Gamasutra has a great interview up with Masafumi Takada, best known for his work on the Grasshopper Manufacture games killer7 and No More Heroes and contributor on projects ranging from Super Smash Bros. Brawl to Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles. The interview covers a ton of ground, from what it's like to work with Goichi Suda to Takada's work on Samurai Champloo to his theory on composing for games:

Music is really tied to your experiences and memories, similar to how your sense of smell is. If you hear music that you've heard before, it should bring memories from that previous time rushing back. So the game is of course a virtual world, where there are naturally things that don't have any relation to reality.

But perhaps these experiences could happen to you in the future. The music will be tied to these potential future experiences. So I want to create music that will tie you to, and remind you of, the virtual world, but also come back to you in the real world, and create future memories. The soundtrack should recall your old memories, but also help forge new ones.

After you've played the game, when you listen to just the music, I want players to be able to remember the feelings they had at that time, and their feelings of that era.

I, like most people, have an unholy mix of music on my 'favorites' list on my iPod; it's always nice to have some of my favorite gaming tracks sandwiched between diverse music and have those tracks stand out in a good way ('Really? That's from a video game?' is a reasonably common refrain from non-gamer passengers in my car). We do get so attached to music, and I'm so attached to music from some of my favorite games — to think of it as something that should be part of the memory process and not merely unobtrusive background is something that's not new, but important to remember. Somewhat lengthy interview that's certainly worth perusing.

Masafumi Takada: Grasshopper's Musical Craftsman [Gamasutra]

The bracket-style tournament had the teams of two fight it out until Dannis Tighe and his son Michael were the last two standing. The two won a Wii, a copy of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a trophy and the right to rub their victories in the faces of all of those father/son teams who waste their training regiments on sack races and egg tosses.

Please understand that snapshots depicting inappropriate content or containing inappropriate comments will not be eligible for selection.

To this point, I've received a great number of screenshots that focus on peeking at the undergarments of certain Brawl combatants. So let me just say it again—shots like these will never be posted to the Dojo or sent out to users via the Smash Service.

Screenshot Collection #2 [Smash Bros. Dojo!! - Thanks Stephen!]]

But wow. Online play. That's not working too well, is it? Last night, I finally decided to give online a spin. I gave up after trying to join several games and waiting 5 to 10 minutes a pop for other players that never showed. Later, attacking with more resolve, I finally I got into one match—felt like a lottery winner—only to find that lag makes the hyperactive game completely unplayable. So I just wanted to run a quick poll to catch reader impressions of Wii's online services and see if I'm the only one having issues:

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

It's legitimate to ask whether the Wii needs an online service as rich and powerful as Xbox Live .... Much of the Wii's charm comes in watching your friends and family make fools out of themselves by swinging the remote like a baseball bat; that sort of amusement would be lost online. But it's important to note that many of the Wii's games (including Brawl) don't require physical exercise and are similar to the games on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. And while Nintendo could be forgiven for designing a more streamlined network than Live in order to appeal to casual gamers, the one they've given Wii owners makes it difficult to do even the most basic things, like interact with your friends.

Being the solitary type when I'm gaming, I've never made much of any online features except in a few rare cases, but it would be nice if Nintendo would think of maybe, just maybe, doing some tweaking with online functionality so it's more ... functional.

Smashing Failure [Slate, thanks to HeavyFuel]

Thanks, jkaccnt!

I would like you to briefly indulge me by participating in an exercise. Remove all of the mascots and familiar faces from Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and replace them with original constructs. Notice, if you will, the somewhat clumsy user interface, the high percentage of total content that must be unlocked to be enjoyed, the complete lack of usability of the Wii controls, and the lack of significant graphical or gameplay progression over the previous generation. It's true that even then, you'd have a good game. But would you have a 10 game?

What does it mean that I'm hesitant to even state my opinion that it'd be a 7 game? And what does that crap even mean, anymore?

Auto-Neurotic Asphyxiation

Freeloader for Wii: All hype and no substance

Friend Codes are a pain, right? The Wii doesn't have the sort of lobby system that just about every other game machine has managed to perfect. The mechanism exists, sure, but I've never seen it function usably. If current reviews of Brawl are to be believed, it's best to match up with a friend than to try and get a random battle.

Of course, the Wii is a family console; I don't think Nintendo has anything to gain from making it easier for random strangers to hook up with kids on the internet. But why don't they make like Xbox did and offer different console packages?

Clearly, the Wii is selling like hot cakes and Nintendo doesn't need to do anything; but it would be nice to have the option of dumping the clunky Friend Code system, no?

Wii For Grown-Ups [Sexy Videogameland]

But after double-checking with the critics, it appears that I'm definitely in the minority. So hit the jump for our Frankenreview on Super Smash Bros. Brawl—what is pretty much a 5-chapter review of a fanboy wet dream.

