Note: This mailbag is pretty much spoiler-free, except for the last few questions. If you don't want to know about the game's final secrets, stop reading when you see a spoiler-laden question!

No More Heroes seems to be an important enough title that warrants much attention. Its success is important for Nintendo as it'll show that the Wii is a lucrative platform for third party M-rated software. Since there seems to be no explanation as to why the Smash Bros. game was delayed for an entire month, this seems to fit quite well: Keep such a killer-app title from releasing near the same time as another important title. Nintendo does this with their own first party titles and I think its smart business on their part to be mindful of what the third parties are doing. Personally, I know I wouldn't think much of NMH knowing that SSBB's release is right around the corner.

Oh, and as for Virtual Console, where the hell is Paper Boy!!

- peacefulheishi

Richmond, VA

The release date of No More Heroes had absolutely nothing to do with Brawl's delay. Third parties often time their releases around when Nintendo will release its big games, not the other way around. While Nintendo likes seeing third parties do well with their big Wii or DS games, it knows that the sooner it gets out its own big games (i.e., Super Smash Bros. Brawl), the more money it will make. This is especially true because Nintendo is nearing the end of its fiscal year. Delaying the game for that extra week in Japan, that extra month in the United States, and until who-knows-when internationally will cost Nintendo and its shareholders a lot of revenue and profit.

That being said, you can bet that Capcom didn't mind the Brawl delay. Remember, Brawl was originally supposed to be out before Christmas (and at launch before that), meaning Capcom had banked on it already being out by the time NMH was released.

You're going to get a lot of this, but if you play online you have to let us know if voice chat is included or not. If not please explain how communication functions.

Also general opinions on the different control schemes would be great as I am interested in playing with the Wii remote and the Classic Controller.

- TheFleece

NYC

There is no voice chat during Brawl online play. Not even when playing with friends. Nintendo probably never considered adding it. (There is no official voice communication option for the Wii anyway, so how would you talk during matches?) All you can do during online matches is assign small, 20-letter phrases to each of the four taunt directions, which will be shown above your character as a kind of cartoon talk bubble as you taunt during friend matches. When playing against random people, you cannot communicate to each other in any way, shape, or form. You won't even know who you are fighting against.

While everyone would have liked to see voice chat, anyone who has played games over Xbox Live knows that it's a double-edged sword. Talking with people while playing games is great, until that 13-year-old kid who cusses like a sailor ruins it for everyone. Since Nintendo's console is geared toward families, you can understand why that would be a nightmare scenario for Wii owners.

The taunting messages during friend matches are actually kind of funny. In the scant few online matches I've played, I've seen messages specific to a character, specific to a stage, specific to a taunt pose, or just general messages that make no sense whatsoever. (One of my messages is "Bizarro, I'm helping.") It's somewhat annoying, but that's the point, since saying the messages requires that you taunt. That's annoying in its own right, and only wants to make you beat the crap out of your friends even more.

I'll touch on controller schemes later in this mailbag.

I've actually been curious as to whether or not it's possible to "turn off" certain characters in the game the way you can turn off certain items and stages. Because Wario is the single dark cloud on the otherwise sunny day that is this game, and if it's possible for me to never, ever have to see or hear him I'll be ecstatic.

- Shin Gallon

Sorry, you've got to see his ugly mug every time you hit the character selection screens. And since he's initially available, you can't just not unlock him. If you want to, you can select Wario's classic outfit with the red and blue colors. If you squint, he almost looks like Mario, or more accurately, Captain Lou Albano of the Super Mario Bros. Super Show.

Hi guys,

Just some question - is it possible to play the Japanese version of SSBB on an European Wii (PAL)? Do you think it make sense to import the Japanese version of SSBB - I don´t want to wait til the European release date of SSBB because I believe that Nintendo will release SSBB first during the summer time or maybe later. Best regards

- Phil

Hamburg Germany

Just like with all Wii games, only games purchased in your region will work with Wii hardware in your region. Therefore, you cannot play the Japanese (NTSC-J) version of Brawl on a European (PAL) Wii. In order to play the game in Europe, you would need to import a Japanese Wii along with a Japanese copy of the game. That's what we had to do in order to bring you our Brawl coverage.

In your case, by German friend, I would absolutely not import the Japanese version. If I were you, I would start thinking about possibly importing the North American version (and the Wii to go with it). It's going to be in English, which I am told is much easier for a Westerner to understand than Japanese. There's also something to consider for the online component. I haven't got to play the game with anyone in Japan at all, and I'm wondering if it has something to do with the fact that I'm too far away from them for a connection to work. I did play against an NWR forum member from Florida via my friends list, but the connection was very poor and we had a very laggy, though quite playable, set of matches.

