Escapists, I want to learn how to get better at Brawl.....

[Demolition_Human]

Do you think you have any tips for me to get better in Brawl? I purchased the game about a few weeks ago and have been playing like crazy against computers, thinking I was hot stuff *coughlevel3cough*. Then I decided to go online and test my skill.....holy cow was I totally out of my depth. Then again I'm pretty much a new guy considering I never played brawl until now. I played the previous Smash Bros. games and I used Mario for both of them, especially Melee. Mario's tilt ground up, following afterwards with a up air and then using his super jump was my bread and butter. Now in Brawl, I mainly use Wario with his air down attack and his Wario Waft. Other characters I tried out in Brawl are Diddy Kong, Metaknight and Luigi. If you can help me out, I would greatly appreciate the assistance.

 

[Liquidprid3]

I'm by no means a professional smash player, but I've beaten 3 level 9's against me at the same time, and I've poured hundreds of hours into all three games, especially Melee. My advice for any smash game is to try all the characters. Also, the people who usually play online are those that pick the best characters on Final Destination. I play competitive with friends, but we don't go by competitive rules. Most importantly, find a tactic that suits you. I like to dodge attacks, grab them, and try to get another attack off. I try to use all the characters attack. Some of my friends only use smash attacks, and others let all of the other players duke it out, while they stay out of the fight. The AI doesn't have a specific tactic, so just try using all your moves, but I would say that smash attacks work best. Also, the cape move is a God send for Mario. Use it. Often.

 

[Exhuminator]

OP I would say bother to finish this mode in the game:

http://supersmashbros.wikia.com/wiki/Adventure_Mode:_The_Subspace_Emissary

Number one, it forces you try out nearly every character, so you might find one that clicks with you better than you thought they would. Number two, the difficulty slowly gets harder and harder so you'll find yourself developing skill by default.

And lastly, read the game manual. Yeah, none of us like doing that. But the manual will explain some of the finer nuances of the fighting system that are not immediately intuitive.

 

[Hero of Lime]

While I can't say I am an authority on hardcore Smash playing, especially since I prefer to have items and all that good stuff, here a few pieces of advice.

Find a few characters to get good with, compared to other fighting games, mastering a character is much easier, so it's best to get really good with a few different ones. If you get good enough with a specific character, then the "tiers" become null.

For example, Link is my main fighter, he also happens to be fairly low on most of the hardcore tiers I've seen. However, having put a tremendous amount of time into getting as good with him as I possibly can, I can take on other players using top tier characters without too much trouble. I don't always win, but I never lose really badly. So, just don't take any online tiers seriously, almost every character can be great to use.

Once you find a character or two you like the feel of, start practicing like crazy. Also, computer players are still great for practice, especially since they react to certain situations better than human players. Of course getting other people to practice with is also great.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

I wouldn't use Wario. Yes I'm sure there's someone out there who has learned to use him well but in most hands he's incredibly awkward with terrible range. Generally, heavy characters are a no-no too unless you are willing to master them before getting results (I'm okay with Bowser but I would never use him in a competition).

Range is very important, as anyone who has played against my brother has found out- he uses Ike/Marth and has a knack for finding the 'sweet spot' (a spot on the tip of their swords that inflicts more damage than normal) with their long blades. It's frustrating because you can't get close without getting knocked back and he just dodges projectiles. I mainly use Lucario for his speed, double team counter, aura ball and the range and power of his forward smash once he's moderately damaged.

But yeah, definitely play through the Subspace Emissary and find someone (not a heavy) that you're comfortable with.

 

[Lennie Briscoe]

I actually wouldn't recommend Subspace Emissary. On top of being an all-around mediocre way to spend your time with Brawl, it actually changes the physics of the base game in an attempt to homogenize character movement. Going from that to multiplayer is a jarring experience.

The defensive game in Brawl is a bit overpowered. Learning to shield is critical since it stops almost everything an opponent can throw at you, especially power-shielding. Most reckless attacks are solved by simply shield-grabbing. Air dodges last a long time and can be used infinitely. If you watch high-level matches on Youtube or something, alot of the time it shows the players being very safe and spamming projectiles in an attempt to avoid the dealing with the opponent's shield. The only character who can consistently deal with the overly defensive metagame of Brawl is Metaknight, who most consider to be the best character on the roster.

Speaking of characters, I'd avoid the likes of Captain Falcon, Ganondorf, Samus, Sonic, and Jigglypuff; all characters with many weaknesses and few strengths.

Just a longtime Brawl player's two cents.

 

[The Funslinger]

For example, Link is my main fighter, he also happens to be fairly low on most of the hardcore tiers I've seen. However, having put a tremendous amount of time into getting as good with him as I possibly can, I can take on other players using top tier characters without too much trouble. I don't always win, but I never lose really badly. So, just don't take any online tiers seriously, almost every character can be great to use.

Except Olimar!

In all seriousness, there will be people out there who kick ass with him, but god dammit if he's not the most useless, finnicky piece of shit ever.

But yeah, he's right, OP. I never see Sonic mentioned as a tournament level character, but I can thrash three human players at once with him.

My advice since you can take the level 3 NPCs is try level 5, get good against them and work your way up to 9s. When you can take level 9s fairly consistently, you'll probably be surprised at how much you've improved.

