After our months of anticipatory looks, constant dojo updates, and hours spent playing an import copy, we finally got to play Super Smash Brothers Brawl's U.S. release. On the floor of this year's GDC, we got to go toe to toe with the best three random people Nintendo could find. It is, in fact, a lot like the Japanese version, but in English.
We played as Meta Knight and our foes included Pit, Kirby and Mario. Having spent the better part of the pre-GDC weekend playing the Japanese version of Brawl, we felt immediately at home. Transitioning from using our Wavebirds to using the Wii Remote held sideways was a little rough, but outside of some difficulty with jumping precisely, the Remote control scheme isn't too bad.
Content-wise, the five minute match was the expected barrage of "Aiaiaiaiaiaia" as the Pit player sword-spun his way through the match, curses as we spammed Meta Knight's spin moves, and general consternation as an expertly-played Kirby made us all look like fools. Slamming two opponents who were foolish enough to get within range of our Final Smash helped make up for our otherwise miserable performance. Come on, March 9th!
