Review of the Month #5

[Yoshii]

Welcome to the Nintendo Worlds official "Review of the Month #5" Competition

This month's theme is: Multiplayer Games

Rules and Restrictions:

All Entries...
- must be at least 3 paragraphs in length
- must be all original work (No Plagiarism/Copying other reviews)
- must contain one or more images OR videos
- must be received before the deadline (November 21st)
- Games must be from a Nintendo system

**Failure to abide by the rules WILL result in immediate disqualification**


How to Enter...

Entering the RotM competition is as simple as writing a game review consistent with this month's theme and posting it here in this thread.

About RotM: How it Works

- Each submission received is judged by members of the Review Team. Some of the things that they'll be looking for are: use of proper spelling and grammar, presentation, relevance to theme, and content.

- Three finalists will be chosen by the Review Team to be taken to a public vote.

- Members of Nintendo Worlds will vote on the three finalists to determine the winner.

- The winner will be announced on the final day of the month.


November RotM Schedule

- November 2nd: RotM Competition Begins
- November 21st: Final deadline for ALL submissions!
- November 23rd: Polls open, voting begins on the three finalists.
- November 29th: Polls closed, winner determined.
- November 30th: Winner announced!


Prize

The winner of RotM #5 will receive the Stellar Article Award, and their review will be featured in the Hall of Fame.


Tips and Guidelines

- PROOFREAD YOUR WORK!!! This cannot be stressed enough. Entries should be free of spelling and grammatical errors. Take the time to proofread your work and fix ANY and ALL errors before submitting it.

- Use good formatting. This means you should spend some time to make sure your review's presentation is neat and orderly. Text should be aligned to the left margin, pictures should be centered, there should be breaks between paragraphs.

- Avoid bias wherever possible! Try your best to keep your personal feelings out of your review.

- Keep things interesting. There's plenty of room for some creativity when doing game reviews. While your primary goal with a review is to educate, there's nothing wrong with a little entertainment too.

- Have fun with it!

Please PM a Review Team member (Members with red names) with questions or concerns. This thread is for submissions ONLY! Anything else will be deleted!

[King Zarthius]

Super Smash Bros. Brawl


Review by: King Zarthius

Year released: 2008| System/Console: Nintendo Wii





Too big for one post!

Please see full version here:

Super Smash Brothers Brawl Review

Thank-You very much!

[Xander]

It's back! The sequel to one of the best fighting games on the Wii makes it's return, this time, more cram packed with Ninja mayhem that you can throw a shuriken at.


The Premise:

Taking place after Sasuke left the village, Naruto and Jiraiya are informed by Lady Tsunade that a strange jutsu has been case upon the Village Hidden in the leafs. This jutsu causes people to see friends as foes, and with the help of Kakashi and Gaara, the Ninja team sets out to find the cause of the jutsu.


Controls:

Most of the controls from the first installment are back however with more focus on using the Wii mote and nunchuck combination. Simple shaking the Wii mote for light attacks, or using the A button to either throw shuriken or use a strong attack. The trigger buttons are used for sidestepping or substitution jutsu when in a pinch. Lastly, the C button is used for grabbing. While all of this can be done with other controllers, the advantage to the wiimote and nunchuck are the abilities to throw paper bombs and perform handsigns. While holding down both B and Z, you use your wii mote to aim and then release a paper bomb. Paper bombs act as slow moving long range attacks but can be used to booby trap obstacles or used as landmines. By holding down C and Z, your character prepares to do a handsign. By memorizing simple motions you can either increase your character's attack for a short while or raise their chakra meter, making it easier to perform special jutsu. Another advantage to the Wii mote nunchuck combination is the specific motions you make while executing a special jutsu, which is activated by pressing right on the D-pad. Performing these actions makes your attack stronger and definitely gives you an edge.

Characters:

While bringing back old favorites like Naruto, Sasuke, Kakashi, and Kakashi, the game introduces characters that were missing in the last installment such as Kiba, Asuma, and Choji. The game also features 4 unique characters, two of them new villains for the original story, and two of them ANBU black ops members. The voices for the game are done by the cast of the US version of the anime and they are so good that sometimes you forget you're not watching the show. Also new is the addition of team special jutsu. When playing in two man squads certain characters can perform unique attacks with their team mates. For example, Kakashi and Sasuke perform a double chidori, Naruto and Jiraiya pull off a team duel Rasengan, and Itachi and Kisame do a Mangekyo Sharingan/ Shark Sword combo. It's all very pleasing to see, provided you're the one not being attack. Characters are slightly more balanced than before, but not entirely, as you will still find some characters having an advantage over others.

Special Jutsu:

Team special Jutsu:

Stages:

The stages are broken up into two parts each. All of the ones from the previous game return while there are only a few new ones. The music of the stages are not taken directly from the show, but still keep the same Naruto feel.


Visuals:
The game uses a slightly upgraded version from the last game. While shading is present and the models move a bit more fluid, it's basically looks like the same game, which is a major disappointment.


Multi-player:

Being a fighting game, this is essentially the most important aspect of the game. You can play with up to four people. In two player mode, you can choose to play through the arcade together, fight each other one on one, or fight in two man squads, which both players can alternate between two characters. In terms of a fighting game, this is pretty straight forward. However, once you get three or four players the game can become a mess. Note, this is a good mess. Players can either be one teams are all fight free for all. Using down on the D-pad to cycle through targets players all fight at the same time. The kind of havoc that can be done is only topped by Super Smash Bros.

Overall:

This game is fun. It captures the essence of the show quite well and has all it's seriousness and quirkiness. Sadly, the game is not wi-fi, which does suck but doesn't take away from the game. The thing that impressed me the most was the original story, which was made just for the English release and it plays out juts as anyone would expect a Naruto episode to go. Overall, this game gets an 8/10 for essentially being the same game with a few upgrades, which isn't a bad thing, but some of the character balance issues are still present. Believe it!