**Sorry for not updating this series yesterday. I didn't want it bogged down by April Fool's jokes. I'll likely make up for the missed portion on Friday or this weekend when I have more time.**

Here, as promised, is the ninth portion (including my review and bonus character) 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 second row of 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.

Zelda/Sheik

I don’t like Zelda. Never have, likely never will. Her only redeeming qualities are the fact you can switch between her and Sheik, who I find to be a much more enjoyable character and her smash attacks (specifically her upward one) is pretty powerful. I don’t really like any of her special B moves and feel there are better versions of almost all of them available for use with other characters. Sue me.



Part of the reason I dislike her is because of the skirt/float mechanic that her and Peach use. I think it’s dumb and makes little sense outside of allowing the designers to get around a “fall and have the skirt fly up over the girls’ faces and show panties” scenario that would ensue if they used another method of fall animation.

I also dislike her Final Smash. For a time altering powerful magician princess she kinda has a lame FS. All it boils down to is a pumped-up version of Pit’s light arrow. I wish they would have used some form of time-altering mechanic with her FS, like allowing her to “travel” back in time aka pause the action for every other fighter and have her move in reverse across the screen exactly as she did in the last 30 seconds, but now if she contacts anyone they get big damage and fly off while also allowing her to revert back to whatever damage ratio she had at that time. I think it would be crazy to pull off and cool to watch, plus it would have a lot of unpredictability built in.



Sheik, although more enjoyable as a hand to hand combatant, still doesn’t quite do it for me. I enjoy the speed and more acrobatic attacks, but I’d still rather play with someone else almost all of the time. The fact Sheik doesn’t get a unique FS, while somewhat understandable and predictable, is still a letdown in my eyes.

Zelda/Sheik = Fail/Fail. Both aren’t much fun to play as for me. I’d almost always prefer someone else. Both need some new moves to liven up their play styles. I simply don’t know enough about them to know what moves warrant introduction.

Pit

Before I ever bought Brawl, I was looking forward to playing as Pit. I never played Kid Icarus (I owned a Genesis) but the character himself intrigued me. I like his duel sword/bow and arrow combo weapon as well as the fact I knew he would have a great recovery ability. Which makes me sad to report I don’t think he’s quite as good as I anticipated.



Now, don’t get me wrong, I like playing as Pit. I just don’t think he’s as awesome as some people make him out to be. Sure, he has one of the best recovery abilities in the game ON TOP of already being able to fly, but I don’t think his attacks are all that great. I presume that’s the balancing act between recovery and attack proficiency.

That being said, I do like his Over+B sword spin. It’s decently powerful and in a small cluster can do some good damage, but it can be spammed, which sucks. The slight slide/push he gets when executing it also helps close gaps between opponents AND is known to reflect projectiles, which brings me to my next issue. The dude has a shield (Down+B). Having a shield doesn’t make sense to me if his sword spin already deflects/nerfs attacks. I feel as though the shield could have been replaced by something less redundant, whether or not the shield is from his game or not. Either that or take away Over+B’s ability to reflect attacks. Either or.

His light arrow (neutral B) move is pretty good. It took me a while to realize you can control it, in a sense, but I never find much use for it. Maybe it’s just ‘cause I play using a Wavebird, but I find it rather difficult to balance the “aiming” of the arrow on top of how long I need to hold the B button for distance. It certainly doesn’t control like Snake’s RPG launcher, as it likely shouldn’t (it IS made of light), but still. This means I rarely hit anyone with a non-neutral arrow. I prefer straight ahead arrows for ease’s sake.


Such a humble little sprite.

I also appreciate most of his smash attacks. I’ve found his Smash Up move to be pretty powerful and use it often. I can’t say I recall being astounded by the power in his other ones, though. That’s not saying they aren’t effective, that’s just saying they weren’t effective enough to catch my attention.

Pit’s FS is decent at best. I like he calls the little angle guys from Kid Icarus and all, I was just led to believe from previews of the move that it would be more effective. I thought there would be a larger number of angels called and they would be better at hitting opponents. I often have people dodging them outright and rarely do I do as much damage as I think I should. I wouldn’t change the move completely, I’d just make it more effective i.e. have more angels attack the stage.

Pit = Win. I know it sounds as though I talked a lot of negative on the guy, but he’s still fun to play as. A lot of my feelings come from the fact I was hoping they would make him a more proficient fighter than I feel they did. He’s still a great joy to play with I just don’t prefer him as much as I anticipated myself to do. He’s a solid addition, no matter what, though.

Thanks for reading. Come back tomorrow for my critiques of Meta Knight and Falco!

Or read my review of the game!

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

Mario and DK
Link and Samus
Kirby and Fox
Pikachu and Marth
Mr Game & Watch
Luigi and Diddy Kong

And my bonus characters who should have made the roster:

Mega Man

Thanks for reading!