Super Smash Bros. (video game)
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''Super Smash Bros.'' (retroactively referred to as ''Super Smash Bros. 64'' or simply ''Smash 64'') is a 1999 crossover
fighting video game A fighting game, also known as a versus fighting game, is a genre of video game that involves combat between two or more players. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as blocking, grappling, counter-attacking, and chaining attac ...
developed by HAL Laboratory and published by
Nintendo is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
for the Nintendo 64. It was first released in Japan on January 21, 1999, in North America on April 26, 1999, and in Europe on November 19, 1999. The first installment in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series, it is a crossover between several different Nintendo franchises, including '' Mario'', '' The Legend of Zelda'', '' Star Fox'', '' Yoshi'', '' Donkey Kong'', ''
Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirate (Metroid), Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the powe ...
'', '' F-Zero'', '' Mother'', ''
Kirby Kirby may refer to: Buildings * Kirby Building, a skyscraper in Dallas, Texas, United States * Kirby Hall, an Elizabethan country house near Corby, Northamptonshire, England * Kirby House (disambiguation), various houses in England and the Unit ...
'', and ''
Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...
''. It presents a cast of characters and locations from these franchises and allows players to use each character's unique skills and the stage's hazards to inflict damage, recover health, and ultimately knock opponents off the stage. ''Super Smash Bros.'' received mostly positive reviews upon its release. It was a commercial success, selling over five million copies worldwide by 2001, with 2.93 million sold in the United States and 1.97 million sold in Japan. It was given an Editors' Choice award from
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
for the "Best Fighting Game", and also became a Nintendo 64 Player's Choice title. The game spawned a series of sequels for each successive Nintendo console, starting with ''
Super Smash Bros. Melee ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' is a 2001 Fictional crossover, crossover fighting game, fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. I ...
'' which was released for the
GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...
in 2001.


Gameplay

The ''Super Smash Bros.'' series is a departure from the general genre of fighting games; instead of depleting an opponent's life bar, ''Smash Bros.'' players seek to knock opposing characters off a stage. Each player has a damage total, represented by a percentage, which rises as the damage is taken and can reach maximum damage of 999%. As this percentage rises, the character is knocked progressively farther by attacks. To knock out (KO) an opponent, the player must send that character flying off the edge of the stage, which is not an enclosed arena but rather an area with open boundaries. When knocked off the stage, a character may use jumping moves in an attempt to return; some characters have longer-ranged jumps and may have an easier time "recovering" than others. Additionally, characters have different weights, making it harder for heavier opponents to be knocked off the edge, but harder for them to recover once sent flying. While games such as '' Street Fighter'' and ''
Tekken is a Japanese Media mix, media franchise centered on a series of fighting game, fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The franchise also includes film and print adaptations. The ...
'' require players to memorize complicated button-input combinations, ''Super Smash Bros.'' uses the same control combinations to access all moves for all characters. Characters are additionally not limited to only facing opponents, instead being allowed to move freely. The game focuses more on aerial and platforming skills than other fighting games, with larger, more dynamic stages rather than a simple flat platform. ''Smash Bros.'' also implements blocking and dodging mechanics. Grabbing and throwing other characters is also possible. Various weapons and power-ups can be used in battle to inflict damage, recover health, or dispense additional items. They fall randomly onto the stage in the form of items from Nintendo franchises, such as Koopa shells, hammers, and
Poké Balls Poke ( Hawaiian for "to slice" or "cut crosswise into pieces"; sometimes anglicised as 'poké' to aid pronunciation) is diced raw fish served either as an appetizer or a main course and is one of the popular dishes in Hawaii. Traditional form ...
. The nine multiplayer stages are locations taken from or in the style of Nintendo franchises, such as Planet Zebes from ''
Metroid is an action-adventure game franchise created by Nintendo. The player controls the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who protects the galaxy from Space Pirate (Metroid), Space Pirates and other malevolent forces and their attempts to harness the powe ...
'' and Sector Z from '' Star Fox''. Although stages are rendered in three dimensions, players move within a two-dimensional plane. Stages are dynamic, ranging from simple moving platforms to dramatic alterations of the entire stage. Each stage offers unique gameplay and strategic motives, making the chosen stage an additional factor in the fight. In the game's
single-player A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. A single-player game is usually a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" is usuall ...
mode, the player battles a series of computer-controlled opponents in a specific order, attempting to defeat them with a limited number of lives in a limited amount of time. While the player can determine the difficulty level and the number of lives, the series of opponents never changes. If the player loses all of their lives or runs out of time, they can continue at the cost of a loss of overall points. This mode is referred to as Classic Mode in later games. The single-player mode also includes two minigames, "Break the Targets" and "Board the Platforms", in which the objective is to break each target or board multiple special platforms, respectively. A "Training Mode" is also available in which players can manipulate the environment and experiment against computer opponents without the restrictions of a standard match. Up to four people can play in multiplayer mode, which has specific rules predetermined by the players. Stock and timed matches are two of the multiplayer modes of play. This gives each player a certain number of lives or a selected time limit, before beginning the match with a countdown. Free-for-all or team battles are also a choice during matches using stock or time. A winner is declared once time runs out, or if all players except one or a team have lost all of their lives. A multiplayer game may also end in a tie if two or more players have the same score when the timer expires, which causes the match to end in
sudden death Sudden Death or Sudden death may refer to: Medical * Cardiac arrest, also known as sudden cardiac death, natural death from cardiac causes * Sudden cardiac death of athletes * Sudden infant death syndrome * Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy * ...
. During sudden death, all fighters are given 300% damage and the last fighter standing will win the match.


