Jason Cipriano can’t stop talking about “Super Smash Bros. Brawl.” Except this time, he’s defending it against an attack from Stephen Totilo, who won’t jump on the hype train — for now, at least.

As it turns out, the reoccurring theme at Multiplayer this week isn’t really what we’re all not playing. Instead, it’s games that one of us is playing but the other isn’t. Sorry, “Rainbow Six Vegas 2″!

StephenTotilo: ["Super Smash Bros. Brawl"] certainly seems like a really well-made game. But it also seems like… “Super Smash Bros. Melee.” I played “Mario Kart Wii” yesterday, and I have a similar reaction in that the WORST thing I can say about it is that it certainly seems very similar to the “Mario Karts” I have played before.
StephenTotilo: Because of that, I’ve been leaving games like “Smash” to the side.
StephenTotilo: They’re predictable comfort food, as it were
StephenTotilo: Big bowls of mac and cheese
StephenTotilo: A hearty stack of pancakes
JasonCipriano: Coincidentally, I love mac and cheese and pancakes, too
StephenTotilo: A pot of chicken noodle soup

StephenTotilo: Jason, I haven’t done one of these What We’re Not Playing chats in years. At least that’s what it feels like
JasonCipriano: You’ve been quite busy with your globe trotting, and playing “Mario Kart” and whathaveyou
JasonCipriano: Hobnobbing with Gaming’s Heavyweights
StephenTotilo: True. And now that I’m publishing a Game Diary you can see what I’m playing. But would you like to know what I’m not? Hint: It’s your most favoritest game of the year-ever
JasonCipriano: I’ve been reading the diary, but not looking to see what you’re not playing … so I am curious…Is it “Diary Girl”?
JasonCipriano: Because, I mean, with the diary on the blog, what’s the need to play that?
StephenTotilo: I gave you a great hint
StephenTotilo: I’ll give you a second hint: It’s called “Super Smash Bros: Brawl.”
StephenTotilo: Figure it out?
JasonCipriano: So you’re not playing “Brawl,” eh? Finish everything you can playing the game single player?
StephenTotilo: Barely. I haven’t touched the game since the first weekend I have it. Would you like to know why?
JasonCipriano: Yeah, kinda. Mainly because the game is amazing
JasonCipriano: And vast.
JasonCipriano: It’s very vast
StephenTotilo: Right. It certainly seems like a really well-made game. But it also seems like… “Super Smash Bros. Melee.” I played “Mario Kart Wii” yesterday, and I have a similar reaction in that the WORST thing I can say about it is that it certainly seems very similar to the “Mario Karts” I have played before

