Super Smash Bros.

1996–1999: Conception and first game , the creator of the Super Smash Bros. series, in 2021 After developing Kirby Super Star (1996), Masahiro Sakurai, a game developer at HAL Laboratory, wished to experiment with 3D graphics and animation following the release of the Nintendo 64 video game console. Sakurai proposed two games to Nintendo for release on the system: a four-player free-for-all fighting game and a RC robot stealth exploration game where the player progressed through levels by hacking into security cameras. While both proposals were praised by Nintendo, HAL Laboratory was currently developing several other games for the Nintendo 64, including Mother 3, and was unable to begin full development on either prototype. After HAL's other projects were cancelled, however, the company needed to produce a finished game as soon as possible. was developed by three people: Sakurai was responsible for the game's planning, design, graphics, modeling, and animation, while his coworker Satoru Iwata handled the programming and a third developer was responsible for the game's audio. Because he was leading another project at the time, Iwata created Dragon King's programming on weekends. Iwata had agreed to the project because he wished to create a four-player game utilizing the three-dimensional joystick on the Nintendo 64 controller, while Sakurai wished to create an alternative to the fighting games dominating the video game industry at the time. Super Smash Bros. was released for the Nintendo 64 in Japan on January 21, 1999, and in North America on April 26, 1999. HAL Laboratory returned to develop the game, and was assisted by other studios, including Creatures Inc. By May 2001, over 50 people were actively working on the game, while over 100 had been involved with the project at some point in time. Development was held back by technical limitations, with the GameCube not being powerful enough to allow features such as eight-player multiplayer. Melee also included full-motion video scenes; HAL worked with three separate computer graphics studios in Tokyo to complete the animations by E3 2001 The announcement came as a surprise to Sakurai, who had left HAL Laboratory in 2003 and had not heard about an upcoming Smash Bros. game. Iwata had made the announcement after many people polled by Nintendo showed a desire for a new Smash Bros. game with online play, despite planning on the next game in the series having not yet begun. After the announcement, Iwata met with Sakurai and asked him to create a new Smash Bros. game for the Wii, saying that Nintendo would simply port Melee to the system with online functionality if he refused. Sakurai accepted, and completed the planning document for the next Super Smash Bros. game in July 2005. with over 700 people involved altogether. which were created as another way to increase the number of characters present in Brawl. Brawl's final roster included 35 playable characters, with nearly all characters from Melee returning in addition to 15 new characters. However, Sakurai was developing Kid Icarus Uprising for the Nintendo 3DS at the time, and work on the next Smash Bros. game did not begin until after Uprising's release in 2012. The game was developed by Sora Ltd. alongside Bandai Namco Studios, with various staff members from Bandai Namco's other fighting games, Tekken and Soulcalibur, joining the team. The games were formally revealed during a Nintendo Direct video presentation at E3 2013, titled Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Smash 4). Sakurai felt that the cutscenes developed for Brawl's story mode were unable to impact players as he wished because they were shared widely on the internet, so he said that Smash 4 would include neither a story mode nor cutscenes, and that the animation resources would instead go into creating computer-generated videos to reveal new characters coming to the game online. The "fighter reveal videos" continued to be used for future games. Sakurai aimed for Smash 4's gameplay speed to be in between that of Melee and Brawl, and designed the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U versions to have the same characters, movesets, and items, but both versions would have exclusive stages not in the other. Because of the 3DS's technical limitations, however, parity between both versions' characters required those not technically possible on the 3DS—including characters that transform mid-match such as the Pokémon Trainer or Princess Zelda and Sheik, or the Ice Climbers, which act as two characters at once—could not be in either game. The Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games lack cross-platform play, but players can transfer data between the two games, including customized characters. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS released in Japan on September 13, 2014, and in North America on October 3, 2014. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U released later that year: it first launched in North America on November 21, 2014, and released in Japan on December 6, 2014. The final DLC characters for Smash 4, Corrin from Fire Emblem Fates and Bayonetta from Bayonetta, were released on February 3, 2016. Including DLC, Smash 4's full roster featured 56 characters, 19 of which were new. Sakurai said it was the last request he received from Iwata before his death in July 2015. Sakurai began planning the Smash Bros. game for the Switch while DLC for Smash 4 was still in progress, and finished the game's proposal document on December 16, 2015. Bandai Namco Studios returned to assist Sora Ltd. in developing the next Smash game, and the similarity between Wii U and Nintendo Switch's hardware made development easier than past games, which were developed by teams assembled from scratch. Sakurai scrapped plans to differ gameplay between the Switch's TV and handheld modes, because he found that the system's screen in handheld was good enough to make it not worthwhile to change the game for it. He decided to raise the gameplay speed again past Smash 4, though still decided that he did not want Ultimate to be as fast as Melee. and the game was fully revealed as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at E3 2018 three months later. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate released worldwide on the Nintendo Switch on December 7, 2018. After launch, Ultimate received continuous updates that added DLC characters, with a "Fighters Pass" containing five additional characters having been announced prior to the game's release. In January 2020, alongside the reveal of Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses as the final DLC character in the Fighters Pass, Nintendo announced a second Fighters Pass, containing six additional characters. The final character added to Ultimate was Sora of Kingdom Hearts in October 2021; Ultimate continued receiving balance patches until December 2021 and minor updates until 2024. == Gameplay ==

