Working Title 12.14.06: Hyped - Super Smash Brothers Brawl

Posted by Jordan Williams on 12.14.2006

Nintendo is running full force into the next generation with the Wii. The Legend of Zelda: TP has already been unleashed, and despite the hype it did pretty well. But is Nintendo overhyping Super Smash Brothers Brawl? Also, keep Sonic out of Super Smash Bros, that's right. I said it.

Good...what time is it? Morning? Yeah. Good Morning! This is the #1 Column to EVER be moved from Wednesdays to Thursdays, Working Title!

So, last week I deviated away from the norm to tag team up with Sarcuni to bring you all the first installment of Working Gamer. It was fun to just type out a rant and take digs at all of the stuff I usually don't take digs at, and I am glad the rest of the staff as well as the readers enjoyed it.

But this week, we are back to good ole Working Title. This week is the (belated) start of HYPED. We've all seen them, games that are hyped up to be the second coming of Christ in digital form. Ever console you've ever played has had them. Many people try not to buy into the hype, but sometimes it's just inevitable. Hype is what fuels these games, but it's also what kills these games sometimes.

You know what time it is, it's the time where I make a long rant before I actually get to the game.


OVERHYPED

Fable, Red Steel, Final Fantasy XI. These are all games that got shoved down the collective throats of gamers with constant hype, ads, and word of mouth and it got people so ready to play them until they finally did...and they realized it wasn't what they were expecting. We can say it is our fault for buying into the hype machine and we were really playing good games that we had too many high expectations for (Fable), but we can't lay all of the blame on us. The developers and the big guys in the consoles company hype the game up as well. Sometimes it's warranted; sometimes it's just to get interest.

In the case of Red Steel, they hailed it as a new revolution for FPS games, that got all of the Nintendo fanboys creaming their twinkies because they would finally have an FPS game on their console that wasn't Metroid Prime, and another game to add to the "See! We're not kiddy!" list. What happened? Red Steel came out, and it proved out to be a really mediocre game. People got angry, mostly because they wanted to this game to be so much more than what it turned out to be. It's half their fault, but who could help not buying into the hype that they laid out in front of us? We already knew the graphics aren't going to be great, but man, when you saw the commercial on TV and the footage at the biggest hype orgy of the year, E3. Could you not help but get a little bit over excited about it?



Well, that's where it all starts. The games start to get the ludicrous expectations that we give it. In the end a game either ends up one of three ways: Overhyped, Hyped, or Underhyped. Overhyped obviously being the scenario I just talked about above. Hyped meaning the game has some buzz, but we know what we are getting, therefore we don't make the game out to be something it isn't, and underhyped meaning the game should be getting a lot more buzz than it should. We probably won't see any of those in this series, however.

I COULD go into a long detailed rant about Hyped and Underhyped...but I need something to put in the next two week's columns, too.


So with that...we kick off HYPED with the analysis of Nintendo Wii's surprise Savior, Super Smash Brothers Brawl.


HYPED: Super Smash Brothers Brawl




Do you remember where you were at E3? Were you like a lot of people hanging around on Gamespot watching the live feed of the press conference of your choice? I remember exactly where I was. I was sitting on an IRC chat room for a popular webcomic watching the live Nintendo Press Conference feed with about 23 other people. We were pretty much loving every moment of it, especially the part where Shiggy owned bitches solid at Wii Tennis. When they played the montage of the games expected to come out of the Wii, however, we all got a little disappointed. One by one, we all began to notice something.

"No Super Smash Brothers?"

The press conference was over, we are still pretty hyped about the Wii, but there was something missing. We saw a new Mario game, a new Zelda, a new Metroid Prime...but we really wanted to see that SSBB. Oh well. Maybe at next year's E3.

Then, a day later on the game room floor, some Nintendo reps called a select few people into a backroom and showed them a super secret trailer. We on the internet didn't know about it until a few people snapped pictures. You could see it right away on most forums and chat rooms "SUPER SMASH BROTHERS 3 ANNOUNCED". FINALLY. Until we saw... "SNAKE CONFIRMED TO BE IN SUPER SMASH BROTHERS 3". What the fuck? Snake? Great. We just got fooled by another prank. Then people began to start posting very blurry and low res pictures, a shot of Snake, most of the time. It looked pretty fake so most people passed it off as a rumor. Especially since it didn't appear on any of the big name sites.

But within the next hour it spread like wild fire. IGN, Gametrailers, Gamespot, EVERYWHERE was picking up on the story. Was it just a rumor? Well, not until the trailer finally hit the internet. It was at that point that we knew for sure, Super Smash Brothers Brawl was real.

Let the Hype Begin!

I must've watched that trailer about 8 times. The game looked GREAT despite not even seeing enough real gameplay of it. We had the usual cast of characters: Link, Mario, Pikachu, and Kirby. But then we had the now infamous NEWCOMERS, Metaknight(About damn time, too), Pit, Zero Suit Samus, Wario, and the biggest shock of them all, Snake of Metal Gear Solid fame.


Who would've thunk it?