I worry a bit that because I have the Japanese version of the game, the connection to Nintendo's Japanese servers will lag my Internet signal to the point where it would be impossible to play a good match against anyone with the U.S. version, which would connect to NOA's servers. This is speculation on my part, however, since I've yet to get in enough online play to make a fair assessment.

If I were you, I would wait until the game comes out in Europe before you buy the game. Remember, you'll be playing Brawl for years after you buy it, so whatever version of the game you wind up with you'll be stuck with for a very long time.

I've heard around about the final 35 character roster and how almost all of the characters can be unlocked by playing the first player mode. I'm a little skeptical of this only because of the various ways that characters had to be unlocked in both previous smash games. I'm wondering if there are more unlockables that come from completing event matches or from other places in the game. Considering that there were some characters that weren't unlocked in Melee until a large amount of play time was built up, I'm just a little dubious/concerned that they made the complete roster so easily unlockable. Is it possible there are hidden characters beyond the game's all-characters-unlocked message?

- dneboy10

First of all, you can still unlock almost every character in the game without playing through Subspace Emissary. If you don't care for the single player mode or don't want to play it right away, you will still unlock characters through multiplayer. In fact, there are some characters you will be able to unlock faster or more easily in multiplayer mode or via event matches.

However, the easiest way to unlock most of the 15 characters that are hidden from the start is to play Subspace Emissary. The single player mode by itself will take about 10 hours to complete, which is a significant amount of time to play the game. And it's not like you'll be handed the characters on a silver platter, either. The game gets tougher as you get further in and unlock more characters. Some of them are very well-hidden. And the only way to unlock Sonic is to beat the mode outright.

It's not like it was terribly hard to unlock all the secret characters in Melee. It just took a really long time to do. Brawl gets around that by letting you unlock everyone relatively quickly (within 30 or 40 hours, at the most), and you'll be glad for that.

Stages are the real hot commodity in Brawl. While the character roster has been well-known for a while, no one really knows how many total stages will be in the game when it's all said and done. There are at least a dozen hidden stages (including Melee callbacks) and it's not always obvious how those can be unlocked (unless you cheat and look at GameFAQs like me). There are some pretty sweet hidden stages this time, and unlike the character roster, none of them can really be considered "clones" of one another.

Naturally, there's a ton of other stuff to unlock, too. Not all the game modes are unlocked from the start, and there's always a seemingly endless amount of trophies, stickers, and music tracks to find. You will be unlocking things all over the place for a long time, so you needn't worry.

As with every smash fan, everyone wants more characters. And with the cap finally revealed at 35, everyone is both glad and sad. My question is, since this is the first smash game with online connectivity: Would there be a chance to have downloadable characters in the future?

- Insanetalldwarf

Los Angeles

It might be possible because of how Brawl can auto-download the stage-of-the-day from the stage builder, but I doubt we'll ever see something like full character downloads from Nintendo in the near future. I mostly say that out of extreme pessimism and Nintendo's track record for things like this, but also because at the moment, Nintendo doesn't have a plan for adding on downloaded content to existing games.

Activision wanted to have downloadable songs for Guitar Hero III, but it didn't happen. The reason why Electronic Arts hasn't announced a release window for Rock Band Wii is because it wants to see if it can have downloadable songs work on the Wii. It would like to, since that would bring in a lot more revenue in the long run than just a standalone version of the game like on the PlayStation 2. Activision is probably pressing Nintendo about that for Guitar Hero IV for the same reason.

The way I see it, if Nintendo isn't in a hurry to make DLC happen for third parties, it's not that interested for doing it in its own Wii games any time soon. Then again, Professor Layton on the DS will have new puzzles every week, so maybe we'll see similar things happening on the Wii. But a new character in Smash Bros. Brawl is asking quite a lot, in my opinion.

One of things that piqued my interest most about Brawl was the inclusion of an all new Adventure mode.

The Subspace Emmissary is Smash Bros first real attempt at a one player experience. What are your impressions on it? It seems Sakurai spent a lot of time fine tuning this part of the game. From what you've seen was the time spent on it well worth it? Or would you have preferred the time be spent on a different aspect of the game.

- Sessha

The inclusion of Subspace Emissary is worth it for the overwhelming moments of fanboyism you will have when playing it. It's also a hell of a lot of fun to play through. To me, it feels like a Kirby game created for the people who remember what an awesome Kirby game is supposed to play like (Super Star, Crystal Shards), only it features all the different Nintendo characters. This is obviously because Sakurai also designed those classic Kirby games, and so the levels reek of classic Kirby gameplay elements. The slide-a-pults, the doors, the save rooms, the final sequence, the hidden areas, and a lot of the little things about the game reminded me of the good ol' days, and I absolutely loved it.

