Growing up, I was a huge fan of giant monster movies, like Godzilla and King Kong. My favorite movie of this type is Destroy All Monsters, which features all of the Toho monsters: Godzilla, Anguiras, Mothra, Rodan, and a whole slew of others. The plot is wacky and totally ridiculous, even by giant monster movie standards, but who cares? Seeing all the fantastic creatures battling it out together in one movie is amazing. Today for Co-Op Casual Friday, we'll look at the gaming equivalent to Destroy All Monsters: Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
Super Smash Brothers Brawl is the third in a series of games stretching back to the hallowed Nintendo 64 system. The focus of the game, as you'd guess from the title, is on beating one another up. Players choose from a huge selection of characters, pick a battle stage, and duke it out. Points are scored when opponents are knocked out, and lost when you are knocked out. When time runs out, a winner is crowned, and you can do it all over again. It is a simple formula, that's easily accessible, and yet there is room for quite a lot of strategy, which makes the game appeal to both the casual gamer, and the more experienced player looking for a challenge.
Adding to the considerable appeal of Super Smash Brothers Brawl is the variety of characters available for you to choose from. After a few hours of play, literally dozens become available, ranging from Nintendo stars like Mario and Link to lesser knowns like Ike from Fire Emblem and Mr. Game and Watch. Each character plays differently, though a few archetypes are repeated with only minor variation. An extensive moveset for each character, coupled with different attributes like speed and jumping ability, give SSBB an almost unheard of level of variety and replayability.
While the Smash Brothers series has always been a great time, it is definitely a competitive game franchise. We have owned each iteration of the series, and while beating the tar out of each other is fun, sometimes even for long periods of time, it often leads to hurt feelings. (By this, I mean my kids are cheaters and use cheap shots all the time, naturally.) Luckily, AI players can be added in, and by teaming up against the computer, any grumpiness and whining can be diminished somewhat (as long as you don't play against Pikachu, or as we know it, the cute yellow ball of electric death).