Super Smash Bros. (video game)

Super Smash Bros.[lower-alpha 1] (also retroactively referred to as Super Smash Bros. 64 or Smash 64) is a crossover fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was first released in Japan on January 21, 1999, in North America on April 26, 1999,[1][2] 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, F-Zero, Mother, Kirby, and Pokémon. 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.
North American box art
Developer(s)HAL Laboratory
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)Masahiro Sakurai
Producer(s)
Programmer(s)Yoshiki Suzuki
Artist(s)Tsuyoshi Wakayama
Composer(s)Hirokazu Ando
SeriesSuper Smash Bros.
Platform(s)Nintendo 64, iQue Player
ReleaseNintendo 64
iQue Player
  • CHN: November 15, 2005
Genre(s)Fighting
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Super Smash Bros. received mostly positive reviews upon its release. It was a commercial success, selling over five million copies worldwide by 2001,[3] with 2.93 million sold in the United States and 1.97 million sold in Japan.[4][5] It was given an Editors' Choice award from IGN for the "Best Fighting Game",[6] 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 which was released for the GameCube in 2001.

Gameplay
See also: Gameplay of the Super Smash Bros. series
Ness from EarthBound facing Kirby on the Mushroom Kingdom stage, based on the Mario franchise.

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.[7] 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.[8] 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 require players to memorize complicated button-input combinations, Super Smash Bros. uses the same control combinations to access all moves for all characters.[9] 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.[10] The nine multiplayer stages are locations taken from or in the style of Nintendo franchises, such as Planet Zebes from Metroid 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 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 sequels.[11] 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.[12] This gives each player a certain number of lives or a selected time limit, before beginning the match. 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 round to end in sudden death. During sudden death, all fighters are given 300% damage and the last fighter standing will win the match.

Characters
See also: Characters in the Super Smash Bros. series

The game includes twelve playable characters from popular Nintendo franchises.[13] 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's. Furthermore, characters have recognizable moves derived from their original series, such as Samus's charged blasters and Link's arsenal of weapons.[14] 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.[15]

Development

Super Smash Bros. was developed by HAL Laboratory, a Nintendo second-party developer, during 1998. Masahiro Sakurai was interested in making a fighting game for four players. As he did not yet have any original ideas, his first designs were of simple base characters. He made a presentation of what was then called Kakuto-Geemu Ryuoh (Dragon King: The Fighting Game)[16] to co-worker Satoru Iwata, who helped him continue. Sakurai understood that many fighting games did not sell well and that he had to think of a way to make his game original.[16] His first idea was to include famous Nintendo characters and put them in a fight.[16] Knowing he would not get permission, Sakurai made a prototype of the game without sanction from Nintendo and did not inform them until he was sure the game was well-balanced.[16] The prototype he presented featured Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus and Fox as playable characters.[17] The idea was later approved.[16][18] Although never acknowledged by Nintendo or any developers behind Super Smash Bros., third party sources have identified Namco's 1995 fighting game The Outfoxies as a possible inspiration,[19][20][21] 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.[22]

Multiple characters were planned for the game but were cut during development at some point, including Marth, King Dedede, Bowser, and Mewtwo. All these characters were added to later games.[23]

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. A complete soundtrack was released on CD in Japan through Teichiku Records in 2000.[24]

Reception
Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings79%[25]
Metacritic79/100[26]
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGame[27]
Famitsu31/40[28][29]
GameSpot7.5/10[12]
IGN8.5/10[6]
Next Generation[30]
Nintendo Power7.7/10[25]
Award
PublicationAward
IGNBest Fighting Game

Critically, Super Smash Bros. garnered positive reviews, with most of the praise going towards its multiplayer-player mode,[12][6][27][31] music,[12] "original" fighting game style,[31] and simple learning curve.[12][27] There were criticisms, however, such as the game's scoring being difficult to follow[32] and the single-player mode's perceived difficulty and lack of features,[6] with GameSpot's former editorial director, Jeff Gerstmann, noting the single-player game "won't exactly last a long time".[12] Super Smash Bros. was commercially successful, becoming a Nintendo 64 Player's Choice title, selling 1.97 million copies in Japan[5] and 2.93 million in the United States as of 2008.[4]

