So.
I finally tried out Smash Bros. Brawl last night. I must say, I'm quite pleased overall. All the old characters have made smooth transitions to the new version and all the new characters are really interesting to play.
However, I have noticed there are some... unbalanced elements to the game.
Just in the few matches I've played, I've noticed that Pit's jump recovery move is surprisingly broken. I played him a few times and used it and I was able to recover from a seemingly impossible situation and then continue to hover well afterward. I'm not saying it's not useful, but hardly any other character prior to this has had a recovery move enable hovering that long. I supposed it comes with the territory (what with Pit have wings and whatnot), but still.
Metaknight has a similar problem. If you're able to get his wings out and get some decent agility out of it, you can make him a completely aerial character that focuses on dive attacks (his Drill Spin really helps with that, too). Considering the fact that there are hardly any characters that can put up a good close aerial fight (with the exception of Zelda), Metaknight definitely has the potential to be abused beyond comparison by people that master his flight capabilities. (Of course, he's the character I clicked with the most as soon as we started playing... --; Sad day.)
Another character I have beef with is Pokémon Trainer (whom I have dubbed Red). Now, I'm not gonna lie, I originally thought Red was going to be a horrible character. Being able to use three Pokémon that all share the same health bar? Somewhat lame. However, upon seeing him in action by a friend, I was proven wrong. Red's pretty solid, being mostly for tactical players. Each Pokémon has their strengths and weaknesses (Slow Charizard is SLOW). But my major hang-up here is Ivysaur. Ivysaur comes complete with some old moves, like Vine Whip, but it also has some moves from the new generation, more specifically Bullet Seed. Bullet Seed is basically Ivysaur's anti-air and it has INFINITE JUGGLE. At least, in one-on-one encounters. It is damn near impossible to get out of if you land right on top of it. The only thing you can really do is either come at it from an angle or hope you eventually take enough damage so that it pops you high enough that it can no longer reach you and you can air recover away. No joke.
There are some other hang-ups I have about the game (which I actually plan on doing a write-up for, so I can post it to My Two Pixels), but that's not to say I don't have my loves about it, too.
Everything is rendered gorgeously on the Wii. When I first saw Red's Charizard come out, I was like "WANT POKéMON MMORPG NAO, PLZ." All of the characters have beautifully done animation and unique movesets that add a lot to what was already pretty solid.
The inclusion of the Smash Ball and Finalé System also provides for an interesting addition. I didn't know how it was going to work, but having it as a moving target is the best route they could have gone. It adds a whole new tactical aspect to battles, since you have to do enough damage to get the Smash when you want it, but also keep opponents away so they don't snipe it from you. It's really sweet, I think.
But I'm rambling on and I want to save some other info for when I actually do the write-up proper. All I will say is that over, I give Brawl the Kei Seal of Approval. Whoo. ^^
