I can't rant enough about how cool/awesome SSB: Brawl is. Seriously.

Sat up for about 2hrs last night having a good bash at the 'classic' mode (ie. pick a character & fight your way through a bunch of stages). If you've played SSB or Melee, then you're going to love Brawl - it's that simple. Graphically it's a step up from Melee, but the biggest thing I've noticed is how amazing some of the stages are. Some are fairly plain (Brawl arena is just clouds, Samus' stage is of a lava planet), but some are very kickass (Fighting on top of Fox McCloud's Arwing whilst it blasts through space or the King Dede/Metaknight stage that has a gigantic airship flying around the background swooping in & out of the screen..) and some are just funky (the Mario Kart stage come to mind - fighting on/around the track & periodically a bunch of karts come belting past)..

So far had a run with Pit (of Kid Icarus fame), the Pokemon Trainer (Charizard is cheap!) & Olimar (Pikmin!) - Controls are pretty much what they were in Melee, although I've had no desire to try using the Wiimote controls. Wavebird/Gamecube controller (and I guess classic controller too) is by far the weapon of choice here.

If I had to gripe about something, it'd be how small the characters can get on certain stages - However I suspect it's purely due to me using my poor old 63cm TV to play it on.

In short - I think the hype it's been getting is more than justified. Can't wait for some more locals to get it so I can fire up some Wifi play for a run.

wait, are you using a freeloader to run the game?

If this is out and one of my mates doesn't have it yet then I'm buying a wii.

I found the Donkey Kong Stage (not jungle japes) is s*** Gannondorf is slow as s*** now, and Metaknight is one of the cheapest characters you will get with his whirlwind spam.

But it is still an awesome game probably won't see it out here till June/July hence why we get Mario Kart before the US because brawl is taking too long to release here.

We get Mario Kart one week before the US, that doesn't compensate for SSBB being late 6 months one bit.

oh and again how are you people playing it?

Ooops.. should've mentioned that I'd imported the US-NTSC version & grabbed a Freeloader to boot it with :)

Very easy to use too - Because brawl has an update on it, you just need to put the bootloader in twice the first time you want to play. After this, just pop the BRawl disc in, accept the update & you're away. Also need to set the wii to run in 60hz too, which I discovered after about 20 mins of stressing out that I had the 'dirty laser' problem some Wii owners had with Brawl (it's the first dual-layer disc to be released)..

Donkey Kong Stage (not jungle japes) is s***

Argh. THis stage pisses me off no end. It moves quick, has characters everywhere & you end up just jumping randomly & hoping the AI f***s up and kills themselves.

Awesome, I've been waiting for confirmation that the freeloader works! Where did you get your copy of freeloader/SSBB from? I'm looking at playasia.com but they still don't have the freeloader in stock.

I got it from a dodgy ebay seller based in the UK -= cost me $au40 shipped.

Get Brawl from Play-Asia - cheap shipping & my copy took just on a week to arrive. As for the freeloader, I'd recommend using dvdcrave or ozmodchips to get it. Both are priced around $au40-45 shipped.

I didn't bother waiting to see if it would work, figured if it didn't that I could just resell the copy of Brawl on eBay and recoup my losses. Funnily enough, it's exactly what I did with the original Smash Bros on the N64 too - imported it when it came out in the US & grabbed a converter cart to play it here. From memory we got screwed over on the release dates back then too, didn't we?

Get the freeloader from that ozmodchips place someone linked in a different thread, couple of people from work got it from there and theirs shipped today, so its definitely in stock.

For sure. I didn't go with ozmodchips as they didn't have a definite date & I was really hoping to get it all before the long weekend. Wish I had've, simply because it would've been 100% less hassle - the UK seller I got mine from had the auction pulled after a bunch of people had paid, then stopped responding to emails. A week later & several paypal disputes, they finally woke up and told people that the freeloaders had been shipped last Monday.

Thankfully mine turned up yesterday & works fine, but regret not using Ozmod simply for the reduction in stress over dodgy eBay sellers.

I'm cheap so I'm trying to find the best price for the freeloader. The problem with ozmodchips is that its $50 shipped which is bulls*** because playasia is around $30AUD shipped.

DVDcrave seems like the better choice.