The story that ties everything together also has its HOLY CRAP THAT IS AWESOME moments that will require many-a-fanboy to procure a fresh pair of pants. (For both reasons.) The cutscenes between gameplay sequences don't have any dialog, so anyone can understand what's going on. The mixture of Nintendo characters works for the most part, but there are many ragged jumps in the story that don't quite make sense, and even after suspending belief to accept the fact that Samus and Pikachu could be in the same scene, let alone the same story, there are parts of the game that are so unbelievably ridiculous that you can't help but notice.

However, the gameplay isn't perfect. The SSB fighting engine translates well into Subspace Emissary for the action sequences, but it's terrible for platforming. Jumping and moving off of platforms is not easy to do when you need to do it in a hurry, which can cause multiple deaths. Also, we learned that later on in the game, as we were getting our butts handed to us by some of the nastier enemies, was that the best course of action was to avoid combat altogether and run right on by any threats. Why put enemies there if they are just going to get passed by?

The bottom line for me is that you'll enjoy playing through the mode and will push to complete it as your get nearer the end. Speaking of that, the final boss will make you cry for your mommy. He's one of those impossibly hard bosses that will easily crush you, but will want to keep fighting anyway because you know you can beat him. I can't imagine how anyone can take him on Intense difficulty...

First of all I hate you for getting Brawl but at the same time I love you because I get to find out how freakin' sweet the game is. So tell me, are there more 3rd party fighters than just Sonic and Snake? Don't give names. just small hints if there are. I hope the blue bomber Megaman made it in.

- Brawls #1 FAN

Nope, there are only two third party characters in Brawl. Sonic and Snake are in, and that's it. I'm very disappointed at this. Although Sonic and Snake are both awesome characters (especially Sonic), I wonder why Sakurai and Nintendo only settled for them. Actually, if there are only going to be two third-party characters, why is Snake one of them? He made his name on the PlayStation systems. Other characters can make a better case for appearing in a Nintendo all-star fighting game, like Mega Man. He seems more out of place than anyone else.

Having more outsiders on the roster would have not taken away from the main Nintendo lineup, especially considering how many of them are clones of each other. Four third party characters would have been the sweet spot, and I can think of two characters that could easily be cut from Brawl that would have made room for them, if that was the problem. I guess we can only dream about what could have been ... or play World Mix Dream TV Fighters instead.

Hi,

Any idea of how many assist trophies and pokemons are in Brawl? Also; how does the number of pokemons and items compare to the previous versions?

Thanks in advance.

- Layth

Canada

Assist trophies and Pokéball characters show up in the "credits" after clearing classic mode. I don't remember how many there are of each, but I believe I've come across something like a dozen or two dozen of each up to this point.

What I know for sure is that as you encounter more assist trophies, you'll find new characters. Early on I seemed to summon Excitebike all of the time, but now I'm finding characters I never expected to see. The last one I found was Issac from Golden Sun. Not only was that really cool, but seeing him in 3D made me want a new Golden Sun game on Wii very, very badly.

Hey guys,

Now this is what I call a mailbag! So, one of my favorite things to do in Melee was being able to grab items in midair by pressing Z at the right time. For one, it was really useful for snatching an item before your opponent, but it also made for some really cool combos (constantly grabbing a ray gun and throwing it into people without letting it hit the ground was my personal favorite :D). Anyway, I heard that this function was either downgraded or taken away completely for Brawl! If you guys can verify this, I would really appreciate it!

Thanks

Mike

- Robageejammin

NY

On the contrary, I'm finding it extremely easy to pick things up while airborne. I don't remember picking up items in Melee as deftly as I am in Brawl. I even managed to catch thrown items a few times already, something I can only remember doing once or twice in the years and years I've played the last game. I don't think you need to worry about picking up stuff in the heat of battle!

I know you can start a fight as your choice of Samus, but I was wondering if the only way to switch back and forth between the two Samus characters during gameplay was with the smash ball, or is there a button to make the switch when you want.

ps Great site best Nintendo site on the Internet, I have been an everyday visitor since the pre-Planet GameCube days with Billy and Louie teh cat keep up the great work!

- Nut

Ohio

A recent update on the Smash Bros. Dojo blog revealed that it's possible to go from Samus to Zero Suit Samus any time you want by hitting down-up-down on the D-Pad very quickly. The few times we tried to do this, it wasn't successful. Apparently you must do this secret motion extremely quickly for it to work, and in doing so you'll be left vulnerable to attack. You can start a match as Zero Suit Samus by holding down a shield button as the match starts loading.

During my hours and hours of multiplayer time, I noticed that everyone wanted to play as Zero Suit Samus instead of regular Samus. ZSS is very fast without her suit, and has some pretty good attacks with the gun/whip thing she uses. Regular Samus has pretty much the same moves as before, but this time she's much more floaty than in Melee. I was never a Samus user to begin with, but with the increased speed of many other characters, she seems to be too slow to bother using. That's just how I see it, though.

