Smash Bros. Brawl to Have Co-Op Play

Ars Technica notes that the official Smash Bros. Brawl site is now discussing a co-op play mode for the game. You'll now be able to team up as your favorite Nintendo characters in a vs. Computer story mode. "While the adventure mode was never really the best feature of previous Smash Brothers games, playing through with a friend will likely yield some great gameplay experiences ... Other notes on the mode include details on the camera, which will follow the first player in a way that appears similar to the handling of Sonic and Tails in Sonic 2, an overworld map which hints at a fairly lengthy adventure, the ability to create multiple teams, and five levels of difficulty ranging from easy to intense."

Correction

[SnoopJeDi]

While the adventure mode was never really the best feature of previous Smash Brothers games, playing through with a friend will likely yield some great gameplay experiences which you'd probably have in regular melee anyway

Fixed that for you.

Re:Correction

[Paradigm_Complex]

Not necessarily. For better or worse I crush everyone locally, so they don't really enjoy playing against me directly. 2h v 2c is horribly boring, considering how obvious the computer controlled characters can be. The adventure mode can have more complex situations which make up for the computer's stupidity, while still retaining the enjoyable human cooperation. For very competitive (tournament) play, this will likely be overlooked, but for casual play amongst players of various skill levels this has quite a bit of potential.

Re:

[Sciros]

Handicap yourself to a 5 or 6 vs Lvl 9 Falco/Ganondorf team (no items of course) if 2v2 is too easy otherwise. Also, we don't know how good the AI is going to be for computer opponents at max level to begin with... although I doubt it will be much stronger than the Lvl 9's in SSBM.

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[Paradigm_Complex]

The AI is sufficiently stupid it's quite possible to win without ever attacking at all, and hence handicap won't make a difference. Ganon is particularly easy to punishable - it's possible to get him to up-B off the edge and SD. It's easiest to do with Peach - float just off the edge and bait Ganon to up-B you off the edge, than float out of the way. He won't make it back. Try having yourself as player one and a lvl9 Ness as player two, and go to Jungle Japes and don't move at all. The Ness will SD all

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[Sciros]

That's not exactly the point. No-one's forcing you to use AI-abusive tactics... I'm not trying to explain how to defeat the computer, but rather how to sufficiently challenge yourself if no-one in town is up to the task :-/

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[LunarCrisis]

So you have to nerf your playing style to make it hard? I think you miss the point.

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[Sciros]

Hahahaha if your "playing style" amounts to floating off the edge waiting for the computer to suicide himself, and not abusing the AI in such a way is "nerfing" to you, then you're not really the kind of player I would have been talking to in the first place T_T It's not at all how you'd fight against an actual person to begin with. .. Have you ever even played SSBM because if you have it's pretty shameful to say what you said.

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[LunarCrisis]

Hahahaha if your "playing style" amounts to floating off the edge waiting for the computer to suicide himself, and not abusing the AI in such a way is "nerfing" to you, then you're not really the kind of player I would have been talking to in the first place T_T. It's not at all how you'd fight against an actual person to begin with.

If they are dumb enough to fall for something repeatedly I would sure as hell do it over and over until it gets into their brain not to do that. The failure of the AI to learn from mistakes is the very reason they do not make good opponents.

Have you ever even played SSBM because if you have it's pretty shameful to say what you said.

Of course I have, I just don't play against the AI for the above reason. It's not fun to win by cheesing something over and over, and it's not fun to consciously stop myself from doing so just because the AI is deficient.

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[Sciros]

Well, to each his own, but I try to find ways to challenge myself in any game I get the urge. Just like some people who powerlevel their FF characters to level 80+ subsequently complain that the endgame areas are "too easy," and some keep Protoss Raping the Starcraft computer because the AI is too dumb to learn how to combat it, I suppose there's some people who try to abuse the AI's weaknesses in Smash. I don't find taking an approach that's not as abusive to be less fun; in fact I find it MORE fun. A comp

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[Solra Bizna]

I hate handicap in (at least) the original. There are few Smash Brothers experiences more frustrating than continuously pounding on someone for five minutes and having them start to appear to reel slightly under your blows, then having them accidentally do a Smash Attack which sends your 0%-damaged self flying out of the ring faster than Sonic on meth.

-:sigma.SB

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[steveo777]

For better or worse I crush everyone locally, so they don't really enjoy playing against me directly.

I thought that the auto-handicap was pretty good at fixing that problem. If you're good enough it'll get the truly bad, or new, players so powered up that only a couple of hits will knock you off any stage. Usually keeps things even. I'm looking forward to using Pit, Solid Snake, Ike, and Zero Suit Samus to beat Wario and team marshmallow (Kirby, Jigglypuff, and I'll include Meta-Knight) into collective pulps.

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[Miraba]

You should swap codes with one of my friends. I'm sure he'd be happy to have someone to play against online who's around his level.

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[Paradigm_Complex]

Direct him here: http://smashboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=88 [smashboards.com] Best place to look if you want higher level competition.

