The Era of Soul 

Appreciate all the comments about the video. Brawl is a special game for me so I wanted to make this video feel nostalgic for people, so I'm glad people like it.

The pre-online play days of smash were special. Back when the netcode for these games were so trash (or non-existent for Melee), where you would need to go out to your locals to get some good sets in. Sure, the (not perfect but) improved netcode in Sm4sh/Ultimate and the creation of Anther's Ladder/Slippi absolutely helped the scenes grow (and stay alive during Covid), but there's something lost when the primary form of playing with another person shifts away from hanging out in person to just connecting to eachother online.

The process of learning brawl is one of the funniest thing I've ever done, it's the main content on my channel. I've never cared about the competitive scene but being able to learn to be better for the sake of fun and exploration and not for the sake winning is how I've never stopped playing for 16 years... and I if I wanted to play for another year, all I need to do is just pick a new character and explore yet another avenue of learning. Thanks for showing some love and respect for brawl.

I remember getting accidentally into Brawl around April 2013 when I went to Mike Hazes last tournament he ran thinking it was a Melee only tournament only for the entire room to be filled with Brawl setups I remember that day the Melee scene treating me like assholes and then so I went to the Brawl side to try competing in it and that’s how I met people like Zan and he told me about AllisBrawl and everything Let me tell you, that year of me grinding Brawl from that day to when it died in 2014 remains to this day my favorite year of my smash life ever and even though I’ve made a huge name for myself in S4 / Ultimate for being one of the best Shulk players ever, I’ll always remember more getting power ranked in Socal in my first 8 months of playing (which was INSANELY fast at that time) and also people telling me I was gonna surpass Mike as being one of the best Marth players in the game if I kept training Warms my heart nowadays that Brawl has more of an underground scene then S4 does and I’d say 64 as well and when the rollback mod for Brawl comes out (if it ever does) then a whole new scene can hopefully experience what me and a lot of old heads truly loved and why we stayed despite the new games being worse

I remember when brawl came out. We had one guy in the friend group who had been washing us since melee. He was doing the same thing in brawl, washing us, consistently. I went to my first anime convention and entered the smash tourney. Got washed by the dude who got 2nd in the first round, but the guy who ended up winning asked if I was local. Said I had good fundamentals, but I just didn't know any tech or even DI, etc. They invited me to come play with them on Fridays that they'd gather up and my friend who had been washing me? I started washing him. He was like how tf did you get so good, so I had him come out and play with us, and we've been going back and forth on who's winning in our smash rivalry still to this day in ultimate

I still remember the Allisbrawl days. I remember getting on, joining that huge chatroom, exchanging friend with people just to play a set online. It was tedious as hell, but it was was such a nostalgic time for me. I was never very good, and am still not 15 years later but I still have so many fond memories of brawl.

take me back!! when the locals were small enough we could just squeeze into a couple tables at denny's afterward

Great video, Nakat! As someone who only started following the competitive scene in Smash 4, whenever I hear about the Brawl Era, it always makes me wish I could have been there to experience it. You and Nairo both make it sound so fun and I always look forward to some good ol Brawl story time

That line about being about to go to a tournament and being able to make connections and meet people with the same hobbies and interests as you is cool and i wish the same was for ultimate. Ult is so big and smash as a whole is so big now that theres no connections to be made you just play your opponent and move on and maybe talk to some people you already know or that have come with you. Ive been a fan since the tail end of smash 4 and have recently started competing in some locals in ult and i havent really been able to make any connections but when i see players talk about the older games and the scene at that time(melee and brawl) everyone just seemed so intertwined and it seemed more friendly and together.

Hi Nakat! I got introduced to smash in the past 2 years and fell in love with it. I started going to locals and was blown away by how welcoming and helpful and friendly everyone in the community is. I watch a lot of Nairo and other RU-vid videos and hear mentions about the older games and the history of the smash community, but this video really gave me a new appreciation for all of that. Thanks for sharing your passion and I and probably more people would love to hear more about all of your journey and experiences

Brawl is probably my favorite game of all time, glad to hear people share they're enjoyment of the game even despite the competiive "short comings" I love it competitively and casually

Dude Nakat your video editing style is so aesthetically cool

This video was a nostalgia trip. 100% agree on Meta knight and Ice climbers. Loved Brawl, was also glad it was different from Melee.

