Comments on: Exploring Super Smash Bros. Brawl

By: Dan Bruno

Dan Bruno — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:43:01 +0000

Misha: Thanks for coming by. We could argue specifics (I enjoy the Mario Kart series and think Galaxy is one of the best games I’ve played in years, despite my primarily Sega upbringing), but your point still stands. There is a lot of “brand loyalty” in video games, and a lot of baggage comes with that — expectations of shared gaming experiences, milking franchises for easy money, etc. I’ve actually been working on a post about exactly this issue, so I hope you stick around!

By: Misha from Mefi

Misha from Mefi — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:52:29 +0000

I believe you have a valid point about the character-driven success of Smash Brothers Brawl among Nintendo devotees.

One problem I have, in fact, is that we aren’t at all Nintendo fans, and we bought a Wii recently. Now, we love the Wii and have a lot of fun with it, but I was disappointed in some of the games we chose. We based our choices on game ratings, but it seems we lack the shared experiences of the Nintendo crowd and so, for example, Super Mario Galaxy has been a huge disappointment. We cannot fathom why in the world the game was so popular and had such great reviews and can only attribute it to Nintendo Fanboy mindset.

To put this in perspective, we haven’t had the same experience at all with our PS3; all the games that came highly reviewed met or exceeded our expectations, as did Bioshock and Halo 3 (among others) for the Xbox 360.

But Nintendo devotees seem to have a much stronger connection to their favorites that transcends simple gameplay and causes them to embrace any vehicle which showcases their favorite characters, which I think has led to some pretty poor games as a sad side effect, like the “party” or “race” games that are just a bunch of cartoon characters thrown into very basic game play.

By: Dan Bruno

Dan Bruno — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:05:10 +0000

CPFace: You may be right. It’s odd how the Virtual Console affects the valuation of old games. Using VC to buy all the titles from, say, Sonic Mega Collection for the GameCube would cost well over $50 (assuming, of course, they were all available). But we’d all balk at paying that much for a four-year-old GameCube disc.

Legion: Interesting! Does anyone know if there’s been an official statement from Nintendo about this? I’d be curious to know what the offending songs are. if I remember correctly there was a battle theme that was, er, heavily inspired by Johnny B. Goode. Damn you, Chuck Berry!

By: Legion

Legion — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:23:48 +0000

They can’t put up Earthbound (or any of the Mother series) due to music copyright issues.

By: CPFace

CPFace — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:36:50 +0000

I can’t shake the feeling that, if there was no such thing as the Virtual Console, the Masterpieces section would have contained full versions of many of the games. Maybe not Ocarina of Time, but certainly the original Legend of Zelda.

By: Dan Bruno

Dan Bruno — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:40:08 +0000

Thanks for the kind words, Korey — I hope you do stay and follow the blog!

I too am curious about exactly how big of a following the EarthBound/Mother series has. They’re notoriously vocal fans, which could certainly make them seem like a larger group than they actually are. If only Nintendo would put out EarthBound on the Virtual Console!

By: Korey

Korey — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:20:08 +0000

Congratulations on starting up a new blog. I look forward to following it. You made a lot of really good points about Smash Bros. In fact, I probably play it more as a collection game than as a fun multiplayer game. But that’s just because I tend to play more games solo than anything else. I really hope Nintendo decides to bring out the Mother series in the States. I know there’s a following for those games, but I wonder what the numbers actually are? With the inclusion of Pit in Brawl, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if a new Kid Icarus game is announced in the not-too-distant future. Great first post.