GameSpy
From a visual standpoint, Brawl doesn't look much better than Super Smash Bros. Melee did on the GameCube. There is some slight improvement, as you can run the game in 16:9 widescreen format at 480p, and the difference is more noticeable on newer television displays. The real benefit is that everything runs at a silky-smooth 60 frames per second. But outside of the new characters and stages, you'd be hard-pressed to tell this game apart from its GameCube predecessor when viewed side-by-side.

NintendoWorldReport
Hands down, my favorite new thing about Brawl is its stages, which have been upgraded significantly for Brawl and are much more fun than those from Melee. Similar stages have enough differences so as to still feel unique. The levels pulled straight from Nintendo DS games—such as the frantic Pictochat stage—are some of my favorites. There is so much variety in the fighting locations that Melee's stages, some of which are included in Brawl, seem rather boring in comparison.

GamesRadar
Brawl's biggest addition...is Wi-Fi Connection support, and it functions... fairly well. If you're brawling with pals off your Friend Code list, the experience should be generally clean and lag-free. However, our attempts to play random opponents led to more than one unplayable choppy scrap that ended in disconnection. There's also no practical way to communicate with other players, and it's a total pain in the ass to share saved pictures. Apparently swapping 16-digit Friend Codes isn't enough, as you also have to share 12-digit Brawl codes. We'd say this'll get ironed out as the weeks wear on, but Wii's online "presence" has never seemed a priority.

1UP
I encountered some difficulty in putting a score on this game. Do I give it a B+ and say, "But if you're a huge Nintendo fan, add a point?" Or do I give it an A and say, "If you're a less committed fan, drop a point?" The answer was simple: This game was made for Nintendo fans. If you'd like to debate that fact, question whether Joe Schmo in Best Buy, who buys Madden once a year and maybe Halo cares whether or not Saki from Sin and Punishment is an unlockable trophy. As a Nintendo fan, I found great pleasure in unlocking all of the minutiae, in playing with characters that, to me, were unexpected surprises, and in reveling in what is clearly the greatest celebration of Nintendo culture around.

Kotaku
Super Smash Bros. Brawl improves upon its predecessors in every way imaginable - a truly worthy successor to the Nintendo fighting throne...[it] isn't just a game that will sit in your Wii for months, it's a game you'll actually play for months, if not longer. Alright, alright. I'll give in to the masses and pick up a copy.

Trying again is not working either, and I would imagine that once enough people give up and the service starts functioning as it should, the flood of players hopping online once the gaming news outlets reported it would just screw things up all over again. Perhaps we all should get together and work out shift assignments?

They had to have seen this coming. The game had similar issues when it was released in Japan, as Ashcraft reported back in January. If a smaller group of people situated on a much smaller piece of real estate had that much of a problem, how could the U.S. even have a remote chance at flawless online play?

It's frustrating as hell on this end, so I know you guys must be pissed off as well. My last successful online Brawl was yesterday morning around 9AM, so I am currently jonesing for a fix with no relief in sight. In the meantime I've been going through event mode in between trying over and over again to unlock Wolf, who keeps kicking my sorry Hedgehog ass.

We'll keep you posted as the issue evolves. For now, you might want to adjust your sleep schedule or call in sick to work for a chance to play online. Just not everybody at once please.

Lucky for us, we weren't the only ones permanently scarred by the sight of a singlet-wearing, gold-dipped high school wrestler. The assistant manager of a EB Games said he and his fellow employees broke into gales of laughter when they unboxed the trophy at their story. Fortunately, they figured out a way to make the trophy more SSBB "appropriate."

I like it!

[Thanks Brett]

UPDATE - PRGuitarman failed to tell us that the picture was taken by Travisto and submitted originally to GoNintendo. If you're going to send us a picture from another site, just send us the link. Thanks!

GameStop's Brawl trophy is...well... [GoNintendo]

This is a custom case for my copy of SSBB, it was crafted out of a blue foam to specific dimensions and has a tight seal. Watcha think?

Luckily, due to my good fortune of being related to an EB Games employee, I was invited to attend the SSBB Retailer Event, held in five cities across Canada on Friday, February 29.

Each event was hosted by a boxing gym, in hopes of setting the dramatic stage for one of Nintendo's most anticipated releases. It also proved a good way to hide the event from the eyes of the general public.

Although I noticed after we left, it should have been a lot more obvious.

Walking into the gym, it felt as if we were part of some sort of secret club (despite the blatant advertising outside). We ascended two staircases to finally reach our destination.

And at the top of those stairs, it was an entirely different world. The boxing ring and other proof that in another world, this was a gym, were hidden from view, obscured by bright consoles and people everywhere.

