Super Smash Bros.

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Super Smash Bros.
North American box art
Developer(s)	HAL Laboratory
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Director(s)	Masahiro Sakurai
Composer(s)	Hirokazu Ando
Series	Super Smash Bros.
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64, iQue Player, Virtual Console
Release date(s)	Nintendo 64 JP January 21, 1999 NA April 27, 1999 EU November 19, 1999 Virtual Console JP January 20, 2009 PAL June 12, 2009 NA December 21, 2009[1]
Genre(s)	Fighting
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ELSPA: 3+ ESRB: E OFLC: G8+ PEGI: 7+
Media	128 megabit (16 megabyte) cartridge

Super Smash Bros., known in Japan as Nintendo All Star! Dairantō Smash Brothers (ニンテンドーオールスター！大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ, Nintendō Ōru Sutā! Dairantō Sumasshu Burazāzu^?, "Dairantō" meaning "Great Melee"), is a crossover fighting game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan on January 21, 1999, in North America on April 26, 1999,^[2] and in Europe on November 19, 1999. Super Smash Bros. is the first game in the Super Smash Bros. series, and was followed by Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Nintendo GameCube in 2001 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii in 2008. Super Smash Bros. was released for the Virtual Console in Japan on January 20, 2009, in Europe on June 12, 2009 and in North America on December 21, 2009.^[1]

Players can play as and against characters from Nintendo's video gaming franchises such as Mario, Pokémon, The Legend of Zelda and Kirby. The stages and gameplay modes make references to, or take their designs from, popular games released by Nintendo. The gameplay system offers an unorthodox approach to the fighting game genre as percentage counters measure the level of damage received, rather than the health bar traditionally seen in most fighting games.

Super Smash Bros. received mostly positive reviews from the media. It was commercially successful, selling over 4.9 million copies, with 2.93 million copies sold in the United States,^[3] and 1.97 million copies sold in Japan.^[4]

Contents 1 Gameplay 1.1 Single-player 1.2 Multiplayer 2 Characters 2.1 Playable characters 2.2 Non-playable characters 3 Development 3.1 Audio 4 Reception 4.1 Critical response 5 Legacy 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Gameplay

The Super Smash Bros. series is a dramatic departure from many fighting games. Instead of winning by depleting an opponent's life bar, Smash Bros players seek to knock opposing 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 a character's percentage rises, the character can be knocked progressively farther by an opponent's attacks. To 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, usually a set of suspended platforms. ^[5] When a character is knocked off the stage, the character may use jumping moves to (attempt to) return; as some characters' jumps are longer-ranged, they may have an easier time "recovering" than others.^[6] 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 or Soul Calibur 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. ^[7] Characters are not limited to constantly facing their opponent, but may run around freely. Smash Bros. also implements blocking and dodging mechanics. Grabbing and throwing other characters are also possible, allowing for a large variety of ways to attack.

During battles, items related to Nintendo games or merchandise fall onto the game field. These items have purposes ranging from inflicting damage on the opponent to restoring health to the player. Additionally, most stages have a theme relating to a Nintendo franchise or a specific Nintendo game and are interactive to the player. Although the stages are rendered in three dimensions, players can only move on a two-dimensional plane. Not all stages are available immediately; one stage must be "unlocked" by achieving ten particular requirements.

[edit] Single-player

Although the player can choose from five difficulty levels, the game's single-player mode always follows the same series of opponents. This game mode is called Classic Mode in sequels.^[8] The player will choose one unlocked character, and battle against a series of characters in a specific order, attempting to defeat them with only a limited amount of lives. If the player loses all of their lives, they have the option to continue at the cost of a considerable sum of their overall points.

The "Break the Targets" minigame as well as the "Board the Platforms" minigame are two of the remaining single-player games. The objective of the minigames is to break each target or board each platform, respectively. The goal must be achieved without falling off each character-specific stage. The last one is the "Training Mode" section, where the player can choose any of the available characters and to choose the opponent, as well as any stage. When started, a menu can be brought up to gain almost any control, such as slowed game speed, spawning any item, and telling the opponent what to do.

[edit] Multiplayer

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.^[9] This gives each player a certain amount of lives or a selected time limit, before beginning the match. A winner is declared once time runs out, or if all players except one loses each of their lives.

[edit] Characters

The promotional artwork is done in the style of a comic book, and the characters were portrayed as dolls that come to life to fight. This presentational style has since been omitted in the sequels, opting instead for a more serious art style–such as using in-game models for the characters in place of hand-drawn art–and replacing the dolls with figurines, or "trophies" as the game refers to them.^[10]

[edit] Playable characters

The game includes twelve characters in total as usable characters. Every character featured in the game derives from a popular Nintendo franchise.^[11] All characters have a symbol that appears behind their damage meter during a fight; this symbol represents what series they belong to, such as a Triforce symbol behind Link's damage meter and a Poké Ball behind Pokémon species. Furthermore, each character has recognizable moves from their original series, such as Samus's firearms from the Metroid series and Link's arsenal of weapons.^[12] Eight characters are playable from the beginning of the game and include Mario, Donkey Kong (DK), Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox, and Pikachu. Four more characters can then be unlocked by completing different aspects of the game. These players include: Luigi, Captain Falcon, Ness, Jigglypuff.

