I have to ask, because as a gamer I’m curious. As a Wii owner, I have some skin in the game.

What’s with all the hype for SSBB?

I ask out of ignorance. The Wii is the first Nintendo home gaming console I’ve owned the original NES. I went from Super Mario Brothers 3 to Paper Mario (which remains unplayed) and Super Mario Galaxy (which I haven’t bought). Zelda to Zelda II to Zelda on the Wii, where playing as a wolf for more fun than as Link.

For my DS, I picked up a few games, one of which was the much-hyped Mario Kart. I bought it used. I’m thrilled about that because I played it for about 15 minutes before getting bored… I didn’t get it. Sure, it’s Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi. But it’s… well. Rally X. Maybe it’s the multi-player aspect that made it fun. Maybe I’m missing out on something. It was a boring rehash of a basic arcade driving game with very recognizable Nintendo IP.

With SSBB? I’ve never played any of the previous versions; is it a party game? Lots of mini-games? Or is it just a fighting free for all? I mean, you can make a case that any new FPS is the same as any other FPS, right? Yet, I find that the FPS continues to evolve. Each new release will typically get better game play – when it doesn’t? The game sucks. There’s also the notion of story… I look to Halo 3 as something that was a good FPS because it improved on the gameplay of Halo 2 and it continued the engaging story that began with Halo.

And here’s the irony: I love cross-overs media. I loved it when NBC ran a week of TV episodes, where a number of actors wound their way through different shows. I like that Mario and Sonic are on a game together. That there’s ninja armor in H3’s multi-player mode. There’s a DS game that Fry’s imported from Japan: it’s a Shonen Jump game that combines all of their characters into one game: Bleach, Naruto, DBZ, etc. I like that sort of thing! However, for a game, I question it if it’s the only feature. Is that the draw for the game? Is the big thing that there are assets made from Pikachu, Mario, Samus, Snake, and Pit’s likeness? Could it be a game for any other franchise but because it’s got imagery from different games, it’s expected to be the Wii game of the year, one that doesn’t even use the Wiimote?

Is it really that good of a game or are the pickings so slim on the Wii that a mocked up game makes it a good game?

Or am I really missing something big?