Kry Retro-Reviews: Smash Bros Brawl

Super Smash Brothers Brawl was the long awaited and anticipated successor to Super Smash Brothers Melee. However, it was met with a fairly lukewarm reception once the initial hype died down. This is because, despite its many improvements over Melee, Brawl makes some very egregious mistakes. Brawl is the actualization of the phrase “Two steps forward, one step back”.

I am going to just glaze over the single player additions to Brawl because I play only for the multiplayer, and most of it is extraneous fluff to a player like me. Also, the online play is a joke. Epic fail there.

The best thing Brawl did (for me) was fixing wavedashing and other similar exploits that existed in melee. Wavedashing created an artificial, steep learning curve and the top tier of play was defined by it. A few other similar exploits have been toned down, however as a result the game is defined now by the ability to throw ranged attacks ad nauseam. I would have really liked to see more characters have cooldowns on their projectiles. Otherwise the gameplay is still the same thing I’ve loved since the N64 version.

New life was breathed into the game with many additions to the cast. And, along with those, many of the weaker characters in Brawl were given buffs or new abilities. But only a few scant months, and some characters are borderline broken and others relatively weak in comparison. However, the weakest characters stand on their own much better in casual play than in Melee, so props there.

Brawl really feels to me that it could have used more play testing. I understand that balancing some 35 characters is a nightmare, but there are just combos that shouldn’t exist. For example, King Dedede has a chain grab, which can easily infinite bigger characters, and is generally just a cheap, lame technique. Also, Sheik can forward-tilt juggle to 50-60%. A lot of characters will glitch out when holding ‘A’, repeating an infinite weak attack.

Another thing I didn’t enjoy in the transition was the trivialization of recovery and nullifying of edge guarding. Several things have been changed to ruin this: Many of the new characters have crazy recoveries, as well as older characters getting stronger recoveries, the wonky physics engine almost always sends people up and away, making it almost possible to just float back on to the stage, and finally, most characters will ‘snap’ on to a ledge the second they’re in range, instead of being vulnerable.

Brawl’s worst addition is the prevalence of randomness. I am talking about tripping in particular. What a stupid, terrible idea to have a chance to just trip on your ass while fighting. Also, jumping off people’s heads ends up screwing people over on recovery by accident and luck, not skill. And then there are all the new stages, full of random damage. Not only that but the damage is ramped up and has serious knockback and killing potential on some stages. My group of smashers plays with about 6 or 7 stages on and that’s it.

All in all, I still and will always love the Smash Bros series, and none of these flaws are glaring enough to ruin it for me. Eagerly awaiting Super Smash Brothers Brouhaha in 2012!

Kry Reviews: Penny Arcade Adventures: Episode Two

Released 10/29/2008, Episode Two continues where Episode One left off. There are now three gods left to kill (err... three expansions left to sell) in the steampunk, Cthulhu inspired New Arcadia, set in 1920's.

The best parts about the Penny Arcade series, without a doubt, are its humor, setting and immersion. The storyline is wacky and interesting, most of the jokes will get a chuckle or two, and the artists have created a unique world to explore. EP.1 was better in this regard, but EP.2 certainly isn’t bad either.

Combat is good too, though it’s not any different from the first game. It is generally fast paced and interesting, and the interaction from either dropping specials on your opponents or timing blocks keeps you engaged.

The game feels too easy though. On my first play through, I chose difficult; I never died once. One of the new features touted is the addition of an INSANE MODE, but that is locked until you complete the game, and I’m not feeling like another play through for a while. The last boss fight is also completely trivialized. Instead of an epic fight against a giant robot with your three characters, you bring in another giant robot. Sounds cool, except your robot pretty much kicks its ass to hell and back with no more than a few clicks.

What I hated, hated, hated about this game was all the damn backtracking and fetch quests. Halfway through your progress of the Sanitarium, (the first level) you are halted by the secretary, who you need to run three errands for instead of just murdering like every other fool in the building. You also have to gather reagents for Anne-Claire’s science project. Completing both these mandatory quests constantly sends you ping ponging around the three main locales of the game. It felt like I was playing World of Warcraft with a different skin. Though Ep.1 had similar time sinks, they were not presented in as frustrating a manner. I spent more time trying to figure out how to complete these tasks than actually playing the game. The game would have been much better had we simply gone through the levels in a linear fashion, and maybe a couple hours shorter as a result.

So, in conclusion, Ep. 2 continues the same formula of the Penny Arcade series, does nothing to break out to be different, and adds some serious annoyances. But, it’s still an ok game looking past them, if you’re a fan of Penny Arcade. Otherwise it’s really not worth the buy.