[edit] Non-playable characters

In Super Smash Bros., there are three characters (fifteen including the polygon team) that are non-playable; one of which being Master Hand (マスターハンド^?), serving as the final boss of Single Player Mode.^[13].

[edit] Development

Super Smash Bros. was developed by HAL Laboratory, a Nintendo second-party developer, during 1998. Masahiro Sakurai was intrested in making a fighting game for four players, as he did not have any ideas his first designs where of simple base characters. He made a presentation to Satoru Iwata who helped him continue, as Sakurai had the knoleged that many fighting games did not sell well he was trying to think of a way to make it original.^[14] His first idea was to include famous Nintendo characters and put them in a fight.^[14] Knowing he wouldn't get permission, Sakurai made a prototype of the game without the permission of developers and did not inform until he was sure the game was well balanced.^[14] For the prototype he used Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus and Fox.^[15] The idea was later approved.^[14][16] The game had a small budget and little promotion, and was originally a Japan-only release, but its huge success saw the game released worldwide.^[17]

[edit] Audio

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 the Nintendo 64 game was composed by Hirokazu Ando, who later returned as sound and music director in Super Smash Bros. Melee. An album with the original music for Super Smash Bros. was released in Japan by Teichiku Records in 2000.^[18]

[edit] Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	80%[19]
Metacritic	79 of 100[20]
Review scores
Publication	Score
Allgame	[21]
Famitsu	31 of 40[22]
GameSpot	7.5 of 10[9]
IGN	8.5 of 10[23]
Nintendo Power	7.7 of 10[19]

Super Smash Bros. was commercially successful, and quickly became a Player's Choice title. In Japan, 1.97 million copies were sold,^[4] and 2.93 million have been sold in the United States as of 2008.^[3]

[edit] Critical response

Super Smash Bros. received mostly positive reviews, with criticism mostly directed towards the game's single-player mode.^[9] GameSpot's former editorial director, Jeff Gerstmann, noted the single-player game "won't exactly last a long time".^[9] Instead, he praised the multi-player portion of the game, saying that it is "extremely simple to learn". He also praised the game's music, calling it "amazing".^[9] IGN's Peer Schneider agreed, calling the multiplayer mode "the game's main selling point",^[23] while GameCritics.com's Dale Weir described Super Smash Bros. as "the most original fighting game on the market and possibly the best multiplayer game on any system" .^[24] Brad Penniment of Allgame said the game was designed for multiplayer battles, praising the simplicity of the controls and the fun element of the game.^[21] There were criticisms, however, such as the game's scoring being difficult to follow.^[25] In addition, the single-player mode was criticized for its perceived difficulty and lack of features. It was deemed one of the ten best mario games of all time by ScrewAttack from GameTrailers.com.^[26] Schneider called Smash Bros. is an excellent choice for gamers looking for a worthy multiplayer smash 'em-up.^[23] Another IGN editor Matt Casamassina called it an incredibly addictive multiplayer game, but critizeing the single-player mode for not offering much of a challenge.^[23] It was given an Editors choice award from IGN.^[23]

[edit] Legacy

Super Smash Bros. is the first installment of the Super Smash Bros. series, its sequel was realesed two years after. Nintendo presented the game at the E3 event of 2001 as a playable demonstration.^[27] The next major exposition of the game came in August 2001 at Spaceworld, when Nintendo displayed a playable demo that updated from the previous demo displayed at E3. Nintendo offered a playable tournament of the games for fans in which a GameCube and Super Smash Bros. Melee were prizes for the winner.^[28] At the pre-E3 conference of 2005, Nintendo announced Melee's sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.^[29] Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata requested Masahiro Sakurai to be the director of the game after the conference.^[30] The game retains some of the gameplay features of its predecessors while having major gameplay additions, such as a more substantial single-player mode and online play via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.^[31] Unlike Melee, the game has four methods of control, including the use of the Wii Remote, Nunchuk, GameCube controller, and the Classic Controller.^[32] Like Melee, the game makes references to games and franchises, including those that debuted after the release of Melee; for example, Link's design is taken from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and a Nintendogs puppy is present as an Assist Trophy (a new item that summons computer characters from different games to briefly participate in the fight).^[33][34] Select stages from Melee are included in the sequel.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Super Smash Bros. website
• Official Japanese Super Smash Bros. website

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