Like just about every other college student in the country, I've spent a number of hours  playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl in the last two days. Unlike a lot of those others, however, I'm not actually a huge fan of the series.

See, I think of the Smash Brothers obsessees the same way I think of the Halo obsessees; I just can't grasp why someone would devote such enormous amounts of time to a game as substanceless as this.

Not that I think it's a bad game by any means. I have plenty of fun with it, at least in short, one hour at most stretches. And I'll probably spend plenty of time with it in the near future as my spring break is next week. But on the other hand, I picked up Bully last week and will pick up Condemned 2 and/or Army of Two this week or next week. I'll be spreading my gaming time around among those different games, yet everyone else I know, with the exception of the guy with whom I would play Army of Two, will only be playing Smash Brothers. And when you consider the game is basically just a glorified expansion to Melee (way to fuck up a great opportunity with the controls, Game Arts), the explanation for this guaranteed obsession escapes even further from my grasp.

Also, keep in mind that I'm not trying to single out obsessions with this game alone. I don't really understand why anyone would play any game over and over again for years on end. There are too many other, better games to play.

Though I guess I can't fault you too much if the only console you own is the Wii. It's not like there'll be another decent game on that console for a while. Though if you play Brawl for a year while never having played Zack and Wiki, you deserve a smackdown.