gameplay, shown in a match of Ultimate (2018) with Ganondorf, Link, Mario, and Mega Man. As a platform fighter, Super Smash Bros.'s gameplay differs from traditional fighting games. Instead of aiming to deplete their opponents' life bar, players' goal in Smash Bros. is to knock their opponents off the stage or out of bounds. Characters have a damage total—indicated by a rising percentage value—that increases as they take damage. As their total rises, they suffer more knockback from attacks, making it easier for them to be knocked away. Players lose a life when they are launched outside of the stage's boundaries, but when knocked offstage they can attempt to "recover" by using midair jumps and abilities to return to the stage. Players can "edge-guard" their opponents, attempting to prevent them from recovering. Controls are simpler than other fighting games, with one button used for standard attacks and a second used for special attacks. Each character has a unique moveset; players can use different moves by attacking while inputting a certain direction on the analog stick or while their character is in a certain state, such as midair. Powerful "smash attacks" can be used by quickly moving the analog stick and pressing the attack button, and can become even stronger if charged by holding down the button. Each character has three smash attacks—side,up and down Players can block attacks with a shield, and can dodge in different directions to become briefly invulnerable. and some games allow directional air dodges that can be used while landing to initiate a "wavedash". Dodges leave characters exposed after they end, while shields weaken over time and break if they absorb too much damage, leaving their user vulnerable for a time. Characters using shields remain vulnerable to grabs, allowing opponents can grab and throw them in any one of four directions, Starting with Brawl, characters can also use "Final Smashes", extremely powerful ultimate attacks unlocked after a character breaks a floating "Smash Ball" that has appeared or fills a charge meter over time. for example, the Super Mario series's Super Mushroom allows characters to grow in size, while the Super Scope—based on an accessory for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System—can be used as a weapon to launch projectiles. Other items, meanwhile, allow characters to recover damage they have taken. Poké Balls can be thrown to summon various Pokémon species, Matches consist of multiple players: initially up to four could play at once; Artificial intelligence-controlled computer players can substitute for human players. Matches can be either free-for-alls or between teams, and players can choose the rules by which the winner is determined. in "Time", matches have a fixed time limit and players compete to have the most points by the end, gaining by knocking out others and losing them when knocked out themselves. "Stock" matches, by contrast, give players a finite number of lives, with the winner being the last player remaining. The majority are based on other video games, but some, such as "Final Destination" and "Battlefield", are original to the Smash series. Stages have varying layouts of platforms and other obstacles, Some stages have hazards such as boss fights with the Yellow Devil from the Mega Man series or Ridley from Metroid. many of which contain options for two-player co-operative gameplay. In "Home-Run Contest", for instance, players use the Home-Run Bat item to damage a sandbag and attempt to launch it as far as possible. In "Break the Targets", players use their character's abilities to navigate a course and destroy targets within it; courses are character-specific in Melee but available to all characters in Brawl. Smash 4 contains "Target Blast", where players launch a single bomb into an area to destroy as many targets within the area as possible. The first Smash'' game featured "Board the Platforms", where players were tasked with landing on several floating platforms as fast as possible on a character-specific platforming course. The games have also included "Multi-Man Smash", which consists of several sub-modes where players battle multiple opponents at once, such as "100-Man Smash", where they must defeat 100 opponents; In Smash 4, the Wii U version featured the board game mode "Smash Tour", Ultimate introduced "Squad Strike", allowing matches where players change characters after each life. collectible 3D models of various characters and elements from Smash and other game series obtained within various modes and special minigames. Ultimate replaced trophies with "Spirits" that use 2D images instead of 3D models Collected Spirits can be attached to a character to buff their attributes or give them special abilities such as an additional midair jump. Games across the series have included "Classic Mode", which consists of a series of battles against opponents either based on the player's character, pre-determined, or randomly generated, depending on the game. Classic Mode also contains within it minigames such as Break the Targets, a platforming challenge, or a bonus stage, The series's next campaign was in Ultimate, which featured "World of Light". World of Light lacked platforming, and consisted only of battles against Spirits, playable characters, and bosses scattered across an overworld, and used role-playing game elements such as a skill tree for character upgrades. In Ultimate, players can play ranked battles to accrue "Global Smash Power", unlocking the "Elite Smash" mode once they pass a certain threshold. == Characters ==

