Product Information

Play all of your import games with Freeloader for Wii (available separately).

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is an amazingly polished and fun game about a superpowered space bounty hunter who gets into a fist fight with a small, pink marshmallow. Also, it is about a tough, angry anti-terrorist mercenary who gets into a fist fight with a crinolined, parasol-carrying princess. Further to that, it is about Mario beating the stuffing out of Sonic the Hedgehog.

It is faintly ridiculous, and then it is overwhelmingly ridiculous, and then it is stoopid with two Os.

It is also one of the best games of the year.

The idea here, as in the previous editions, is that all of Nintendo's characters are angry with each other and are eager for fisticuffs.

Captain Olimar is wild-eyed and raging, as is Pikachu, as are Mario and Samus Aran.

If you know these names, you understand already. If you don't, here is a quick primer: Nintendo makes lots of video games.

The game is easy to learn - which is unusual for a fighting game. There are only a couple of buttons to push, and just a single stick or D-pad for moving and aiming. This means total newcomers can jump in and begin pummeling straight away.

There are both solo and multiplayer modes - get this game now. It's one of the best multiplayer games you'll play this year.