Considering how hyped I once was for Nintendo's all-star Wii title Super Smash Bros. Brawl, my enthusiasm cooled once I'd experienced all that the game had to offer and explored all that I cared to see. I'm not quite sure what happened considering that the previous Melee title continued to see heavy use during the entire GameCube era. One Brawl aspect that was good for an impressed musing was the stage editor, although I also relaxed on that once I discovered that my creations were limited by the less than expansive scope of the editor. I may have to revisit that part of the game now that there's a Brawl stage editor for the PC that simplifies the creation process while adding the ability to tweak variables that the built-in Brawl editor does not allow to be touched. Kombo has the details and a YouTube video of the program in action.
One of the aspects added to the game design of Super Smash Bros. Brawl to help grant it greater longevity was a stage creator, so that with the help of its players, there would always be a new place to hold matches. But unfortunately, the interface may not be for some people.
Thankfully, someone has come up with a PC-friendly solution which allows aspiring stage designers to implement all their ideas on their computer, save it to an SD card, and transfer it to the game itself. Even better, it has some extras that the original program native to Brawl doesn't have, such as setting spawn points, creating custom thumbnails, and of course, typing.
I haven't tried this editor yet, but if it's easy to use as it seems and delivers on what it promises, then I think it's a great idea. The beta version of Xane's Brawl Stage Studio is available for download over at Smashboards. Nintendo historically locks down this kind of game modification away from the end-user level, so hurry and try it out before the company updates the Wii's system software to somehow block the SD card slot from accessing these unauthorized custom stages.