Notes
  1. Known in Japan as Nintendo All Star! Dai Rantō Smash Brothers (ニンテンドウオールスター!大乱闘 (だいらんとう)スマッシュブラザーズ, Nintendō ōru sutā! Dai rantō sumasshu burazāzu)
gollark: The transit files are a serialized datascript database or something and may be hard for other programs to read. Also, I think it mostly stores data in memory, so you wouldn't see your changes instantly.
gollark: If the probability of false positives is low relative to the number of possible keys, it's probably fine™.
gollark: I don't think you can *in general*, but you'll probably know in some cases what the content might be. Lots of network protocols and such include checksums and headers and defined formats, which can be validated, and English text could be detected.
gollark: But having access to several orders of magnitude of computing power than exists on Earth, and quantum computers (which can break the hard problems involved in all widely used asymmetric stuff) would.
gollark: Like how in theory on arbitrarily big numbers the fastest way to do multiplication is with some insane thing involving lots of Fourier transforms, but on averagely sized numbers it isn't very helpful.

See also

References
  1. "Super Smash Bros". IGN. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Archived from the original on January 22, 2016. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  2. "Super Smash Bros". GameSpot. CBS Interactive Inc. Archived from the original on September 1, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  3. Anthony JC. "Super Smash Bros. Melee". N-Sider. Archived from the original on January 23, 2008. Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  4. "US Platinum Game Chart". The Magic Box.
  5. "Japan Platinum Game Chart". The Magic Box. Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  6. Schneider, Peer (April 27, 1999). "Super Smash Bros. Review". IGN. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
  7. "The Basic Rules". Smash Bros. DOJO!!. Smashbros.com. May 22, 2007. Archived from the original on April 13, 2012. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
  8. "You Must Recover!". Smash Bros. DOJO!!. Smashbros.com. June 6, 2007. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved April 15, 2008.
  9. Peer Schneider (April 27, 1999). "Super Smash Bros. review". IGN. Archived from the original on February 7, 2012. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
  10. "Smash Bros. DOJO!!". Archived from the original on March 18, 2008.
  11. Sakurai, Masahiro (October 30, 2007). "Classic". Smashbros.com. Archived from the original on April 30, 2008. Retrieved June 1, 2008.
  12. Gerstmann, Jeff (February 18, 1999). "Super Smash Bros. Review". GameSpot. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
  13. Mirabella III, Fran; Peer Schenider; Craig Harris. "Guides: Super Smash Bros. Melee–Characters". IGN. Archived from the original on January 10, 2011. Retrieved December 22, 2007.
  14. Mirabella III, Fran; Peer Schenider; Craig Harris. "Guides: Super Smash Bros. Melee–Samus Aran". IGN. Archived from the original on January 31, 2009. Retrieved December 22, 2007.
  15. Sakurai, Masahiro (September 24, 2007). "Trophies". Smashbros.com. Archived from the original on May 3, 2008. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
  16. "Iwata Asks: Super Smash Bros. Brawl". Nintendo. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  17. "The Man who made Mario fight". Hobby Consoles (202): 22. 2008.
  18. "社長が訊く『大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズX』" [Iwata Asks: Super Smash Bros. Brawl] (in Japanese). Nintendo. Retrieved January 31, 2008.
  19. Burns, Ed (November 22, 2012). "The Outfoxies". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on April 22, 2018.
  20. Holmes, Jonathan (March 3, 2008). "Six Days to Smash Bros. Brawl: Top Five Smash Bros alternatives". Destructoid. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  21. Sullivan, Lucas (September 19, 2014). "15 Smash Bros. rip-offs that couldn't outdo Nintendo". GamesRadar+. Archived from the original on November 15, 2017.
  22. MacDonald, Keza (August 8, 2018). "From Kong to Kirby: Smash Bros' Masahiro Sakurai on mashing up 35 years of gaming history". The Guardian. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
  23. Soma (April 29, 2016). "The Definitive List of Unused Fighters in Smash". Source Gaming. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  24. "Nintendo All-Star! Dairanto Smash Brothers Original Soundtrack". Soundtrack Central. January 17, 2002. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
  25. "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 1, 2018.
  26. "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64 Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved July 14, 2013.
  27. Penniment, Brad. "Super Smash Bros. > Review". Allgame. Archived from the original on December 1, 2014. Retrieved May 9, 2008.
  28. ニンテンドウ64 - ニンテンドウオールスター!大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ. Weekly Famitsu. No.915 Pt.2. Pg.32. June 30, 2006.
  29. "Famitsu Scores Smash Bros". IGN. November 14, 2001. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
  30. "Finals". Next Generation. No. 54. Imagine Media. June 1999. p. 94.
  31. Weir, Dale (July 5, 1999). "Game Critics Review". GameCritics.com. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012. Retrieved May 9, 2008.
  32. "Game Critics Review". gamecritics.com. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012.

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