Snake talks to some characters from the Metal Gear Solid games for advice to defeat some wacky Nintendo characters.
Following the style of its critically acclaimed predecessors, the game uses a battle system different from the average fighting game. Choosing from a variety of characters, two to four players fight on various different stages, all while trying to knock their opponents off the stage. Instead of using health bars like other fighting games, it features percentage meters. They start at zero percent, and as the characters take damage, the percentage meter goes up, causing the characters to fly farther back each time when hit. When a character is knocked off the stage, they lose either a life or a point depending on the mode of play. The game can be played using four different control schemes: the Wii Remote on its side, the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combo, the Classic controller, or the standard GameCube controller. Players will be able to create profiles with personalised button configurations for each control method and their chosen name.
The characters can attack each other with a variety of different fighting moves. Each character can perform an array of attacks when prompted with the press of a button in conjunction with a tilt of a control stick or a press of a D-pad direction, depending on the mode of control. In addition to basic attacks, such as punches and kicks, characters have access to more powerful smash attacks as well as four special character-specific moves. The game introduces the ability to perform character-specific super attacks, referred to as "Final Smash" moves. These abilities are used through an item bearing the Smash Bros. symbol, which are called Smash Balls. They are much more powerful than regular attacks, and they have a wide variety of effects, and attributes.
The stages are three dimensional (although players cannot move with depth, save for a few types of dodges) arenas that are mostly based on levels from the represented series of the game. They range from floating platforms to moving stages where the characters have to keep up. Each stage has a boundary that cannot be passed, or the character will be "KO'd", thus losing a life. As in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the game introduces new stages. Two stages have returned from Melee, though one has been heavily cosmetically modified from its appearance in the previous installment. Many stages will undergo elaborate changes while battles are happening, such as a cycling day-to-night system in the Battlefield stage, a season system in the Yoshi's Island stage, and destructible platforms in the Skyworld stage.
The characters can make use of a variety of weapons, ranging from projectiles to melee weapons. Each item has a different effect on the characters around it. While there are items that have returned from previous Smash Bros. games, some are making their debut in Brawl. Some heal a single character, while others hurt any character in its vicinity. Single items and crates and barrels, which often contain an assortment of items, fall onto the stage randomly throughout the battle. Two varieties of items, Assist Trophies[17] and Poké Balls, summon guest characters and Pokémon, respectively, that generally assist the summoner. They cannot be controlled and are usually invincible, with a few exceptions.