Have you tried online play yet? I'm worried that Nintendo might do the same thing that Microsoft did when they caught players playing a game that wasn't yet released in their country (but I think they were playing with burnt copies).

Lurking in the SSB threads on aussie-nintendo suggests the answer is no - However there seems to be issues with Random wifi play currently, likely because of capacity issues. You can play locally against people - I'm yet to give it a try though (given I don't know anyone else with ssb yet).

I was also wondering, do you have to put in the freeloader disk every time you want to play? and do you have to put it in twice each time?

Also ebgames seems to be taking preorders now:
http://www.ebgames.com.au/Wii/product.cfm?ID=7566
they're also saying that the release date is Jun 2008.

You do.

And EB? The self same EB who will happily take pre-orders for Duke Nukem Forever?

Not a good source for release dates tbh :)

So the first time you come to run the game you put in the freeloader twice but then after that you put it in once?

Also, I agree about EB release dates still thought I'd mention it.

can u download that freeloader? also does the wiikey work with the ntsc version

can you play the game online at all against friends or anything to that degree.

For anyone who lives in Melbourne, theres a shop called Dungeon Crawl on Elizabeth St that is importing a bunch of copies of SSBB and selling it as a package with the Freeloader. They already got one shipment in and they've sold out, but they're getting more in next week.

Theres also a place at Ringwood called Gamemania (or maybe Gamesmania, something like that) that are importing and selling it too.

And if you live in Perth, some Gametraders stores in Perth are importing and selling it. Dunno if other Gametraders store elsewhere in the country are, but I rang the ones around Melbourne, and they weren't.

send em up here!

can u download that freeloader? also does the wiikey work with the ntsc version

can you play the game online at all against friends or anything to that degree.

Are you an idiots? read the thread.

yes im an idiot...

i dont see anywhere that clarifies wat i asked about being able to dl the freeloader, or if u can play the ntsc version using wiikey only (no freeloader)

so the question stands

You can't DL the freeloader.

I've seen some comments on Aussie-Nintendo.com that suggest trying a legit imported copy of NTSC Brawl in a Wiikey'd Wii won't work. No idea of the accuracy of it however..

just ordered the freeloader and ssbb combo off ebay.

says it'll arrive on the 5th of april, will let you know how it goes

i hate it :|

so much of the skill has been taken out of the game i reckon, way too much.

no wave dashing, no L-cancelling, no real quick as hell combos anymore (which required good timing to pull off). Also no dash dancing because of f***ing trip? are you kidding.. dumbest f***ing idea ever.

It's almost f***ing impossible to do any sought of edge guarding anymore since all the characters have had their up-B's boosted, floatiness boosted and not to mention half the characters in the game f***ing fly now.

+ speed... fast characters got floatier.. slow characters got faster... no obvious fast fall....

f*** that, i'm sticking to melee.

no wave dashing no L-cancelling no dash dancing

No more explioting physics bugs?

yes im an idiot...

i dont see anywhere that clarifies wat i asked about being able to dl the freeloader, or if u can play the ntsc version using wiikey only (no freeloader)

so the question stands

Sorry I've gotten this thread confused with the modchip thread where it clearly got stated that the ntsc version (or the japanese) doesnt work with SSBB. Also, I'm surprised you know what a wiikey is but not a freeloader.

no wave dashing, no L-cancelling, no real quick as hell combos anymore (which required good timing to pull off). Also no dash dancing because of f***ing trip? are you kidding.. dumbest f***ing idea ever.

I have no idea what youre talking about and I played the hell out of melee.

Actually I decided to look up what dash dancing is and its pretty much an exploit.

No more explioting physics bugs?

Seems like it.

edit:Jabroney, how much?

$90AUS

so thats pretty decent seeing as its gonna be that much when it comes out here

No more explioting physics bugs?

I'm guessing you couldn't use those techniques to you're advantage instead of just saying oo i can L-cancel :p

Most people used to complain about it when they just couldn't use them when they needed to + half the characters in the game would of been useless without it i.e. luigi / mario

Including delivery? I'm looking at getting SSBB + freeloader (they JUST got the freeloader in stock) from playasia.com for ~$100AUD with tracking.