Characters

The game includes twelve playable characters from popular Nintendo franchises. Characters have a symbol appearing behind their damage meter corresponding to the series to which they belong, such as a Triforce behind Link's and a Poké Ball behind
Pikachu is a fictional species in the ''Pokémon'' media franchise. Designed by Atsuko Nishida and Ken Sugimori, Pikachu first appeared in the 1996 Japanese video games ''Pokémon Red'' and ''Green'' created by Game Freak and Nintendo, which were ...
's. Furthermore, characters have recognizable moves derived from their original series, such as
Samus is a Character (arts), fictional character and the playable protagonist of the video game series ''Metroid'' by Nintendo. She was created by Japanese video game designer Makoto Kano (video game designer), Makoto Kano. She was introduced as a p ...
's charged blasters and Link's arsenal of weapons. Eight characters are initially playable, and four additional characters can be unlocked by meeting specific criteria. The character art featured on the game's box art and instruction manual is in the style of a comic book, and the characters are portrayed as toy dolls that come to life to fight. This style has since been omitted in later games, which feature trophies instead of dolls and in-game models rather than hand-drawn art.


Development

''Super Smash Bros.'' was developed by HAL Laboratory, a Nintendo
second-party developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
, during
1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
.
Masahiro Sakurai is a Japanese video game director and game designer best known as the creator of the ''Kirby'' and '' Super Smash Bros.'' series. Apart from his work on those series, he also led the design of ''Meteos'' in 2005 and directed '' Kid Icarus: Upr ...
was interested in making a fighting game for four players. He made a presentation of what was then called to co-worker
Satoru Iwata was a Japanese businessman, video game programmer, video game designer, and producer. He was the fourth President (corporate title), president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015. He was a major contr ...
, who joined to help on the project. At this stage in development, the game was still using placeholder character models. Sakurai understood that many fighting games did not sell well and that he had to think of a way to make his game original. His first idea was to include famous Nintendo characters and put them in a fight. Knowing that he would not get permission if he asked ahead of time, Sakurai made a prototype of the game without informing Nintendo, and did not show anyone until it was well-balanced. The prototype he presented featured Mario, Donkey Kong,
Samus is a Character (arts), fictional character and the playable protagonist of the video game series ''Metroid'' by Nintendo. She was created by Japanese video game designer Makoto Kano (video game designer), Makoto Kano. She was introduced as a p ...
and
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
as playable characters. The idea was later approved. Although never acknowledged by Nintendo or any developers behind ''Super Smash Bros.'', third-party sources have identified Namco's 1995 fighting game ''
The Outfoxies is a 1995 weapon-based fighting game, fighting arcade game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Controlling one of seven assassins, players are tasked with defeating opponents with different types of weapons, while also avoiding different ...
'' as a possible inspiration, with Sakurai also crediting the idea of making a beginner-friendly fighting game to an experience in which he handily defeated a couple of casual gamers on '' The King of Fighters '95'' in an arcade. On October 20, 2022, Sakurai, who still had the prototype of ''Dragon King: The Fighting Game'', demonstrated its gameplay, and its differences from the final product of ''Super Smash Bros.'' Multiple planned characters were cut during development, including
