As promised, more detail:
Me and two friends got the games at the midnight release. We didn't do the tournament or anything, we took it all in the classic way: brought it back to one of their houses, started it off by letting the intro video play, watched the "how to play" movie, and then started right off with the Subspace Emissary. We played the co-op for four hours or so, switching the third person between stages. We played a couple of versus matches in between the stages, too, just for the fun of it since there aren't final smashes in the emissary and we really wanted to have fun with them).
After that, two of us went to his house and let our third friend sleep. Unfortunately this meant that everything we had unlocked, we had to redo with his copy of the game. We didn't play subspace emissary this time, we just played a lot of versus matches. Eventually the day came to an end, and now I sit back in my own dorm, wishing that I didn't have fucking roomates who were watching crappy stuff on the television. I haven't even opened my own copy of the game yet, since I've just been playing with my friends' so far. I hope I'll be able to play, I'll be getting a TV, but it might still be a couple of weeks, which means that most of my time playing the game for now will have to be fifteen minute romps while my roommates are in class, unless I feel like not sleeping (which is something that I'm considering). This also means that I probably won't be playing much online yet.
Character-wise, I am just as much in love with Pokémon Trainer as I thought I would be, maybe more. I absolutely love Squirtle, Charizard and even Ivysaur, who I didn't think I would enjoy as much as I do. I'm definitely maining the Trainer, for now at least. Unfortunately I have to admit that I haven't played with Lucario yet as we haven't unlocked him. That's one of the prices you have to pay for playing two different copies of the game on two different wiis, rather than one game straight through.
I've also used King DeDeDe a lot, and he's just fun. I don't think I'm particularly amazing with him, but I'd say he's my third best character (for now at least, we all know that this is all early experiences). He's just so hilarious and wacky, I love using him. Not to mention that his Final Smash is both hilariously adorable and pretty strong, particularly in free-for-alls. My biggest surprise, though, is how much I love Diddy Kong. I really haven't given much, if any, thought to the character at all, but after playing with him, I have to admit that I really love it. He's my second-best for now, after the Trainer.
I used every character at least once (other than the characters that we didn't unlock), although the characters I used the most were the Trainer, Diddy, DeDeDe, Wario and Yoshi. I used Meta Knight and Pit a few times each, but they don't really do anything for me. Not my style, I guess, although it is going to take more time to really make a decision about them.
We mostly used the GameCube controllers. I spent a little bit of time with the Wiimote and Nunchuk (and I played one match with the sideways Wiimote), but it just felt very awkward. The GC controls feel totally natural because of the similarities to Melee, and we all had no problem just picking it up and going for it. Still, I want to be able to use the Wiimote and Nunchuk, so when I tackle the SSE by myself I think I'm going to use that controller combination and force myself to really adapt it.
Something really interesting: both of my friends were tournament-level Melee players, both of whom were ranked among the top five Connecticut Melee players at some point. I've never been big into that stuff, and they would always just manhandle me in Melee. In Brawl, though, not only are we all on pretty much the same level. I don't think it's just because we're all new to the game, enough of the game was changed and fixed, balance-wise, that makes it a more enjoyable experience to people.
The number one word to sum up the game for me: fun. Playing the game with a few friends is just a blast. This is what video games are all about.