Each game in the series has a number of playable characters (referred to in the games as "fighters") taken from various gaming franchises, with over 80 in total across the series. Starting with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, characters from non-Nintendo franchises began to make playable appearances. In Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, players were able to customize existing fighters with altered movesets and abilities, as well as making their own Mii fighters that can be given three different fighting styles. There are also other non-playable characters that take the form of enemies, bosses, and summonable power-up items. == Music ==

Super Smash Bros. features music from some of Nintendo's popular gaming franchises. While many are newly arranged for the game, some songs 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 Melee. Melee also features tracks composed by Tadashi Ikegami, Shougo Sakai, and Takuto Kitsuta. Brawl featured the collaboration of 38 contracted composers, including Final Fantasy series composer Nobuo Uematsu, who composed the main theme. Like in Brawl, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U featured many original and re-arranged tracks from various different gaming franchises from a variety of different composers and arrangers. Both versions have multiple musical tracks that can be selected and listened to using the returning "My Music" feature, including pieces taken directly from earlier Super Smash Bros. games. The 3DS and Switch games allow players to listen to their music from the sound menu while the system is in sleep/handheld mode. Ultimate continued the trend of multiple composers and arrangers working on remixed tracks, having over 800 in total. Three soundtrack albums for the series have been released. An album with the original music for Super Smash Bros. was released in Japan by Teichiku Records in 2000. In 2003, Nintendo released Smashing...Live!, a live orchestrated performance of various pieces featured in Melee by the New Japan Philharmonic. A two-disc promotional soundtrack titled A Smashing Soundtrack was available for Club Nintendo members who registered both the 3DS and Wii U games between November 21, 2014, and January 13, 2015. == Merchandising ==

released with Ultimate Releasing merchandise for Super Smash Bros. of any kind is generally prohibited, with only free giveaways and limited edition items allowed. Practically the only exceptions to the merchandise ban are Amiibo figures, Amiibo debuted alongside Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, and Nintendo released Amiibo figures for Smash 4 and Ultimate of all characters present in the games, and the Smash line concluded in February 2024 with the release of the Sora figure. Amiibo figures from the Smash line as well as figures of Smash characters from other lines can interact with Smash 4 and Ultimate using near-field communication, and players can train a computer player based on their Amiibo figure in-game, with the Amiibo player gaining experience points and leveling up as it fights in battles. To coincide with the releases of Smash 4 and Ultimate, Nintendo released new versions of the GameCube controller, as well as adapters allowing the controller to be used with the Wii U and Switch. Ahead of Ultimate's release, Nintendo released a Smash Ultimate-themed limited edition Nintendo Switch system, with the Switch's dock featuring artwork of the game's characters and its Joy-Con controllers featuring the series logo. Nintendo also bundled Ultimate with a Smash-themed Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and a copy of the game packaged in a steelbook. == Competitive play ==

