Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

*******DISCLAIMER: SUPER SMASH BROS BRAWL SPOILERS BELOW*******

Well well well, it seems that Brawl has been released in Japan. Famitsu (one of the most hardcore gaming magazines in the world) gave the game a perfect 40. You can read a translated version of the review here. It's pretty obvious from reading the reviews that the reviewers are casual players not at all interested in the competetive aspect of the game. One thing that rung true with each of the four reviewers is how "random" the game is. stare That's great if you suck, but not great for us competetive players. The less randomness, the better.

Now that the game is out, the complete roster is finally known. The only thing I care about with the roster is that my favorite character, Young Link, is in it. MANY players (North American in particular) wanted Young Link removed, so I'm glad to see him back, even if he is ugly like he was in WindWaker. I watched a gameplay video with him in it. He seems essentially the same as Melee, although it looks like his up+B gives him better lift. I REALLY don't like the cell-shaded look, but I guess I'm going to have to get used to it.

Sin has started to play Brawl HRC (Samus vid). The strats are basically the same as Melee so far. It seems that HRC strats will be easier to max because of the slower gameplay. I have not heard if the advanced tactics from Melee have made a return. I'll update this journal entry when I get an answer. EDIT: both wavedashing and lcancelling are out. I'm really disappointed on that last one. stelzig tells me that aerial landings in general aren't as laggy as they are in the previous two SSB games, so hopefully having lcancelling removed won't be TOO much of a setback.

Man, this game sounds like such a letdown. Lots of randomness, no advanced tactics, Celda, Lyn not playable, slow gameplay (although this one is to be expected)... not that I expected any different, but it's still humbling to have my worst fears confirmed.

Maybe now I'll have to get a broadband adapter and find that online hack so I can play Melee online... crying

EDIT 2: Brawl vs vid (Chen vs Edd) - This is Brawl's peak metagame at the moment. You can see them trying to lcancell out of relfex, rofl. Poor souls...

EDIT 3: Auto lcancells are still in.

I've also been reading some reactions over at Smashboards over the new game. The game is supposedly very choppy in places and shows a lot of slowdown at critical moments, even offline.

There's been a new advanced tactic discovered already. Apparently it's possible to drop from a ledge and auto up-b onto it. I'm not sure what that means for recovery/edgeguarding games, but I've heard it's very handy in stalling matches. stare

More reactions can be had here. (page 16 onward)

EDIT 3: Directional influence, wobbling, and crouch cancelling have all been removed. stare

*******END BRAWL SPOILERS*******

In Melee news, I did a 10 minute test run with SWs new Item Catcher strat shortly after he released it. I forgot to mention it after he revealed the strategy. He modified BCLs original strat by using two fire flowers instead of one. I did a 10-minute test run in vs mode to see how much more efficient it was than my strat. I found that I got a little over 800,000 points in 10 minutes. Compare this to my original estimate of 470,000 for the Item Catcher strat I created for my 55 million run (although it ended up yielding over 500,000 points per 10 minutes).

In Gaia-related news, I've given ronek the bonus I promised him (about a third of my profits from the loan), and I've traded my 2nd gen Biancamella along with some pure for a 1st gen.