Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. (大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ, Dai-Rantō Sumasshu Burazāzu) is a successful series of fighting games made by Nintendo, featuring characters from established video games. The series had a successful start with Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64. It achieved even greater success with Super Smash Bros. Melee, released in 2001 for the GameCube. The third installment, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, is scheduled for release on the Wii in 2007 and the director has stated he will do his best to make it Wi-Fi compatible.
Games in the series
- Super Smash Bros. (Nintendo 64; 1999)
- Super Smash Bros. Melee (Nintendo GameCube; 2001)
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii; TBA 2007)
Nintendo has expressed interest in making a Super Smash Bros. title for the Nintendo DS in the future[1], but nothing has been announced yet. It is currently unlikely, as Sakurai has invested most of his time developing Super Smash Bros Brawl.
History
Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. was introduced in 1999 for the Nintendo 64. Originally a low-budget game that was exclusive to Japan, it was released worldwide after selling over a million copies in Japan[citation needed]. It featured eight characters from the start, with four unlockable characters, all of them from Nintendo games.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee was released November 21, 2001 in Japan, December 3, 2001 in North America, May 24, 2002 in Europe, and May 31, 2002 in Australia for the GameCube video game console. It had a larger budget and development team than Super Smash Bros. did[2] and was released to much greater praise and acclaim among critics and consumers.[citation needed] Since its release, Super Smash Bros. Melee has sold more than 7 million copies and is currently the best-selling game on the GameCube.
Super Smash Bros. Melee features 25 characters; of those, 11 had to be unlocked. In contrast, Super Smash Bros. only eight starting characters and four hidden characters. There are also 29 stages. It has two new modes to go along with the Classic mode - Adventure mode, and All-Star mode. Adventure mode has platforming segments similar to Race to the Finish, and All-Star is a fight-a-thon which gives the player only one life to work with. There are also significantly more multiplayer modes and a tournament mode allowing for 64 different competitors whom can all be played by the player, although only four human players can participate.
Super Smash Bros. Melee introduced trophies in place of the character profiles of Super Smash Bros. The trophies list included the playable character profiles, but unlike Super Smash Bros., it has profiles for both non-playable Nintendo characters in the game and outside of the game as well as Nintendo items, levels, enemies, and elements.[citation needed]
Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Although a third Super Smash Bros. game had been announced long before E3 2006 under the name Super Smash Bros. Revolution, on May 10, 2006, Nintendo unveiled its first information in the form of a trailer, and the game was renamed Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The trailer featured Solid Snake, of Metal Gear fame, marking the first time that a third-party character had been introduced as a playable character in a Super Smash Bros. title.
Gameplay
The Super Smash Bros. series is a dramatic departure from many fighting games in the simplicity of its controls. Instead of long and complicated combos, players use combos by precise changes in the analog stick. These simplistic controls have made the game easy to pick up, but difficult to master, and have been the main defining difference that separates Super Smash Bros. from other fighting games.
The second major difference from other fighting games is how damage is counted. While most fighting games give players a life bar that depletes as the character is injured, Super Smash Bros. uses a percentage system. As characters get attacked, their percentage meter rises. The higher the percentage, the farther the character flies when struck by an attack. A player is KO'ed when they are hit so far that they are unable to return to the platform which the fighting takes place on, or if they are hit so hard they can't react before they hit the outer boundary. Heavier characters can take more damage before being sent flying, but because of their larger size, they are bigger targets and have a harder time getting back. On the opposite side of the spectrum, light characters are small and hard to hit, but just a few hits can send them flying.
A third difference is the inclusion of items. While most fighting games require you to fight simply using your attack moves, the Super Smash Bros. series allows items to fall from the sky, either by themselves or in crates, barrels, capsules and, on certain occasions, eggs. These items have a variety of uses, ranging from landmines to blaster guns. Like the characters, most of the items are also from various Nintendo franchises, such as Poké Balls, which are from the Pokémon series.
