Lens of Truth

Well I'm certainly not disappointed! It's been clear for a long time that this game is set to be amazing. I mean, I never really even thought Cel-Link would be in it, let alone Olimar, Lucario. We're spoilt for choice for amazing characters. And then there's all the other collectables, ATs, music tracks and so on. But the aspect of Brawl that I reckon will elevate it to levels of gaming heaven is the SSE singleplayer. It looks so well done- what a brilliant way to enrich the Smash experience!

Yes, it's here. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LckvnqXmujc And it's damn wierd.

I want this game sooooooo much now after watching some gameplay vids. Electroplankton stage was a stroke of genius!! I really hope it's not as far away as June, as seems to have been muted. On another point, I never get the militant censoriousness on this board sometimes. Disappointments are inevitable when it comes to games like these with beloved characters, enormous hype etc - that doesn't mean it's always a case of being 'ungrateful' or that kind of rubbish.. it's all part of the rollercoaster of loving games and taking them way too seriously. It's totally ridiculous on a forum to chastise people for that. If all the posts on here consisted of benign approval and 'hilarious' non-opinions, then it wouldn't be such an interesting site for discussion. It's perfectly possible to adore a game and still be able to acknowledge what you don't like about it - there's no dullard law against that.

I know what you're saying, but it didn't need to be proper cel-shading (ie affecting the way way different parts overlap/dimenionality etc), they could just have gone with the plainer-coloured look which works fine for Kirby, Pikachu etc. What I mean is that I don't see the point of trying to tone down the 'toon' with additional little splodges here and there. But anyway, that's just me being nit-picky cos I love Cel-Link. I'm just glad he's in! Overall I think the roster is great, though I don't really see the point of Marth now (one anonymous blue haired FE character would be plenty for me) and Falco - why? Since I've been playing the first 2 Megamans recently on VC I've been reminded how great he is and perfect for Smash, but never mind. Probably the most amazing revelations for me are Lucario (wow) and TP Ganondorf!

Is it just me or is 'Toon Link' not actually cel-shaded at all? He's covered in the same cheap looking dirt-patch shading as many of the other charcters, which is wierd because his stage looks like it's properly done.. hmmm. Maybe it's because if they didn't grubby him up a bit TP Link would look incredibley lame and generic by comparison:heh:

I couldn't help myself yesterday and got this and Zack and Wiki.. and I'm enjoying them both equally! It's certainly true that Z+W is more polished, but Nights is so much fun. The levels are hugely imaginative (I even like the 'wood between the worlds' hub). There are parts when flying where the graphics are stunningly beautiful, eye-popping psychedelia that rivals Galaxy for surreal design. Not to mention they clearly pulled out all the stops for the bosses. The mistake was using the in-game engine for the inter-level cutscenes, though I had been prepared for this by reviews, and they aren't as bad as expected. The voice acting and script add comedy value if nothing else, though they're definitely not as wince-inducing as in Sonic and the Secret Rings! Also as many have commented the music is brilliant - lush, orchestral and tuneful. I do agree though that the signs of this being initially a dreamcast project are unmistakable. But contrarily, I think the lack of polish is due to a rushed development schedule.. How long is it since this was announced? In that time it's impressive they produced what they did, probably resurrecting old DC assets in the process. Journey of Dreams could and should have been an AAA title after over a decade of waiting, but sega decided just to get it out asap to capitalise of the wii's success. My main gripes so far: some objectives are awkward and unclear; the 'my dream' online thing is half-baked at best; and too many loading screens. Oh and the little fact that, after claiming the unique motion sensing abilities of the wii to be the raison d’etre for Nights’ long awaited reappearance, they totally copped-out on that very thing! All this aside however, anyone who enjoyed SATSR will love it.

I think it's a bit disappointing that the way the Metroid seiries is represented in Brawl seems so generalised. It'd be great if they based some areas on the Prime series - at the very least there ought to be something phazon related. Also I much prefer the look of Prime's Samus to the one they're using (which appears to be a wierd amalgam of verious versions).

I've just gone through the very long-winded procedure of logging in (it's so slow!) and registering a few games that I hadn't got round to (with the stupid questionaire each time), and linked my account, and when I go to the points card shop it says 'access denied'! Why?? Have they run out of wii points? When will there be more? I also wonder if they intend to fix the insanely glitchy site..

Just defeated the final boss with 64 stars. It was great, but as others have said a little too easy (I almost felt sorry for Bowser upon dealing the final blow). Loved the 'ending' and now I can't wait to start collecting more stars!

This looks like it's been very hastily cobbled together. It's such a shame that the first joint venture of Mario and Sonic is so cheap and shoddy. Oh well, I'm sure most people won't notice and the game will sell better than Galaxy, so there'll be plenty more down the line..

