Smash Bros. Really?

So, the past few weeks I have been doing far more drinking then I have gaming, which can account for my lack of play time and posting. But now that the partying time is over, I have returned to play games. Where I left of was in Madworld. I began playing it again and I found that this game was not at all amusing anymore. I have learned all the combos, and it just seemed as though I have done this all before. The environment changes, but other then the look of the level, nothing in the game has changed. I had not felt as though the game was offering me anything that I havent seen before. As i kept playing, the target system became even more annoying and I finally said fuck it. I threw down Madworld probably for good. Interesting concept, but its about 3 hours worth of content stretched into 8 hours of gameplay. So it was time to move on...

At the houses I was at, Super Smash Bros. Brawl was constantly being played. My history with the Smash Bros. series is not exactly spectacular. I never owned the 64 game, so I can't quite comment on it, but I can go on for hours about my strong distaste for Melee. See, my friends are all gamers of sorts, but most of them are console gamers. And to them, Melee was a crowning achievement because it offered re playability and multiplayer fun. For me on the other hand, Melee was not more then a big old ball of aggrivation. Being console gamers, my friends became overwhelmingly good at this game, and it sort of left me behind in the dust.. The way I looked at it was the game was fun, but i have much better things to do then play it on my own time. It offered what I felt to be very basic gameplay and lacked quality multiplayer, meaning internet play. I played when my friends did, but when I had my choice, I opted for a computer internet game. This created a horrible inbalance for me. They were all extremely good, and I was very mediocre. I am not someone who enjoys losing, and for the reasons mentioned, I had no real interest for playing it on my own to get better, so i was stuck getting my ass kicked left and right. My friends killed melee for me. So due to that, I never got excited about Brawl.

But as said, Brawl was being played everywhere I was. So I began playing it fairly regularly. We played a bunch of multiplayer matches, and my opponents were not people who I had played against each time so it was a fresh even playing field, and I actually was not half bad compared to them. My friend Ziggy who owns the game has been trying to unlock all the trophies in the game, and he is still missing the one for beating 100 man melee with all characters, and 15 minute Brawl. Since I was pretty much hanging out with him each day, I decided to help. And to my delight, I found that I sort of enjoyed the game.

First off, in playing the 100 man brawl, I was forced to play with characters I was not used to. This showed me that the game had addressed one of the biggest issues I had with Melee, character depth. Brawl offers far more characters who feel like their own characters rather then cookie cutter characters. As I played through the majority of the characters, I found that each one for the most part had their own play style which I found to be a great improvement over the first.

As for the 100 man and 15 minute melee, ive remembered why this game is bittersweet. Prime example is just now. It has been a rough night, and Zig and myself were playing. I decided to beat it with Sonic. First try of the night, I kill 99 of the 100, then my Sonic counterpart roflstomps me. I scream into a pillow. I chug my beer. Try 2: I cruise through the first 60, then hit a rough patch, but I rebound nicely and I get down to 4, and an item is triggered and I get killed. I drop a young frankenstien quote: "If science teaches us anything, it is to accept our successes, and our failures, with quite dignity and grace" then I proceed to almost rip my controller in half. Try 3: Same deal, die at 10. Try 4: I get back down to just me and my Sonic counterpart. I miss a couple of smashes, and he nearly kills me twice, but I finally knock him off. I have not felt this gratified in a long ass time.

This is the hook of Smash Brothers. You are more frustrated then you can comprehend, and it will eat at you. You fail in bullshit ways, you will fail out of your own missed opportunity, and your blood will boil. You will spit blood. You will scream, smash and kill. But when you finally accomplish your goal, the gratification makes it all worth the while.

Perhaps today, I have learned to appreciate the Smash Bros. series.