So I finally got my hot little hands on my pre-ordered copy of SSBB 3 days ago. Surprisingly, even though it was the morning of launch, I was just one of two people waiting outside of Blockbuster, a far cry from the line at the Wii launch. I simply must share that entire story sometime.

Anyway, so I quickly brought it home, inserted the disc, and spent the entire rest of the day accomplishing the following...

- First order of business, beat Classic Mode with Zero Suit Samus so I can oggle her Trophy from various angles. Done.

- Next, try let's try out this nifty stage-builder! Bwahaha, surely I've managed to build some of the most sadistic battle arenas yet known to mortal man, such that the CPU's are utterly baffled! A checkerboard pattern of widely spaced springboards, each flanked on both sides by a segment of spikes, that all fighters must deftly ascend in order to reach one of the two steeply inclined "safety" platforms suspended above, but are far more likely to be repeatedly skewered, fall into the bottomless pit below, or be easily smashed away by me with my home-field advantage! Seriously, I'll have to somehow post a picture of this stage sometime.

- Now let's try out the subspace emmisary. Hm, all I can say is - "mixed feelings". It started off pretty fun, but eventually got repetitive and overwhelmingly difficult, especially when stuck with a character I'm no good with. Neat idea, but if could have been done better. Regardless, I'll have to trudge through in order to unlock ever character. Oh, speaking of which...

- In the first day I managed to unlock Luigi, Marth and Ness. Not too impressive based on other reports I've heard of people unlocking everyone and everything on day one. As-of-yet Unlocked characters I'm most looking forward to: Snake, Sonic, Toon Link, Game & Watch.

...and, uh, yeah. That's about it so far. Basically I've been playing standard brawls against CPUs, since I have no availabe friends who are into this sort of thing, and my lame Wi-Fi USB connector is useless for attempted online matches (no, I still don't have my 360 online. Probably better, though, as I've heard one of the mandatory updates for Bioshock throws the whole game completely askew).

Still, I am immensely enjoying the great variety of characters, stages (mushroomy kingdom ftw!) and music. Until I actully get some local friends to brawl with or a decent router, however, my long-term enjoyment of this game may, sadly, be limited.

Here's hoping.