We managed to avoid the main rush, so getting hands-on time with the games wasn't too difficult. The one thing I missed out on was the eight man tourney and the two player co-op demos going on in the ring, but judging by the rapt attention everyone in the ring was paying, I'm thinking they were both pretty good.

When I finally got my hands on a controller, I have to admit, I was pleasantly relieved. For me, I found Melee to be a frustrating experience: something didn't exactly mesh between the way SSB evolved into SSBM. This game, however, is easy to pick up, but takes a little bit to get really good at, just like the original Smash.

I'll be the first to admit I'm a fan of Nintendo and Smash, so me gushing over this game should come as no surprise. But even taking that into account, I do have to go on about how happy I am with the evolution of this franchise. This game takes all the ideas from the first two games, and moves in a very natural direction - something that shouldn't be unique, but often is. The characters and levels all look very clean and pretty, just like you'd expect, but it's the little things about the game that really made me take notice. In the first round I played, I was Bowser and my brother was Wario. If Wario transformed onto his motorcycle, but was then knocked off, Bowser could pick up the motorcycle and throw it around. More than that, he could throw pieces of the motorcycle around (I got a good shot in with one of the wheels).

While playing, I overheard two people discussing the game behind me. One guy said to his friend, "a lot of the characters are fun, but if you want to actually get serious and win, you have to pick one of the real fighters." Not entirely true, but an interesting sentiment to think about, nonetheless. Smash has evolved to now offer something to everyone. There's the fun, gimmicky characters that anyone can play, or there's the traditional fighters featured in the game, for people who want the feeling of a "real" fighter. SSBB is another step in the direction of Nintendo trying to cater to a wider audience - this time, without forgetting the real gamers - and they seem to have succeed.

What stood out to me were the final smashes (and really, shouldn't that be the way it is?). They took a little bit of getting used to, but once I got the hang of it, they look really, really cool. I pulled off a smash with Shiek, and watching him slice through two of your enemies really makes you sit back and go "...wow."

Of course, Smash has long been a game built around memories of the characters, settings, and especially old matches against friends. This was true for me even at this brief SSBB event, when I managed to pull off a very unexpected victory with Mario, my faithful character of choice from when I started playing at the age of 12. Winning a match of SSBB really does give you that same feeling of accomplishment that was so strong with the original Super Smash Bros, which I definitely think is a good thing.

But there are all sorts of rules and regulations regarding communication on the Wii platform and so it was apparent to me that it just wouldn't come together, we weren't going to be able to do it, so we decided to cancel that feature. I'm very sorry about that. But if you're really desperate for it, you could set up Skype by your game station and go at it with a friend if you like.

Well, the series has already had three iterations so I cannot say with one-hundred percent confidence that there won't be any additional Smash Bros. games ever. But, at the same time I'd really like to note that I feel like with Brawl there are already so many modes and so much to do that it's really hard to exhaust what you can do with this game. I'm really against the idea of merely creating a sequel that would add modes or increase the number of characters in the roster — all the sort of things that just simply fatten up the game. I'd like to avoid just doing that if a sequel ever came out.

Sakurai on SSBB [IGN via Eurogamer] [Pic]

This is a rumour and purely speculative. Nintendo is yet to confirm any release dates for Smash Bros.

Thanks, rhoddi!

I love the intro to this fight, though I'm not a huge fan of the actual fight's final setting. A little too two-dimensional for my tastes... wait does that make it four dimensional?

This incredibly short video shows how you have to grab the Smash Ball in upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl to execute a final smash. Mario's seems to really clear the field.

...no European date has ever been announced for Smash Bros...

This may disappoint some people with this, but the game I'm looking forward to in 2008 is Smash Bros [Brawl]...[and] now that I finally managed to crack my way into Outland, I'm now psyched for the next WoW expansion.

The stage editor is SD card compatible, and the stages can be sent via Friend Codes to your buddies that have been registered as a "Smash Friend." (Does that mean another code to register?) What's more, it's also possible to submit your stages to Nintendo (sounds like one a day). Then, Nintendo will select one from all those submitted and then send that to everyone's Wii, giving players a new stage every day! The site does say:

This is our ideal current plan. We still don't know the exact service period. And future tuning may result in changes to the spec.

Sonic in Brawl [Smash Bros.]

The youth with the psychic powers has appeared—it's Lucas! He makes his anticipated debut from the Japan-only release MOTHER 3.

While he is timid in nature, he fights splendidly. Is it possible he can surpass even Ness?!

Wi-Fi Play [Smash Bros. DOJO!]

Donkey Kong's pal has finally joined the battle! Unfortunately, screenshots fail to truly capture the way he moves.
He scrambles around the battle, using whimsical fighting moves while wielding both his Rocketbarrel Boost and Peanut Pop Gun!