Fighters
Characters are listed in alphabetical order by their name.
| Fighter | Super Smash Bros. | Super Smash Bros. Melee | Super Smash Bros. Brawl | From Game Series |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bowser |  |
 |
? | Mario series |
| Captain Falcon | |
|
? | F-Zero series |
| Dr. Mario | |
|
? | Dr. Mario series |
| Donkey Kong | |
|
? | Donkey Kong series |
| Falco Lombardi | |
|
? | Star Fox series |
| Fox McCloud | |
|
|
Star Fox series |
| Ganondorf | |
|
? | Legend of Zelda series |
| Ice Climbers | |
|
? | Ice Climber |
| Jigglypuff | |
|
? | Pokémon series |
| Kirby | |
|
|
Kirby series |
| Link | |
|
|
Legend of Zelda series |
| Luigi | |
|
? | Mario series |
| Mario | |
|
|
Mario series |
| Marth | |
|
? | Fire Emblem series |
| Meta Knight | |
|
|
Kirby series |
| Mewtwo | |
|
? | Pokémon series |
| Mr. Game & Watch | |
|
? | Game & Watch series |
| Ness | |
|
? | Earthbound/Mother series |
| Pit | |
|
|
Kid Icarus series |
| Pichu | |
|
? | Pokémon series |
| Pikachu | |
|
|
Pokémon series |
| Princess Peach | |
|
? | Mario series |
| Princess Zelda | |
|
? | Legend of Zelda series |
| Roy | |
|
? | Fire Emblem series |
| Samus Aran | |
|
|
Metroid series |
| Sheik | |
|
? | Legend of Zelda series |
| Solid Snake | |
|
|
Metal Gear series |
| Wario | |
|
|
Wario series |
| Yoshi | |
|
? | Yoshi series |
| Young Link | |
|
? | Legend of Zelda series |
| Zero Suit Samus | |
|
|
Metroid series |
Non-playable fighters
| NPC | Super Smash Bros. | Super Smash Bros. Melee | Super Smash Bros. Brawl |
|---|---|---|---|
| Master Hand | |
|
? |
| Crazy Hand | |
|
? |
| Giga Bowser | |
|
? |
| Fighting Polygons | |
|
? |
| Fighting Wire Frames | |
|
? |
| Sandbag | |
|
? |
Master Hand
Master Hand (マスターハンド) appears in both Super Smash Bros. and its sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee in Classic Mode and the 50th Event Match "Final Destination". Master Hand also makes several appearances in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror as a miniboss, and partnered with Crazy Hand as the boss(es) of Candy Constellation.
Master Hand is a giant white glove, similar to those that Mario wears. It is a right-hand glove, and it moves about by floating. In battle, Master Hand uses a variety of attacks, most of them related to its shape and size: it dwarfs the characters, slapping, punching, and throwing them around the platform. It also has several other powers, including the ability fire bullets similar to Bullet Bills and shoot laser beams. Because of its size and ability to fly, it cannot be thrown off the platform as normal characters are; one needs to deplete its HP meter completely in order for it to be destroyed.
In Super Smash Bros., Master Hand was the one that gave life to the dolls (which in turn are the playable characters). It also created everything else for Super Smash Bros.
Crazy Hand
Crazy Hand (クレイジーハンド) is the left hand counterpart of Master Hand in the 50th Event Match "Final Destination". Crazy Hand also appears in Classic Mode when it is played at normal difficulty or above and Master Hand's hit points are halved in under 30 seconds. Crazy Hand is not usually thought of as the "main" hand, and is even described as Master Hand's alter ego.
Crazy Hand looks exactly the same as Master Hand (apart from being a left-hand), but it acts more erratic and chaotic in general. It's impulsive, destructive, and consumed with a hollow feeling which comes from destroying one’s own creations.
It shares many attacks with Master Hand, such as slapping the opponent, shooting lasers from its fingers, and flying into the air and then drilling down on the opponent. Crazy Hand also has some attacks of its own, including dropping to the ground and then flinging around as if it was having a seizure, dropping bombs and doing a spider-crawl attack.