Hey there, NWR. Hopefully you can answer my questions since no one else has :) For Brawl online team battles, can you play like this?:

You + Random VS Random Team

You + Local Friend VS Random Team

You + Wi-Fi Friend VS Random Team

You + Friend (Local or Wi-Fi) VS Friends Team

Thanks!

- sergioalb64

Baldwin Park, CA

Yes, no, no, yes. The online sector of the game is broken up into against friends and against anyone. Against anyone, you can only play as one player with no other local player on the same Wii as you. There are options to play free-for-all or in teams (you paired with a random person against two other random persons), but that's it.

With friends, you have more options. Up to three people can play on the same Wii as you against one or two of your friends, and you can team up with a friend against other friends. You also have more options as to what kind of games you want to play, such as longer time matches or stock matches. But there is no way for friends to play against random people, as the two are totally partitioned off from each other.

Ive been seeing quite a few smash vids recently and ive been peeved by one little thing: those big player indicators that float above every character during a brawl. I s there an option to turn them off? If not, do they get in the way? I feel that they clutter the screen way too much and the game just looks better without them.

thanks a lot

- SeaBass

Miami

I haven't seen an option to turn them off, but doing so would be a bad thing. Stages have a lot more going on in them than in Melee, so it's a lot easier to lose track of your character. Even with them on, you're going to lose sight of yourself more than you'd like to.

But you're right, they are pretty large. They don't really get in the way of the gameplay, but you'll still notice them. Especially when the nameplates are five times bigger than your character in a huge stage like New Pork City.

Do you think it's worth it to get the Wii Classic Controller just to play Brawl,(I don't have a Gamecube controller) or should I just stick with the Wii Remote w/ Nunchuk and Wii Remote on its side? I've heard how the Classic Controller is really good to play this game, but I don't know if I should get it.

- Kevin

Definitely go for a Wii Classic controller. If you've never played Melee (what's wrong with you?) and don't have GameCube controllers lying around, the Classic is the best option there is. The Wii Remote/Nunchuk combo works just fine, although I feel this is a case where having the two halves of the controller unattached from each other works against you for playing the game. For a game as fast-paced as Brawl, I feel you need something solid and stable in your hands.

If you have played Melee at all, you should use a GameCube controller since that's probably what you're used to. The game plays exactly the same with it (good thing), so salty old vets can jump right in without needing to adjust to a new controller. Adjusting to the new tempo of gameplay is another matter, but you can't blame your controller when you accidentally die in the early going.

If you don't have a GameCube, Wii Classic, or Nunchuk controller, you can still play the game with the Wii Remote by itself. Unfortunately, this is a very poor option. Using the D-Pad to move around means you'll be restricted to 8-way movement, and the lack of buttons requires you to do a lot of juggling with multiple button commands. I think it's the most complicated option, too. I don't expect many people to try it out, save for needing to do it out of necessity.

Remember, the nice thing about all four controller setups is that all of the functions of the buttons are completely customizable. If you don't like the button layout of the Wii Classic controller, for instance, you can change everything around how you like. Personally, I like moving the jump and attack buttons around on the face of the remote and assigning grab to the left trigger, away from those ridiculous Z buttons.

When i'm playing online, I like a game that is well balanced and players can use a veriety of moves, however, I hate those players online who don't care to play and have a good time but must win win win. Even if it's using the same move over and over. In your opinion have you found anything that sticks out as something cheap players online will try and exploit over and over?

- NeoThunder

Topeka, KS

As I said previously, I haven't played enough online matches to fairly assess what it's all about. However, I can say I did watch one match in spectator mode in where Metaknight used a fan against another player over and over and over again, to the tune of about 50% damage in a row. This was pretty funny, but I do wonder if there will be things like that happening all over the place.

Then again, the anonymity of online matches may be a blessing in disguise. As I said earlier, there is no communication or otherwise identifiable information about who you are playing against when in random online matches. Whereas competitive games can bring out the worst in people, trying to do anything to win and improve their rankings, Brawl has no online leaderboards of any kind. If people want to be backhanded or cutthroat about winning, they can be. But since no one will know who they are when playing, and there's nothing at stake for winning or losing, it's possible that they may bore of doing the same things over and over again without getting recognized for it in any way. That might be a good thing in the long run.

I remember the fighting engine being pretty different between smash 64 and Melee, and I enjoyed getting used to the new fighting system. Is the jump from Melee to brawl a similar leap? I've read that brawl may be using the Havok Physics Engine, which I believe will change the gameplay and feel of the game enough to distinguish the fighting itself from Melee. Some of NWR's initial impressions sound as if a physics engine is in place with mention of character weight feeling like their "correct mass" and the fact that players interact with each other mid flight. Does Brawl play like it could have been developed with Havok?

