dragoncrescent Brawl code: 2062-8832-2697
Come, and fight me online! If you want to do battle, be sure to leave your code so I can friend you back.

Originally, I was a big proponent of Smash Bros Brawl. For one thing, it removed key glitches in Melee that allowed people with nothing better to do with their lives to become unbeatable. Wavedashing and all of their precious "advanced techniques" were gone. Furthermore, I acknowledged that Brawl was a different game than Melee, and that comparing the two is to ignore the best qualities of either.

That being said, oh my god, they messed this up!!! I love Brawl to death, but I just recently realized that beneath it's godly music and its shiny visuals, the game isn't a fighting game. It's a party game. Melee could function as either, since it had the depth for skilled fighters and the items, although usually turned off, weren't absolutely broken. This time around, a fight can be entirely determined by who picks up what items. Nearly all of the assist trophies are capable of killing you. The stages in Melee were interesting, but at the same time, you could have an intense battle in them. Most of the stages in Brawl tend to focus more on the random chaos aspect of Smash Bros. What is this bullshit that there are stage hazards which cause instant death!? (Crystals in Rumble Falls, Fish in Summit, Chimera in New Pork City, Cars in Port Town Aero Dive) Then there are stages that, while they usually don't kill you outright, still hamper players to the point of determining the match. I really, REALLY want to love the Spear Pillar stage, but having my controls reversed and being attacked by a goddamn mooing bird? Not so much) Outright, I hate the .75mm stage, the Mario Bros Stage, New Pork City, Pokemon Stadium 2, Rainbow Cruise, Big Blue, and Flat Zone 2...

The insane musical selection and art style, the admittedly fun story mode, and the online play... Brawl has so much going for it, but they really dropped the ball on the mechanics of the game. It's almost like they're targeting Brawl towards the casual gamer, rather than the people who play Smash Bros the most. Nitty...