I've never learned to incorporate it into fights because I believe it is a cheap exploit, ...and no one I know can play for s***e.

There is a large gap between those who can Wave Dash and those who can't, not because of a skill divide, but because the constant limited invulnerability results in severely unbalanced gameplay.
If there was a ladder system or if Nintendo ever hosts any tournaments, could you imagine how biased the results would be, and how cheated those who can't WD or Lc would feel?

It is the same thing as Snaking which has ruined much of the online play with Mario Kart DS, or those who drop below the ground in TF2.
They aren't hacking or modding, but exploiting a loop hole in the physics to gain an unfair advantage. Anyone can do it with practise, but your ruining the spirit of the game, and spoiling the fun for others.
Nintendo was right to remove it.

PS: The tripping sucks. It should have been based on how many times you have changed direction in the last second, not randomly. Although I have nothing against dash dancing, a bit of mind games is skillful.

last edited by Lynx at 02:09:46 23/Mar/08

there were plenty of smash tournaments all around the world, at which every single player would use wavedash + l-cancel to their advantage... just look at how much faster they make the game.. way more entertaining. Not to mention way more demanding of skills to reach such a level of competition, compared to just dodge rolling :p

That's why i find it annoying atm because im back on the same level as everyone else who couldn't wave dash, it's like those who only want to drive an auto car.. sure it can be fun.. but after a few hrs u want a manual.

So what your saying is that you spent time learning an exploit to win at the expense of learning the actual game. No you and heaps of other exploiters have to actually learn how to play. Or find some other exploits.

Raider, I'd probably give you a run for your money in Melee and I don't use/know wave-dashing/l-canceling. It probably made the difference between good players and pro players.

I never played the smash brothers game on gamecube, but if they've removed dirty exploity stuff from the game, then that sounds like a good thing to me. Once again, having never played it, my opinion doesn't really count for much, but the impression I get is that its not really intended to be some hardcore fighting game played to a hardcore level in hardcore competitions. It just strikes me as the sort of fighting game thats meant to be fun for anyone and everyone who picks it up, and to that end, I guess they're trying to keep the playing field as level as possible.

considering 70% of the combos in the game come from the use of wave dashing / l-cancelling id say the difference between decent and pro is massive... i don't even consider myself at the same level as the pro players...

without any of those strats, you can't pillar, waveshine, any of the juggling tricks... most of it relies on l-cancelling.. and also your character is much slower without it :)

brawls alright, but for people that never learnt to do those techniques it's a much easier transition then those like me who pretty much used to wave dash to move :| (i played luigi, if u didn't wave dash no point playing him)

When Wave Dashing your character essentially slides along a stage fast, with limited invulnerability. To wave dash you hop a short distance into the air, and then air dodge down into the stage immediately, causing you to slide a short distance. As soon as you hit the ground and slide, you hop back into the air and repeat.

I'm quite not sure how L-Canceling works.
Air attacks often have a higher priority then ground attacks and have greater knock back, meaning if two combatants attack at the same time the air attack wins. A common technique would be to hop along the stage and chase/juggle an opponent with a barrage of air attacks. To balance this out, if a character hits the ground while attacking, he/she will have a moment of lag while they pick themselves back up. L-Canceling negates or drastically speeds this lag up, allowing the combatant to launch into another attack while the opponent suffers recoil.

Dash Dancing is just darting back and forth to confuse your opponent into not knowing which direction your are going to attack from next.

I loved the exploits in GC smash brothers.

Then again, everyone on QGL is against my views regarding Marvel Vs Capcom 2 (which turned like a 60 fighter game into a 3 fighter game because of exploits).

Sometimes they make the game better :S

When Wave Dashing your character essentially slides along a stage fast, with limited invulnerability. To wave dash you hop a short distance into the air, and then air dodge down into the stage immediately, causing you to slide a short distance. As soon as you hit the ground and slide, you hop back into the air and repeat.

lol, that's like MvsC2 triangle jumping.