- Anxious Awaiter

Going from Melee to Brawl is nowhere as large a leap as the one from the original to Melee. You'll notice some differences right away but will adjust to them quite easily (especially if you use a GameCube controller). Despite that, the engine does feel different in places, particularly when you're in the air. I wrote that characters do feel like they have the "correct mass," mostly because there's a much larger discrepancy between the lightest characters and the heaviest ones. Basically, each character feels unique, even the clones.

Brawl does indeed use the Havok Physics Engine. After significant playtime with the game, I can confidently say that Brawl feels like a Super Smash Bros. game above all else. Just because it's running with Havok physics doesn't mean it's going to feel like other games that run Havok. What the engine does is make it easier for the developers to concentrate on fine-tuning the gameplay without needing to worry about reprogramming the physics, since that is taken care of already. But I'm sure the game plays well because of the good work Team Sakurai did with tuning the engine to make it work with Smash Bros. gameplay.

I will be anxiously awaiting NWR's articles on Brawl this week as this is the site I trust most and who I share most gaming opinions and preferences with. Sites like IGN post videos of their writers playing brawl, and frankly, they don't look very good, which lends itself to invalidating their reviews and opinions on the new Smash Brothers more than anything else. From an objective standpoint, how experienced is NWR and its writing staff with Smash Bros? (asking more out of curiosity than necessarily a pre-judgement on NWR's future brawl articles)

- Dubious Observer

We know Smash Bros., let me tell you. All of us have a years of experience with Melee, and some of our staffers are still playing it regularly today, six years after its release. We love the game just as much as all of you guys do, and we're just as excited about its North American release as everyone else. Everyone on staff is very jealous of me for getting the import, as well they should be!

I understand what Brawl is all about, which is why we're doing some things with the game that no other site is capable of doing. Not only have I imported the game, our own Ty Shughart is expecting his copy any day now. Once that's set we'll (hopefully) have online impressions and videos that no one else will have.

This past Friday, as you may have seen on the site, I organized a Smash Bros. Brawl party at my home and invited my friends and readers of the site to come play with me. And play we did: about two dozen people ultimately showed up, and we all played the game for 12 hours straight. Not only did we have a hell of a good time, I learned some very interesting things about the game that can only come about with a large party atmosphere. I hope to share that with you all later this week. I also recorded video of real players playing real Super Smash Bros. Brawl matches the way it ought'a be. Look for those soon, too.

And obviously, you're reading a big part of our Super Smash Bros. Brawl coverage right now. We play the big games before they come out, and care enough about our readers to directly respond to your questions about them. We can write about games all we want, but what good is doing so if we don't answer the questions you most want to know about? The NWR mailbag is the best around for that reason, and many more.

So yeah, we know our Smash Bros., and we know what it takes to provide coverage of it to our readers. We're glad that you recognize that the big media outlets can't always cover the big games the way you want them too, which is where we come in. I think you'll agree that when the game finally hits North America, NWR will have some of the best coverage of the game around.

Earlier in the development of brawl I remember reading a line from either the Dojo or from Nintendo itself stating that brawl will have "a ridiculous number of characters" (I'm remembering the quotes verbatim). With only 10 more characters than Melee, and only 4 new-comer hidden characters beyond the veteran Melee fighters and who was revealed on the Dojo, could they have possibly been referring to characters included in the game as assist trophies? Also, I've been discussing the possibility of other Sonic characters in the game, since the initial announcement of the gliding system seemed to almost confirm Knuckles' inclusion as a playable character, and was wondering if NWR has come across any Sonic assist trophies, and if so, which ones?

- kEvBn

When you factor in assist trophies, regular trophies, and stickers, then yes, "ridiculous" is a good descriptor of the number of characters in Brawl. I'm finding new ones every hour I play the game, it seems. Just off the top of my head, I've seen Link's grandmother from Wind Waker, Commander Kahn from Elite Beat Agents, the duck from Duck Hunt ... the list of obscurity is way deeper than that, believe me. They were all stickers, so expect to see things you wouldn't expect to see in the game be in the list of stickers.

I have come across other Sonic characters in the game, although they aren't playable. Shadow is an assist trophy that creates a slow motion field around him. Tails is a regular trophy. I've seen lots of Sonic stickers, too, including the original Sonic as seen on Sega Genesis box art. In the background of Sonic's stage, you'll see Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver from time to time.

How do Assist Trophies compare to Pokeballs? Obviously Assist Trophies are cooler because they include more than just Pokemon, but are they more or less useful? Also is there any way to switch off specific assist trophies and/or pokemon? I've wanted that feature since the 64 version of smash.

- fallentomato

Chicago

Assist trophies are essentially the same as Pokéballs. There is a lot of different attacks, ranging from the weak and useless, to the annoying, to the insanely powerful. The difference between the two, as it relates to gameplay, is that you must be on the ground and have a moment of freedom to activate an assist trophy. With a Pokéball, you can just throw it and it will pop open on the spot. It's possible to knock an assist trophy out of someone's hands if they can't find clear space to raise it over their head, which adds another element to the gameplay.

