Laura Easley/The Falcon Seniors Cory Shepherd and Nelson Aldrich play “Super Smash Bros. Brawl” at a friend’s house.

"Super Smash Bros. Brawl" is that rare video game event: the one that arrives with screaming fanfare and a lot of hoopla, the one where hundreds of thousands of gamers worldwide wait in eager anticipation outside stores for gaming parties two hours before the midnight release. It was released exclusively on the Wii on March 9, and now that it's finally here, one question must be asked: does it live up to everything that was expected?

Yes and no.

The core gameplay of "Smash Bros." remains unchanged from the Gamecube version, "Super Smash Bros. Melee," but considering that the series thrives on its relatively simple gameplay mechanics, this is a strength, not a weakness.

For those unacquainted with the world of smash, the basic back story of the game is about how trophies of various Nintendo characters come alive through the machinations of a large, gloved hand and fight. Players then get to pound them into each other, satisfying fan-boy dream rivalries from time immemorial. It's not really important to have more of a story than this, as the most important part about "Smash Bros." is the variety of characters that you get to use.

Video game characters from across the Nintendo universe populate the game, like Mario, Pikachu, Star Fox, Samus, Kirby, and Link. In addition to these classic Nintendo characters, third-party heroes show up this time around, including Snake from the "Metal Gear" series and Sega's mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog. The roster in this game has been upped to 35 playable characters, so the second-most important part of the game, the multiplayer element, is sure to please.

courtesy of Nintendo

The level design is fantastic and creative, with bright visuals, cool backgrounds, and interactivity galore. Whereas the majority of stages in past games have been stationary, most of the ones in "Brawl" are constantly moving in one way or another, which makes for plenty of high-energy, kinetic matches with your friends.

Basic combat remains the same, but everything has been jacked up a few notches. Character moves have been refined so that the controls are all a bit tighter, and the moves look cooler. The graphics have been improved too, and aside from "Super Mario Galaxy," "Brawl" is the best-looking game the Wii has to offer.

Aside from the massive increase in the roster, the sheer amount of content in "Brawl" will have you reeling.

There's the returning classic mode, in which you'll go through 12 stages and fight random opponents on each one.

There's a new side-scrolling adventure mode called "Subspace Emissary," in which you travel through various mashed-up Nintendo worlds and are assigned characters to fight through each level, unlocking items along the way.

And then there are all the extras crammed into the game. The collectable character trophies from "Melee" are back, and there's also a new feature in the form of stickers. Each sticker has different attributes, and you can stick them to each character's trophy base to heighten a given attribute of a character in the Subspace Emissary.

A few nifty new items have also made their way into the gameplay, including the smash ball. When it appears onscreen, you'll need to hit it until it breaks. If you do, your character will then be endowed with the awesome power of final smash. Each character has a different final smash, a move that will usually KO any opponent. The smash ball throws a different kind of strategy into the game and greatly increases its replay value.

The online mode is something new too. Now you can play with anyone in the world at any time, including with friends. You'll need a pretty fast internet connection to play, however, or you'll experience some bad lag. Right now, the mode is very bare-bones, with basically only three things you can do: brawl with opponents for two minutes, brawl on a team battle for two minutes, or bet on a match to win coins and watch someone else brawl for two minutes.

It's odd that after hyping up the online addition so much, Nintendo should choose to make it so basic, but downloadable updates will presumably be added in the future that will make it more immersive.

This only scratches the surface of the wealth of extra material in "Brawl" - you could play for hours on end and still be far away from unlocking everything. It's a veritable plethora of Nintendo nostalgia all crammed into one game disc, a real steal for only 50 bucks.

Aside from the basic online mode, there are other disappointments in the game. Sonic's moves seem somewhat underdeveloped in relation to the rest of the cast, most likely because his addition to the game is what pushed "Brawl" back to its late release on March 9. Some characters' final smashes are also too similar to each other, which seems fairly lazy on Nintendo's part. And if you're looking for an experience that's completely different from "Melee," you'll be disappointed as well.

"Brawl" could have been a massive overhaul that changed the series into something entirely new, but then everything that has made the series great would be lacking. As it is, even a beginner can pick up a controller and learn the fairly simple mechanics in well under two hours. The Wii also supports four different kinds of customizable control schemes: the classic controller for Wii, the last-generation Gamecube controller, the Wii remote, and the Wii remote and Nunchuck. Each mode works rather well, though sometimes the remote by itself feels awkward and a bit lacking.

"Brawl" is the kind of game that will effectively replace its predecessor, "Melee," and continue to be played for years to come. That, more than anything, marks it as a success. But when you come right down to it, no matter how many cool extras they add, nothing will ever beat that good feeling of being surrounded by screaming friends as you use Pikachu to kick Mario's butt. Isn't that what life's really all about?

Gameplay: A
Graphics: B+
Replay Value: A+
Overall: A-