Super Smash Bros. Brawl, see it for yourself
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ May 11th 2006 at 9:30AM }
After last's night Super Smash Bros. Brawl unveiling, Nintendo dropped a media disc on us that was supposed to house the Brawl teaser trailer. Yeah, well, it was done broke. But we did snag a bunch of pretty - too pretty, if you ask us - screenshots off of the thing before we tossed it. Have a look.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
boots @ May 11th 2006 9:36AM
I still can't believe they aren't using the Wiimote. That's retarded; even more to force buyers into buying a *gamecube* controller for this game. How idiotic. Do they expect 3rd parties to make fighting games with the nunchuck-wiimote combo? I don't think they should.
Regardless, there is DBZ Tenkaichi 2 coming... but still, Nintendo should have been the one setting the example.
White Rose Duelist @ May 11th 2006 9:37AM
Shame it's not a release title, but I think Nintendo officially stole the show. One Wii for me, please!
Prof-KOS @ May 11th 2006 9:38AM
OH.MY.GOD.
I'm so excited for Wii now. That looks awesome. The quality of the screenshots don't worry me. Nintendo doesn't usually pull a Sony and give unrealistic shots. Maybe there just CGI from the intro but they still look amazing.
I can't wait to play this online.
peder @ May 11th 2006 9:39AM
Wow those do look awesome even without HDTV on the wii console.
I will certainly buy one a wii despite the name when it comes out. It is a perfect fun system that both my wife and I can enjoy togeather, unline my Xbox 360 that is way too complicated for her other than the Pool Game on XBLA.
I think Nintendo really has something going for them, unlike Sony, with their copy cat tactics. Right now it looks like I am only going to buy the PS3 when FFXIII get released. I'll stick with my slimline PS2 and FFXII until then. Whatever Sony, come on Nintendo.
Hamsterbaffle @ May 11th 2006 9:39AM
Hmmm. . . doesn't look very in-game to me. I think Nintendo made those screenshots on purpose!
Kokernutz @ May 11th 2006 9:40AM
At the beginning of the video they show the old Smash Bros Melee models for Link, Mario, Kirby, Pikachu... then they slowly transform into the Brawl ones: better textured, high polygon models.
At least that's the way I interpreted it. I think that was the most important part of the video!
Bob Chabaaz @ May 11th 2006 9:40AM
It is u dork. Its out at launch, cos mr iwata said so. Doof
Henry G Wolf VII @ May 11th 2006 9:43AM
This looks good compared to current Gamecube games... but it pales in comparison to PS3 or even 360 games. For Nintendo's sake, I sure hope the gameplay is amazing.
Kazi @ May 11th 2006 9:47AM
When isn't SSB gameplay amazing?
GlitchCog @ May 11th 2006 9:49AM
Um... where's Ness?
Londoner @ May 11th 2006 9:50AM
It isn't in-game. If you visit Sakurai's SSBB site you can see notices plastered all over that the screenshots are 'in development'. They just began developing the game in October 2005. Read his thoughts on it and how he was 'forced' to make the game.
isuma @ May 11th 2006 9:50AM
I think Nintendo is strongly hinting at Nintendogs Wii and Kid Icarus Wii.
Chris_Mac @ May 11th 2006 9:51AM
When it's the same as the previous 2, don't get me wrong it'll be great, but you can't be amazed by something you already know.
jaemz @ May 11th 2006 9:52AM
I heard a rumor that Snake will be in this game as well... can anyone substiantiate?
Jonathan Gardner @ May 11th 2006 9:52AM
When the person holding the controller cannot play properly. Gamespot has a pretty good write up on the the trailer and a Q&A. And the most important part of the trailer? Solid Snake!!!
AJ @ May 11th 2006 9:55AM
I was a little skeptical about the launch window of the Wii until I saw this. (There is a full trailer at gamespot.com, I recommend checking it out... sorry Joystiq)
Londoner @ May 11th 2006 9:55AM
@jaemz, watch the trailer.
Scott @ May 11th 2006 10:06AM
These are in game, just like in the GC intro it is in game graphics. You can see the pic with pikachu doing a thunder attack and mario flying to the left...it is obviously in game. And yes SNAKE will be in the game.
