The story starts midday when I met up with my buddies at Wheaton Mall, where we all entered the Brawl Tourney at Gamestop.
The Set up was pretty great. There were four TVs. Three for the Brawl tourney and one for the kids Melee tourney. A giant crowd of people of VAST age range hovered around the displays all waiting for the impending Brawlage. We chit-chatted for a while with a guy who was "probably one of the best smash brothers players in the country" while we waited for the games to begin. He seemed almost TOO knowledgeable of all things smash, so I didn't doubt his claims for a second. Of course me and my friends being not so good at the whole "doings things right" thing, totally spaced and forgot to sign up. So we had to run into the Gamestop for a hot second to quickly sign in. Once we got out, the manager finally stood up in a great big chair and said "THE TOURNAMENT WILL BEGIN IN A FEW MINUTES!", to which the crowd responded with a resounding:
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!"
After several tedious moments of the manager and employees yelling out peoples names and handing out name tags with numbers on them. the tourney finally began.
Now if you have never played a game of smash brothers in front of a fucking huge crowd of people, let me tell you, it is quite the amazing experience. It's almost akin to being at a football game, or a pro wrestling match. Every little thing that you do prompts a "OOH" or a "AAAH!" or a "DAAAYUM SON!" from the onlookers.
Infact, many of the games mechanics seem to be almost designed around the whole spectating aspect. For example, the Final Smash ball. For those not in the know, the final smash ball is this erm, ball that shows up randomly and floats around the screen. Players have to smash the ball to gain their "Final Smash" which is a super powerful move that will change the tide of battle. At the tourney, whenever the smash ball appeared, the crowd when FUCKING INSANE! The whole area is enveloped with a deafening roar of hundreds of people screaming "GET THE SMASH!!!! GET THE SMASH!!! OOOH HE GOT THE SMASH!!! OOOOH!!!!"
(on a side note there was a particularly amazing match up that I didn't capture on camera unfortunately. It was a match between two Links, normal Link, and Dark Link. The match was pretty much even, until the final smash ball appeared. Both links went for it, and Regular Link got it. He activated his final smash just as the time was running out. EVERY SINGLE SLASH hit before the time ran out except for the very last one that rocketed Dark Link off of the stage! The crowd went into pandemonium as the match went into sudden death. Both links charged towards each other, and Dark Link sent Regular Link Straight into the stratosphere. The crowd completely lost it)
Back to my standing in the tourney. Long story short me and all of my friends were knocked the hell out in the first round, and went to go eat our feelings at the Mcdonalds, before heading off to pick up two more friends. We went back home watched some Princess Bride (screaming "AS YOU WISH!" and "INCONCEIVEABLE!" at all the right times) to kill some time before going back to pick up the game at midnight. We wrapped up the movie and headed back.
Of course when we came back to the mall there was quite the line in front.
This Gamestop actually had quite the nice set up for getting the game. There were two lines. You got in one line, bought the game and grabbed a receipt, then you got into the next line and waited until midnight to pick up the game. While we waited in line we saw the same guy we were talking to earlier, and of course while we were drowning our sorrow in double cheeseburgers he went and won the tourney.
Things went pretty smoothly all night long. We got our copy,
and headed straight home for some brawlin.There isn't much to say about this game that already hasn't been said a million billion times over, the game is just DAMNED FUN. If you enjoy having fun, and having friends, you WILL like this game. It's that simple.
-Dauragon
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