Rating: Five out of five starsDeveloper: SoraPublisher: NintendoPlatform: WiiGenre: FightingRelease Date: March 9

In most cases, it seems that the longer gamers are forced to wait for the release of a highly-anticipated title, the more critical they are when the game is finally released.

That was certainly true of me with Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Since Nintendo first announced the title in 2005, almost a full year before the release of its next-generation Wii console, Brawl has been plagued by delays. In each case, Nintendo told its gaming community that developers needed more time to fine tune the title.

With the game finally out in stores Sunday, it’s easy to see that it’s better late than never.

The Smash Bros. series gained somewhat of a hardcore cult following with its intuitive gameplay and cartoonish battles. Players choose from a long list of their favorite video game characters and fight opponents in an attempt to knock them off a stage.

And that list of characters is one of the things that makes Brawl so great.

The roster of fighters is 35 deep, each with their own unique fighting styles and moves. These characters aren’t just from the Nintendo library either, although the list is heavily skewed in that direction. Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog as well as Snake from Konami’s Metal Gear series are also joining the fray.

It is disappointing that the game contains so many ‘cloned’ characters — fighters whose abilities and playing styles closely mirror those of other characters on the list.

This was an issue with the last entry in the series, Super Smash Bros. Melee. It’s still disappointing in Brawl to unlock a brand new character after multiple sudden death smackdowns by a smug AI opponent only to find that the prize for your lowered feeling of self worth is one of your old characters with a new hat and a facelift. But I’m willing to overlook that bit of laziness on the developer’s part, given the sheer size of the lineup.

The choice not to use the Wii’s characteristic motion-sensing features, however, was clearly not because of laziness. While I was a little disappointed to find that I couldn’t wield the game’s remote-Nunchuk combination quite like I do in Wii Sports boxing, it’s easy to see why this simply wouldn’t work for Brawl.

This style of fighting game requires precision and is extremely dependent on timing, something the Wii hasn’t gained such a great reputation for with some of its past titles. Instead, players use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk quite like any other controller, using the buttons and joystick in very much the same way they do in even the Nintendo 64 original. Gamers can also customize this control scheme to use any one of the Wii’s peripheral controllers, including the GameCube controller or the Classic Controller.

This is great, because it decreases the learning curve and allows players to stop fiddling with the controls and do what they do best — play.

Brawl sports the same high-quality multiplayer action as it always has, and the new stage designs (sans a few outliers that had me resisting the urge to rocket my silicone-encased Wii-mote straight through my television) are rich in detail and just plain fun to play. The game even ups the ante by allowing players to connect in online play through the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection — provided players can remember their friends’ unwieldy 12-digit friend code.

The big thing the developers did with their newest entry in the Smash series is to add a single-player mode that doesn’t make you want to run head first into bricks.

Called “The Subspace Emissary,” players guide a mixed assortment of characters through a side-scrolling adventure game reminiscent of games like the Super Nintendo title Donkey Kong Country. The levels are punctuated by boss battles and fairly entertaining cut scenes that provide a pretty good break from the multiplayer action.

Brawl is an instant classic and a worthy successor to the Super Smash Bros. series. For veteran Smash players, Nintendo has managed to formulate a careful blend of old comforts and new features.

But the game is worth it for first-time players too. It’s great to dominate the battlefield with the video game heroes you love the most — and kick the crap out of the ones you don’t love at all.