Americruzano @ May 11th 2006 10:08AM
"After last's night Super Smash Bros. Brawl unveiling, Nintendo dropped a media disc on us that was supposed to house the Brawl teaser trailer. Yeah, well, it was done broke. But we did snag a bunch of pretty - too pretty, if you ask us - screenshots off of the thing before we tossed it. Have a look."
Another attempt by James to be controversial. Get your impressions elsewhere. Joystiq is loosing credibility with all this axe-grinding. What gives?
striderhayasa @ May 11th 2006 10:10AM
Snake is in the game and Hideo Kojima almost begged for Sanke to be in the last SSB according to...well...every other major site that reported this last night. The models are real-time, they're not CG. Personally, I think the Wii has great graphics potential just as like the prior discussions that have happen on this very site. Is it going to be as good as the competition? No, but that doesn't mean it's going to be bad. I love the way Sonic and Mario look on Wii. I think Metroid looks great and you and see the added detail in the game. Excitetruck looks good as does Project Hammer. NONE of these games are done either.
gavin @ May 11th 2006 10:21AM
SUPER SMASH BROS. DOJO!
www.smashbros.com
found a new link at the wii.nintendo.com site
movies and all. looks AWESOME!
Jamus @ May 11th 2006 10:22AM
In response to the comment that said the images don't look very 'in-game':
If you remember correctly, the most recent Smash Bros title had a camera mode in which one controller could take snapshots and save them to a memory card. In no way do I think those grapichs are out of the realm of possibility for the Wii. Also, that looks like Kid Icarus in one of the shots. If that's the case, I'm VERY eager to play this one!
DG @ May 11th 2006 10:24AM
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7FO83eZdWks&search=super%20smash%20bros%20smash
I don't know....Looks pretty good to me.
Steve @ May 11th 2006 10:26AM
Ransom-Wiley, I've had enough of your negativity.
Bye Joystiq. I'll stick with Matt Cassamassina, the best Nintendo journalist on the net. (wii.ign.com)
billychaos @ May 11th 2006 10:28AM
In response to Hamsterbaffle (who doesnt think those screenshots are real), If you recall in the GC smash brothers you can pause the action and zoom and control the camera and take action snapshots. I'm sure this feature has carried over into the Wii. These type of shots can be made in the GC so i'm sure the same can be said for the Wii.
Prof-KOS @ May 11th 2006 10:32AM
Guys, Relax with the bias chatter. This is a blog. If the blogger feels that they want to add a comment with their thoughts, you can't bash them for it. Also, I don't see anyone complain whenthey say something positive.
Just relax, the game will be awesome, even if the graphics are no better than those of Melee. I thought all the Wii fans have agreed that graphics don't matter as much as gameplay. If you want graphics get and Xbox 360 or the PlagiarizeStation3 (name credit to Scott of VGCats).
billychaos @ May 11th 2006 10:38AM
OMFG! Snake IS in smash bros!!! *let the genocide of all 9268 pokemon begin...
OlderGamerDude @ May 11th 2006 10:41AM
See I always looked at Joystiq as my source for video game news. I'm sure a lot of others felt the same way.
You're right though, James is just a blogger. His opinion matters no more than my 3 year old nephew. I only wish everyone knew this.
If you want real video game news done by video gaming journalists, go to 1up, ign or gamespot.
Joystiq will never be anything more than the online equivalent of 4 high school freshmen BSing in the school cafeteria. Sad, I used to think otherwise.
MosquitoControl @ May 11th 2006 10:46AM
The graphics do look considerably better than any shots I've seen running off of devkits. Whether that's suspicious or just because this is in-house I don't know.
Calm down about whining about the negativity. Isn't it nice to get a preview that's 100% honest instead of one that's glowing? The major sites never really knock anything, although IGN has certainly shown a lot of concern over the input issues of the Wii.
I'm a Nintendo fanboy. But I'll accept that a lot of people are not overly impressed with the implementation of the Wii right now. This makes perfect sense, though, it's all so new. For one, these demos are all rough. They'll be tweaked considerably. For another, these are all launch games (mostly.) Better ideas will come.