Marth Marth may refer to: * Marth, Thuringia, Germany People with the surname * Albert Marth (1828–1897), German astronomer * Christophe Marth (born 1980), French rugby player * Frank Marth (born 1922), American actor * Tommy Marth Thomas Christian ...
, King Dedede, Bowser, and Mewtwo. All of these characters were added to later games. ''Super Smash Bros.'' features music from some of Nintendo's popular gaming franchises. While many are newly arranged for the game, some pieces are taken directly from their sources. The music for ''Super Smash Bros.'' was composed by Hirokazu Ando, who later returned as sound and music director for ''
Super Smash Bros. Melee ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'' is a 2001 Fictional crossover, crossover fighting game, fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series. I ...
''. A complete soundtrack was released on CD in Japan through Teichiku Records in 2000. To promote the game's launch, Nintendo of America staged an event called
Slamfest '99 Super Smash Bros. Slamfest '99, also known as Super Smash Bros. LIVE or simply Slamfest '99, was an official promotional event for the North American release of '' Super Smash Bros.'' on the Nintendo 64, held at the MGM Grand Adventures Theme Par ...
, held at the MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 24, 1999. The event featured a real-life wrestling match between costumed performers dressed as Mario, Yoshi, Pikachu, and Donkey Kong, as well as stations set up for attendees to preview the game. The wrestling match was live-streamed on the web via RealPlayer, and was available to be re-watched for several months afterward via a downloadable file from the event's official website. Despite this, no video footage of Slamfest '99 is known to survive, and the broadcast is currently considered lost media.


Reception

Critically, ''Super Smash Bros.'' garnered generally positive reviews, with most of the praise going towards its multiplayer-player mode, music, "original" fighting game style, and simple learning curve. There were criticisms, however, such as the game's scoring being difficult to follow and the single-player mode's perceived difficulty and lack of features, with '' GameSpot'' former editorial director, Jeff Gerstmann, noting the single-player game "won't exactly last a long time". ''Super Smash Bros.'' was commercially successful, becoming a Nintendo 64 Player's Choice title, selling 1.97 million copies in Japan and 2.93 million in the United States as of 2008.


See also

*''
The Outfoxies is a 1995 weapon-based fighting game, fighting arcade game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Controlling one of seven assassins, players are tasked with defeating opponents with different types of weapons, while also avoiding different ...
'' *''
Jump Super Stars ''Jump Super Stars'' is a 2D crossover fighting game for the Nintendo DS, based on ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' characters. It was developed by Ganbarion and published by Nintendo. The game was released on August 8, 2005, in Japan and accompanied th ...
''


Notes


References


External links

* * * {{Good article Crossover video games Crossover fighting games HAL Laboratory games IQue games Nintendo 64 games 1999 video games Fighting games 2.5D fighting games Platform fighters Video games about toys Video games with 2.5D graphics Super Smash Bros. Virtual Console games for Wii Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Hirokazu Ando Esports games Video games directed by Masahiro Sakurai