You cannot turn off different Pokémon or assist trophies from appearing. I don't know why people want such an option, because what would happen is all of the worthless attacks would get turned off, destroying the chance element that keeps the items from being too powerful. When you rush for a Pokéball you do so with the understanding that a Goldeen could pop out of it, just like you could get a Pokémon that could wipe out everyone. That's just the way it works, whether you like it or not!

Hi guys! Great job with the coverage so far.

I was just wondering if the effects on Sonic were any different than the other characters when he nabs one of those invincibility stars. You know, the ones that make Mario flash and give him the ability to run straight through goombas without getting hurt. In the Sonic games, there was a very similar powerup that involved swirling little white stars that followed Sonic around and there was distinct (and awesome) music that played. In Brawl, does this music play when Sonic gets a star? Also, is it the same effect as in the original sonic games, giving him those little swirly star things?

- 2old4this

This is a good question, but I'm disappointed to say that Sonic doesn't have his invincibility music or swirly star effect when he grabs a star. That would have really cool to include, since I dig that Sonic invincibility ditty. Alas, Sonic lights up just like Mario when collecting a star and plays to the tune of that same, tired Mario invincibility music.

Come to think of it, would it have been awesome if each character had his or her own custom invincibility music? I like Kirby's invincibility music a lot, too.

Can you describe how the co-op play works in the adventure mode? I've read that it's very player-one focused, and does not allow the 2nd player to come and go. Can one player carry the other?

- Dave

If you haven't read our impressions of Subspace Emissary with two players, I urge you to do so. Michael Cole came over to play the game with me the weekend I got it in and we tore through it together until we beat it. He wrote his impressions based on being the second player, so you can get a lot of good information about co-op play from that.

From my perspective—and I know a lot about co-op adventure play because Kirby Super Star is like, my favorite game ever— playing with two players in Subspace Emissary is a cool feature, but you really should play through it by yourself to get the best experience out of it. Both player's lives come from the same stock, which effectively gives you half the amount of lives to work with. This is particularly annoying when things get very difficult, as it's easier to lose lives on account of bad luck (or crappy play!) by your teammate. What's worse, if you're out of lives and Player 1 dies, the game is over even if Player 2 is still alive.

It's somewhat confusing for the second player to navigate the stages, too. The camera focuses on Player 1 at all times, so Player 2 always needs to stay within the bounds of the screen to make things easier on him. P2 can press the Start/Plus button to jump back to Player 1's position, which is useful. This will also happen if P2 gets left behind by P1. However, since P2 dies by getting hit off the screen too far, there can be times when you die by getting left behind. It's not the most elegant system in the world.

Co-op play in Subspace is not a total letdown, but it's far from perfect. I'm okay with that, since just about all the other single player modes can be done with a friend. Multi-man Brawls, Break the Targets, and Home Run Contests are even more addictive than in Melee when you have a second player to coordinate with.

1) Can you still C-Stick the menus?? (as you could in Melee)

2) Do they still have self-adjusting handicaps?

3) Do they still track stats against other humans name entries

4) What functionality do you lose if you only have Brawl friend codes exchanged (and not Wii system codes)

5) Can you still send screen shots or other things if you've only exchanged Wii system codes and not Brawl codes?

- shecky

OH

1) Annoyingly, yes.

2) Yes again.

3) You bet!

4&5) Rumor has it that you must have both a Wii friend code and a Brawl friend code in order to do all the cool stuff like send images, replays and created stages to your friends. I haven't tried any of that stuff personally as of yet, but I assume all of that is handled through the Wii Message Board, kind of like how it worked with Metroid Prime 3 screenshots. If this is true, this is stupid. I remember when the prospect of the Wii friend code was supposed to make it so you only had to give out one code for all of your games. Now, you need to give out two for one game. The hell?

Why is it that King Dedede is extremely slow (from what I hear) in Brawl, yet in Kirby Super Star, you race against King Dedede and he is super fast? You'd think the developer would know this, seeing as he created Dedede...

- Stud_bucket

Minnesota

Dedede has put out a ton of weight in the years that have past since Super Star was released. I'm surprised he can still do four floating jumps in Brawl, with how much of a tank he is. Come to think of it, Kirby sucks up everything he sees, and yet he looks the same as he always has. I wonder what his secret is to staying in shape?

Do you think Nintendo will release the original Smash Bros. on the VC about a week before Brawl comes out here, kinda like they did with Super Metroid coming out before MP3?

