Ask anybody who had a hand in developing the original Super Smash Brothers for the N64 back in 1999, and they would have told you that they thought that the quirky brawler was destined for the bargain bin. Who knew that a game featuring a battle to the death between all of Nintendo’s famed mascots would become such a sensation? Nintendo fans, that’s who.

And make no mistake, Brawl is a phenomenon. Nintendo has done a masterful job of stoking anticipation for the sequel to the bestselling GameCube game of all time, and it’s backed up the hype with a bona fide system seller. Super Smash Brothers Brawl’s addictive mix of nostalgia, platforming and multiplayer party action is the kind of game that can keep Nintendo fans going for months, if not years.

It’s been said before, but for those picking up the controller for the first time, don’t go in expecting a traditional fighter. Super Smash Brothers will never be as deep as say, Street Fighter III or Soul Calibur, but it doesn’t want to be either.

At the core of the experience is entertaining platform brawling action that is meant to be easy for anybody to pick up while still providing depth for the hardcore fans. Call it the everyman fighter, the kind of party game that leaves even jaded players laughing despite themselves as they get blasted from the stage by a hammer or a well-aimed Pokeball.

Brawl maintains that experience, but also manages to significantly improve upon it, which is no small feat. The graphics in particular have received quite a face lift, with stages like Lylat Tour and the Fire Emblem Castle featuring brilliant pyrotechnics and dizzying (though sometimes distracting) vistas.

In many ways, the lovely stages are almost like characters themselves, with each one lovingly reproduced from the original source material while offering numerous cameo appearances from series appropriate characters.

The improved graphics extend not just to the stages and the more detailed character models (it’s fair to say that Samus has never looked better, perhaps surpassing even Metroid Prime 3), but the new Final Smashes. Designed to keep the game fun for players of all skill levels, Final Smashes will randomly float onto stages in the form of a colored ball at different points throughout the match, prompting all players to immediately drop what they’re doing to try and grab it. Being the closest is no guarantee that you’ll grab it, as even a few well-aimed kicks will probably just send it flying away, and even if you manage to snag it, it can still be knocked away.

After a few seconds of simultaneously laughing and cursing, one player will inevitably be able to activate the powerful attack, with varying degrees of success. Characters like Fox, Kirby, Olimar and Samus sport absolutely devastating final smashes that are simultaneously very pleasing to the eye, while others have somewhat less effective attacks (Donkey Kong, for instance).

Newcomers and casual fans will be pleased with the addition, but more serious players might be turned off by the random element of the attack. Luckily, those seeking a purer experience can off final smashes with the rest of the items.

Super Smash Brothers has traditionally been a multiplayer-centric experience. Melee featured a nice array of challenges and platforming stages in comparison to its N64 predecessor, but Brawl manages to once again up the ante with Subspace Emissary, an adventure mode featuring numerous levels and boss battles.

If you happen to have a friend around, it’ll even let you work together, though sadly not online. The story, which was penned by Final Fantasy VII’s Kazushige Nojima and is primarily told through cutscenes, is largely inconsequential, but it’s still fun to wander through the adventure mode’s expansive worlds in search of new secrets and other easter eggs.

After Subspace Emissary is cleared, players will still find plenty to do in the form of numerous challenge scenarios with differing objectives, the usual target practice and home run challenges and a new custom level editor. And if you don’t happen to feel like tackling any of those challenges, there’s still plenty of joy to be found in simply flipping through the game’s hundreds of trophies and stickers. All of this comes even before the multiplayer, which is guaranteed to represent the bulk of your Brawl experience.

Unfortunately, the Wii’s online functionality is notoriously obtuse, and fans aren’t likely to find Brawl a large improvement over other Nintendo games. Random online play is nice, but connections have a habit of dropping when you’re trying to organize a game, and the lack of meaningful worldwide rankings or ladders renders the whole experience a bit meaningless.

More fun is the ability to connect with friends across the Internet and play via friend codes, though the well-documented lack of a universal friend codes system makes it all a bit of a chore. It’s a shame that Sakurai didn’t devote the same care to Brawl’s online play when the upcoming Mario Kart Wii features everything from periodic online competitions to worldwide time trial rankings. For a game that revolves around multiplayer play, you would think that Brawl would naturally lend itself to such features, and they are sorely missed.

Still, despite the disappointing lack of friendly online play (what would Brawl be like on the Xbox 360, I wonder?), it’s a pretty meaty package, especially when compared to pretty much other Wii game on the market. Detractors, and there are plenty of them, are unlikely to find anything that will cause them to warm to the games, but returning fans will be thrilled to find that, after a few tweaks, the series mechanics remain fresh as ever.

It’s the exemplar of Nintendo’s franchise model, providing an experience that’s more of the same, but still manages to raise the bar in almost every way. Like Melee, Brawl will be a multiplayer mainstay for years to come.

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