Super Smash Bros. (series)
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Super Smash Bros., known in Japan as Dairantō Smash Brothers (大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ, Great Fray Smash Brothers), commonly known as Smash Bros. (スマブラ) or Smash, stylized as SUPER SMASH BROS., is a series of crossover fighting games published by Nintendo, featuring characters from franchises established on Nintendo systems. The series comprises 5 games released from 1999 to 2018, all directed by creator Masahiro Sakurai.[1]
History[edit]
Super Smash Bros.[edit]
Super Smash Bros. was introduced in 1999 for the Nintendo 64. It was released worldwide after selling over a million copies in Japan. It featured 12 playable characters (eight characters from the start and four unlockable characters), all of them created by Nintendo or one of its second-party developers.
In the multiplayer (Versus) mode, up to four people can play, with the specific rules of each match being predetermined by the players. There are two different types that can be chosen: Time, where the person with the most KOs at the end of the set time wins; and stock, where each person has a set amount of lives, and when it is gone, the player is eliminated.
This game's one-player mode included an adventure mode that always followed the same series of opponents, although the player could change the difficulty. Other single-player modes exist such as Training and several mini-games, including Break the Targets and Board the Platforms. All of these were included in the sequel, with the exception of "Board the Platforms".
In Versus mode, there are nine playable stages. However, there are eight stages available from the start; and are based on each of the starter characters (including Peach's Castle for Mario, Congo Jungle for Donkey Kong, Hyrule Castle for Link, Planet Zebes for Samus, Yoshi's Island for Yoshi, Dream Land for Kirby, Sector Z for Fox, and Saffron City for Pikachu), and the unlockable Mushroom Kingdom (which is the one unlockable stage).
Super Smash Bros. Melee[edit]
Super Smash Bros. Melee was released November 21, 2001 in Japan; December 3, 2001 in the Americas; May 24, 2002 in Europe; and May 31, 2002 in Australia for the Nintendo GameCube console. It had a larger budget and development team than its predecessor did and was released to much greater praise and acclaim among critics and consumers. Since its release, Super Smash Bros. Melee has sold more than 7 million copies and was the best-selling game on the GameCube.[2]
Super Smash Bros. Melee features twenty-six playable characters; of which 15 are available initially (more than doubling the number of characters in its predecessor). Altogether, 15 characters are starter characters and 11 are unlockable characters). There are also twenty-nine playable stages (however, 18 stages are starter stages and 11 are unlockable stages). It introduced two new single-player modes alongside the Classic Mode; Adventure, and All Star. Adventure has platforming segments similar to the original's "Race to the Finish" minigame, and All-Star is a fight against every playable character in the game, allows the player only one life in which damage is accumulated over each battle, and the character is allowed to use only three recovery items which heal all taken damage in between battles. There are also significantly more multiplayer modes and a tournament mode allowing for 64 different competitors whom can all be controlled by a human player, although only up to four players can participate at the same time. Additionally, the game featured alternative battle modes, called "Special Melee," which involve some sort of alteration to the battle (ex: all characters are giant by default, players may only use their jump and standard attack buttons, etc.), along with alternative ways to judge a victory, such as through collecting coins throughout the match. In addition, the game introduced the Home-Run Contest, where players use a Home-Run Bat to send Sandbag flying while damaging it for ten seconds.
In place of Super Smash Bros.' character profiles, Melee introduced trophies (called "figures" in the Japanese version). The 293 trophies include three different profiles for each playable character, one unlocked in each single-player mode. In addition, unlike its predecessor, Melee contains profiles for many Nintendo characters who are either non-playable or do not appear in the game, as well as Nintendo items, stages, enemies, and elements.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl[edit]
Although a third Super Smash Bros. game had been announced long before E3 2006, Nintendo unveiled its first information in the form of a trailer on May 10, 2006, and the game was named Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The trailer featured Solid Snake, from Konami's Metal Gear series, marking the first time that a third-party character had been introduced as a playable character in a Super Smash Bros. title. A second third-party character, Sonic the Hedgehog, from Nintendo's former rival Sega was also confirmed as a playable character on October 10, 2007. Brawl is also the first game in the franchise to support online play via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.[3] The game was released on January 31, 2008 in Japan, and on March 9th for North America.
