Game:

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)

Duration: 14:16

259 views

3

Y'know, I've been playing this game for quite some time, so it feels like I shouldn't have anything to say about it... this is, of course, a completely ridiculous notion, but it shows up as a particularly nasty and unique form of writer's block, because about any thought I can come up with translates into something I swear I've already said a thousand times before.

So what happens is that I end up with far less targeted meandering about topics only vaguely associated with the subject matter at hand, like what you saw last time giving me a ton of material to work with and very little room left over to describe what was actually happening. It's the perfect crime!

Really, I just like to play. I like to ramble. Now with more inconsequential documentation than ever. I have NO idea what kind of nonsense I'll come up with next time, but we can be sure that it'll skirt the YouTube description field length character limits.

Same day, different spin:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlLXoBs-WHM

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Match #1 -- 75m
Wario (Joou)
vs. Zelda (Snivy)
vs. Mario (B×B)
vs. Ganondorf (KOK)

You know, I've done a lot of thinking over time and even a lot of supposition on the side, and I've even voiced my unqualified opinion that I love the nature of this stage. I know it's not exactly the best-executed and tends towards some pretty ugly player habits, like congregating and overcentralizing action towards the upper right hand corner... but really all that can and needs to be said on that subject is that it's wrong. Wrong!

The stage could obviously be better, although as for specific constructive examples, I can't think of TOO many ways to "correct" innate player tendencies in a game where the object is (usually) still to actually, y'know, win above any other considerations. Or, in my case, to make interesting things happen, I guess.

Well, the stage itself is hard-coded into the game, so you can't really do much to that (well, the wonders of what hackers can do never really cease, but you know that's not what I mean), and you can't exactly change the hearts and minds of the players TOO much, but you can... let go. Let the flow of the stage take you where it will, because it can and will lead to interesting places you might not have expected. You probably won't even come close to actually winning, though... (Which is exactly why I had you forget that part!)

Or you could end up destroying yourself by falling into a pit you didn't mean to, but I swear that was before I had my un-revelation and I kinda asked for it to happen by jumping at Ganondorf a little too enthusiastically. I think I got a little lost on the other end of the spectrum when I didn't clean up after my bike the last time and prevented myself from coasting about and having even more fun... ah, lost fun. How "sad"!

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Match #2 -- Onett
Link (Joou)
vs. Kirby (Snivy)
vs. Jigglypuff (B×B)
vs. Donkey Kong (KOK)

On the other hand, we have stages that are fun for being so different, but don't drastically affect their playability with half-realized gimmicks (like Hanenbow) or unintentional player behavior (like the aforementioned 75m) getting in the way of the latent chaos.

So what I often find myself doing, for lack of any other clear motivation... well... I don't rightly know. But when I watch this match, I can't help but be struck by how aimless and distracting my own actions are, even as a viewer. A bomb here, a wild slash somewhere else. Just a presence on the field without actually creating any particular impact and a nuisance without any real reason.

And weird things happened to happen around and about. I really can't say as most of them were done by me so much as in the vicinity of this particular match, but I also couldn't really bear to part with any of it. How weird.

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Match #3 -- The Summit
R.O.B. (Joou)
vs. Mario (Snivy)
vs. Luigi (B×B)
vs. Mr. Game & Watch (KOK)

Huh, it's a good ol' old-school nouveau-retro rumble! We've got a bunch of all the old movers and shakers of Nintendo's olden days in an old location... the only thing really missing here is some reference to Kid Icarus... although one might argue that two Mario Bros. is overly redundant... and they've rather progressed beyond their humble roots anyway, while the Ice Climbers haven't and Pit wouldn't be due for an Uprising for quite awhile yet.

I... have no idea why such thoughts even occurred to me, but it did. Now you've got it all over you and your brain, and now you're completely unclean for having read it. Good luck with that, eh?

This leg of the video has a weird video capture glitch that's pretty hard to pick out, but basically there's a moment where the video up and jumps forward a couple of seconds, but the audio doesn't betray it at all... although there does seem to be a few weird timing quirks around it. Honestly, nothing like that ever happens to me, because if there's going to be any kind of capture stream breakdown, it's usually catastrophic. I barely noticed myself.

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