Why I haven’t played Smash Bros. Brawl in over a week

Super Smash Bros. Brawl’s launch last week was a huge success for Nintendo, selling a record breaking (for Nintendo) 1.4 Million units. I, myself, even went to pick up the game at Gamestop for their midnight launch and was amazed to see in the realm of 75 people lined up outside waiting for it. Clearly, there’s been a lot of enthusiasm for the game.

And now that it’s out, the reviews have also been glowing. So now that I finally have it, I should be playing the hell out of it, right?

Well, I haven’t. In fact, I haven’t played the game since the day after it released. What’s wrong with me?

Aside from my traveling this weekend (and actually trying to play the game on a Wii that unfortunately has the disc reading problem), I just haven’t felt all that motivated to play it. It’s not that I don’t like the game: it’s exceedingly well polished, a chock-full of content, and perhaps the most amazing celebration of (mostly) Nintendo gaming ever made available. But for me, the single player game is just not all that compelling. Yeah, the “story” mode is kind of fun, although there’s nothing particularly amazing about it. Playing it for more than 30-60 minutes is about all that’s interesting to me. It’s clear to me, as it sort of was with the previous games in the series, that this is a multiplayer game.

Perhaps this is a sad sign of just getting older, but other than a couple rounds and some coop with Megan, I’ve barely had a chance to play it multiplayer. It’s difficult for me to get all my (interested) friends together in one place for some Smash Bros. Everyone obviously has their jobs and obligations to attend to, they live in different places, and obviously Smash Bros. isn’t necessarily the only thing that people like to do on a social occasion anyway. Not only that, Smash Bros. has a somewhat specific target audience, and won’t necessarily appeal to all of your friends in the same way that a game like, say, Rock Band might. I think this is, in a way, why online multiplayer gaming has become so important, and why it’s become so popular via XBox Live. The Nintendo crowd that grew up with the great Nintendo multiplayer games like Mario Kart and Goldeneye are getting older and don’t have the ability to necessarily get together a gaming night with their friends so that they can play the latest multiplayer game. Instead, while not exactly the same, Xbox Live has still given the ability for friends to easily play together, chat, trash-talk, etc… almost as if they were playing with each other in person.

This is why I, at least, had a lot of hope for Smash Bros. on the Wii. At least in this generation Nintendo has some online gaming, so I’d still be able to play with friends and others online when I wasn’t able to in person. Unfortunately, as I detailed last week, I’ve had major problems with the online multiplayer. I’ll give it another shot this weekend, but even if it worked as intended, it’d still be severely flawed. As I ranted a long time ago, friend codes still suck, as does the lack of voice chat. I don’t expect the online Brawl experience to completely replicate the in-person experience, but as we all know, the best Smash games are the rowdy ones. Nintendo’s response to this is a complete joke. Not everyone has Skype readily accessible to them near their Wii’s, and even if they do, what an unnecessary pain in the ass. Online play with your friends, therefore, won’t be all that much different than online play with strangers. They’re both completely devoid of vocal interaction, removing the “personal” feeling that you’re actually playing with other humans, and the silence is deafening.

In any case, like I said, it’s not that it’s a bad game. I’ll be bringing it with me on an upcoming trip where it’s sure to get a lot of use for multiplayer, and I’m sure it’ll be a complete blast. Nintendo still dominates the hardcore, in-person multiplayer scene. It’s just sad that they’re still stuck in the minor league when it comes to online play.