Brawl also features compatibility with four kinds of controllers (the Wii Remote turned sideways, the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combination, the Classic Controller, and the Nintendo GameCube controller),[4] while its predecessors only used the one controller designed for that system. The player also has the ability to change the configuration of controls and the controller type.[5]
Super Smash Bros. 4[edit]
At E3 2011, it was announced that there would be a fourth entry in the Super Smash Bros. franchise. The game is available on the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U and is collectively known as Super Smash Bros. 4. Development began in late February 2012, and the 3DS version was released on September 13th, 2014 in Japan, and was released on October 3rd, 2014 internationally, while the Wii U version was released on November 21st, 2014 in the Americas, on November 28th, 2014 in Europe, on November 29th, 2014 in Australia, and on December 6th, 2014 in Japan.
Sonic the Hedgehog returned as veteran third party fighter from Sega while new third-parties were also added to this game: Mega Man from Capcom and Pac-Man from Bandai Namco. Later, when DLC was announced for the game, Ryu from Street Fighter was added as the first DLC newcomers. Then, during the November 12th, 2015 Nintendo Direct, Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy was the second DLC newcomer announced, thus adding Square Enix to the list of third-parties represented in SSB4. Lastly, in the final Smash Bros. Direct special presentation on December 15, 2015, the Smash Bros. Ballot winner, Bayonetta, was announced and revealed. Her inclusion, as well as Ryu's, make Sega and Capcom the first third-party companies in the series to have more than one fighter.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]
In October 2014, a fan asked Sakurai if he was done with developing Super Smash Bros. games, to which he replied, "I'm not done yet...". [6] Despite this, he stated in Weekly Famitsu that he doubts he could continue game development as a whole if his workload stays the way it was for Super Smash Bros. 4.[7]
On March 8th, 2018, a Super Smash Bros. game was confirmed for the Nintendo Switch, due out in 2018. The trailer, revealed at the end of the Nintendo Direct that day, suggested that the Inklings would be playable. [8]
During E3 2018, the title for the next game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, was announced alongside several details, including its character roster which includes all characters in the Super Smash Bros. series, along with Inkling and Ridley as newcomers, Princess Daisy as an Echo Fighter of Peach, and the return of Xander Mobus as the announcer. During the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct on August 8th, Simon Belmont and his descendant Richter Belmont of Castlevania fame were both announced as new playable fighters, along with Dark Samus and Chrom as Echo Fighters and Donkey Kong's arch-enemy, King K. Rool. Isabelle from Animal Crossing, who appeared in the previous game as an Assist Trophy, was revealed as a playable fighter at the close of the September 2018 Nintendo Direct, along with a teaser for a brand new entry in the Animal Crossing series on the Switch in 2019. In the second Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Direct on November 1st, Ken Masters and Incineroar were announced as the final fighters to complete the base roster along with the new Spirits mode, a new story called World of Light, a Piranha Plant as a DLC fighter and the Fighters Pass Vol. 1, which includes five fighters, five stages and extra music tracks as DLC. The first character of this Fighters Pass Vol. 1 was revealed to be Joker, the main protagonist from Persona 5, at The Game Awards 2018.
The game was released worldwide on December 7, 2018. [9]
Piranha Plant was released as the first DLC fighter as a huge surprise, free to those who had registered the game on My Nintendo before the end of January 2019. Joker was the first Fighters Pass Vol.1 character to be released in April 2019. Subsequent DLC announcements occurred at E3 2019: the Hero from Dragon Quest, released late July of 2019, and Banjo & Kazooie, who were released in September 2019. The same month Banjo & Kazooie were released, Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury was announced as the fourth DLC fighter, and was released in November 2019. That same month, it was announced that more DLC characters were undergoing development to join the roster. In January 2020, Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses was announced as the fifth and last Fighters Pass Vol. 1 character, and was released later that same month. It was also revealed that another Fighters Pass would be released, under the title of Fighters Pass Vol. 2, and it would contain six characters: Min Min from ARMS, who was announced in March 2020, and was fully revealed/released in June 2020; Steve from Minecraft, who was announced and released in October 2020; Sephiroth from Final Fantasy, who was announced and released in December 2020; Pyra and Mythra as a two-in-one transformation character from Xenoblade Chronicles 2, were announced in February 2021 and released in March 2021; Kazuya Mishima from Tekken, who was announced and released in June 2021; and Sora from Kingdom Hearts as the final downloadable character, who released on October 18, 2021.