Giga Bowser
Giga Bowser (ギガクッパ, Giga Koopa in the Japanese version) is a more powerful version of Bowser who made his first appearance in Melee. He is the "secret boss" of Adventure mode and only appears if certain conditions are met. He is also one of the fighters in Event Match 51, "The Showdown", with Mewtwo and Ganondorf by his side.
Giga Bowser looks quite similar to regular Bowser. However, he is about twice as large, and his body is proportionally different. Giga Bowser's manic eyes also contrast with Bowser's more concentrated expression. Giga Bowser's tail is plated and has many more spikes on it, as does his shell. His overall color, especially his shell, is somewhat darker. His huge size is very easily demonstrated by the size of his spawn platform (the small, glowing, floating platform that characters appear on at the beginning of the stage and after being KOed). Also, some of Giga Bowser's attacks have different properties than normal Bowser's, and he cannot be thrown.
Fighting Polygons
Fighting Polygons (or "the Fighting Polygon Team") are metallic-looking purple clones of playable characters made completely out of polygons in Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. The next to last level in the game contains 30 of these clones of existing SSB characters.
Fighting Polygons, due to the vast number the player faces (30) are not very strong and most can be KO'd easily, similar to the Kirby Team and Yoshi Team. The Polygons' fighting arsenal is limited to basic A-button attacks and rely more so on their power than actual fighting skill. They retain the basic form of their character counter-parts, but lack any sort of detail, such as facial features. On harder difficulty levels, the Fighting Polygons actively hunt the character down and attack in clusters ranging in numbers from 5 to 18, making them a more formidable fighting force.
This mode took full advantage of the N64's 3D rendering hardware.
Fighting Wire Frames
The Fighting Wire Frames (謎のザコ敵軍団) are a group of enemies in Super Smash Bros. Melee. They are analogous with the Fighting Polygons, as they play a similar role; however, unlike the original game, there are only two types of Fighting Wire Frames (Male and Female) as opposed to a Wire Frame corresponding to each individual character. Their symbol is the Smash Bros. Symbol (a circle with an off-center cross), just like the Fighting Polygons. The only distinct characteristics Fighting Wire Frames have is that they have a Heart inside their chest, and the Super Smash Bros. Melee Symbol where their face should be. Both the male and female Fighting Wire Frames possess these.
Males and Female Wire Frames have the same frame and gait of Captain Falcon/Ganondorf and Zelda, respectively. Males have better attack and defense than the Females, but the Females have better speed and jumps. They have approximately the same strength as the Fighting Polygons, but are somewhat more agile. The Fighting Wire Frames are very weak, with the exception of the Cruel Fighting Wire Frames found in Cruel Melee.
There are a number of Multi-Man Melees, in which a player fights many Wire Frame Fighters before being defeated. Each type of Multi-Man Melee has certain goals.
The Cruel Melee was mentioned in EGM's April Fools 2002 hoax. In that issue, EGM claimed that those who beat 20 Wire Frames in Cruel Melee would be able to unlock Sonic and Tails. This prank sparked a large amount of controversy after it was proven to be false.
Sandbag
Sandbag (サンドバッグくん) appears in the "Home-Run Contest" minigame. The object is to strike it as far as possible with a Home-Run Bat. The more Sandbag is damaged, the farther it will fly when hit. Sandbag's only purpose is to get hit in the Home Run Contest. Being hit all the time doesn't hurt it; it actually loves to see players "wind up and let loose," according to its trophy. When Kirby copies Sandbag, Kirby does not receive any abilities.
During the actual sandbag challenge, a player will use their chosen character to hit the sandbag off the pedestal on which it rests within ten seconds. Players damage the sandbag as much as possible so that it will fly farther. In addition, players are supplied with a Home Run Bat, one of the most powerful items, with which to smash the bag. During the sandbag contest this item can launch even an undamaged sandbag several hundred feet.
