals in Latin.[15] An arranged version of the main theme with no choir is present in the Nintendo World trailer; the use of this arrangement in the final game is unknown.

In the E3 trailer, an orchestrated version of the game over jingle from Metal Gear Solid plays when Snake appears at the end of the trailer. The music from Super Smash Bros. Melee's Corneria stage is present at the end of the second trailer. It is unknown whether it will be changed or not.

Sakurai has stated that he will post music samples periodically on the official site. 'Menu 1', the score from the Super Smash Bros. Melee menus and character select screen has been remixed and orchestrated to play in the returning Battlefield stage.[16] One of the daily weekday updates contained an arrangement by Masafumi Takada of the ending song from Yoshi's Story.[17]

Development

Masahiro Sakurai, former HAL Laboratories employee and creator of Kirby and the Super Smash Bros. series, returns as the director for the game. Sakurai revealed that at E3, he was called to executive producer Satoru Iwata's room on the top floor of a Los Angeles hotel, and told by Iwata, "We'd like you to be involved in the production of the new Smash Bros., if possible near the level of director".[18] Although originally suggested to be a launch title, an IGN article states that "as of May 2005, the game's development staff consisted of exactly one person," Sakurai himself. Sakurai states that many people who have spent excessive amounts of time playing Super Smash Bros. Melee are being brought in as the development team,[19] and the team will have access to all the original material and tools from the development of Melee. However, actual development of the game never started until late 2005.[20] Sakurai cannot announce the name of the team at this time but refers to them as "The Studio".[19]

The game was conspicuously absent from Nintendo's Wii showing at its 2006 Pre-E3 press conference. The next day, on Wednesday, May 10, 2006, at the After-Hours Press Conference, Nintendo officially revealed the game under the name of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Miyamoto and Sakurai, who were there to make the announcement, hinted that the game could have full compatibility with the GameCube controller. Sakurai said that the reason was because he did not want to "alienate those familiar with the pad." In an interview with IGN, Sakurai said the Wii's motion sensing features might not be included because, "we found that trying to implement too much motion-sensory functionality can get in the way of the game."[6] As far as Wi-Fi play is concerned, Sakurai has confirmed some functionality.[21][6] However, as stated in the Toukouken on the Japanese version of the Smash Bros. website, "there would be many hurdles to cross," and an online ranking system is unlikely to be implemented.[22]

The new trailer shown on November 3 at Nintendo World was later added to the official site.[23] The trailer is slightly modified from the original version: the Japanese text is changed to English, and the suspected Winter Yoshi's Island is no longer seen. The version of the trailer added to the Japanese site keeps the Japanese text, but the suspected Winter Yoshi's Island is once again removed. Also, Sakurai has updated the site to say that it will be a little longer before the game will be playable. During a test play between Sakurai and Hideo Kojima, Kojima stated that the game feels complete and that Nintendo "could put it out right now and it could sell millions of copies."[24] According to the official site, there will be updates every weekday.

Inclusion of characters

For information on the inclusion of Sonic the Hedgehog, see Super Smash Bros. Brawl/Sonic The Hedgehog
File:SSBB Snake.jpg
Solid Snake sneaking up on Link

The inclusion of Konami-created character Solid Snake may seem to conflict with the Super Smash Bros. paradigm — to only include characters from games made by Nintendo and its second parties — but Sakurai said that Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima "practically begged" for Snake to be included in the next Super Smash Bros. game (which, at the time of said "begging," was during the production of Super Smash Bros. Melee, but production of the game was already too far in research and development to make the addition viable). Incidentally, this is not the first time Snake would appear in a crossover fighting game, as he was previously featured as a secret character in DreamMix TV World Fighters.

When questioned about the inclusion of other characters, Shigeru Miyamoto alleged that discussions for possible other third-party characters are underway, but nothing has been confirmed. If a third party character does appear in Brawl, the character must have been on a Nintendo console or handheld. Additionally, the character must originate from a video game (as written in a response to one fan requesting several anime and manga characters). Japanese fans were asked to submit their desired characters and musical themes via a forum on the game's official Japanese site, with some possibly appearing in the game. Likewise, fans from other countries were asked to submit ideas on Nintendo's official forums. [25]

Suggestions were no longer being taken as of June 9 2006. In Toukoken, the portion on the Japanese gaming site chronicling character and music suggestion updates, Sakurai has stated that some of the characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee may not return. He also states that he may not want to put much emphasis on Japan-only characters, but is not opposed to them entirely, noting the success that the Fire Emblem characters enjoyed internationally thanks to their inclusion in Melee. He also said that third party characters will amount to one or two, excluding Snake.[26]

References

Note: As the website recently went through a clearing and updating, the references may no longer be current.

  1. ^ "Australian Smash Brothers page". Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  2. ^ "IGN:Super Smash Bros. Brawl". IGN. Retrieved 2007-04-08.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference release was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Battlefield bio Smashbros.com. URL Accessed May 22, 2007.
  5. ^ http://www.qj.net/Hideo-Kojima-Working-on-Snake-s-SSBB-Stage-/pg/49/aid/60129
  6. ^ a b c d Casamassina, Matt (2006-05-10). "E³ 2006: Super Smash Bros. Brawl". IGN. Retrieved 2006-08-01. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help) Cite error: The named reference "E³ 2006" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  7. ^ "What is a Final Smash?". SmashBros.com. 2007-05-29. Retrieved 2007-05-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "Nintendog picture".
  9. ^ "Gooey Bomb". SmashBros.com. Retrieved 2007-05-24. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  10. ^ "Super Scope and ability". SmashBros.com. Retrieved 2007-05-30. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  11. ^ "Cracker Launcher". SmashBros.com. Retrieved 2007-05-30. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  12. ^ "Poké Balls". SmashBros.com. Retrieved 2007-06-05. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  13. ^ "Groudon". SmashBros.com. Retrieved 2007-06-05. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  14. ^ "The Musicians". SmashBros.com. Retrieved 2007-05-22. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  15. ^ "A Main Theme With Emotion". SmashBros.com. Retrieved 2006-05-25. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  16. ^ "Return of Menu Music". SmashBros.com. Retrieved 2007-05-22. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  17. ^ "Music from Yoshi's Story". SmashBros.com. Retrieved 2007-06-04. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  18. ^ IGN Staff (2005-11-16). "Smash Bros. Revolution Director Revealed". Retrieved 2005-11-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ a b "How This Game Came to be Made (3)".
  20. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (2005-12-05). "Sakurai Elaborates on Smash Bros. Revolution". IGN. Retrieved 2005-12-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  21. ^ Casamassina, Matt (2005-05-17). "E³ 2005: Smash Bros. For Revolution". IGN. Retrieved 2006-05-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ "Toukouken #141-150, Sakurai Talks About Wi-Fi" (in Japanese). Retrieved December 21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ "www.smashbros.com/en/movie/movie02.html". Retrieved 2007-05-23.
  24. ^ "Report: Kojima feels Smash Bros. Brawl "very complete"".
  25. ^ IGN Staff (2006-05-11). "E³ 2006: Fans Asked to Fill Smash Bros. Roster". IGN. Retrieved 2006-05-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  26. ^ "Sakurai reveals new Smash Bros Brawl details". Retrieved 2007-05-23.