Gameplay[edit]
The basic gameplay of Super Smash Bros. series dramatically differs from many fighting games. Instead of depleting an opponent's life bar, Smash Bros. seeks players to launch characters off the stage. In Super Smash Bros., characters have a damage total, represented by a percentage value, which rises as they take damage and can exceed 100%. As characters' percentages rise, they can be knocked progressively further by an opponent's attacks. For a character to be KO'd, said character must be sent off the edge of the stage, which is not an enclosed arena but rather an area with open boundaries, usually a set of suspended platforms. If a character travels too far away from the stage in any direction, they lose a stock and potentially lose the entire game. When a character is knocked off the stage, they typically have an opportunity to (attempt to) recover and return; typically by jumping and using attacks that cause the player to travel a significant distance. Some characters have an easier time recovering than others due to a combination of floatier jumps or simply having more jumps available, as well as having attacks with more significant aerial drift. Additionally, some characters are heavier than others, making it harder for an opponent to knock them off the edge but likewise harder to recover.
Smash Bros.'s play controls are greatly simplified in comparison to other fighting games. While traditional fighting games such as Street Fighter require the player to memorize button-input combinations (sometimes lengthy and complicated, and often specific to a character), Smash Bros uses the same one-attack-button, one-control-stick-direction combinations to access all moves for all characters. Two buttons are primarily used for attacks: normal attack button and special attack button, with the orientation of the control stick dictating what specific attack is used. Some attacks only activate on the ground, while others only activate while airborne, and some can activate in both scenarios, though functionality may change. Other attacks are activated through non-traditional methods, but these are few and far between. Most characters are not limited to constantly facing their opponent but may move around freely, with some attacks only accessible by tilting the stick opposite where the character is facing. Smash Bros. also approaches blocking different than other games. Instead of simply holding a direction to block, a dedicated button activates a shield, which depletes with prolonged used and replenishes when not in use, with enemy attacks accelerating the depletion. If a shield fully depletes, the character is stunned and at the mercy of their opponent. Using the stick in this shield state can activate various types of dodges, which can be used both on the ground and in the air. Grabbing and throwing other characters is also possible, allowing for a large variety of ways to attack.
One additional major element in the Super Smash Bros. series is the inclusion of battle items, of which players can control the frequency of appearance. There are conventional "battering items" with which a player may hit an opponent, such as a baseball bat or a sword, as well as throwing items, including Bob-ombs and shells, and shooting items, either single-shot guns or rapid fire blasters. Recovery items allow the user to lose varying amounts of their damage percent. From the Pokémon franchise come Poké Balls that release a random Pokémon onto the battlefield to assist the user; Brawl introduces a new Assist Trophy item which serves a similar purpose, albeit being capable of summoning a wider range of characters from a variety of franchises. Brawl also introduces items called Smash Balls, which allows fighters to perform powerful character-specific attacks, known as Final Smashes.
Characters[edit]
Characters in the Super Smash Bros. series can be divided into two main groups. The primary group that most people refer to when they speak of "characters" are those that are playable in-game. These are known as fighters or playable characters. The second group is those that are non-playable. This is a larger group that encompasses such entities including bosses, generic enemies, and summonable characters like Assist Trophies, to name a few.
Playable characters[edit]
There are currently 89 (if Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon count as three characters, and Mii fighters count as three characters) playable characters in total. Smash 64 has 12, Melee has 26 (if Sheik is put separate from Zelda), Brawl has 39 (if Zero Suit Samus and Sheik are put separate from Samus and Zelda, respectively, and the Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon count as three characters), and Smash 4 has 58 (51 on disc and 7 downloadable), almost five times the amount in Smash 64. Ultimate uniquely brings back all of the characters from past games, as well as 24 newcomers. However, without counting DLC, Ultimate has 74 playable characters (counting Pokémon Trainer as one character) and like in Smash 4, Samus, Zero Suit Samus, Zelda, and Sheik are all separate characters (so Samus can no longer transform into Zero Suit Samus; while Zelda can no longer transform into Sheik). Many of the characters are available from the start, but some are unlockable, meaning certain conditions must be met before they can be played as.
