Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is an upcoming fighting game for the Wii. It is the third game in the Super Smash Bros. Series, the sequel to Super Smash Bros. and Super Smash Bros. Melee. The game is being developed by Masahiro Sakurai, who also made the last two Super Smash Bros. games. It is currently scheduled for release in the United States of America on December 3rd, 2007.

The game will support Wi-Fi Connection, as revealed in a recent update. See below for more information.

Story
The Subspace Emissary is the adventure mode and story of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. This will be entirely single-player. It has been said that The Subspace Emissary will rely on character development, meaning that it involves the characters' individual backgrounds. Mario and Kirby have just finished a battle, finishing it with a handshake. However, Meta Knight's ship, the Halberd, flies over the main stadium. It drops purple smoke onto the arena, which then turns into a group of strange robotic creatures, named Primid. Then, Princess Peach and Princess Zelda, who were watching the match, run down to assist Mario and Kirby. The Subspace Army will be the main antagonist, led by the Ancient Minister. They drop down a Subspace Bomb, which is activated by the R.O.B.s. The bomb then shows a detonation timer, indicating that the bomb will explode in three minutes. Mario hurries to deactivate it, but is defeated by a giant cannonball that knocks him out of the stadium. Kirby ponders what to do, and notices Peach and Zelda stuck in cages, being held by a Petey Piranha. Petey proceeds to attack Kirby, by swinging the cages at him. Kirby dodges, and starts to weaken the cages with his attacks. However, Kirby soon realizes that he can only save one Princess. This element of choice hints that the story may be altered by the players actions. What happens to the princess who isn't saved is unknown. It isn't known what happens next, but it appeares that Kirby fails to deactivate the bomb, and the stadium is eventually drawn into Subspace.

Meanwhile, in Angel Land, Pit gazes at the stadium, and notices the devastating effects of the Subspace Bomb. He is then called forth by Palutena, who gives him the Staff of Palutena. She sends Pit on a mission to save "This World" from the Subspace Army, and help out the others who are trying to save it. Pit then then hurries off to the edge of Angel Land, and flies down to "This World", to assist in saving the world from the Subspace Army.

In screenshots of The Subspace Emissary, a Hammer Bro. and Bullet Bills were revealed as enemies. An Arwing was also seen being chased by the Halberd. Additionally, Fox can be seen running away from a giant sheep-like creature, and several Primid imitate the moves of Samus and Meta Knight.

Gameplay
A new battle mechanic will be the Final Smash, that is triggered by collecting a Smash Ball. Another new battle mechanic is that players will be able to walk and jump while using projectile-shooting items, like the Super Scope. Some characters have also been seen crawling. However, it is disputable whether all characters have this ability, as only a few were able to perform the Wall Jump in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Additionally, a new technique called the Footstool Jump will be in the game. It allows players to jump on an opposing players head, and spring up by pressing the jump button at the right time. Players will be able to perform Meteor Smashes by doing this as well. The Tether Recovery will be a new tactic in the game. It allows players to grab onto ledges, using chain-like items, such as a Plasma Whip or a Clawshot. Gliding will also be a technique in this game. When used, players will be able to glide across the stage, and be able to control the way they fly. They can direct themselves upwards, or downwards, depending on the Button Combination used. Throughout the game, players will be rewarded with stickers. Like trophies, these items reflect characters, objects, and places that have appeared throughout Nintendo's history. Unlike trophies, however, the items will be much easier to find and are simply pieces of 2D game artwork rather than actual new 3D models. Stickers will be stored in an album and can be used to decorate a screen in an extra mode. Sakurai suggested that screenshots taken from the game may play a role in this mode, implying a special camera mode similar to that found in Melee. While the developer has not confirmed nor denied the existance of trophies in the game, he states "Stickers are easier to get a hold of than trophies." This may indicate their inclusion. Another inclusion is a feature called My Music. Instead of restricting each stage to one music track, with some having an alternate music track, people can now choose which music track they want to play on the stage. For example, on the Delfino Plaza stage, players can choose between the Delfino Plaza theme from Super Mario Sunshine, the Castle Music/Fortress Boss from Super Mario Bros. 3, the Ending/Title Screen of Super Mario World, the main theme to New Super Mario Bros., and many more. Players can set how commonly the track may appear on the stage. To add more music to the collection, the player must collect a CD, which randomly appears across the entire game, in any of the numerous modes of play.

The game will be controlled with one of the four controlling methods: The execution of standard combos has been made easier; the A button does no longer have to be hit repeatedly, it is enough to hold it down for the character to start a combo attack. Players will be able to set their own button configuration rather than have to play with the default configuration. People will be able to type in names, like Tom or John, just like in the last two games. While names were only a gimmick in Super Smash Bros. Melee, they now also save the player's controlling options to avoid selecting the control method again each time.
 * Wii Remote (Turned on its side)
 * Wii Remote & Nunchuk Attachment
 * Wii Classic Controller
 * Nintendo GameCube Controller

Another new feature is the Special Brawl. Using this, players are able to customize the battle themselves. This means they can attach items, set stats, and add appearance differances to all the players, right from the start of the battle, without having to collect the items themselves. The Special Brawl, thus, allows players to try a variety of settings, instead of the settings given on a certain type of battle (as seen in previous Super Smash Bros. games).

