Calm before the Smash
In anticipation of the best game that is and ever will be hitting my mailbox tomorrow, I went out to pick up a new GameCube controller. I appreciate that Brawl supports multiple control schemes but the GameCube control is the only way to play. Yet I earlier sold all my Wavebirds under the assumption I could buy more later, unfortunately failing to account for the possibility that Nintendo could stop manufacturing Wavebirds — which they did. My best available option was a non-wireless version, some prehistoric model with a cord sticking out of the back that has to hook into the console itself. Fucking unreal.
I thought I was being smart when I pre-ordered the game from Amazon months ago. While I think I’m being smart when I do plenty of things of dubious value (to include the selling and repurchasing of old controllers at loss), I took the “Your order has shipped” email in my inbox yesterday as re-verification of the original self-impression. “Haha, I sure am smart!” I thought as I walked to EB Games to buy my new controller. “I mean, no one is going to have copies of the game available for purchase, and especially not a day in advance of the launch date!” Thus imagine the ego-crushing surprise when I discovered that, albeit lacking in first-party wireless control options for last-gen systems, the store had plenty of unopened and unclaimed cases of Brawl sitting right next to the checkout line.
“Fuck!” I said, likely to the disdain of the mother behind me in line and hopefully towards the education of her impressionable children. But profanity was to be excused, as there I stood arms-distance away from my raison d’etre with the preordered copy sitting in some trailer UPS.com-knows-where (Sacramento). A tough call had to be made: I almost broke down and took another one for the US economy, yet ultimately surrendered to the logic that the marginal utility of a second copy likely wouldn’t justify the $50 cost. And while I could return the preorder to Amazon, a) the post office lost a package in the mail the last time I tried this, and more importantly, b) I’m too inept to return to sender. Well, inept or lazy, but either results in my owning two copies.
And I don’t need another copy. I also don’t need the extra day… or the extra practice. PK Starstorm FTW motherfuckers — it’s gonna be a brawl. Bring it on: 3437 2755 0525
I’m truly disappointed by your lack of urgency, Makarsky. If I’m not bored of this “Smash Brothers” nonsense by the time you finally do get a copy, then we should play. 2744 3771 7772 2638.
What you should have done is bought it from EB and then returned the Amazon one to EB. Better yet, you could just give it to me. That would work out nicely.
I believe Smash has its own 12-digit friend code that you need to use to connect, because who doesn’t like entering long strings of numbers!
Xbox Live this ain’t.
Right you are, sir. Here you go: 2621-2340-0410
I still have a couple wavebirds lying around - perhaps I’ll bring one along in April?
I finished SSE and unlocked all the characters. The game is different is some areas but I think it’s an overall improvement. The characters seem a lot more balanced now, which was one of my biggest melee criticisms. It’s obviously slower, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I really don’t like the increased hang time. All the characters just float down now.
Meta Knight rocks as expected, but Lucario and ROB are also big faves at the moment. Toon Link is basically Young Link (and his boomerang is much better than regular Link’s), so I guess I’ll continue playing him for now. They nerfed his down thrust, but I was expecting that. And I really like Lucas too, but he’s basically Ness with weaker moves (although his up smash is pretty sweet).
I don’t really “get” Dedede or Sonic yet, so I’m undecided. Falcon, Bowser, and Ganondorf are a lot better in this game (I guess due to the overall slowness). Snake is surprisingly (unsurprisingly?) cool, and I think Pokemon trainer is also decent (Charizard sucks, but Squirtle is the best/cutest thing ever). Kirby is also much closer to his N64 strength, and Olimar and Diddy are pieces of shit as far as I can tell.
Maybe I’ll finally venture beyond Mario!
(But first I need to buy the game.
And some wavebirds.
And a Wii
:-/)