Smash Bros. Gets Story-Driven Single Player Campaign

If you were wondering how they could make the upcoming Smash Bros. Brawl even better than its predecessors, the official Dojo site has some great news for Nintendo fans. Via Game|Life comes the news that Brawl will feature a fully-fleshed out single-player sidescrolling campaign. Called 'The Subspace Emissary', it appears to explore the stories of the individual characters and their interactions with each other. "This time, though, we've managed to create a complete side-scrolling action game. It's storyline isn't overwrought--it's hastened along by a bunch of quick movies ... The Adventure mode also emphasizes character development. You'll see many famous characters persevering under the weight of their personal histories, shouldering their unique burdens... It's really something you won't see anywhere else." While obviously folks like Link and Mario will feature heavily, it's worth pointing out that this will be the first time in more than 15 years that Kid Icarus' Pit will get any sort of 'plot development' in a videogame.

*drool*

(This post should be blank, because words cannot be expelled with all the drool. However using parenthetical statements allows me to convey omniscient thoughts without giving the idea of words, thus I can tell you that I really can't wait to play some serious smash bros. I kinda thought Melee was disappointing, because it never had the sheer madness that was the original, but the game was very unbalanced, especially in favor of DK [that big ape should not be able to move so fast].)

Oh god...

I'd love to hear their explanation of how Zelda, Mario, and Samus (for starters) ended up in the same time and place ...

Re:Oh god...

Doug: In episode 2F09, when Itchy plays Scratchy's skeleton like a xylophone, he strikes the same rib twice in succession, yet he produces two clearly different tones. I mean, what are we to believe, that this is some sort of a [the three nerds chuckle] magic xylophone or something? Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder.

Re:Oh god...

Aliens.

You need to watch more TV and read more books. Aliens always abduct people and put them in competitions that would be pointless under any circumstance other than a fourth-wall breech of the universe by all-knowing aliens. And if you don't believe me, try reading Walter Farley's Black Stallion series. When he wanted to do a cross-over between Black and the "secret" Island Horse flame, who fixed the continuity problems so they could both race? That's right, aliens did it.

You'd think that a race of beings with technology superior enough to travel between universes would have something better to do than kidnap folks from their homes and force them to participate in some sort of competition. (A competition that the contestants always seem more than willing to compete in?)

See also: A wizard did it! [tvtropes.org]

possible mistake.

while i am open to the idea of story line for characters isnt this what destroyed the street fighter and mortal combat francise?

Interesting if true

I have been enjoying Super Smash Brothers since it came out, and while I paid no attention to Brawl, I am looking forward to another chance to jump into the franchise.

Amazing

All I can say is Nintendo has the best marketing of the big three. Smash Brothers fans are practically dehydrated from drooling over the blog.

Seriously, what other game in history has successfully maintained news updates every weekday? There hasn't been a weekday since it started where there wasn't something new, however small.

I remember when the site first opened and I read the text "I will be updating this site periodically". I thought "Oh, I can expect some random news every few weeks/months". I was stunned to find that it was literally every weekday.

I don't think there's a single game hyped as well as this one.

Fighting game "plot"

If you've every played DoA or Soul Caliber, you know what to expect from the plot. "My feet ache... with destiny!" "You stepping on my pet goldfish... prepare for death!" (Grrr, can't find the link to that Sluggy cartoon...)

Granted its Nintendo, but I'm not expecting anything on the order of a different awesome side scrolling game for each character, more of a slight upgrade to the pale 1P mode in the GCN Smash with more character interaction & cutscenes in between a la DoA/Soul Caliber. It might be worth playing to get used to the new controls & moves, but people will get through them and never look back like all the previous Smash iterations.

Here's what I envision the "Solid Snake meets Mario" level being:
"I need to get into this top secret government facility, and there's no good fox-urine covered cardboard boxes around. Hmm..."

"It's-a-me, Mario!"

"What? You say you can lead me through the pipes of the sewers? Lead on!"

Co-Op?

I would be ecstatic if they mentioned this story mode was playable in co-op. I've been wanting something like that in a Smash game ever since the original.

Sadly HAL seems to only really do about 50% of what they're capable of; it would be okay if Smash games were released every couple of years, but waiting a whole generation and-then-some puts a lot of pressure on them to add more than just "the usual improvements."

Oh well. I'm big into Smash, so just knowing that they didn't blow off the single-player mode entirely this time around is good news to me.

Captain N, The Game Master?

Will this single player mode have anything to do with: Captain N, The Game Master?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_N:_The_Game_M aster [wikipedia.org]

More information

I've been following the site for a while, and they've cleared up some questions in the last teaser update about the story: It takes place in an alternate universe, the characters aren't the "real" canon characters, they're trophies of those characters. It's always been implied in the opening cinematic that Smash Brothers was just a kid playing with toys (which is why the final boss is a hand--kids have their action figures fight their hand when they finally run out of other toys for it to fight), but it was explicitly stated in the last update that all the characters are simply toys, and not part of the canon. When they die, they turn back into toys. They exist in an alternate universe where trophies exist to fight in tournaments, and this lifestyle has been maintained for the past two games, but now Metaknight has broken the tradition by storming the tournament and dropping some evil-looking goo that turns into evil-looking monsters, and somehow requires the trophies to stop him. Keep in mind, Smash is primarily made by the people who make Kirby, so the villain is probably going to be Dark Matter or something. Metaknight is traditionally a red herring villain that turns into a helpful rival in the end. It's not "a series of fights with motivations for the fights" in between, it's a full on side scrolling game, like the first level of the last game's Adventure Mode. It's probably punctuated with actual fights, but it's mainly side scrolling, fighting enemies (which also appear in the main game as "assist trophy" summons, like, Hammer Brothers are enemies in the side scrolling game, but you can also summon them to aid you in the multiplayer game). It also says the plot wont be bloated, just quick-paced cutscenes between action. I doubt there's going to even be text boxes.

the robots

the robot thingies that come out of the airship look like fruit-fuckers.

Reveal Sonic already!

You know they're going to do it at the last minute.

They've already got Snake lined up.

C'mon, Super Smash Brother Sonic!

Premise was not only mindless action

Lots of games offer mindless action.

The primary reason I purchased Smash Brothers on the Gamecube was so that I could use Bowser to beat Pikachu into a tiny bloody stain.

Put into more formal terms, Smash Brothers lets you use your favorite game characters to beat up on characters you like less. It also, at its core, provides much of the appeal of "Freddy vs Jason" or "Aliens vs Predator". You may enjoy Metroid and Zelda, but outside of this game, your not going to get any chances to see both in the same game.

It also does not hurt that the game its self is highly entertaining and has a great deal of comedic value.

END COMMUNICATION

Re:Waggle?

http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/gamemode/various/va rious01.html [smashbros.com]

No it's just another Smash Bros. with online play, more destructible stages, new items, and new attacks bolted on.

Jackass

Re:Waggle?

You might want to actually visit the website once, just so you can read the part where you can use any of 4 different control schemes - Gamecube controller, Wii Classic Controller, Wiimote & Nunchuck or Wiimote.

Re:Wasn't..

It's like hearing that a new porn movie has a great plot.