**Sorry for the delay. I was drunk all weekend AND hadda replace my 360. I'll make it up to you all.**

Here, as promised, is the seventeenth portion (including my review and bonus characters) of my in-depth Super Smash Bros. Brawl critique for Rorschach’s contest.

After writing this all out, I realized it is way too long for a single post. I’ll break it down into two characters at a time and release them over the course of the week so you can read who you like at your own leisure.

The following will detail my impressions and thoughts of every character in the final roster, two at a time. So, if you haven’t finished unlocking the entire roster, or have been living under a fucking rock for a couple months, don’t read any further. There may be a surprise or two mentioned herein. I’ll also offer up one or two suggestions for additional characters that I feel should have made the roster or deserve a spot in the next iteration. Enjoy.

Sonic

I really like Sonic. I know that may come as a surprise to some people, since I openly hate speed-based characters, but the joy of pitting Sonic against Mario without any Olympic games involved is pure old-school dream-worthy bliss. The fact I fell for the old EGM April Fool’s joke when Melee came out also sorta makes me feel better inside now that I can legitimately play with him.


The blue wonder.

Now, although I like Sonic for nostalgia’s sake and because he offers some somewhat unique maneuvers, I think he could and SHOULD have been implemented completely differently. I envisioned Nintendo working with Sega to incorporate more characters from Sonic’s series and I wholly wish they would have done so. So despite the fact I like Sonic, here is how I think he should have been handled.

Sonic needed Tails. Plain and simple. I really anticipated them implementing Tails into the game. Not as another combatant, but as Sonic’s sidekick.

**Side Note: Tails will NEVER make it into the Smash series. His inclusion would make little to no sense in terms of gameplay. Besides an alternate flying/gliding recovery ability he could never work in-game. Sonic is the fastest character in his universe, but Tails is smaller. That means in Smash, Tails would need to be faster because he is tinier. Small character move faster in Smash, but no one is allowed to move faster than Sonic. Therefore he could never be integrated believably on his own.**


A knuckle punch taunt HAS to be included if Tails becomes his sidekick.

I had my fingers crossed that they would bring in Tails as Sonic’s tag along and operate much like the Ice Climbers. Tails would stick with Sonic and help perform all his moves, allowing him to double up on some damage. He would clearly then also act as Sonic’s recovery move (very similarly to Snake’s recovery move). If Tails were separately KO’d, Sonic would lose his recovery ability, like Popo does when Nana gets KO’d.

I think this would have acted as an incredible nod to the early Sonic titles where Tails always tagged along. Plus, it would have been a great manner (and the only logical manner) in which to bring Tails into the series. Outside of an Assist Trophy, Tails just logically cannot earn a spot.

Sonic = Win (as he exists) / Epic Win (with Tails). Although I didn’t really go into why I appreciate Sonic as he stands, I think we can all agree he’d be that much cooler with Tails by his side. His moveset would only really change in terms of his recovery, therefore I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to see this update being made in the next iteration while still retaining his now distinct “feel.”

*Challenger Approaching*

Since I’m covering Sonic today AND need to catch up on some posts, I’m going to include the next character I feel deserved a spot on the Brawl roster. He’s from the Sonic series, he may not be his chief rival, but he came close in one particular game. He’s Knuckles the Echidna!

Knuckles

Now, I know many would argue Dr. Robotnik (old school FTW) deserves a spot before Knuckles since Robotnik is Sonic’s classic enemy, but I figure, if Sega can’t even figure out what the fuck they want to call the guy, they would never be able to come up with a moveset for him. Although he’s been seen in recent Sega titles, like Superstar Tennis, using tiny machines that aid him in his quest for sporting authority, the classic Sonic games had him manning massive ships and mechanized monstrosities. They’d just be too large to be included in Smash or too lame if they were shrunk down to fit the size of other characters.

For this reason, I think Knuckles would be a better choice. Knuckles would retain most of the same moveset Sonic has, much like Falco and Wolf get theirs from Fox, only he’d have a few key differences that set him further apart than some other clones.


He looks SO ready to kick some ass AND he looks Smash-itized (!?).

Since Tails wouldn’t work in Smash because he’d hafta be smaller AND somehow slower, Knuckles is able to more logically fill in a roster spot. He could logically be slightly slower than Sonic and be more powerful (he has spiked fists, so come on), which effectively is how they handled Ganondorf, so it makes sense.

The biggest difference, though, would be that Knuckles could glide after he performed an Up+B recovery move (which would be exactly like Sonic's now, only wholly Knuckles' since Sonic would gain Tails as his recovery move). His jump could be shorter in vertical distance than Sonic's now, but it would still spawn a spring and he could glide super far after he reached the peak because of his hair (?) like in the Sonic and Knuckles game. He could also use his spike fists to climb/cling to walls, like Lucario and a few other lithe fighters can, again like he has done in previous titles.

His basic moveset (A attacks) would be altered to focus on punches that had better knockout potential than Sonic’s current set does, again setting him further apart and making him a more powerful hand-to-hand combatant.

Unfortunately, I don’t know of a great idea for a Final Smash for him. I think they’d likely just give him a Super-Knuckles one like Sonic’s, and make it slower but more powerful, but I don’t know if that really fits into the history of the series as well. I’d be okay with it just to see him in the series, but I’m sure there are other possibilities. Last I knew Knuckles never gained control of the Chaos Emeralds, so maybe he should have something else.

Knuckles = Win. He could be implemented really easily and I’d be okay with him having a highly cloned moveset. It makes sense in terms of the character. As long as he gained his gliding and climbing abilities and really took advantage of those spike fists, I’d be cool with it. He’d be different enough for me to play as him.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for my critique of Bowser and Wario!

Or read my review of the game!

Or, if you need to catch up on old critiques try these:

First Row:
Mario and DK
Link and Samus
Kirby and Fox
Pikachu and Marth
Mr Game & Watch

Second Row:
Luigi and Diddy Kong
Zelda/Sheik and Pit
Meta Knight and Falco
Pokemon Trainer
Ike and Snake

Third Row:
Peach and Yoshi
Ganondorf and Ice Climbers
Kind Dedede and Wolf
Lucario and Ness

And my bonus characters who should have made the roster:

Mega Man
Bomberman

Thanks for reading!