Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a 2008 crossover fighting game developed by Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Wii. The third installment in the Super Smash Bros. series and the successor to Super Smash Bros. Melee, it was the first game in the series not to be developed primarily by HAL Laboratory. It was developed by a creative team under Sora that included members from several Nintendo and third-party development teams. It was announced at a pre-E3 2005 press conference by Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. Masahiro Sakurai, director of the previous two games in the series, assumed the role of director at Iwata's request. Game development began in October 2005; after delays due to development problems, the game was released in Japan on January 31, 2008, North America on March 9, 2008, Australia on June 26, 2008, and Europe on June 27, 2008.
The number of playable characters in Brawl has grown from that in Super Smash Bros. Melee, although some characters from Melee were cut in the game. Brawl is the first game in the series to have playable third-party characters. Like that of its predecessors, the objective of Brawl is to knock opponents off the screen. It is a departure from traditional fighting games, notably in its simplified move commands and emphasis on ring outs over knockouts. It includes a more extensive single-player mode than its predecessors, known as "The Subspace Emissary". This mode is a side-scrolling and plot-driven beat 'em up featuring computer-generated cutscenes. Brawl supports multiplayer battles with up to four combatants and is the first game of its franchise to feature online battles via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The game can be played with four different controllers, including the Wii Remote, Wii Remote with Nunchuk, GameCube controller and Classic Controller, simultaneously.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl received widespread acclaim, with praise centered on its entertainment value despite issues relating to its content loading times. Its musical score, composed through a collaboration of 38 renowned video game composers, was lauded for its representation of different generations in gaming history. Brawl was named the "Fighting Game of the Year" by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. In 2010, the game was included as one of the titles in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die, and is also considered to be one of the best video games ever made. As of 2023, it is the eighth best-selling Wii game of all time, with over thirteen million copies sold worldwide. It was followed by Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U in 2014.