Wow I was just a kid who played at home during brawl but this was amazing

Bro, you are one of my top favorite content creators I played smash from the very beginning great franchise still enjoy it from time to time and I appreciate everything you do

Sounds like a great time, wish I could have been around for it...

Great video, i personally only played brawl casually so i never got into the competitive scene. I always love to see the actual PASSION people have for this game competitively. This exact passion is what got me into competitive smash and everything that comes with it. Even after playing the new ones the old ones are just better in other things to just mess around with.

YooooOOOOoooo0000oooo Nakat, people still play brawl. I came back recently after a 10 year break - would love to see a return of more old school players

I kneel on Subspace being a heavy hitter for singleplayer. Not before or since has the team given singleplayer content like that, plus it was co-op fun.

my doubles partner is actually the guy who did interviews for allisbrawl, listening to him talk about those days is always cool

Even for how the modern Smash games present themselves, the opening sequences for Smash 4 and Ultimate being comprised primarily of reveal trailer clips, imo, really speaks for how much "soul" and life that those games had. All the effort that was put into Brawl's Subspace and its single player experience just has not been the same ever since. The Wow factor just wasn't really "there" like in the old Smash games, and I've honestly found modern Smash to be a lot more barebones because of that. The sheer scope of what Brawl tried with its experience, from just playing the game and as a casual spectator fan watching what the community would put out, was just that explosive. And while Melee's fast pace gameplay is also great, I do feel that its diehard audience that spoke down on Brawl at the time kinda played a part in ruining the content of future Smash entries.

I loved Brawl, perfect for casuals amd that's why Smahs can have a competitive side! I hope MV learned from this!

brawl changed my life

Ayyyy!!!!! I was 5th in those AiB rankings at 8:50 - Denti

Something about Brawl really just hit right and it was mainly all the things you mentioned in this video. Smash 4, while I did enjoy it, felt too janky competitively and Smash Ultimate's mechanics felt too simplified; like it didn't feel nearly as rewarding to learn the character(s) since they pretty much removed the margin for error in the game that made the learning curve significant. I remember I practically begged my mom to let me go to Apex in 2012 with the other Yoshi players, and there was no experience like it. Jband basically humbled me on the concept of character diversity in Apex 2013 lol. Sometimes I wish there was a way to revive the game, even if only for nostalgic purposes

I'm really glad this video exists and I hope people make more like it in the future. Brawl got a lot of crap, mostly undeserved, so it's good that we are starting to balance the scales a bit and talk about how great that time was for a lot of us. For me the best part was the sonic boards, I haven't had a time since then where I feel like there was a true collective community that was all friends and all working together toward the same goal of helping each other improve and show that our character wasn't as bad as ppl thought. We had live chatrooms and collective vod reviews. And I've never been able to find that kind of camaraderie since. Brawl really was a special game and a special time.

I met a Brawl vet at lmbm he was super cool and funny

Even as a non-competitive player who just really cares about game history (a "core-casual" I call it) Brawl was truly one of a kind

great video nakat

Shout it from the rooftops

Nice video, Brawl was my first smash game so it's dear to my heart. Btw what's the ending song?

Love this video man

Great vid !

I really wish I would have gone out more to meet yall before ult that one Evo with items killed it for me 😂 at least Dwin represented for us

Good video g💯

Great video bro

Can't wait for tomorrow morning. Also, Smash Brawl is my personal favorite.

smash brawl jsut hit different

Oh damn a nakat recc in 2024? We really are in the best timeline

Castlevania 4 song at ending ftw

w vid

2:10 nah, i remember being able to win games with friends, as metaknight, only pressing 1 button. Using metaknight felt like if ye had "like a transformation" final smash that was infinite. But i agree ice climbers took a degree of skill, to be good with them. And to be fair this Is from the perspective of a casual, but still i do feel like future smash brothers, improve in gameplay, and Made it More fun to fight the CPU, also because of the raise in standards, AAA games being more expensive now, etc... subspace aint happening again, but Ultimate Made a attempt with World of light and the tráilers lol.

whats the song at the end???

Song at 3:20 ? Great vid btw!

but you played ice climbers so did you have a soul XD

Shoutouts to Player-1 the Diddy he still plays this game and is prolly the best player on the planet rn

Great vid!!