Geek vs Life

Yes, I put “X”, and not “Brawl”. Why? Because that’s what it says on the spine of the game case in Japanese. And yes, I’ve gotten a chance to play it (all hail friends who import).

First off, I played using the GameCube controller, because I was told it was easier than the Wiimote. I didn’t argue, I’d rather have a controller anyway. In vs. mode, the gameplay plays pretty much the same as Melee. A few of the characters (such as Zelda, and the Pokémon Trainer) are a little harder to use because they have transformations/change-ups that play similar to other abilities/special attacks, and you might do one when you’re trying for the other.

Adventure Mode, while I didn’t play it myself and only watched it, is AWESOME. I never played Adventure Mode in Melee, but I did in the original, and the original has NOTHING on this. In this game, you don’t get to choose who you play as, at least not initially. There’s a very solid story that progresses through the very long game. At 75% complete, the game I saw was already over 7 hours.

In the game I saw, all but 4 characters had been unlocked and were available for use. Two of the four characters not available were Purin (Jigglypuff) and Sonic, and I’m not sure of the other two.

The reason you only get a limited number of characters to choose from, though, is because of the way the story works. There are multiple sets of characters who end up together (I think my favorite party is Samus and Pikachuu), and while the story is focused on them, you can only play as members of that party. The cutscenes you pass can be viewed at any time, including alternate versions of them (there’s at least one scene where you choose what happens between two options).

Anyway, the game is really awesome, and I highly recommend checking it out.