Le sigh. Smash Bros. Brawl came out for real people (read: honest working stiffs who actually have to pay for their games) this weekend, giving us reviewers only a few days lead to gloat over our copies and hone our brawling skills before heading online to school the world–or, in my case, probably get schooled by it.
Once again, I’ll refrain from criticizing the game, lest angry Brawl fans condemn me to the depths of video game hell–where, I imagine, I’ll have to fight an annoying white glove for all of eternity. No, what I want to know today is, who are YOU playing?
Personally–and also pretty darn obviously–I’ve always been a Sheik fan. In Melée she was fast, but not too fast, and she had one hell of kick. These days though I’m finding I don’t have as much patience for the mysteriously blond-banged cross-dresser and her pain in the ass chain antics. Instead, I’ve taken up training with Pit. His up and B move does me zero good if I’d actually like to injure an enemy (as opposed to floating in a fanciful manner in his general direction), but he gets good air and speed and a decent amount of power. True, he doesn’t break any gender bounds–but his wacky denim shorts do break the bounds of sensible fashion. I shall defeat my foes with blindingly bad clothing choices!
So who are you playing in Brawl, and why? Yes, your choices will most likely analyzed. Yes, that’s okay because then you can kick my over-analyzing butt online.
Bonnie Ruberg is a sex, technology, and video games journalist who contributes regularly to publications like The Economist, Forbes, and The Village Voice. By day she's also a comparative literature PhD student at UC Berkeley, where she studies French, English, gender, sexuality, surrealism and perversion. You can reach her at [her first name and last name, all one big word] AT gmail DOT com.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I’m desperately waiting for a copy of brawl to fall in my lap as I’m severely underfunded this month. I really want to play as Olimar, see how Ness plays on Brawl as well as Marth. The mainstays should be interesting too however, such as Kirby, Link and Zelda (never was a Princess fan)
March 13th, 2008 at 3:08 am
To be honest, I still haven’t given Olimar much of a try, though I hear he’s fun. I think I have this Ice Climbers syndrome, where, if a character is too cute, I assume they’re a pain in the butt. Then again, Pikachu is pretty darn adorable, and he occasionally kicks electric ass :).
March 13th, 2008 at 3:09 am
AAAAAAAGH! Dammit, get back faster from repair, Wii, everyone else is having all the fun!
March 13th, 2008 at 11:13 am
And they’re going to use it all up before your Wii gets fixed :). Seriously, I *still* play Melee. There are years of Brawl fun to come, no worries!
March 13th, 2008 at 11:55 am
I’ve been resorting to my old mainstays of Falco and Samus, although I do enjoy playing as Pokemon Trainer (or, more specifically, Squirtle).
There are a handful of characters I still haven’t unlocked, so I’ll have to see how I feel about them. I hope to have at least one non-Melee character in my repertoire, just for the sake of mixing it up.
March 13th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Is Samus an “old mainstay” or just an old crutch? I mean, I know you can kick my ass with her, but I’m looking for an excuse for that not to be my fault :).
In general, it raises the question, is it somehow cheating to stay with the same character all the time?
March 13th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I stopped using Samus when Melee came out because my friends though I was TOO AWESOME (read: cheap) when I used her in the N64 original.
That said, I still like her. She’s got a devastating final smash, doesn’t fly off the stage too easily, and I dig her mixture of basis and special attacks.
PlusILikePlayingAsGirlsCauseThey’rePrettierThanMeAndIFeelPrettyWhenIPlayAsThemSoTHERE.
March 13th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Wow, it’s like you think if you type with no spaces I won’t analyze you :).
Is that actually one of the reasons you like playing with Samus? In that suit, she could be a dude with beefy shoulders for all you can see..