GamerNode: Interviews - The Competitive Brawl: Hugs and Gimpy weigh in on Super Smash Bros Brawl

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Dac: Before we get started, what's your simple first impression of Brawl?

Hugs: Like the impressions of many other Smashers, it was a mix. There was a bit of disappointment there because it wasn't Melee. However, there was also optimism for new discoveries that could make Brawl better than Melee.

Gimpy: Well, my first impression when I started playing the game was more surprise about how differently it played than anything else. But now that the event is over, the game is just really fun, and I'm excited about the competitive possibilities.

Dac: Do you think it has the potential to be superior to Melee?

Gimpy: On a technical level, I don't think Brawl will be able to compare to the absolute peak we've brought Melee to. But I think the community will grow enormously upon the release of Brawl, and the tournament scene will be great. Overall, the game is just purely more fun and entertaining to me.

Hugs: I think it's too soon to say. I honestly feel that Melee was accidentally made into a near-perfect game. So to think that they intentionally made this one better... Well, it's tough to say. But the game does have potential.

Dac: In terms of raw gameplay, what's the most noticeable difference?

Gimpy: The most obvious difference in gameplay is the speed of the game. Initially, everything seems almost unbearably slow and floaty, however after playing the game as much as I got to play, that didn't seem to be a problem. Just after four days of demo play we really adapted and got ourselves moving much faster.

Hugs: Yeah, definitely the slowness of the game. Part of it has to do with advanced Melee players being unable to do the things that made them fast to begin with, like L-canceling and Wavedashing. The big reason, though, is the floatiness of the game.

Dac: So is it safe to say that Brawl takes the combat characteristics of Melee and combines them with the physics of Smash 64?

Hugs: Pretty much. It's a near perfect mix. Except, I didn't really want it to be mixed to begin with. *Laughs*

Dac: Do you think competitive purists will continue to latch onto Melee, or will the tournament scene steadily shift over to Brawl?

Gimpy: Some of the tournament goers will be so shut off by the fact that the game isn't Melee 2.0 that they won't even give it a chance, but the tournament scene will definitely become oriented to brawl. While there will still be Melee tourneys, Brawl will engulf the majority of the scene.

Dac: What aspect of Melee is most missed?

Gimpy: Most people would answer Wavedashing, I'd imagine, but with Brawl's physics engine, it doesn't even feel like it would fit. I think the main aspect people will miss is the really long combo strings. I'm sure we'll figure them out, but initially we aren't going to be doing the crazy technical things that we could in Melee.

Dac: Obviously, the Wiimote-only control method is a joke for advanced players, but how did the Classic controller feel?

Hugs: It's not completely a joke. Trevyn, the best link player in SoCal/AZ was using the Wiimote all day. He preferred it. The classic controller was okay because it was as close as you could get to a GameCube controller, without actually being one. It was still overly sensitive though.

Gimpy: Well, let me comment on the Wiimote-only control first. The Wiimote method is great for gamers who haven't played a lot of Smash in the past. You have good control of your character instantly, however you lack certain technical aspects. The Classic control scheme gives you the option to do everything. You can short hop and dash-dance. You can do everything that you need to do.

Dac: Even though you've only played for a few days, do the characters seem balanced?

Hugs: It's too soon to say. I haven't spent enough time with the game to figure out how to counter certain overpowered moves and techniques.

Gimpy: Well, I'd say that even though I only played for a few days, I played more than anyone and was taking a monstrous list of notes. *laughs* From what I saw, other than the glaring exception of Ike, the gameplay between characters is more balanced. Nothing stood out as particularly spammable or broken, though I definitely think Ike needs to be fixed. When we learn to control our characters better in Brawl, it seems like Ike won't be viable because he's so slow. I thought Nintendo would've learned after Bowser in Melee that really strong but really slow doesn't really work that well.

Dac: You've seem to found a way to make it work, Gimpy.

Gimpy: *Laughs* Well, up to a certain point. But Ike is far more exaggerated than Bowser was, in both respects.

Dac: Now, if you guys could pick a top four so far, who would they be?

Gimpy: In this order, it would be Mario, Peach, Metaknight, and then... either Diddy or Sonic, I guess. Probably Sonic, but I'm not sure. Mario, Peach, Metaknight for sure, though.

Hugs: Metaknight, Sonic, Pit, and Mario, in no particular order.

Dac: Who seems to have received the biggest nerf in Brawl?

Hugs: Fox for sure. He's still good, but not nearly as good as in Melee.

Gimpy: Yeah,, probably Fox, but it isn't as bad as I made it sound at first. He's still pretty good, but his shine was drastically weakened. But I think the problem with Fox was that we were still trying to play him like Melee Fox, and that's not the best way to play him in Brawl.

Dac: It seems like Peach's admittedly broken down-smash got a nerf, as well. Do you think Nintendo's just doing their best to take out the cheap, broken attacks?

Gimpy: I'd certainly hope that's the case. While Peach's down smash did get nerfed, she's faster and better overall. If they remove the "cheapness" of characters, and stop making really overpowered moves than can be spammed, then it seems like everything balances out a bit more.

Dac: So which one of the characters got the biggest overhaul for Brawl?

Hugs: You know, I think I'd say Mario. But, this may only be because we don't really know how to play the game yet. In Melee, if the Mario's were doing the same things they were doing in brawl, it'd be very unimpressive. Perhaps Mario was just the easiest to control right off the bat. We'll have to wait till the game comes out for us to really see what he can do.

Gimpy: In all honesty, this probably sounds biased, but I'd say Bowser.

Dac: *Laughs* I thought that might be the case.

Gimpy: I mean, other characters got buffed. Like, Pikachu did for sure. But Bowser is actually viable, and that's a huge difference. He's not that much better, but he lives for a long time, kills at pretty low percentages, doesn't seem to be that slow, and has a nice suicide kill move in his claw attack. My favorite was his firebreath, which you can now aim up and down, so you can just walk over to the ledge and firebreath straight down. There were just a lot of little changes that made him better overall.

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