It was official, people were hyped. We had newcomers, we had what looked like new weapons and signature attacks, new stages, what else could we ask for? More characters.

It's stupid to assume that SSBB will only have 9 characters, including the recently revealed and remodeled Fox to the list. But the announcement of Snake pretty much opened up a flood gate of people dreaming about third party characters appearing in a fairly 1st party ONLY game. Everyone was brought up: Megaman, Cloud, Sephiroth, and Simon Belmont. What did Nintendo do when they saw this outcry from the fans?

They asked them who they wanted.

Nintendo put a poll online asking the fans who THEY wanted in the game, the obvious choices being everyone's favorite to get put in Sonic, which I disagree with(more on that later). But Nintendo pretty much added more fuel to the hyped up flame before even showing us real gameplay, hell, no one has even PLAYED the game yet. Are they treading on thin ice?

What this game is bringing to the table

If you've played Super Smash Bros or Super Smash Bros Melee, you know what this game is bringing to the table. It's going to be a frantic free for all with lots of weapons, characters, creative stages, and everything else you've come to know and love from the series. But what NEW stuff is it bringing?

Well, if the second gameplay trailer is any indication, you now have the ability to crawl, but until I see more it seems like it's just another throwaway feature. In the original trailer we saw that each character may or may not have a signature move that will be activated when the touch a certain item. This could bring a new dynamic to the game. Simply because it could finally even out the odds between some of the seriously overpowered characters (Captain Falcon) and some of the painfully underpowered characters (SSBM Kirby). A well placed 'Super Smash Attack' could rack up the damage % and put everyone on notice.

But with even that, SSBB isn't bringing much else new to the series that we wouldn't expect. It's not promising to reinvent the genre (...is there even a genre for that type of game?) it's not promising to topple sales records or be the must buy game of year. Hell, they are taking their sweet time even releasing screenshots and trailers for it, although I think that will change once E3 (or whatever it will be) rolls around next year. That year all of the hype machines are going to be in full effect, and expect Nintendo do shed some more light on SSBB.

But right now? I'd say the game is getting the right kind of hype from Nintendo. The fans? I do believe they will eventually hype this into the ground, but never to the point of it being overhyped. We know what we are getting, unless Nintendo drastically changes the formula from the first few games. We already know this is just going to be the logical upgrade to SSBM. We shouldn't be disappointed about that at all.

Verdict: Hyped

Now, more ranting.

Wait...you don't want Sonic in SSBB?

No. I don't. Keep him out of my goddamn SSBB. Why do I say that? Let's just face the facts, people.

Sonic and Mario have been THE mascots of video gaming for the past decade. You can't find a single person under the age of 30 who doesn't know who Mario and Sonic are. Even back on the SNES vs. Genesis days. With the "Sega does what Nintendont" ads, you can see it was a fierce rivalry then between Mario and Sonic. This has been hyped up as THE mascot match of the century.

Why waste it on a cameo appearance in someone else's game? What's the point of that?

We have Sonic, who has fallen on some pretty hard times with the death of Sega has a hardware company, and relying mostly on his multi-platform success, which isn't going too well. But we still have the nostalgia of Sonic to fall back on. Why in the world would Nintendo OR Sega waste such a big money opportunity on such a little thing?

Sure, in the short view, having Sonic in SSBB would be GREAT; it'd be fun as hell to finally get them to face off. But in the long view it'd be a waste. If they really want to do Mario vs. Sonic, how about they just do that. Mario vs. Sonic. Let's make a game out of it, build a story, and build a world. Do it up RIGHT.

"But, they put SNAKE in SSBB!"

You're right; they did put Snake in SSBB. But are there any plans in work for Snake to appear in any other Nintendo games? Snake as a secret cart in Mario Kart Wii? Nope. Snake is a third party cameo. Similar to Link in Soul Caliber II. He is there to get some buzz, boost some sales, and more importantly, as a favor to a friend. Sonic should NOT be in SSBB for the reasons stated above, but another reason would be if they announced Sonic in SSBB now, it would COMPLETELY overshadow the fact that Snake (and the other newcomers) are in the game. It's bad business all around.

If they really want to blow their wad with Sonic in Smash Bros, wait until the next game. Let him soak up the entire spotlight and not have to share it with anyone else. That way it would at least be treated like an event than just an afterthought.


No. Stay the hell out.


Next time...

Well, that ends of the first issue of Hyped! Next week we get the return of feedback (I'm pretty behind) and we take a look at the Xbox 360's hopes and dreams solidified into one very boring character. Next week we see if Halo 3 is Hyped, Overhyped, or Underhyped. Oh, don't try to predict it based on my Over/Under either.

Also, stay tuned this weekend. I should have reviews of Final Fantasy III (took us long enough, eh?) and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin up. Those two games have effectively owned my soul.

Remember to send feedback to [e-mail] or PM me on the forums, hell. You can even make a feedback thread like some of the forumers have done already. You post it, I print it.

Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams...and my column WILL have a name...as soon as I figure out how to beat Death on Castlevania: PoR.