Wii owners are positively frantic for the release of Super Smash Brothers Brawl in a few months. I know that the franchise is incredibly loved, as the Gamecube version is indefensibly priced at $29.99 over five years after its release.
From what I’ve seen, it looks like a really simple fighting game, like a cut down “Street Fighter.”
Is there more to it? What makes it SO great?
A wide variety of characters, interesting gameplay (it’s a hell of a lot more complex than you might think at first look), fun stage design, and that all-important touch fans love: character compilation. Many, many people love crossover concepts using familiar and beloved characters, and the idea of Mario and Link and Samus and Star Fox and Pikachu and on and on getting together to beat the crap out of each other is really appealing.
Going back to the gameplay, I wouldn’t call it simple at all, overall. It’s simpler only in that you’re not required to do two half circles plus punch, or a 360 motion plus kick, to pull off your special moves; it’s a single direction plus an action button. However, that results in a fast-paced game less reliant on the player’s ability to pull off the move in the first place and more on the player’s ability to use it at the correct time.
There is also an element of complication in that characters don’t simply have health meters; they have damage percentages which cause them to get knocked around more easily by attacks as the percentage rises. You don’t actually lose until you get knocked off the edge of the map, so if you’re skilled enough, you can make some very tense and dramatic comebacks from certain loss.
Aside from that, there’s plenty of glitch-tricks technical players can master similar to Roll Canceling and the like in traditional fighter games.
As for Brawl itself, Masahiro Sakurai, the creator, is intent on making the best game he possibly can. Since the Gamecube version was much more fun than the N64 version, most fans are eager to see the upward trend continue. Take all the above, add the ability to have four people playing at once, and you’ve got a game that’s just downright fun to play.
More importantly, Brawl has Solid Snake (and Zero Suit Samus) in it. 
Smash Brothers is GOD!
Nitpick; “Star Fox” isn’t a character, but rather refers to a series that characters are from. The fox from this series is called, helpfully, Fox. Also Falco’s from this series. I’ll let people guess what they look like. 
I would add that one of the fun things is that it’s a party game. It’s designed so that you can sit around with your mates drinking and laughing your ass off. And on the other end, it’s also a very competitive game for “professionals” in tournaments, like **Bosstone ** says… You can have fun with it just from picking the thing up, or as a super-fantastic move nerd. You come away from it having had a good time.
Favourite characters? I’m a Kirby man, myself, with a sideline in Pikachu.
Too bad Kirby’s the worst character in melee 
This is not the same as Melee, right?
VCO3’s talking about Brawl, the next one coming up. But it’s not out yet, so i’m talking about Melee (and also the original). I think Kirby’s alright… his up-B (the sword-with-a-short-shockwave) and down-B (the rock) aren’t all that powerful but they can be versatile. Also, he’s cute, and nothing helps bragging rights like beating someone with a small ball with a face. 
Oh, I know that quite well. 
Couldn’t tell you how knowledgeable VCO3 is about Nintendo franchises, though, and Star Fox is more likely to ring a bell than Fox McCloud. (He is occasionally called that though, I believe, particularly by Star Wolf in Star Fox 64.)
I think actually it’s the team that’s called Star Fox in-game, so he isn’t referring to Fox alone, but all four of them. Same the other way, though I can’t remember what Wolf’s last name is (if Wolf is his first).
It’s also great because it’s VERY easy to pick up - all characters have a moveset that can be performed with the same buttons + directions (e.g. A forward). There aren’t any insanely difficult fatalities or combos, so experienced players can’t really hide the most powerful moves from the newbs.
I am resisting the urge to join in on the Star Fox musings…
As for Smash Bros (and I’m assuming the OP was referring to all incarnations of Smash), in addition to the points **Bosstone **raised, there is also an interesting random element to nearly every match, thanks to item spawns and hazards. Oftentimes a match can be decided by the sudden appearance of a critical item, or a map’s whimsical decision to have a spaceship in the background open fire on a player. It can add a nice extra dimension to a match, as long as you don’t let it bother you when it’s not in your favor.
That would be Wolf O’Donnell, and heck, you may be right. Wiki certainly isn’t backing me up. So it goes.
Fox is confirmed as a Brawl character, FTR. No clue whether Falco’s made it in yet. He’ll probably show up, either as a playable or an assist.
oft wears hats, my roommate insists on playing Melee without items, which rankles occasionally. Nothing more fun than grabbing a Super Scope and pissing everyone off. 
Playing without forces you to concentrate more on skill, though, and I’ve been getting pretty decent with Ganondorf.
I also want to add that jumping is very important in Smash Bros, where it is pretty neglected in traditional fighters. In a traditional fighter the playfield is essentially one-dimentional, but in Smash Bros the arena is almost always multileveled, and areal attacks are just as important as regular attacks. Think of it this way: in a traditional fighter you can jump once, matbe twice your own height. In Smash Bros it’s about 10 times your height, at least.
oft wears hats, generally big league tournaments turn items off. They’re great when you’re playing it as a party game, though.
I dislike fighting games but love smash bros. Part of the fun is that it feels much more interactive than normal fighting games. In a typical fighting game you can move back and forth, and maybe jump, but all the moves you do are just random button combinations; it just doesn’t feel natural. In Smash Bros everything’s simple one button presses, so it feels much more intuitive and fluid.
Also the fact that after you play a couple competitive matches against your friend with your best character, you can settle down and have a few fun matches with any other character. It’s neat how much variety each character has even though they all essentially play the same.
Here’s an example of a pretty competitive match.
ps: Jigglypuff rules!
Ooopsie. My bad, I was thinking of the wrong game.
Oh, yes, one other reason Brawl is so eagerly anticipated. Nintendo’s finally bringing netplay to their console, and I know my friends and I are very much psyched about being able to play a four-player game online. Compared to Microsoft and Sony, the netplay is coming a little late, but being able to play Nintendo games online is something I’m quite looking forward to.
Wow, that linked video gave me a headache. It moves too fast, and with way too many bright happy colors. The game is definitely not for me.
Most times I played that game, I was Jigglypuff. It’s a fun game, that’s for sure.