Wow

Without any reservation, the game of the year is Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Nothing can come close in terms of content. No game has made me feel like a kid again quite like this.

The closest I can come to this game is the HeMan Christmas Special. It’s a largely forgettable piece of schlock, but it was basically how all the rules come apart, and suddenly Skeletor is trying to save Christmas. That doesn’t make sense, but it does because it’s CHRISTMAS. That’s how Smash Brothers works, in an exuberant role where sense is made simply on youthful wonder. The pieces fit because our brain makes it so, and the writers make sure all the right moves are there. Suddenly, you cheer for HeMan and Skeletor.

Nintendo is on a role, and I realize how this game was made, really, for kids my age. My first Mario was Super Mario Brothers. My first Zelda game was The Legend of Zelda. We are well past the point where a seasoned gamer doesn’t necessarily have the same pedigree, but for them, this cake known as SSBB is no less dense, with no less topping. It is an exuberant love letter to gamers and especially those who can tolerate Nintendo. I say tolerate because, quite simply, there are those who don’t think these games matter.

Nintendo games are about pure joy. Immersive fun, the unexpected moments, and scope. Between this and Super Mario Galaxy, I feel I have two of the best games for gamers ever made.

I can’t get over how it felt when I fired up my Gamecube, and against all reason plugged in my Gamecube controller. The reason for this is simple- rumble. I want to rumble. I want to feel the game, as that’s a big part of what made melee so immersive. It works, it works like an old friend. A couple hours in, I discovered the game demos for old school classics. When I found myself, on a 1080p plasma, gliding and soaring and jumping through the first level of Super Mario Bros. demo, I felt like a kid again. A stupid, hurt kid who likes to imagine.

I don’t want this game to bore me. I never want to find every secret, find its missions borderline on the tedious. I want this game to excite me. And the best part? The game seems so full, so rich and so ready, that I can honestly say it never wants me to feel that way either. How many studios ever, ever aim for that? Not even Nintendo, not even Bungie, not even Blizzard. It’s so big.

I feel like I’ve been given a towering cake, loaded with candles and frosting for my birthday. I feel like any sort of review structure would hinder what I feel is a totally visceral game. I can find very few faults.

Reviewers fault the friend codes, the lack of online messaging, and a structured tournament. The fools… this game is about fun. The ire and languages and consequences of the regular online gaming community are not here. Nintendo has made too many inroads with families to risk the kind of language and people that Halo abides by. It makes perfect business sense, and the hassles are short-lived. Connecting online tonight was hard, but no system is perfect. Slowly, I started vs one other person. Then two, then four. Suddenly it was a friend’s basement again. A girl’s bed. The glow of the Christmas tree in the next room, the smell of forgotten pizza. It triggers emotions and memories. It’s the Yankee Candle of gaming.

If I have any complaint, it’s that the graphics have become too detailed in this game. Normally, that’s not a bad thing, but Nintendo characters have always had a bit of a singular color pop. By adding shading and graphics, it tends to make the character design look busy. It’s an odd point, but I do believe that many sort of games need simplicity. Pikachu looks especially terrifying: the added lighting and effects have made it look less like a cartoon and more like a possessed stuffed animal. Which is sad, because if you look at the Pikachu in Melee, you see the cartoon electric rat in all its bouncy happiness. I wish they had gone for a simpler, cleaner look with more polish, instead of more detail. The more real something becomes, the more fake it feels. Advent Children feels a lot more static than the Iron Giant, for example, despite the vastly superior visuals of AC.

But back to the game. I am so, so glad I bought this. I’m so, so glad I can literally play anyone in the world who has this game in the entire world (something not even XBL could fathom). I’m so, so glad I can share this with friends. What game could dare live up to that?