And while it might not be true for everyone, what usually works for me is dodging the enemies and being passive until I have the moment to strike like a baws. You don't have to get the most kills as long as you're the last one left alive.

 

[Pseudonym]

For example, Link is my main fighter, he also happens to be fairly low on most of the hardcore tiers I've seen. However, having put a tremendous amount of time into getting as good with him as I possibly can, I can take on other players using top tier characters without too much trouble. I don't always win, but I never lose really badly. So, just don't take any online tiers seriously, almost every character can be great to use.

Except Olimar!

In all seriousness, there will be people out there who kick ass with him, but god dammit if he's not the most useless, finnicky piece of shit ever.

But yeah, he's right, OP. I never see Sonic mentioned as a tournament level character, but I can thrash three human players at once with him.

My advice since you can take the level 3 NPCs is try level 5, get good against them and work your way up to 9s. When you can take level 9s fairly consistently, you'll probably be surprised at how much you've improved.

And while it might not be true for everyone, what usually works for me is dodging the enemies and being passive until I have the moment to strike like a baws. You don't have to get the most kills as long as you're the last one left alive.

Olimar is actually considered a top tier charactar by a lot of the top tier players and I can understand why. His grab has an insane range (the blue pikmin even have extra force and damage when grabbing) and his attacks consist of throwing pikmin at people which function as living shields for olimar. His various pikmin have invulnarabilities and having pikachu as my main few things are quite as annoying as a yellow pikmin flying right through all of my attacks and sticking to me until I use one of the 2 non-electric attacks pikachu has.

OT: Brawl is pretty much the only fighting game I've ever played and I've only gotten good with pikachu, somewhat decent with toonlink and olimar and I still can't do shit with the other charactars so take my opinion with a grain of salt but I recommend finding a charactar that suits you and getting good with that charactar. If it doesn't feel like a chore I would just stick with that charactar until you don't feel threathened by a lvl 9 AI anymore. That is think the most important part. After that I would recommend finding a SSB-forum or wiki and read up on what some of the experts think about your charactar and how to play him correctly. Maybe practice a little bit on specific things like shielding, air attacks and avoiding certain mistakes and you should do a lot better against other players. I know from the people I've played with that those who could handle a few moves of one charactar well would ussually win of those who play all of the charactars and all of their moves somewhat decent.

Alternatively: wait until SSB-wiiu/3ds if you own any of those systems. Right now I imagine most people still playing brawl have played it for years or months and it'll probably take a long time before you have caught up with them. If you just start playing the next one from release you dont have to play catch up and can learn the mechanics of the game before the people you find in pubs have all figured out the chaingrabs, QAC's and other things us dirty casual scrubs don't know anything about.

 

[Elidibus]

Though I used to be a competitive melee player, I feel the advice I'm about to give will transfer over to brawl rather well. I'm gonna have to disagree with the advice to play against the computer for practice if you really want to get better. Sure, if it's all you have, then it's all you have. But to get better you're gonna have to fight against real people. Fighting the computer will give you some really bad habits that will be extremely difficult to break once you've played against them for a while.

If anything, fight against level one computers. Practice the timing of your combos and learn the reach of all of your character's attacks.

Hit up Smashboards.com and find some people to play with in your city. They have a regional board when you can join other people that play near your area and everyone is really friendly. I happened to live next to the state champion of Melee in my state and he introduced me to a very big group of players, all of whom were willing to fight against a newb just to help him get better.

Also, read the forums there and watch some tournament videos. But remember that playing against humans is the only way to get really totally awesome at Brawl. Good Luck!

 

[Yopaz]

Play the game a lot. Really there isn't more to it. Find a character that you can control easily, this will be different for most people and don't bother with online competitions. The game is quite old, by now those who are still playing are likely to be hardcore. I am a fairly good one, but I am nowhere near professional levels. Playing online will most likely end with yo getting your ass handed to you. At least that's how it is if you try to ply CS 1.6 these days which I assume is kinda applicable to online games in general.

Also, level 3 computers are weak. Level 9 computers is what you should go up against.

 

[Frozengale]

DON'T FIGHT COMPUTERS

Computers won't teach you much, and the stuff you do learn from computers will almost never translate over to real players.
Only use computers to practice timing on combos and getting used to the range on all of your attacks.

Learn good ledge play. A lot of combat will take place near the ledges, you should be familiar with the best ways to guard the ledge, steal the ledge, and get back from the ledge.

One way that I like to practice a character is to pick one or two moves and use nothing but those moves during a practice match. If you're really bad at aiming/timing a certain skill on a character, then use nothing but that skill (except for killing blows of course). Another fun way to train is to play incredibly defensive. Focus on dodging and power-shielding, not on attacking. The better you are at predicting your opponents attacks the easier it is to get a hit on them.

Look for new ways to play a character. Some characters may seem bad or down right terrible, but it may be that no one has found a good way to play them. Meta Knight was considered to be one of the worst characters when the game first came out, but that's because no one understood his play style. Now he's actually banned in some tournaments. If you like a character and people tell you that it's a bad character then try playing them in ways that people don't expect.

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

In my prime on Brawl I was a defensive Marth player, avoiding and countering attacks like a bad man and staying out of the big guys wrestling in the middle of the screen, playing opportunistic and going in for a smash move or two to throw some guys off for kills. I can play a bit more aggressive with Marth too but he's light and doesn't have amazing recovery so you really want to stay out of the way of big attacks.