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Super Smash Bros. Brawl Blog Part 1/3
Updated March 13, 2008

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Blog Part 1/3
By Bryan Dawson

When I first arrived at Nintendo’s headquarters in Redmond, WA it was cold and threatening to snow. It was worth braving the elements, though, because I was about to get my hands on one of the most highly-anticipated Wii titles of the year: Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Out of all the guides I’ve written for Prima, this was probably the guide that I was most hyped to get started on. I thought back to my early college days when I imported the first Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64 and logged over 200 hours in less than two months, holding late night gaming sessions with my friends.

I expected to encounter some thorough security measures, having dealt with Nintendo for many years while I worked for AOL—security is always tight when it comes to Nintendo. Sure enough, when I got to the room where I would be playing, the Wii was bolted to the table, ensuring that the game would not be leaving the premises without the Nintendo’s knowledge. It brought a smile to my face knowing that I was about to play a game that millions of Smash Bros. fans had been yearning for since Melee was released so many years ago.

I hooked up my equipment and powered on the Wii. The title screen came on, followed by the game intro. It was time to get down and dirty with my next guide and a game that I’d personally been waiting to play since it was announced. I picked up the Classic controller and started working my way through Classic mode. I knew I needed to unlock all of the characters before I could really get into the bread and butter of the guide, and from my past experiences with the series, the Classic mode was a good place to start.

You’ll notice as you read through the guide that Link is prominently displayed in many of the screenshots. He’s been my main character for the two previous Smash Bros. titles, and that will likely continue with Brawl.

I played through Classic mode a few times as Link, then decided to move on to the Subspace Emissary Adventure mode. I knew that the Adventure mode Brawl would be longer than what I played through in Melee, but I was not ready for what Nintendo had waiting for me. The Adventure mode in Brawl is massive. While it can’t quite be counted as a stand-alone game, it took me significantly longer to work my way through it than I had originally expected. Because of this small surprise, the Adventure mode chapter in the guide is considerably longer than anyone expected it to be. Unfortunately, this would not be my only surprise during my time at Nintendo.