Super Smash Bros. Brawl

File:Super Smash Bros. Brawl cover.jpg
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a crossover fighting video game developed by Sora Ltd. and Game Arts and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The third installment in the Super Smash Bros. series, it was announced at a 2005 pre-E3 press conference by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. Masahiro Sakurai, director of the previous two games in the series, assumed the role of director at Iwata's request. Game development began in October 2005 with a creative team that included members from several Nintendo and third-party development teams. After delays due to development problems, the game was released worldwide in 2008.

The number of playable characters in Brawl has grown from that in Super Smash Bros. Melee, although some characters from Melee were cut in Brawl. Brawl is the first game in the series to have playable third-party characters. Like that of its predecessors, the objective of Brawl is to knock opponents off the screen. It is a departure from traditional fighting games, notably in its simplified move commands and emphasis on ring outs over knockouts. It includes a more extensive single-player mode than its predecessors, known as the Subspace Emissary. This mode is a plot-driven, side-scrolling beat 'em up featuring computer-generated cut scenes. Brawl supports multiplayer battles with up to four combatants, and is the first game of its franchise to feature online battles via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The game is unique in that it can be played with four different controllers, including the Wii Remote, Wii Remote with Nunchuk, GameCube controller, and Classic Controller, simultaneously.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl received critically positive reviews, with praise centered on its entertainment value despite issues relating to its content loading times. Its musical score, composed through a collaboration of 38 renowned video game composers, was lauded for its representation of different generations in gaming history. Brawl received an aggregate review score of 93% on Metacritic and was named the "Fighting Game of the Year" by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. As of 2008, it is the eighth best-selling Wii game of all time, with over thirteen million copies sold worldwide. It was followed by Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in 2014.

## Plot

The mode begins as Mario and Kirby face each other on a stadium located in the Smash Bros. world. In this world, when a fighter is defeated, they become a trophy which can be revived by touching the base. Suddenly, smoke pours from the sky and the Battleship Halberd releases a stream of black, purple-clouded Shadow Bugs that form the soldiers of the Subspace Army. The Ancient Minister, the cloaked, mysterious Subspace General, arrives and detonates a Subspace Bomb, which can only be detonated by the sacrifice of two R.O.B units, and transports the stadium into Subspace, an alternate dimension where the Subspace Army resides. The Ancient Minister's advance prompts the heroes to ally and attempt to repel the enemy, while villains harvest the power of the allied characters by using dark cannons to convert them into trophies and using Shadow Bugs on some of them to create powerful doppelgängers. King Dedede begins independently gathering some fallen fighters' trophies, placing golden brooches on them.

The Ancient Minister is revealed as a subordinate to Ganondorf, Bowser, and Wario, who are under orders from Master Hand to draw the world into Subspace. Wario, who had stolen Ness with his dark cannon, is turned into a trophy by a Pokémon Trainer and Lucas, and is then helplessly sucked in by a Subspace Bomb. Meanwhile, Meta Knight leaves his group to reclaim his stolen ship, the Halberd. He allies with Lucario and Snake, reaching the cockpit and destroying the Mr. Game & Watch clones piloting the battleship.

The Ancient Minister's true identity is found to be that of the Master R.O.B. unit, who rebels against Ganondorf to join the allied characters. Bowser and Ganondorf detonate several bombs on their Isle of the Ancients base to create a subspace portal large enough to summon their Subspace Gunship weapon. The three major groups converge and use the Halberd to battle the Gunship. Although the Halberd is destroyed, all of the characters escape unscathed and Ganondorf and Bowser retreat after Kirby destroys the Gunship with his Dragoon. Ganondorf betrays Bowser and turns him into a trophy, only to learn that Master Hand was being manipulated by the actual Subspace Army leader, Tabuu, who turns Ganondorf into a trophy and defeats Master Hand.

The allied characters enter Tabuu's chamber, but Tabuu annihilates them all with powerful "Off Waves" and scatters them all throughout Subspace. Dedede's brooches are revealed as a fail-safe against Tabuu's Off Waves and revive Luigi, King Dedede, and Ness, who rescue the characters scattered across Subspace and navigate a great maze where Tabuu is located. As Tabuu is about to use his Off Waves to turn the characters back into trophies, he is ambushed by Sonic, who weakens him; the fighters defeat Tabuu and save the Smash Bros. universe.

In the final scene, the fighters look at a great luminous cross on the horizon where the Isle of the Ancients once resided.