now that we're a few years removed from the 'completion' of super smash bros. ultimate, a game i feel likely closes the book on a massive, overarching story of the evolution of this series under the direction of creator masahiro sakurai in an explosive final entry lavish in bombast and maximalist polish, it's interesting to look at the super smash bros. series as a complete works - five major entries all leading to bigger, bolder things, distinct in identity (even 4, more than it's given credit) and milestones of different aspects and fragments of my life. my "childhood smash game" was really two games, and i associate both with different aspects of that developmental period - melee was my personal smash title, the one i owned and poured dozens and dozens of hours into exploring and experimenting with... and brawl was the community game; my first major competitive outlet with my friends, my first exposure to a title with THIS much content under the hood, my first time being old enough to follow at least part of its release cycle... in a sense, melee and brawl formed two halves of a whole for me. i have easily 1,000+ hours between the two having played them both as long and as regularly as i did. and it's funny, thinking about how my tastes in videogames and art have evolved alongside these games - now, at the point where i value distinction, direction, and experimentation above objective quality, i see brawl in a similar forgiving and exciting light as i did at eight or nine years old - it's a wonderful, exciting experience and perhaps the team's best example of unbelievable scale with a hint of restraint.

a friend of mine brought up the point that brawl might've had the most "complete" feeling roster of any smash game upon its conclusion and logic at the time. thinking about 2007, 2008, and seeing who made it in, i might be inclined to agree. so many major hitters fill out the roster, with all characters feeling simple and comprehensive enough to control without getting into the complex, individualist-feeling dlc add-ons of smash 4 and ultimate. it's a roster full of characters who all feel like they're in the same game. 2 third party guests - the NECESSARY addition of sonic the hedgehog and the fan-favorite solid snake just feel... right, given the culture of the time, given the aesthetics brawl borrows from.

brawl is a defiant step away from the competitive aspects of melee's accidental execution and before the more intentional attempts with smash 4 and ultimate, and whether or not that's a good thing entirely depends on your approach. it's clearly meant to be a game enjoyed and huddled around by friends and soaked in for hundreds of hours - THE smash game for playing with items on, or messing around with the minimalist but just-open-enough stage editor (i liken this to the phenomenon of exploration that came with the limited simplicity of the wii's initial mii design constraints and the check mii out channel, or later the concept behind flipnote studio/hatena), or the plethora of events and an entire 2-player story mode in subspace emissary, which i honestly think BENEFITS from having two people as in a single-player vaccum its charm dips into monotony far too quickly in my eyes. point being, brawl was every bit the smash game the wii's audience probably needed, embracing the wii's blue-ocean market approach and creating something that felt less like a competitive fighting game, less like a multiplayer one-and-done experience, but a cultural event: a massive, overarching love letter to all that the wii, nintendo's history, and now the smash bros. canon itself stood for. there's just so MUCH to soak in with brawl; the masterpieces offered many players their first taste of retro titles to be picked up on virtual consoles, a digital release calendar and trophies painted a physical history of the brawl's referential pulp canon, contest and coin shooter modes allowed a break from the typical fighting gameplay, and a flush soundtest with hundreds upon hundreds of compositions and remixes allowed brawl to feel akin to a cultural sandbox, a playset not unlike the one depicted back in smash 64's opening cutscene.

if the original intent was to have smash bros. as a series aim for a party crowd, this was the home run of the bunch - it's a party and celebration in a way that perhaps no other entry in the series did with as much dedication, depth and intricacy. smash bros. brawl might be kusoge, but if that's the case, it's the best fucking kusoge of all time. a genuine masterpiece in the realm of casual party competition in gaming. from the first smash dojo! posts to the round of custom stage, items on, 3-stock i just played today, smash bros. brawl elevated this from a fantastic duology to a cultural phenomenon on a level encompassing the medium that no one could ever hope to achieve again.