The series roots were established in the Nintendo 64 days, with a premise solely based upon having iconic Nintendo characters knocking the senses out of each other in Nintendo-themed levels with Nintendo-themed items. Instead of health bars, taking damage was reverse-engineered in a way, by racking up hits to raise the percentage of players' damage levels until they could be knocked offscreen and thusly K.O.'ed. This is the core of Smash Bros.' gameplay and has since remained unchanged aside from special techniques developed by the highly competitive crowd. Mainly, the series' appeal comes from the wide-eyed fantasies many gamers who grew up in the days of 16-bit gaming shared with each other, over how hard Link could really wallop Pikachu, or how the original spat between Donkey Kong and Mario really may have turned out.

These are the establishing gameplay mechanics and appeal of the series, which have held tight over the years and live strong in SSBB. Veterans used to the control scheme in Smash Bros. Melee will find themselves immediately at home with the controls, aside from a few small tweaks (such as the Z button solely dodging in the air, and the C-stick now having the ability to pick up items when used properly). Newcomers have the option of making themselves at home between four different controls schemes, shared between the Wii remote, remote + nunchuck, Classic controller, or the aforementioned Gamecube pad which shares the popular vote for best possible controller for a Smash Bros. game. Each setup has a predefined control scheme, but can also be completely customized (as in you can detail commands for nearly every button). On top of this, the controls are spot-on as they have always been so there's really nothing to complain about. Praise, maybe.

Those who spent years growing accustomed to the games may notice a different feel to Brawl. It's possibly for the better, but the game's timing is a bit slower as the overall control has hit the fine line between a mix of the original and Melee's speed. This will be a delight to fans of characters such as Kirby who are once again a force to be reckoned with, where they may not be as speedy but their blows aren't something you want to be on the receiving end of. Fortunately, the game has been tuned with an incredible balance so that nearly every character feels useful and those who previously had no real competitive edge have been strengthened a bit more. This in itself is a feat, which makes it even harder to figure out a word to describe the accomplishment of fitting so many diverse characters into this game and having them all play in such a competent fashion. This is all despite what could have easily been the game-breaking device known as the final smash, a new item which when acquired unleashes a character-specific super attack which has been carefully implemented so that the gameplay isn't skewed in a negative fashion.

New to the series is the full-on Subspace Emissary story, finally providing a meaty single-player (and co-op) mode for players to spend time on. Basically a fan fiction writer's dream, the SSE is what feels like Melee's Adventure mode wanted to be all along. In it, players will traverse about 8 hours of 2D levels themed for each character whose story becomes an integral part of the plot, giving a nod to just about every single character in the game (including the secret ones). The story is conveyed through some very well-done CG cutscenes with no dialog, while still properly conveying a plot. The SSE story is campy at its weakest, and for those who don't care about it one bit or the adventure-style gameplay, it stands as the quickest way to unlock all the secret characters in the game.

Oh, and the unlockables are here in spades by the dozens. In what could even be considered a trademark of the series, Smash Bros. Brawl begins with about 45% of the game's content available to players at the beginning. Containing secret characters, stages, music tracks (to customize what beats you brawl to), stickers for raising attributes, and trophies to collect and gaze upon, as well as dozens of other bits to uncover, SSBB seems like it could be played for months straight and still not be completely unraveled. On top of this are the smaller games to tinker around with, such as a coin launcher to collect trophies and stickers, a level editor with unlockable building sets, single player traditions such as the target smash and home run contest, video and photo modes, boss battle, classic run-through, adventure mode, bite-sized classic games to play, and regular or co-op events all awaiting for you to rummage through when the time comes. The time will indeed come, as well; not until after a week of playing the game did I even begin to touch the level editor, finding yet another highly-addictive hobby to burn my time away with. Just about every piece of content in this game not only feels like it belongs, but is nearly as fun as the main event: multiplayer battles.

In the culmination of such a gigantic series, the multiplayer-centric gameplay of SSBB finally includes online play. While still hampered by friend codes and suffering a bit of lag here and there, it's more than Nintendo or series fans could have ever asked for. As I said it's not perfect, and the only way to really enjoy the game's online capabilities is to play with friends, although the 2-minute random brawls will do just fine as a substitute. Surprisingly, the game still runs at a steady pace on even the fastest levels, final smash in tow and all. On top of this, the wifi abilities extend into the gambling addicts in us, with a spectator mode allowing for bets to be placed on winners, and for custom stages to be uploaded as a possible "level of the day" download candidate.

In a game where the amount of content is similar to the overwhelming amount of stuff in Japan on one's first visit, and that already managed to waste away hours on end before online play was included, it's safe to say that Super Smash Bros. Brawl has one heck of a lifespan. I won't claim it to be indefinite, but it's safe to assume there are those who will live and die by this one. On the other hand, I'm not afraid to declare this purchase on which is worth every dollar spent, as it's almost impossible to ask for any more from the game as far as content or quality goes. Heck, I'd argue that the game's soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission, but that's an entire world of goodness I won't get into.

It's not impossible to nitpick SSBB since it does have a handful of glitches. It may also be accused of having caused problems for the odd Wii console with a weak laser, but these are hardly complaints as much as they exist as side notes which can be remedied or are simply too trivial to fuss over. After all, no game is perfect--but as Brawl developer Sakurai shows, it doesn't hurt to try.