In the days following the arrival of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, I couldn't have been happier playing it with people. Two or three of my closest friends were regular visitors to my humble abode once they caught wind I had the game, and our own Michael Cole stopped by to play Subspace Emissary with me to the bitter end. (You can read his impressions of Subspace's co-op mode here.) But despite my substantial playtime with the game, I felt I was missing out on the party-like atmosphere I remember having with Melee when it came out for the GameCube way back when. I decided to do something about that.

You may have seen it on the front page of Nintendo World Report. I put out a call for anyone in the Southern California area willing and able to play Brawl before its impending March 9 North American release to come on down to my home on the northern outskirts of Los Angeles and play the game from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. And come you did—more than two dozen people eventually showed up during the course of the twelve-hour marathon session, with at least a baker's dozen sticking around throughout. When you get that many people together to play Smash Bros., you know you're going to be in for a wild night.

What follows is a recollection of that night. I'll give you my honest impressions of the game as I saw it being played through the evening, as well as tune you in to what happened during those twelve hours. Remember that virtually no one playing the game, save for me, had played Brawl before this night. The videos you'll see aren't of four interns recording matches for the sake of recording video. These are real matches being played by real people, just like you. And you'll hear their cheers and jeers along the way. If you imagine what the scene might be like when you get your hands on Brawl, it might go something like this...

Notice: This feature contains spoilers. But you want spoilers, don't you? Everyone in attendance sure did.