Hype: Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii

With a cast including the likes of Mario, Link, Pikachu, Samus Aran, Fox McCloud, Wario, Pit, and Meta Knight only one series comes to mind: Super Smash Brothers. The latest installment, slated to be released in 2007 for the Wii will be the first to include a character that is not from Nintendo or its third party developers in Solid Snake. While Solid Snake will retain his depiction from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, the rest of the characters have their most up-to-date character models in use for the game.

Though a total of only ten characters have been confirmed thus far, players should expect plenty more to be put into the game, including a rumored appearance of Sonic the Hedgehog, which would have been virtually unheard of ten years ago. Super Smash Bros. Melee, the previous installment of the series, featured twenty-five characters when every secret character had been unlocked. In addition, many of the venerable characters that belong to Nintendo that have also been staples for the series are near shoe-ins to be included in the final game.

Deduced from videos and trailers for the game that have been released, players can expect a special attack for every character that is to be included the game. Link's, which has already been seen, will involve him capturing an opponent between two tri-force symbols and showing his incomparable prowess with the master sword on the helpless foe. Kirby will use an ability from a previous game allowing him to cook an opponent within a large pot.

Beyond the inclusion of any new stages, abilities, or characters, the most important new addition to the Smash Brothers series is that the game will go online. Though there will most likely not be a ranking system in the game, it doesn't matter much when you consider how many people will be playing into the wee hours of the morning. Where many fight games falter as players cannot always find a viable source of competition in their local area, Smash Brothers has picked up the slack and made sure that players will never be without any opponent.