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[Miraba]

Will do, thanks. Is there a thread for swapping Wii codes for when Brawl comes out?

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[PlatyPaul]

I dunno - I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I really enjoyed Adventure Mode for the change-up in gameplay. The side-scrolling levels (i.e., Link's search for the Triforce, Captain Falcon's dash for the finish line) forced you to think in different ways, making for a nice diversion from the intensity of the standard melee. With the difficulty cranked up, the challenge of sheer survival in a scrollable, hostile world gets to be a fun pursuit on its own.

Additionally, I think that this will help me train u

The different modes

[strider2k]

Random matchups will be the way to fight strangers online while friend codes will be used against friends and family. So, there shouldn't be any complaints coming from the masses stating that it will bring the downfall of the online gaming experience. It may not be as elegant as the XBox360 as many claims, but would that stop you from destroying random players across the nation?

What was so bad about adventure mode?

[tarlos25]

I personally enjoyed adventure mode. Melees got boring after several thousand or so, but the adventure was enough of a challenge, especially on the higher difficulties, that it kept me amused, and still does.

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[TheVelvetFlamebait]

I really enjoyed the entire game. I know it's cool to criticise, but it has to be my favourite multiplayer game. I've played many thousands of vs matches, unlocked/finished everything, can beat level 9s easily, and yet I'm still finding new little tricks and combos to keep my game tight.

I've got *high* expectations Nintendo! Don't let me down!

jeeze...

[7Prime]

Okay, a number of things:

a) This is old news
b) This is probably one of the most minor Smash Bros updates to come out in over a month
c) Today's update about Samus's stun gun was probably more interesting, even

Heck, I've been following Brawl on a daily basis, and even I'm going to tag this one "slownewsday". Zonk, I actually tend to agree with your choice of articles, but this time, I'm not defending you, there's GOT TO BE more important shit out there than this.

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[Tofystedeth]

Today's update about Samus's stun gun was probably more interesting, even

So you found the fact that we learned a confirmed character has attacks that we all pretty much knew to exist more interesting than a rather large change in gameplay from the first 2 games, which many people have wanted to be implemented. As for it being old news, yeah, c'mon Slashdot. This was from Friday.

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[7Prime]

I was being facetious, of course Samus's gun thing was crap, but so was the multiplayer things. C'mon, Smash's adventure mode is no more than a formaility, even if it is going to be drastically expanded. The fact remains that beyond the first two weeks, no one is going to play it for anything but multiplayer. In fact, an extended adventure mode could be a nuesence since it will likely be required to unlock key elements. I'm a big fan of single player games, but NO ONE buys Smash for the adventure mode.

Now,

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[Whitemage12380]

Thinking about it slightly differently, that's a bit contradictory. I would argue that Smash's adventure mode is either a formality, or it is drastically expanded, which makes it a more prominent feature (therefore not a formality). It all depends on what the creator wants to do with it. The other statement I would take issue with is that nobody buys Smash for the adventure mode. The original Smash did not have an adventure mode, and the melee version was an experiment that didn't really have much substance

Great Feature!

[RenaissanceMN999]

Co-operative play is a game feature that seems to be making a comeback. I remember all kinds of games that had co-op play from when I was a kid. My younger brother and I played (and beat) games like Bubble-Bobble, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Jackal, Teenage Mutant Ninja Tutles II: The Arcade Game, Contra, Super Contra, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Strike Gunner, Super Mario Kart, and Rock 'n Roll Racing. A lot of developers were trying to emulate the experience of the arcades, where two or more player coo

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[moogaloonie]

I think it just topok a really long time for them to come up with a workable camera. In the 2D days, one character didn't really obscure the other, and it was relatively easy for players to stay together (except maybe for that impossible chasm jump in Cyborg Justice for Genesis). It looks like there are still similar problems with there camera mechanism in trying to keep the characters on screen at the same time. Not surprising, as the first few generations of 3D games had camera problems with only one c

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[meringuoid]

My younger brother and I played (and beat) games like ... Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers

That game was annoying. Most co-op games get Gauntletitis: one player gets too far ahead and the screen jams until they catch up. Cue negotiations over exactly what route to take to clear the blockage.

Not Chip 'n' Dale, though. No. Player 1 gets too far ahead, Player 2 drops off the bottom of the screen and dies.

For us, that game quickly degenerated into a wrestling match. Pick up the other player, throw him into a m

Great for the Target Market

[sickspeed6]

I am of the opinion that this feature is gonna be a huge selling point. Not with hardcore gamers, not with teenagers, but with families. Yet again, the game designers are banking on the fact that the wii is a family console. The opportunity for a father and son to play a game like smash is great, esp. in coop. its not the way the typical fighting game goes, but, it looks as though it will probably move a few more thousand units off the shelves around the holiday season as the game is released.

I can't wait

[sunsfan1991]

I have never played a SSB title, IMO a adventure mode will add greatly and help me get used to the controls before playing some of you vets online.