Got this from Tesco this morning and played for a short while. It's amazing! Almost feels too good to play!! Quite disorientating at first - but in the same sublime way that it was to use an analogue stick for the first time in 64. I've hardly played at all in fact, just got the first star.. can't wait to really get stuck in this evening. I think so far the best word to describe the feeling this game conjures is 'wonderment'.

Do you think it's worth trying the 24hr Tesco/ASDA after midnight? I'm not sure when they put their stock out.. Really can't wait til 9 in the morning!

How about Venus from Holst's The Planets. Or Neptune if you want something with a bit more mystery. Any number of Debussy pieces would work. Going for the more obvious angle, George Fenton's score to The Blue Planet would be ideal! John Barry wrote some great underwater tracks for Thunderball, but I guess that would add an unwanted feeling of espionage to the proceedings.

My hunch is that all the characters revealed so far will be available from the off. There will be just one more shown before the game is released I reckon, neatly filling that last space in the Newcomers section on the Dojo. Therefore Brawl will begin where Melee left off in a sense with the same no. of fighters to start as the previous game's total (25). They won't be revealing any unlockables - that would diminish the whole exitement of finding them. Hopefully among those will be: Cel Link, Paper Mario, Luigi, Kystal, Ganondorf etc..

There are so many in TP. In addition to the ones already mentioned: Hyrule Field, Ordon Ranch, Hidden Village, Midna's Theme and especially the End Titles (the final section of which is among the most lyrical music in any Nintendo game). I quite like the Levitated Ruin music from Sonic, and Evil Foundry is pretty good once you get over the cringe-making voice samples (something to do with rocking the place, i believe..). Oh and Super Paper Mario has a great soundtrack. Floro Caverns in particular is annoyingly catchy:

What happened to the days when many a great game had cutesy design and yet was rock hard at the same time? To me this is a classic combo. I find the whole 'serious' and 'mature' aesthetic in games quite superficial for the most part. Admittedly this game is quite far gone, but not too much further down the line than say Monkey Ball, Animal Crossing or Pikmin.

This game really is a true evolution, they've poured so much imagination into it! Imagine if the next Zelda has the same level of inspiration put into it (instead of just reworking Ocarina or WW)... I'm hoping that this'll bring back that feeling of being truly astonished by the creativity of a game - in other words a return to the glory days of the N64!* *Trying not to get ahead of myself with ridiculous expectations..

Yes, there's a touch of Hyrule Field in those chugging basses. It's very heroic sounding for a Mario theme, quite epic. I love it! Edit: Wow! That video with the orchestra is amazing too. I wonder which level/galaxy it's from? If the soundtrack maintains that level of quality we might well be looking at Koji Kondo's greatest score since Ocarina of Time!! (just listen to that section with just harp and horn - gorgeous!) http://wii.com/jp/articles/mario-galaxy/crv/vol3/index.html#id=cv_mg-3-01-orchestra

I think Nintendo are being a bit dictatorial about this issue.. if indeed this is the official line, I think it's a disgraceful attitude to the consumer. In order to keep things 'tidy' and dumbed-down they're telling customers to delete their VC purchases. Heaven forbid that we should come to a situation of 'packrat syndrome'.. I mean seriously, why not give the non-wiimote-flinging, console-literate people out there the option (who, one can safely assume, are the main market for downloadable content anyway)? I know you can re-download them, but that's beside the point. Why have all those channel spaces there if they can't even be filled?! I've been fairly selective about my VC games, but as I see it pretty much all the N64 titles are essential (MK64 a possible exception), and these alone take up an awful lot of space. I'm afraid I can't buy the 'it's the price you pay for the price' line either, cos let's face facts, the Wii wasn't that cheap.

I've stopped looking at media for this now too. I'd rather just have a flavour of the game than know too much about it.

Wow. So we'll be getting this, Smash and Mario Kart all in the first 1/4 of 08.. can't wait!

With the snapshot feature we can finally solve the pressing dilemma of "who has the sexiest bum - Samus or Snake?"

Something tells me this'll look great in motion.. I mean it doesn't look far off some of the crappy screen shots of Resi 4. And that black smoke cloud of doom thing looks incredible!

I'm trying not to make judgements based on those (pretty lame looking) screenshots... In fact, even if this amount to nothing more than Double Dash/DS with online and bikes, it'll be essential.

No, I loved it... for the most part. I know it didn't have the earth shattering originality of SM64, but it was a lot more polished and imaginative in many ways. It's obvious too that Galaxy builds on certain refinements made in Sunshine, such as the camera and animations -also some sections look remarkably reminicent of the platforming special stages. I think those who claim the differences in quality between Galaxy and Sunshine are like night and day (if you'll pardon the pun) are grossly exagerating. It'll be more the difference between a good game and a GREAT game... well, masterpiece hopefully:yay: