Super Smash Bros Brawl

Super Smash Bros Brawl

'It’s simple, really. Smack your opponents and send them flying off the screen to win!'

Rarely has a game's premise been so quickly and easily explained. Smash Bros is a side-on videogame version of sumo wresting, where the borders of the screen act as the boundaries of the ring and, instead of being played by 40-stone men, the participants are Princess Peach, Pikachu among a host of cutesy Nintendo faces.

Super Smash Bros Brawl (SSBB) is, like its precursors, the acceptable face of fighting games; the one you wouldn't mind inviting round for tea and introducing to your grandmother. Bright, engaging and accessible to players of all ages it's a cartoon take on Street Fighter, one that's loved for its simplicity by fans and equally criticized by detractors for the very same thing.

In SSBB, Nintendo has ramped up the number of character's available sky high as well as giving players the option to play with Wiimote (either with or without the nunchuck) the classic controller or even a GameCube controller. The move list for each character is consistent, that is, the same buttons make every character execute similar moves. As a result you won't need to spend weeks learning different move sets if you want to play competently as a variety of characters. That said, each character has some special tricks that are unique to them such as the Pokémon trainer's Pokémon balls, Kirby's cooking pot finishing move or King Bowser's hulking Giga-Bowser form.

Rather than using the health bars found in most fighting games, SSBB instead records each character's 'damage percentage'. Land blows on the enemy to raise their damage percentage and, when it’s high enough, use a powerful smash move to launch them off the battlefield and win the round. If you're the one knocked off screen you have a couple of seconds to recover and get back into the play area, otherwise it’s ‘bout over’.

These basics are then spun out into a huge number of Nintendo-themed stages and play modes. Group battles, Solo battles, stage building tools and, of course, the game's primary single player campaign dubbed 'Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary' in which you win stickers and level up your character, flesh out the package considerably. It's a huge variety of options and, as the game is drenched in Nintendo fan service, theme tunes, lists and statistics, Nintendo’s lovers will be delighted. For those not so enamoured by the rich iconography, SSBB is a fun if simple fighting game that, if approached on those terms, can provide hours of enjoyment. It lacks the nuance and subtlety of the 'grown up' fighting fans but makes up for it with pick up and play exuberance and raw heart.

4 out of 5