Game & Watch (universe): Difference between revisions

{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Game & Watch'' (universe)}}

|developer        = [[Nintendo]]

|publisher        = Nintendo

[[File:Game and watch Ball.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''Ball'' was the first handheld game in the ''Game & Watch'' games.]]

Even before Nintendo's future as a leading competitor in the video game market was shaped by the breakout video arcade hit that was the original ''[[Mario (universe)|Donkey Kong]]'' in 1981, the company had been finding some small success in the video arcade game industry throughout the 1970's. During this timeframe, one of Nintendo's first game designers, Gunpei Yokoi, is said to have realized the appeal of a portable device that doubled both as a watch and as a miniature game machine when he watched another passenger riding a Shinkansen bullet train using an LCD calculator as a means of passing the time. As head of Nintendo's "Nintendo Research & Development 1" team, Yokoi developed and released the first entry in what became a long-running line of dedicated handhelds under the ''Game & Watch'' name, ''Ball'' / ''Toss-Up'', near the end of April 1980. As per the definition of a dedicated console, each ''Game & Watch'' device was a handheld with a single built-in game, and what became a long-running series of ''Game & Watch'' portables initially displayed very basic monochrome graphics on Liquid-Crystal Display screens. Also, as per the title of the product line, each game doubled as an electronic timepiece. A total of 59 ''Game & Watch'' games were developed and released between 1980 and 1991, including some games released after Yokoi's more famous handheld creation, the Game Boy.  

The first ''Game & Watch'' game became the earliest Nintendo product to garner major success, even before the industry-defining success of ''Donkey Kong'' just a year later, and the entire series sold over 43 million copies. The series is credited with making handhelds vastly popular and setting up for Nintendo's future handheld console business with the Game Boy line, as well as inspiring various other toy companies, most notably Tiger Electronics, to create their own dedicated handhelds. The series of dedicated handhelds gradually became more technologically advanced over the years and went through several different models that were designed to deliver some more creative twists to each individual game, including a clam-shell design with two separate screens displaying graphics simultaneously. As many modern retrospectives note, this particular "Multi-Screen" design was a forerunner to Nintendo's modern dual-screened handheld platforms, the DS and the 3DS, and bore a very close resemblance to them.  

The ''Game & Watch'' products themselves initially depicted cartoon-shaped characters resembling black silhouettes on white backgrounds, but as the series went on, several games within it based on external IPs unrelated to Nintendo, namely [[Disney]]'s Mickey Mouse and the ''Popeye'' and ''Peanuts'' comic strips, were released. Starting from 1982, ''Game & Watch'' titles also began depicting {{uv|Mario}} and {{uv|Donkey Kong}} characters as Nintendo's business in video games took hold, and near the end of the series' release history, ''Balloon Fight'' and {{uv|The Legend of Zelda}} also made incidental releases in handheld ''Game & Watch'' form. After the line was retired in 1991, Nintendo began to make occasional references to, and ports of, the ''Game & Watch'' brand; in between 1997 and 2002, four installments of a Game Boy / Game Boy Advance series called ''{{s|mariowiki|Game & Watch Gallery}}'' were released, each compiling several of the original games and offering them both in their original monochrome appearances and with "remade" versions featuring ''Mario'' characters and settings. More famously, a collective representation of the various black-silhouetted characters seen throughout the earlier games, [[Mr. Game & Watch]], debuted as a surprise playable character in 2001's ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]''. After the success of ''Melee'', Nintendo put cameos of this character in several other games, such as [[Wario (universe)| the ''WarioWare'' series]], ''{{s|mariowiki|Super Mario Odyssey}}'' and ''[[Donkey Kong (universe)|Donkey Kong Country Returns]]''. Mr. Game & Watch also reprised his role in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'', with an important plot relevance in the game's [[Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary|story mode]], and has appeared in all ''Smash Bros.'' games since then as well.

On September 3, 2020, 29 years after the original Game & Watch series' discontinuation and as part of the celebration of the 35th anniversary of ''Super Mario Bros.'' (and to an extent the 40th anniversary of the Game & Watch console series), Nintendo announced ''{{s|mariowiki|Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros.}}'', a full-color screen Game & Watch system featuring ports of ''Super Mario Bros.'' and ''Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels'' as well as a ''Mario''-themed version of ''Ball''. It has a limited release starting November 13, 2020 and lasted until March 31, 2021. In similar fashion, Nintendo announced the ''{{s|zeldawiki|Game & Watch: The Legend of Zelda}}'' during E3 2021 as part of the celebration of the 35th anniversary of ''The Legend of Zelda'', featuring ''The Legend of Zelda'', ''Zelda II: The Adventure of Link'', and the Game Boy version of ''The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening'' along with a ''Zelda''-themed version of ''{{iw|wikipedia|Vermin|Game & Watch}}''. It was released on November 12, 2021.

