In later matches I ended up facing off against some rather large opponents, such as Donkey Kong and Ike, but I was thankfully able to make my way through with Olimar to the final round. The fact that there are five different Pikmin you can use makes Smash Attacking with Olimar an interesting experience; sometimes I’ll do normal damage, sometimes I’ll electrocute the other guy, sometimes I’ll send him flying (though launching my opponent any reasonable distance was usually rather difficult, which came back to bite me later). I didn’t put much stock into the special moves; Pikmin Throw ends after maybe a second, and I didn’t have much occasion to use Chain or Order. Pluck, of course, I used whenever I was short on Pikmin.

The final round of the tournament saw my Olimar pitted against Samus, and for more or less the entire match I was delivering the pain. I even managed to get my hand on the Smash Ball in the final seconds, activating End of Day and adding plenty of numbers to Samus’s damage meter; I didn’t hit with the rocket, though, and I get the sense I should have been controlling it. In any case, Olimar’s lack of serious launching power meant that I never actually managed a KO; the one-minute match went into Sudden Death, and my very lucky opponent managed to get the first hit. So I took the second place, which came with twin prizes of Lament and Nothing, as well as being sent back into the cold, where me and my peers awaited their chance to buy the game by singing "99 Copies of Brawl on the Wall". If I get my hands on any of the videos recorded of that I’ll try and post them.

That wraps up my tournament report/Brawl preview. I’ll be receiving the game in the mail on Monday, so hope to see a full review from me, Radical Edward, or both in the coming days.