- biscuitmix

Oklahoma

If Nintendo is ever going to release the original Super Smash Bros., it had better hurry up and do it before the game is released. I doubt many people would bother paying $10 for what is a pretty outdated game, especially when they can get a much better experience in Brawl. I can see a lot of people buying it the week before, though.

is it possible to use a wireless gamecube control on the wii to play Smash Bros Brawl? Not many stores sell the wired one as well

- milesmarquez99

Absolutely. Wavebirds are 100% compatible with the Wii and the game, and as far as I'm concerned it's the only way to play it. Good luck finding one if you don't own one, though...

Maybe the answer is out there already, but I have a hori digital pad for my cube that I love. Can I use it with Brawl, or does the game require an analogue stick?

- majin23x

Wyoming

Since the Hori pad only has the big D-Pad, all you can do with it is taunt. You'll need an analog stick to move your character when using a GameCube controller, which the Hori digital lacks. Sorry!

With all this talk of clones I was wondering if a set of clones were snuck by. Meta Knight and Pit appear to have similar moves, are they in fact clones?

- ThePerm

Tucson, Arizona

No, they play very differently despite having similar abilities. Pit's move set is very basic, with very few big-hitting attacks, some very useful rapid-fire attacks, a projectile, and a reflective shield (down+B). He's not a very fast character on the ground, but has godlike air superiority. Metaknight's moves are all weak, rapid-fire attacks. He's very fast and very light, and because of that he doesn't have much in the way of notable smash attacks. He has good air attacks too, but his special moves have more variety than Pit's. So no, they are definitely not clones, despite their similarities.

Okay, the Brawl roster was leaked over the last few days and I wanted to know your thoughts since you guys have respected opinions (I think :) ) Anyway, I won't give names or numbers for people who don't want spoilers. What I say may hint at some things but I'll do my best to not ruin anything major.

It seems that the roster is yet again comprised of characters with very similar movesets. To make matters worse for those who are frustrated and disappointed with characters with almost copied movesets, some characters have identical final smashes. I have always wanted less characters for the final roster, but even I must admit my disappointment with the moveset/final smash issues in some of the unlockables.

Don't get me wrong, Brawl will still rule. But, I think I am in the majority when I say that it could have been that much better with... (it sounds absurd to say but it's the truth-) more originality.

What are your guys thoughts on the roster, without giving too much away. If that's even possible...

- Matt

I feel the roster is very similar to that in Melee. Of the 35 characters on the final list, only 10 of them truly feel "new." Toon Link is a cool addition, but he pretty much plays like Young Link from Melee, complete with suck-in spin attack. Lucario doesn't feel like much more than a visual replacement for Mewtwo. Wolf, one of the more interesting additions, has the exact same move set as Fox and Falco. Although all three feel different enough to be unique from one another (Fox is the fastest, Falco is faster than he was in Melee, Wolf feels like Falco did in Melee, all three are still fast) and have notable variations in their attacks, at the end of the day they are still the same character. They even have the same final smash, for crying out loud! And why bring back Falco if Wolf is in the game, too?

When going through my 12-hour marathon Brawl session, it became alarmingly clear very quickly that the character list didn't feel as large as it looked on the screen. Though some returning characters have some very good improvements (Marth, Yoshi, Sheik) others have been given some bad moves (FLUDD replaces Mario's tornado is the biggest culprit). At first I said that people were getting greedy for saying they wanted more characters in the game, but it didn't take long for me agree with everyone else. The more time I spend with the game, the more I wish there was better character variety.

Some clones are justified, though. Ganondorf feels bigger and badder (and slower) than he did in Melee, separating him from Captain Falcon even more. Lucas and Ness have the same moves and move set, but feel very different. But that's only four out of 35.

I'm kind of disappointed with the final roster. However, it's not a huge dealbreaker for the game. Everyone gravitated towards favorites in the original game, and everyone had a list of characters they preferred in Melee. The same thing is going to happen in Brawl. You can still play with everyone, but in the end you'll have your top four or five characters that you'll use the majority of the time.

I suppose that's the reasoning for all of the clones: You may like Fox a lot, but maybe the differences with Falco and Wolf will make you like them better? Slightly different styles for the same character makes it easier for everyone to find the one that's just right for them.

I was wondering when does Sonic join the subspace. I am really looking forward to him teaming up with Mario like in the video he was introduced in. I also would like to know if he is the last unlockable. I'm really looking forward to using him. Thank you for your time and I hope you guys answer my question have a good day.

quithas

You won't come across Sonic until the very, very end of the game. Like, the final boss fight. He just randomly appears out of nowhere to help you fight the boss, which is pretty dumb, even for a storyline where you need to suspend belief. He's an afterthought in the whole all-star adventure mode, and I don't like that one little bit.

Sonic is locked from the start, and you must beat Subspace Emissary to unlock him.

Does Wolf have a role in the Subspace Emissary? If so, what is it? I saw a screengrab with his name in Japanese, but can't find any video of what that's from.

