If Brawl were to limit itself to just matches between characters, it would have plenty to offer, however there’s much more to do in the game. The Classic Adventure mode from Super Smash Bros. Melee returns consisting of a sequence of stages such as fighting three giant King Dedede’s at once, interspersed with Target Smash stages, culminating in a fight with your friend and mine, Master Hand. Finishing the classic mode with a character nets you a closing cinematic for your trouble as well as a trophy of whatever character you played with.

If something with a story is more to your liking, the new Subspace Emissary mode may be right up your alley. In it, you play as various combinations of Nintendo characters, to fight an unseen evil as it invades Nintendo land, turning favorite characters into Smash Bros. trophies. The Subspace Emissary mode follows the pseudo-platforming style found in other fighting games, with minions to beat up on before getting to a boss battle of sorts. It’s good for a diversion, and a great way to unlock trophies, stickers and new characters if you don’t want to play hundreds upon hundreds of fighting matches—however it’s not without its faults.

The platforming is a little weak, mostly because the jumping abilities vary per character, so it can be difficult to time jumps as you switch between characters. The cut scenes interspersed in the SSE are done well, however they’re compressed a bit too much, giving a somewhat flat feel to them. Finally, while the idea of stickers is a good one for building up the stats of the characters in your party, because you don’t always get to pick who to play as, it can be a chore to buff up each character just in the hope that the next stage features them. That being said, the SSE is worth playing, it’s just not something you’d come back to once finished. On the plus side, a friend can pick up another controller and join you in your quest for trophies should you find that Kirby can’t cut it by himself.

If all of this wasn’t enough to keep you satisfied, for the first time ever, Smash Bros. has an online component. Unfortunately, as with any major foray into the world of online gaming, all of the kinks have yet to be worked out and the online portion is an uneven affair. Players can choose to either join single or two-on-two matches with any random person, or via the magic of Friend Codes, get in matches with those they’ve exchanged codes with. Friend Code matches are definitely the more stable of the two, providing tons of lag-free, silky smooth online goodness.

The lack of any kind of voice chat, or really any way to communicate outside of taunts configured ahead of time, brings the experience down somewhat as there are so many moments where the flow of a match can be completely reversed, that it’d be nice to hear your opponents when these moments happen. Random matches aren’t quite so rosy, with it taking upwards of a minute to get into a match, and lag popping up while playing. The non-Friend Code matches are a lot better than they were when the game was first released, so it would appear that Nintendo is on the case and working behind the scenes to fix things, however if you’re thinking of picking up the game primarily for the online portion, take the time to amass a large number of Friend Codes so that you can get the most for your online dollar.

Fun is the bottom line here, and even with the online portion not being entirely up to snuff upon release, Super Smash Bros. Brawl is an incredibly fun game, when played solo or with others. It’s hard to find a game out there for the Wii that provides more value for the money, or has more to see and do. The huge roster of well done, interesting characters combined with the wackiness of the in game items and the interactivity and challenges of the various stages packs the game full of memorable moments regardless of which portion of the game you decide to spend time with. It may sound silly to say that a video game can make you feel like a kid again, but it brings you back to the frantic fun of the playground, and to the “who-would-beat-who” discussions of your youth.