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Clear your schedule.

Riding a two-year hype wave bigger than The Empire State Building, what’s been arguably one of the most anticipated videogames of all time has finally arrived in the West. It’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl, baby. Every Nintendo fanboy’s wet dream come true and burned onto a shiny $50 DVD. If you’re a Wii owner, chances are you already took a sick day at work on March 9th to be the first dude in your neighborhood to play this game. But naturally, there’s got to be one question stirring in the minds of everyone who’s anxiously checked the Smash Bros. Dojo everyday for almost the last two years: Does Smash Bros. Brawl live up to its unprecedented amount of hype?

A more rugged Link going toe-to-toe with newcomer Sonic.

Super Smash Bros. Once a low-budget N64 game has grown into a gigantic franchise that’s not only one of the best multiplayer games money can buy, but a virtual museum of Nintendo characters, culture and history. The first sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, went onto sell six million copies, easily becoming the GameCube’s best-selling game and a party that kept on going for years. At the time, it was almost impossible to imagine Nintendo topping itself for the next Smash installment given the enormity of the expectations of a third game. Yet the wizards at Nintendo gathered talent from every corner of the gaming industry and managed to conjure up a game that’s just like Melee, but bigger and better in every possible way.

Smash Bros. Brawl, like its predecessors, features one to four players beating the living crap out of eachother on top of giant, ever-changing platforms. Characters have a damage percentage which rises as they get hit. The more damage you take, the farther your character gets knocked back when they get hit. Whichever character gets flung off the screen first loses.

Mario unleashing his Final Smash: The Mario Finale.

Brawl’s fighting roster represents the biggest in Smash Bros. history with a whopping 35 videogame mascots to choose from. This includes returning characters from Melee, a large number of newcomers and several secret characters. With a few exceptions, the returning Melee characters look and play the same as they did before, albeit with some minor design tweaks and move re-balancing. Brawl also marks the first Smash Bros. game to feature third-party characters in the form of Solid Snake and Sonic; A feature we can only hope is expanded for future Smash Bros. installments.