I'd rather a lot of cynicism that proves false than sugar-coated optimism that is all lies.
apoc06 @ May 11th 2006 10:49AM
wow, some people are outrageously touchy. honestly i thought the review was more than fair in comparison to say... the xbox360 or ps3 reviews and impressions, or heaven forbid their impressions of ps2 or psp titles. [see the psp ratchet & clank review for example]
sometimes i wish this site had a way to filter out posts according to moderation, a la digg or slashdot.
odd mixes of high and low poly models, and detailed and flat textures kinda turn me off personally, [think: tekken1 on ps1] but this still looks like a great game in spite of that.
Sense @ May 11th 2006 10:56AM
Personally, I can't wait for this game. It could look like an N64 game for all I care. Smash Bros. is fun as hell.
By the way, anybody have a URL to Sakurai's SSBB site, mentioned above? I can't find it.
Amir @ May 11th 2006 10:56AM
The Wii killer app. I'm not sure about the other games (Twilight Princess seems nice, though I might pick up the GC version since Wii can play GC games (I don't have a Cube) and for ease of use). Downhill Jam, hmmm. But this... I almost bought a 'Cube for Melee, I'll definitely buy a Wii for this and GC backwards-compatability.
OlderGamerDude @ May 11th 2006 10:57AM
Mosquito,
I'm in no way a Nintendo fanboy. I favored the Genesis over the SNES and my PS2 over the GameCube. I'm not even that excited about the WII since I already have my 360 to keep me busy.
If you go and read James' last 10 posts, you will see why I finaly bothered to start posting my opinions after over a year of being one of the thousands of silent readers that Joystiq has.
Sense @ May 11th 2006 10:58AM
Ah...smashbros.com
God I'm stupid...
thrillho @ May 11th 2006 11:27AM
any confirmation on wifi on this game?
GameGod @ May 11th 2006 11:29AM
OlderGamerDude, I can't agree more with you, you all have to be quite blind not to see the derision and mockery in these reports, quoting: "But we did snag a bunch of pretty - too pretty, if you ask us - screenshots off of the thing before we tossed it. Have a look.
", they toss the disc like it's crap, has no value, you guys must have a pretty good maketeers and psychologists from Sony to write this BS for you, only half brained monkeys don't want to see your continuous bashing since the beginning of E3, Joystiq is rocketing int he skies of lameness...
Spikeydeathtrap @ May 11th 2006 11:31AM
"12. When it's the same as the previous 2, don't get me wrong it'll be great, but you can't be amazed by something you already know."
If that were true, no one would get excited by Halo 3. Or FF13. Or most other sequels. But we do. Why? A:It's never EXACTLY the same; granted they usually don't make major changes, but they at least tweak things and B:It's because this way we can see our favorite franchise come back again, this time online. I mean, when you heard that Halo 2 would support Xbox Live, which Halo 1 didn't, were you excited? Even though you know basically what the gameplay would be?
Tom @ May 11th 2006 11:33AM
Yes these are in game, you can see in the trailer some of it are actually moves that exist in game such as Pit doing a triple jump. The trailer also shows the gamecube link, mario,pikachu and kirby run on screen and then turn into the wii versions, there is a huge difference on link and mario. On pikachu and kirby its hard to tell, i mean one is a pink ball and the other basically just yellow. But the graphics are greatly improved over melee.
Oh and yea the writing on this article sucks, too pretty? Erm i can't remember when nintendo have tried to trick us with screenshots. Not to mention the fact you can see a picture where metaknight has hit mario and its clearly in game just without the info normally shown.
Chris_Mac @ May 11th 2006 11:40AM
#36 I think you misunderstood what I meant, I was just being a pedant. I am excited by sequels to games I loved.
Princess Zelda @ May 11th 2006 11:41AM
"But we did snag a bunch of pretty - too pretty, if you ask us - screenshots off of the thing before we tossed it"
Too Pretty? What are you talking about? Here's a little quote from smashbros.com.
"We made a movie!
No explanation necessary. Just take a look at it!
...I don't suppose I've gone too far, have I?
Well, this is the kind of game it is. Sorry.
Please note that these game screens are still in development.
I want to polish them up more before it is complete."
You say they're too pretty, the director says they aren't polished yet!
MosquitoControl @ May 11th 2006 11:47AM
"they toss the disc like it's crap, has no value, "
Actually, they said it was broken. So it had no value. The movie on it wasn't working for them.