Basically you can't block an air attack crouching (which is what turtle players do, crouch/block). So you super jump upwards, cancel into a diagonal down air dash and attack... all this is done in less time then a regular attack = can't block f***ers.


last edited by CHUB at 16:39:15 23/Mar/08

do u guys reckon that the wiimote will be fine to play ssbb? or will i have to buy classic controllers or gc controllers

Then again, everyone on QGL is against my views regarding most things

fixed for you

A friend has a classical controller and he said that it feels weird because it is designed on the SNES controller but unlike the SNES controller it doesnt have groves in the back.

I'm going to try and get my hands on the Thrustmaster T-Wireless NW Wii Classic Controller. It's simply a new wavebird. If not, SSBB supports Gamecube controllers so I'll just use the controllers I already have.

do u guys reckon that the wiimote will be fine to play ssbb? or will i have to buy classic controllers or gc controllers

GCN controllers if you've got them. Wavebird for the massive win (if you can find one).

finally received the copy of ssbb and the freeloader that i got sent from the uk

game kicks ass, played it all day with 3 mates, all using wiimotes, seemed fine, but didnt really play it too competively

borrowed a gc controller off doob, gonna give it a go on that soon.

the fkn ice climbers are way too good imo

/cry
They won't even announce a release date, f***ers
I'm so desperate.

Don't wait for a release date, order it from overseas. The more people that order from overseas the more they will realize they need to release things here at the same time if they want more money out of us.

I got bored of reading the thread, is this the freeloader?
Datel.Freeloader.USA.Wii-EXTRAS
Datel.Freeloader.PAL.Wii-EXTRAS

according to the .nfo file casa you require a wiikey for that to work.

hmmm im not really up with the wii lingo, i want to buy one, cos mario kart would own, and this would own, and i dont want to wait 6 months for it.

a wiikey is a wii modchip
i did some further research (aka some forums) and it got really vague on wether a wiikey was required to use the freeloader
the .nfo file with the download states that it was tested on a wiikey 1.9 but thats not to say it wont work on an unmodded wii.

either way i got cappage to waste so ill give it ago this arvo

No, if you buy a freeloader, you don't need a modchip to play imports.

Though, Nintendo have patched the exploit that Datel used to get their unsigned code in the Freeloader to boot. Once that patch is activated, it will stop working, and you'll have to wait for Datel to find another exploit to get it working again.

I say you're better off spending $30 or so more to get the thing professionally chipped, and you wont have to worry about the Freeloader.

ok what the hell is this freeloader business? i haven't used my wii since i finished zelda so f*** waiting for SSBB if i can play it now.

can someone be a cainer and explain what i'd need to do to play an o/s version of SSBB? do you need wii chipped to use this freeloader thingy? i tried teh google but i failed.

edit: think questions have been answered while typing post

last edited by taggs at 10:43:46 19/Apr/08

I gave SSBB and Mario Kart a go the other day at a friend's place due to him talking them up so much and pestering me continuously to play. What the f***, these games are for 12 year olds! I don't care how challenging people claim they are ... what the f***. Grow up, seriously! I told him that and he won't talk to me anymore. Oh well, his loss.

/cue die-hard nintendo fan rage replies

Smash Bros. is rad, and you don't have to be a die-hard Nintendo fan to agree. I'll bet your mate kicked nine colours of s*** out of you at Smash Bros, so you got all pissy and said it's for kiddies.

I'll bet your mate kicked nine colours of s*** out of you at Smash Bros

Yeah I was waiting for someone to say how I probably died or something and rage-quit. So that's the best argument you have? I was hoping for some sort of insight as to what part of the game I must have missed out on since you all keep saying how cool it is.

And no, we played 4 player in both games and I was able to hold my own. Just don't see anything special about them.

so you got all pissy and said it's for kiddies.

No the fact that you can play as Pikachu, Kirby (I had to look that one up as I'm not 12) and the Mario-related characters is enough to make the game "for kiddies".

last edited by parabol at 11:41:49 19/Apr/08

Don't go pre-ordering Mario Kart, it is released here in Aus next Thursday (24/4).

Just don't see anything special about them.

Fair enough, each to his own.

No the fact that you can play as Pikachu, Kirby and the Mario-related characters is enough to make the game "for kiddies".

This is the best argument you have? The fact that it has Nintendo characters in it hardly makes it kiddy. You don't have to be a kid to enjoy Mario Galaxy or Metroid Prime.

