A Brawling Good Time

So, last night I picked up a copy of Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii, which I'm sure is going to be the system's star title.

And you should be grateful that instead of playing it, I'm taking the time to tell you that I'm going to be playing it.

The game was released at Gamestop at midnight, but in the two hours prior to that, there was a small tournament, which is apparently part of a much larger, nation-wide tournament (touted as the largest ever; a likely claim).

32 contestants (including myself and two of my residents) participated. The tournament was set up with the initial starting characters (that is, no hidden unlockable characters), and we each had a minute to beat our opponent.

Included in the cast of players was this fellow whose a local legend; a guy from Unit 1 who basically is supposed to best in Berkeley. He is, without question, a total douchebag. He is extremely arrogant, condescending, and belittling of all things he doesn't consider "competitive." He even announced during the tournament that "This tournament is lame. There will be another one tomorrow that'll be more competitive and better." Meaning, the game will be stripped of anything that makes it random (that is, anything that makes it fun). He is my antithesis when it comes to this game. I play for the pleasure derived from playing. He plays only to win. Actually, I'm sure if you went into it, he plays only to beat people. One of my main hopes was that he lost.

Originally, I was intending on playing a character called Ike, but them about a quarter of the people chose him. Not being one to follow the crowd, I decided to pick a completely unique character called Olimar. Now, Olimar plays vastly different from all other characters in the game (it would be too tricky to explain all the ways). Apparently, he's good, but just really hard to use. And he's never appeared in any of these games before. And we were playing with a completely unfamiliar control scheme.

So basically, I had no idea in Hell what I was doing.

Combine that with my already average (perhaps slightly above average) playing ability, and I figured my choice was as good as a concession.

Yet - somehow - I made it into the top 8, surpassing my residents (who I consider better than me) and that jerkish tournament player (who did nothing but complain after he lost in the second round).

I was eventually beaten, because I was a little too slow, but I had fun. And you know what? That's what the point of a game is.

(Oh, and just so you know, the winner moved on to the regional championship, and also got this absolutely hideous trophy).

So that's what I did.

Now, off to play some Brawl!