Wi-Fi
Recently, Wi-Fi Connection was confirmed to be in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. However, similar to what happened with Mario Strikers Charged, the game tends to slow down and fail a lot more the further the players are. So, playing a game from Japan to America will slow the game down, and cause some problems in the battle. Regardless, it is still capable of connecting overseas. The two modes are With Friends and With Anyone. When played with friends, players use friend codes in order to brawl with each other. They choose an emblem to represent themselves, and are able to send messages to each other in-game, using the Taunt command. Players can send four differant kinds of messages, one for each direction; up, down, left, and right. Results are recorded, like many other Wi-Fi games. However, unlike Super Smash Bros. Melee, which only allowed battles in multiplayer mode, Super Smash Bros. Brawl will allow multiplayer in more than just standard fighting, both with Wi-Fi or local. However, when brawling in the With Anyone setting, players are unable to send messages to each other in-game, and neither can they see the name or details of their opponent. Also, the results of the battle aren't recorded in the With Anyone mode. Interestingly, when the game is loading, or when the players are waiting for other opponents, they can practice the game by attacking the Sandbag from Super Smash Bros. Melee. The other modes of play involved in Wi-Fi haven't been revealed yet.

Confirmed Characters
In the E3 2006 Trailer, the first few characters introduced were the main heroes of Nintendo's most popular series. This includes Mario, Link, Kirby, Pikachu and Samus. The trailer also introduced Pit, Meta Knight, Wario and Zero Suit Samus as new characters. At the end of the trailer, Snake was revealed, acting as the first Third-Party character in the series. In the end of the Nintendo World Trailer, a separate trailer from the aforementioned one, Fox McCloud was revealed as a playable fighter.

Princess Zelda and Bowser were later confirmed on the official website on June 25th and July 3rd, respectively. Donkey Kong appeared in the 15-second E3 2007 clip on July 12th, and his profile was soon after added to the official website. The official site also announced Yoshi as a returning player on July 24th. Ike, a character from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (a game that was released outside of Japan, unlike the original Fire Emblem) appeared on the site on August 1st, and became the first newcomer character to be confirmed since Snake. Princess Peach was seen in a trailer for The Subspace Emissary on August 3rd, and finally confirmed on August 17th, which also showed Peach's new design. On August 13th, the Pokémon Trainer was revealed as a character, and Diddy Kong followed on August 22nd. The Ice Climbers were revealed on September 14th.

There are currently 19 different characters revealed, excluding the three Pokémon used by Pokémon Trainer. Also excluding Zero Suit Samus because she is not a stand alone character.

Speculated Characters

 * Ridley was vaguely hinted, as a music track based on his theme was put on the official website. Although it says Ridley "Boss" Fight which means he could be a boss.
 * Captain Falcon is hinted to return, as Samurai Goroh also appears as an Assist Trophy.
 * Ganondorf was hinted when the Internet Movie Database listed a voice actor for him..
 * Sheik and Ganondorf were said to have been submitted for the game, as stated by gameinformer.com . However, the reliability of this source is disputed.
 * According to Sakurai, discussions for possible additional third-party character additions are underway, but nothing has been confirmed. The amount of third-party characters will amount to 1 or 2, plus Snake, according to Sakurai.
 * A character from the EarthBound series has been vaguely hinted as an item from the EarthBound series has been revealed, the Franklin Badge.
 * A character from the Animal Crossing series has also been vaguely hinted as a stage named Smashville and an item named Pitfall from the Animal Crossing series appeared.

Music
The official Super Smash Bros. Brawl website lists a total of 36 composers to work on music for the game. 


 * A remix of Menu 1 from Super Smash Bros. Melee will be used for the stage Battlefield, which can be heard on the link just above.
 * The official website revealed a track called Yoshi's Story: Ending, which is a remix of the ending music to Yoshi's Story. It might be one of the songs that play on the Yoshi's Island stage.
 * A track from the original Metroid game was also revealed. It is called Metroid: Boss Battle Music, or Ridley's Theme. It is the theme music of when Ridley appears in the Metroid game. It is unknown what Metroid stage it could possibly play on.
 * A medley from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was shown on the official website. It is combination of many music tracks from the said game. It also includes a remix of Saria's Theme, an alternate tune that played on the Great Bay stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Whether this track plays on Bridge of Eldin or not, is unknown, but most likely so, as the My Music feature determines the likelihood of certain songs playing in a stage whether or not it is from the same game the stage itself came from.
 * A Star Fox music track was revealed, titled Star Fox: Space Armada . It is a remix of the Corneria stage music from Melee. It is likely one of the songs to play on the Lylat Cruise stage.
 * A jolly remix of the Grim Reaper and Game Over music from Kid Icarus was put on the official site, title Kid Icarus: The Underworld . This remix sounds similar to the brand of music used for Green Greens. It is possible this plays on the Skyworld stage along with other songs. It was also heard on the part of the Subspace Emissary, titled Pit's Descent.
 * A remix of K. K. Slider's theme music from Animal Crossing was revealed by the official site, titled Animal Crossing: Go K.K. Rider! . It will play on Smashville, as stated by the official site.
 * A remix of the Gym Leader and Pokémon Evolution music was recently put on the official website, named Pokémon: Pokémon Stadium/Evolution . There is a very good chance it will be one of the songs for the Pokémon Stadium 2 stage.
 * Famed Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu contributed the main theme of the game, named Super Smash Bros. Brawl: Main Theme . It is done completely in Latin Lyrics, and will play throughout the game, making it the main music representation of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It is unknown whether he will be composing additional tracks.
 * A dramatic remix of a theme from Metal Gear Solid 4, titled Metal Gear Solid: MGS4 Love Theme (Super Smash Bros. Brawl Version), was recently put on the official site. It has been confirmed to appear on a Metal Gear related stage, very likely to be the Helipad.
 * In the first trailer, the game over music from Metal Gear Solid (likely Snake's victory music in Brawl) is heard at the end. In the second trailer, one of the altenate arrangements of the main theme is heard, along with music from the Corneria stage in Super Smash Bros. Melee, implying that music as heard in Melee will be in the game, likely through the "My Music" feature.