Yeah, I'd have to say, I really don't see whats so good about Smash Brothers. After getting it, and a Freeloader, I think I've played it for maybe 3 or 4 hours all up and I'm really not inclined to play it anymore. Haven't had any big 4 player multiplayer games though, so I gotta give that a go I guess, but it hasn't really grabbed me at all.

I was hoping for some sort of insight as to what part of the game I must have missed out on since you all keep saying how cool it is

Yeah, that was my problem as well, I kept thinking "I must be missing something here, everyone keeps telling me how good it is", but I'm just not getting it.

What I love about it is how much fun it is with mates. You just don't get as much mayhem in other fighting games. It's also not tied down with combos and complex specials, so the learning curve is really light, but it still has more than enough depth for people who are serious about it to really get the most out of it.

If you're just playing it by yourself, you're not experiencing the best part of the game. I still find it very enjoyable to play single player, but it's certainly not as good.

I don't excited about games like Street Fighter or Soul Calibur either, but that's not because I think they're s***, I just don't find them very fun.

Your comments remind me very much about what I thought when I played Halo 1&2 through, "...am I missing something here?”. I guess what we like in games are as diverse as personalities. A friend of mine hates FPS and can't even get into the most basic of them. The only genre he plays at all, are RTS'. WoW is another example, many bash it for being a monotonous grind, but it does have 10 million subscribers. It can’t be that bad, at least to other people.

I gave SSBB and Mario Kart a go the other day at a friend's place due to him talking them up so much and pestering me continuously to play. What the f***, these games are for 12 year olds! I don't care how challenging people claim they are ... what the f***. Grow up, seriously! I told him that and he won't talk to me anymore. Oh well, his loss.

/cue die-hard nintendo fan rage replies

haha parabol, you suck at games

mario kart on the wii isnt anything groundbreaking, but its still more fun than i care to mention

haha parabol, you suck at games

Immature comment without any actual content. Typical Spook material.

Your comments remind me very much about what I thought when I played Halo 1&2 through, "...am I missing something here?”

Well I gave Halo a go due to people raving about it. At first I didn't get what the fuss was about (I mean coming from FPS games on a PC, Halo is sort of a step backwards in general), but I found the game was very much unique and it actually worked pretty well on a console with a controller. I continued playing it co-op mode and finished it, quite enjoyable.

I mean I'm quite open to trying new games and platforms, but just all these Mario-themed games .. I don't get. Sure I played a few Mario games back when I was in primary school, but I guess I moved on from that sort of gameplay and seeked something a bit more complex. Guess it depends what you are after in a game. I'd like to fire something up, shoot s*** and watch body parts fly everywhere, with some team dynamics blended in :)

Summary: each to their own I guess.

last edited by parabol at 17:46:52 19/Apr/08

haha parabol, you suck at games

hang on, let me update that

haha parabol, you suck

Not saying I hated Halo, it just wasn't worth the massive hype that surrounds it.

In Halo 1, I loved the feel of the weapons and the vehicles. AI was weak but the occasional, "run it's the demon" etc, was classic. The regenerating shield idea was fresh and worked well. Levels that contained the flood, the library and the interiors of the snow levels were way too repetitive, particularly coming from Metriod. Halo 2 built on the vehicles well, but the weapons took a dive, I only ever used the SMG, plasma rifle and needler. My biggest gripe was the total lack of direction I often felt in various areas. Sometimes I’d stumble around a boring room for ages just looking for the exit or trigger that would let me continue. I haven’t played Halo 3 yet.

After WoW, Melee is probably the game I’ve invested sunk the most time into (483h55m and 595 power counts). So after more than 480hours the game is starting to feel a little stale. What held back Melee for me were the problems finding 3 friends that could play melee as competently as myself. The Gamecube wasn’t very popular. It wasn’t fun to own a friend over and over for myself or him. Brawl solves that with online.
Which is the main reason I’m buying brawl.
Which also brings me to my question. Can imported Brawls play online? And if they can, will they use overseas host servers or Australian servers?

PS: Also America gets Mario Kart Wii only 3 days after Australia, not a week. What a rip! Make ‘em wait 6 months.

last edited by Lynx at 18:58:52 19/Apr/08