**Sorry about not posting this earlier. My gf of two years broke up with me out of the blue last night and I've been in a rum-fueled haze since. Sorry, all.**

Here, as promised, is the tenth 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.

Meta Knight

Meta Knight is a mixed bag for me. I really like him in Brawl, despite not knowing much about the character, I just rarely find myself using him. His moves are well-rounded and I always appreciate another character that can take on Kirby in the recovery department. The mix of jumping/gliding ability with nice fast-paced specials is spot on.

I have found I generally gravitate towards either heavy characters or weapons-based characters, so it’s odd to me I don’t MK as much as I would have thought. I think one of the main issues is his Up+B recovery. I like the gliding mechanic in the game, I just find it hard to utilize properly and difficult to control (I’ve never been a fan of inverted controls and can’t find a way to change them). The fact Up when gliding suddenly makes me go down pisses me off. I inherently use gliders very little because of it and think it’s a big oversight on Nintendo’s part.


So dashing.

Otherwise, I enjoy spamming the MK tornado and his spin sword moves. He can deal quite a bit of damage in close quarters battles. His sword gives him a little extra reach, which is always handy.

I rarely ever use his Down+B cape move. I think it’s more or less useless, at least for my play style. I’m not much of a move avoider, I like to just slug it out, but the fact you can just as easily dodge or roll makes this move seem redundant to me.

Meta Knight’s Final Smash is adequate. Again, I don’t know much about the character to suggest an alternative, I just don’t like the single hit FSs like he, Link, and a few others have. I prefer some flash in my big super mega moves. If they at least did something cool with it like Capt. Falcon, then I’d be alright. It’d still be essentially a hit or miss move, but at least there’d be something really cool to show for it, ya know?

Meta Knight = Win. I know I threw out a lot of negative comments about him, but he’s a good fighter. He’s well-rounded and decent enough to warrant some time being spent with him. He’s just not close to one of my regulars. He just let me down. Maybe next time.

Falco

Falco has become one of my favorite fighters in Brawl. I never liked him in Melee, I felt he was far too similar to Fox for his own good. That’s changed, though, in Brawl. They’ve done a great job of making clones much less like carbon copies than they were before. The small differences I’ve noticed in Falco have made him a far superior fighter than Fox.



First off, I wanna get it out of the way that I don’t like him because you can supposedly spam his laser gun to the point of pushing people all the way across/off levels. I tried, and I legitimately can’t even do it. Maybe they managed to take it out before release, but I can seriously never get the timing down mid-match to pull it off if it’s still in there. I get maybe three or four shots off before he holsters his laser and by then I usually lose interest in the gun and continue fighting.

That being said, I like him for other reasons. I feel as though he’s slightly slower than Fox, which is fine by me. I don’t like speed fighters for the most part. Falco is the first speed character I’ve ever gravitated towards in Smash. I like him mostly for his reflector being able to be thrown. I find I use it WAY more often than I ever use Fox’s. It makes it seem more like a weapon/attack and yet still serves a function.

I also like his A attacks and smash attacks. His Over+A (I think it’s while running, not sure) where he spins can do decent damage in crowded situations, racking up the hits. Some would argue it’s spammable, but I rarely spam as a conscious decision, so I can’t speak to how effective it gets over time/rapid succession.


Fuck yes.

The only update to his moveset I would make would be to include the bazooka thing he has in all the Star Fox Command artwork (plus throw in an alternate outfit that uses that style for ALL the Star Fox characters, while they’re at it). It never hurts to differentiate him even more from Fox. Some different weapons would help. Base it off Snake’s, I don’t care. They need to take the clones that deserve a spot (like Falco) and give them even more personality and individuality.


Shit. Give him this, too.

The icing on the cake (for me) about Falco is his slightly tweaked FS. While Fox, Falco, and Wolf all technically have the same FS, I prefer Falco’s all the way. His increased jump while in the tank makes it even easier to push people off the top of the stage if they land on your tank. A few repeated jumps with a passenger on board and you can instant KO someone in seconds (repeatedly if they land on you again when they respawn) even if they’re at 0%. Awesome. Call it a shitty tactic, but it’s a legitimate one that makes much better use of the FS than the actual laser turret on the tank.

Falco = Win. Falco is the first speed character I’ve really come to enjoy. His moves are decently powerful and his changes from Fox are significant enough to be noticed, let alone be more effective. The only thing I’d ask for is that should Falco return again, they actually give him his own FS. Despite the fact I love it how it is the dude IS a pilot. He deserves to appear in his Arwing, even more so than Fox.

Thanks for reading. Come back tomorrow for my critiques of Pokemon Trainer and Ike!

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
Zelda/Sheik and Pit

And my bonus characters who should have made the roster:

Mega Man

Thanks for reading!