I was asked by fringe Assistant Editor Martin Sliva the other day if I thought that “Smash Bros.” was just a mediocre fighting game, and whether the only reason many people consider it so good is because their characters are Nintendo’s greatest creations.

I said no, because having the random assortment of Nintendo classic characters duke it out for no good reason is really what makes Smash Bros. such a good game series.

Think of another company besides Nintendo that could make a fighting game comprised of their most beloved characters. It’s not humanly possible. As much as I would like to see Lara Croft fighting other random Eidos characters, or Crash and Jak have a sissy fight, it really wouldn’t appeal to the mass public. And who am I kidding? I’m not really interested in that, either.

The important thing about making a sequel to a game is that the company strives to make improvements upon the previous version of the game, something beyond greater team management or more realistic graphics.

The Smash Bros. series was a game that some thought couldn’t be improved on. It was great in its simplicity. But “Smash Bros. Brawl” found ways to make the game even better.

The one place where the Smash Bros. franchise seemed to need help was in the one-player modes. The game is always fun for any random assortment of skilled and unskilled players, but the second you are forced to do the same tasks over and over again with various characters, some of which you despise, the game becomes boring and tedious.

Developers must have realized this. They added more unique features to “Brawl,” like a player’s friends finally going home for sleep, since they have been on a 12-hour Doritos and PBR fueled gaming binge and have to work in three and half hours.

The biggest addition is that of the SubSpace Emissary mode (SSE), in which the player uses all the various characters in a giant side-scrolling adventure that is reminiscent of old Mario or Sonic games. It’s also one of the fastest ways to unlock all of the game’s hidden characters, something that was damn near impossible to do without having a number of friends willing to play the game.

Interestingly enough, developers put that in, but realized that players would like to complete this mode even while friends are over and left to twiddle their thumbs. So they made SSE two-person compatible.

Two-player SSE really reminds one of when a younger brother or sister would take control of Tails in the second Sonic game and proceed to flail about really doing nothing. Smash makes the second player viable since they can add some serious help, but it also makes this second person capable of dying, unlike the impenetrable Tails.

This both works and doesn’t work. It allows others not to be bored while watching a loved one waste his or her life playing the one-player-mode, but at the same time it makes the game harder, since this is all at the expense of the limited lives of the first player.

Another great addition to the game is the wealth of new characters that it brings. This is a somewhat monumental moment, since not only Nintendo characters appear in this Smash Bros, but Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake also sneak their way into the game. They are very welcome additions, and yet it tarnishes the uniqueness Nintendo presented by having a game made completely of characters from various games serious if created.

The game also contains all of its old modes like classic mode, break the targets, and hundred-man brawl. These are a nice break for players that are frustrated with other aspects of the game, like the inability to ever want to play anything with the Ice Climbers.

The game is even playable with the Gamecube controller, for those not willing to learn how it plays on the Wiimotes. It’s also completely viable to play this way since Smash Bros. doesn’t use any of the Wii’s motion-enhanced features. It would have been fun if they’d incorporated it, but I can see how that would have led to a lot of “unintentional” blows to other players’ heads.

It goes without saying that Smash Bros. is a game every Wii owner should have. It’s the kind of game you can put out at a party and everyone will want to play.

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