- Chasefox

Not really. You'll come across him by finding a hidden room in the game. Upon entering you'll just see a random cutscene with him appearing. Then you fight him, and if you beat him you can play as him. Some of the other hidden characters have things like that as well.

Simple..who's your favorite character to play as right now?..who do you perform best as?

- doug

ct

Marth. I like playing as him in Melee, but they've made some improvements to him that makes him even better in Brawl. His neutral special attack is now a stab attack, instead of the charging overhead attack as it was in Melee. The stab can also be charged. Additionally, his combo attacks seem to have a lot more kick to them this time around. They seem to be a lot easier to pull of in Brawl too, or at least they do to me.

And unlike Roy, Ike and Marth are not direct clones of each other. They really are different characters. Although they have similar moves like the upward special attack and a counter, everything else about them is different. Ike is one of those "new" characters I talked about. I like him a lot too, though he's a bit too slow for my liking. Then again, there's no better feeling than to charge up his forward smash attack and then obliterate anything that lands under his big, booming sword.

Dear Nintendo World Report,

I've read a number of rather negative reviews for the new Smash Bros. which claim that it has become something of a "party game" rather than sticking to its fast-paced fighting roots. A few reviews claimed that the game lacked replay value because of its change in pace. This slowing of gameplay would drive fans of Melee back to their GameCubes. Some are frustrated with the physics engine, claiming that the battles become too predictable and characters feel slow and annoyingly floaty. On top of this, they say the inclusion of the smash ball slows the game's pace even more as players have to focus on diving out harm's way more often than charging into the fray. Others are disappointed by a "lack of new content" and refer to Brawl as "Melee 1.1."

Can you comment on these concerns? The recent NWR SSBB impression said the game felt "faster and slower," yet complimented the game's feel in that characters had just the right "mass." Can you elaborate a little more on the feel of the game? The description of this "faster and slower" was a bit vague. I also hear complaints of lag in the online play, and I'm sure that will be addressed in future NWR updates. Thanks!

- Perturbed Prawn

I don't know where you're reading some of that garbage, but Brawl is the true successor to Melee. Despite the glaring similarities between the two games, there is plenty of new stuff that makes Brawl stand out on its own.

The Smash Ball is a fantastic addition and makes the game very unpredictable. It will also create more "holy crap" moments on its own that you probably ever had in Melee. It also opens up new strategies that were not available before. What's your plan of attack when one appears? Do you go all-out for it? Do you try attacking other people with high damage who are going for it? Do you hold back and look for the ball to bounce your way in the chaos?

People complaining that it takes away from the fighting action are probably Melee purists that spend most of their time playing on Final Destination with no items. Yeah, that's cool, but so is killing three people with one swing of the sword or one well-placed arrow. You'll get a much bigger roar from your buddies when that happens.

When I said that the game feels "faster but slower," I meant that as you play the game with a controller in hand, things do not feel as fast as they did in Melee. You'll have an easier time doing what you want to do because of that, ultimately giving you more control over your actions.

However, if you take a step back and look at the game from the outside, you'll notice it looks a lot faster and more frenzied than it did in Melee. There is so much stuff happening at once that you'll wonder how most people can keep up with it. Actually, you can't; you will lose track of your own character from time to time due to the wild action. How would that be possible if the game was slow and floaty? There are definitely some characters that are slower and floatier than they were in Melee (read: Samus), but overall the game is much faster.

Overall, the game rewards offense and aggression more than anything else. That's probably where most of the complaints are stemming from, particularly those that favor plain-jane fighting. And yes, the character roster feels pretty similar to the one in Melee. Brawl is not perfect. But to call Brawl "Melee 1.1" is insulting to both games.

Realize that Brawl was always going to be an evolution rather than a revolution of the series. I like to compare the three Smash Bros. games to the three major Mario games. The first one (Mario 64, SSB) was amazing. The second one (Sunshine, Melee) was a grand jump from the N64 versions that had a lot of what people wanted. The third (Galaxy, Brawl) was a refinement of what worked the last time, adding in new stuff to make it its own game, despite it not being totally different than the previous one.

Here's the bottom line: Brawl is freaking awesome. Even if it is just a refinement of Melee, the fact is you're going to buy the game and play it for the next few years without batting an eyelash. The basics didn't need changing, and weren't changed, since the design has stayed fresh for more than ten years. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, as the kids used to say. Realize that although Melee and Brawl are similar in many ways, they are also very different, too. If people want to complain about the similarities, let them. But you can't ignore the mountain of new content that Brawl has. You just can't.

I'm going to stop myself here and save my final comments on the game for my review. But as a final word to this mailbag, I will say that even if the game is just a little upgrade over Melee, as some others may say, doesn't that still make it better than Melee? And doesn't that make it worth it?