14 DAY TRIAL // According to reports from Nintendo of America, the sky is the limit for its latest fighting game. It was released in the United States on March 9 and has since sold over 1.4 million units, of which around 874,000 we're sold in the first day. In the first week, the game is reported to have sold more than 120 game units per minute.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl comes from a prestigious lineage of fighting games that sold really well. The previous Smash Bros. Melee, sold for the Gamecube only, broke records with over 7 million sold.
The strength of the game lies in its liberal use of famous videogame characters. The most well known of these is, of course, Mario. Sega also released rights for Sonic the Hedgehog to be used, while Nintendo also contributed with the iconic stealth fighter Solid Snake (of course, cardboard box included). Each character has four specific moves it can deploy and there's a variety of objects and projectiles that can be used. Oh, and an invincible Pokemon can be called upon to assist.
The gameplay in Super Smash is not that of a traditional fighting game. There are no health bars and no knockouts and instead the player must focus on throwing his opposition off the combat surface. A percentage bar measures how further a character flies when hit and when someone is propelled out of the ring, they lose the fight.
There's a focus on the player-versus-player aspect of the game, with up to four being able to challenge each other locally or through the Nintendo Wi-fi system. Up to four controllers can be used from the Wii Remote to the classic Gamecube controller.
Even though some reviewers dismissed the game as lacking innovation and as reusing the Melee elements too much, it seems that the old Mario, Sonic and company again offered a Nintendo title that is commercially very successful.