StephenTotilo: Because of that, I’ve been leaving games like “Smash” to the side.
StephenTotilo: They’re predictable comfort food, as it were
StephenTotilo: Big bowls of mac and cheese
StephenTotilo: A hearty stack of pancakes
JasonCipriano: Coincidentally, I love mac and cheese and pancakes, too
StephenTotilo: A pot of chicken noodle soup
JasonCipriano: I see what you’re getting at
JasonCipriano: Lack of innovation
StephenTotilo: A greasy grilled cheese sandwich
StephenTotilo: I wouldn’t knock them for “lack of innovation”
JasonCipriano: But, if the wheel isn’t broken, why fix it?
JasonCipriano: It is missing a few things … but how much did you really play the previous iteration?
StephenTotilo: Instead, they quote-unquote suffer from being parts of formulas that seem to have been refined very well
JasonCipriano: So once the formula is perfected…. they should just stop?
StephenTotilo: As I’ve written before, I mostly play “Smash” games as solo games. On the GameCube I unlocked all characters and stages, did all the single-player challenges. I really played it a lot
JasonCipriano: I mean we aren’t talking about New Coke here — it’s “Smash Bros.”
StephenTotilo: No, they shouldn’t stop, not any more than record companies should stop re-printing “Beatles” albums and movie companies should stop offering the “Godfather” on DVD. I just find that, when faced with a pile of games, I put the really familiar experiences to the side
JasonCipriano: Ok. But that analogy doesn’t work.
JasonCipriano: Re-printing “Beatles” albums or “Godfather” DVDs really don’t bring anything new to the table.
JasonCipriano: It’s more akin to if there was a new “Beatles” album or “The Godfather 4″
JasonCipriano: Same source material, different product
JasonCipriano: In terms of familiar experiences, that’s understandable, there is a lot of other stuff out there. But, it’s March. We are hitting a bit of a dry spell in terms of new and amazing products, no?
StephenTotilo: Well, you can see from my diary that I’ve got other games to play. I’m just telling you how I prioritize. I have no hate for “Smash.” It’s just not a must-play so long as I have more novel stuff to check out, like “Layton” or even “Uncharted”
StephenTotilo: So what are you Not Playing?
JasonCipriano: This week I won’t be playing something that did actually appear in your diary: “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2″
StephenTotilo: A ha! because you weren’t seduced into playing it by the wily Brian Crecente
StephenTotilo: Why else are you avoiding it?
JasonCipriano: That hair may be able to seduce me into other things, but not “Vegas 2″
StephenTotilo: Really, Jason
JasonCipriano: I have yet to see or play a Tom Clancy game that has really called out to me
StephenTotilo: Why? You don’t like stealth? Tactics? Military machinery?

JasonCipriano: They are right for their audience, but they are either too strategic, or too stealthy for me
StephenTotilo: Did I call it or what?
JasonCipriano: You did… You type faster than I.
StephenTotilo: So “EndWar” won’t entice you either, huh?
JasonCipriano: Honestly, “EndWar” may be the first
StephenTotilo: Why? That’s all strategy
JasonCipriano: STOP TYPING FASTER THAN ME
StephenTotilo: If only you could control this chat with voice-command — as you will in “EndWar”
JasonCipriano: Funny
StephenTotilo: (Readers note: It took Cip 1 minute to type out f-u-n-n-y)
JasonCipriano: Right, but the voice controls are very intriguing. It’s not squad-based, it’s RTS. Which apparently I like (thank you “Advance Wars” series)
StephenTotilo: (Readers note: should I tell Cip that “Advance Wars” isn’t an RTS?)
JasonCipriano: Please elaborate as to why I have my genres confused
StephenTotilo: Advance Wars is turn-based, the very opposite of being real-time. RTSes are games like “Command and Conquer” or “Universe At War,” in which unit movement is happening constantly in real-time
StephenTotilo: But the two genres are closely related, and if you like moving tanks around in Advance Wars, I can see why the real-time, voice-activated vehicle battles of “EndWar” would be more up your alley than the adventures of some super-commando in “Splinter Cell” or “GRAW”
JasonCipriano: See, here’s the problem. Those are two games that are on my WINP (What I’m Never Playing) list, and I can see where I was a mistaken
StephenTotilo: As always, we do this column solely as a service to the marketing departments of large game publishers. And so they can learn from this that there is some general confusion among non-hardcore war-gamers about strategy games. Ubisoft, adjust your ad campaign accordingly. And thank Jason
JasonCipriano: Unless that’s the only group they want buying their games
StephenTotilo: Like the Army, Jason, they want you
JasonCipriano: And they may have me, but only because I may have been hooked by the Ubisoft one-on-one demo we saw a few months ago. Which most gamers don’t have the convenience of having
StephenTotilo: True enough. So sorry “Rainbow Six.” You’re out in the cold in the Cipriano household. And with that, shall we wrap this up? It was fun to be back in the mix, Not Playing like the best of them
JasonCipriano: Always a pleasure to have the Big Dog back
JasonCipriano: I think I’ve been playing enough “Smash” for two people, so you are forgiven for passing it up this week.
StephenTotilo: Hooray!
JasonCipriano: Game Over