*[[File:MrGame&WatchIcon(SSBM).png|50px|right|link=Mr. Game & Watch (SSBM)]]'''{{SSBM|Mr. Game & Watch}}''' ([[Unlockable character|Unlockable]]): A small, flat, black, and voiceless personality who made several appearances among several of the games in the ''Game & Watch'' series, Mr. Game and Watch was given his identity for his appearance as a ''Melee'' fighter. A character like no other in the ''Smash'' series, Mr. "G&W" is almost totally flat, and nearly every movement he makes is distinctively frame-by-frame and is accompanied by a "beep-and-boop" sound. As a ''Melee'' fighter, he is also unique in that his side special move, [[Judgment]], can create a random powerful effect, but it can actually hurt him at times, and the bucket from his [[Oil Panic]] move collects projectiles thrown at him; when three projectiles are gathered, their accumulated damage and knockback is dealt the next time he whips out his bucket and there is an opponent in his way.

*[[File:MrGame&WatchIcon(SSBB).png|50px|right|link=Mr. Game & Watch (SSBB)]]'''{{SSBB|Mr. Game & Watch}}''' ([[Unlockable character|Unlockable]]): Mr. Game and Watch has been significantly buffed from ''Melee'', as he benefits from ''Brawl''{{'}}s new physics, along with other various buffs. The introduction of hitstun canceling and momentum canceling helps Mr. Game & Watch more than most characters, as it not only makes him harder to combo but it also significantly improves his endurance - mainly due to Bucket Braking. Other new ''Brawl'' mechanics such as B-reversing also help him out, and the removal of certain ''Melee'' mechanics such as L-canceling affect him less than other characters. His shield game has been improved significantly. His shield is much larger and his sidestep is no longer one of the worst in the game. He is an  [[unlockable character]]. His [[Final Smash]] allows him to transform into the giant octopus from ''[[Octopus]]'' and extend his tentacles. {{clr}}

*[[File:MrGame&WatchIcon(SSB4-U).png|50px|right|link=Mr. Game & Watch (SSB4)]] '''{{SSB4|Mr. Game & Watch}}''' ([[Unlockable character|Unlockable]]): Mr. Game and Watch was overall nerfed in his transition to ''SSB4'', with the buffs he received failing to compensate for the more drastic nerfs to his important abilities. Many of his moves have increased lag, such as his neutral aerial having a shorter duration, more ending lag, more landing lag, and no longer auto-canceling with short hops, which weakens his options to approach or punish opponents. His other aerials (except forward aerial) have increased landing lag as well, especially his down aerial. Mr. Game & Watch's overall range, damage output and KO potential have been reduced, making it harder for him to rack up damage and land KOs. The changes to hitstun canceling can be considered a double-edged sword for Mr. Game & Watch: they indirectly removed Bucket Braking and momentum canceling, which greatly hinders his endurance (especially horizontally) and making him more susceptible to combos; yet it improves his combo game due to his altered down throw, which is now a very strong combo starter. He also suffers from the removal of edge momentum shifting, as he could previously making solid use of it using Judge. The inclusion of rage also does not benefit Mr. Game & Watch as much as some other characters, as while it improves his KO potential, his very poor endurance prevents him from making great use of it. Appearance wise, his nose is smaller and his hands are circular. His animations are also slightly more choppy to simulate the frame movements found in the ''Game & Watch'' games.

*26. [[File:MrGame&WatchIcon(SSBU).png|50px|right|link=Mr. Game & Watch (SSBU)]]'''{{SSBU|Mr. Game & Watch}}''' ([[Unlockable character|Unlockable]]): Returning as an unlockable fighter, Mr. Game and Watch - in a similar fashion to characters such as Zelda and Link - has received an overhaul to his entire move set that goes beyond changes to his appearance. The majority of his moves have been altered in range, damage, knockback, lag, or have been completely reworked altogether, leading to a considerable amount of buffs, along with a few major nerfs.  Overall, while Mr. Game and Watch generally retains much of his bait-and-punish playstyle from SSB4, the adjustments he received to several of his attacks have led him to become more of a jack-of-all-trades type of character, with the tools to take on multiple situations. {{clr}}

==Games with elements appearing in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series==

The ''Game & Watch'' universe has media represented throughout the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series with a total of 24 games. The latest game represented in this universe is ''{{s|nintendowiki|Spitball Sparky}}'', released on February 7, 1984.

*''Brawl'' is the only game in the series where Mr. Game and Watch's stage is unlocked alongside him. ''Melee'' and ''Smash 4'' require completing a challenge after unlocking him, while ''Ultimate'' has the stages unlocked at the start.

*''Egg'' is the only ''Game & Watch'' game represented in ''Smash'' to not be the basis for one of Mr. Game & Watch's moves.

* The ''Game & Watch'' series is tied with the {{uv|Mario}}, {{uv|Donkey Kong}}, {{uv|Metroid}}, and {{uv|Star Fox}} series for the most returning stages omitted in ''Ultimate'' with two, those being [[Flat Zone]] and [[Flat Zone 2]].

**Of these series, ''Game & Watch'' is the only one that has fewer stages return than got cut.