I know these posts have all been very hard on the Wii. But just go read IGN. Matt whateverhisname is had identical complaints about the gameplay. His hands-on with Metroid is every bit as negative as this. And it comes from a professional journalist that needs to suck up to the Big 3 at all costs during previews, lest they stop giving him exclusives.
The bottom line is everything I've read about the Wii is negative thus far, if you read between the lines. There's a whole lot of "should be's" and not a lot of "is." Meaning everyone thinks this should be great, but currently isn't.
And that's not a problem. Control is still being tweaked. And it's new to everyone, so companies are still learning a lot about this, unlike the PS3 where they're getting the same controller you've been using since the Super Nintendo.
GamerForever @ May 11th 2006 11:48AM
I noticed that most of the comments or "opinions" of Joystiq are mostly negative against Wii but other gaming sites are telling otherwise. I'm not fanboy coz I play all type games on all consoles/pc. Anyway, I'm not gonna even bother going to this site again.
Edmund @ May 11th 2006 11:56AM
Why does Nintendo often seem to blow their chances to do something truly great and instead give us something pretty good. The same old Smash Bros. with 4 or 5 new characters does not get me excited. And as much as I love seeing the little guy from Kid Icarus, seeing Solid Snake in there is just pissing me off. It doesn't fit. Why couldn't Nintendo have been smarter than that and done something like Nintendo vs. SEGA? It just seems so obvious.
Ajbau @ May 11th 2006 12:05PM
thats it iam sick of the nintendo bashing from james it is just rediculous and iam definatly not comeing back after reading this site for over a year now
goodbye
shaoron @ May 11th 2006 12:05PM
and they still haven't shown Snake's fighting moves.. dang it!
Sergio @ May 11th 2006 12:05PM
Great newcomers. Kinda wished they included Sonic.
Scott @ May 11th 2006 12:37PM
Well, isnt this a kick in the ballz to Sony and Microsoft. They go out of there way to make expensive consoles with absurd abounts of power that developers will never fully use with there main target being HD graphics (a wopping 1% of the population). An now, after seeing the 16:9 420p progressive scan movies on IGN like smash bros brawl (all of joystiqs scans are IN GAME) mario galaxies and Project Hammer, i am comfortably satisfied with the graphical leap from the GC.
Take an ordinary XBOX, Double the potential power (by making it a powerpc architecture and removing all bottlenecks and increasing ram and clockspeeds slightly), add a pinch of unique controls AND standard controls (i am glad SSBB doesnt use the wii-mote), over 5000 launch games (from back catalogs) and completely free online access/multiplayer (with opera webbrowser) and suddenly the competition seems like nothing.
I will still get a Ps3, unless of course FFXIII and DMC come to Wii, which they won't. But seeing what they are capable of doing graphically with the vids i seen on IGN, not owning a HDTV doesnt seem like a big deal anymore (even tho i do own one).
Once you factor in the imminent death os the PSP due to the new mario bros and Yoshi's Island 2...i think Sony is in for a LOT of trouble.
Wii Gamer @ May 11th 2006 12:44PM
Those are some awesome screenshots. I'm really looking forward to what new surprise characters we will find in the game.
teh_pwnerer @ May 11th 2006 12:58PM
James... Did miyamoto RAPE you with a zapper or a powerglove?
Prof-KOS @ May 11th 2006 1:04PM
Geez, people like Abjau seem to take great pleasure in letting everyone know that they are not coming back. Well, see ya. I don't care. This isn't a news site. It doesn't have the stories first usually. This is a blog. This is a place where a topic is posted and gamers froma round the world can discuss it, or as the case may be, attcke each other by calling everyone around them fanboys. Now it's not enough to just call the readers fanboys, now we have to call Joystiq contributors fanboys too. That or make crude references regarding them.
If you don't like sites where you can post your comments and debate your views, then go somewhere else. Go to Gamestop and IGN and get gaming news. If you wants points of view come here. What is the point of going into every topic that you disagree with and levelling accusations of bias towards the contributor. Of course they're biased, they're gamers that care about the product, if they don't like the Wii, then so be it. Debate the point. There is no need to get personal just because this is an anonymous forum for discussion.