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Smash Bros. Brawl to Have Co-Op Play
Ars Technica notes that the official Smash Bros. Brawl site is now discussing a co-op play mode for the game. You'll now be able to team up as your favorite Nintendo characters in a vs. Computer story mode. "While the adventure mode was never really the best feature of previous Smash Brothers games, playing through with a friend will likely yield some great gameplay experiences ... Other notes on the mode include details on the camera, which will follow the first player in a way that appears similar to the handling of Sonic and Tails in Sonic 2, an overworld map which hints at a fairly lengthy adventure, the ability to create multiple teams, and five levels of difficulty ranging from easy to intense."
Not necessarily. For better or worse I crush everyone locally, so they don't really enjoy playing against me directly. 2h v 2c is horribly boring, considering how obvious the computer controlled characters can be. The adventure mode can have more complex situations which make up for the computer's stupidity, while still retaining the enjoyable human cooperation. For very competitive (tournament) play, this will likely be overlooked, but for casual play amongst players of various skill levels this has quite a bit of potential.
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I personally enjoyed adventure mode. Melees got boring after several thousand or so, but the adventure was enough of a challenge, especially on the higher difficulties, that it kept me amused, and still does.
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Co-operative play is a game feature that seems to be making a comeback. I remember all kinds of games that had co-op play from when I was a kid. My younger brother and I played (and beat) games like Bubble-Bobble, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, Jackal, Teenage Mutant Ninja Tutles II: The Arcade Game, Contra, Super Contra, Zombies Ate My Neighbors, Strike Gunner, Super Mario Kart, and Rock 'n Roll Racing. A lot of developers were trying to emulate the experience of the arcades, where two or more player cooperative games were common. There was a dearth of good co-op games in the next couple of system generations, as the focus seemed to shift more to the graphics, where better results were able to be achieved with single player games. Now cooperative play seems to have taken the forefront again with the advent of online co-op, with FPS'ers leading the charge. It doesn't look like there will be online co-op for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but it still goes to show that developers are being reminded of how much fun this type of play is. With the way they set this mode of play up, I will now be able to easily play and enjoy this game with my young cousin, and he too will be able to play with his younger brother and have some great experiences with it like I did with my younger brother and our NES and SNES games. These are the kinds of games that teach the value of teamwork, provide social experiences that build strong bonds of friendship, and are just so much fun.
I am of the opinion that this feature is gonna be a huge selling point. Not with hardcore gamers, not with teenagers, but with families. Yet again, the game designers are banking on the fact that the wii is a family console. The opportunity for a father and son to play a game like smash is great, esp. in coop. its not the way the typical fighting game goes, but, it looks as though it will probably move a few more thousand units off the shelves around the holiday season as the game is released.