While some tournaments and competitive events were held for the first Smash game around its release, a significant competitive Super Smash Bros. community began to emerge in 2002, after the release of Melee. The community largely emerged through decentralized grassroots efforts, without official support from Nintendo. but allowed the event to proceed after significant backlash. The tournament was won by Joseph "Mang0" Marquez, The release of Smash 4 brought further growth to the competitive Smash community, Earlier that year, Barrios retired from competitive Smash 4 to focus on livestreaming, and Leonardo "MKLeo" López Pérez was Smash 4's top-ranked player by the time Ultimate released in 2018. Ultimate attracted a large competitive audience, including from some Melee players unsatisfied with Brawl or Smash 4. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted Smash competition, leading to the cancellation of many tournaments. Ultimate was cut from EVO 2020, and Nintendo later opted for Smash not to return to EVO following the tournament's purchase by Sony Interactive Entertainment in 2021. During the #MeToo movement in mid-2020, competitive Smash players, including Quezada and Barrios, faced a wave of sexual misconduct allegations. furthering rifts between the company and the Smash community. Tensions escalated later in 2020, when Nintendo ordered The Big House to cancel their Melee tournament for its use of Slippi, an unofficial mod that adds online multiplayer to the game, and Smash fans began the #FreeMelee movement on social media to protest Nintendo's decision. Nintendo had provided little support to the Smash community even as it began hosting esports events for its other games, including Splatoon and Arms (2017); In late 2021, Nintendo partnered with esports organization Panda Global to produce the Panda Cup, a tournament circuit for both Ultimate and Melee in 2022, which was seen as a sign of Nintendo's willingness to engage further with the Smash community. In December 2022, the Smash World Tour (SWT), a competing Smash circuit, said it would cancel its 2022 finale and 2023 circuit because of a request from Nintendo. Nintendo denied requesting the SWT's cancellation and rejected the SWT's claims that Panda had sought to undermine the SWT. In the aftermath, Panda removed Alan Bunney as its CEO and indefinitely postponed the Panda Cup finale, while all affiliated professional Smash players left the organization. ==Reception==

Reviews for the Super Smash Bros. series are usually positive. The multiplayer mode in every game is usually highly praised; however, single-player modes have not always been viewed as highly. Super Smash Bros. received praise for its multiplayer mode. Nintendo Power listed the series as being one of the greatest multiplayer experiences in Nintendo history, describing it as infinitely replayable due to its special moves and close-quarters combat. There were criticisms, however, such as the game's scoring being difficult to follow. In addition, the single-player mode was criticized for its perceived difficulty and lack of features. Super Smash Bros. Melee generally received a positive reception from reviewers, most of whom credited Melee expansion of gameplay features from Super Smash Bros. Focusing on the additional features, GameSpy commented that "Melee really scores big in the 'we've added tons of great extra stuff' department." Reviewers compared the game favorably to Super Smash Bros. IGNs Fran Mirabella III stated that it was "in an entirely different league than the N64 version"; GameSpots Miguel Lopez praised the game for offering an advanced "classic-mode" compared to its predecessor, while detailing the Adventure Mode as "really a hit-or-miss experience." Despite a mixed response to the single-player modes, most reviewers expressed the game's multiplayer mode as a strong component of the game. In their review of the game, GameSpy stated that "you'll have a pretty hard time finding a more enjoyable multiplayer experience on any other console." Brawl received a perfect score from the Japanese magazine Famitsu. The reviewers praised the variety and depth of the single-player content, the unpredictability of Final Smashes, and the dynamic fighting styles of the characters. Thunderbolt Games gave the game 10 out of 10, calling it "a vastly improved entry into the venerable series". Chris Slate of Nintendo Power also awarded Brawl a perfect score in its March 2008 issue, calling it "one of the very best games that Nintendo has ever produced". IGN critic Matt Casamassina, in his February 11 Wii-k in Review podcast, noted that although Brawl is a "solid fighter", it does have "some issues that need to be acknowledged", including "long loading times" and repetition in The Subspace Emissary. Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U both garnered critical praise and were commercially successful, holding ratings of 85/100 and 92/100 on Metacritic and 86.10% and 92.39% on GameRankings. Reviewers have particularly noted the large, diverse character roster, the improvements to game mechanics, and the variety of multiplayer options. Some criticisms in the 3DS version include a lack of single-player modes and issues concerning the 3DS hardware, such as the size of characters on the smaller screen when zoomed out and latency issues during both local and online multiplayer. There were also reports of players damaging their 3DS Circle Pads while playing the game excessively. The Wii U version's online play quality was mildly criticized for some inconsistency, but has overall been critically acclaimed. Daniel Dischoff of GameRevolution stated "It's true that Super Smash Bros. evolves every time with regard to new features, items, and characters to choose from. While your favorite character may not return or a few annoying pickups may force you to turn off items altogether, this represents the biggest leap forward Smashers have seen yet." Daniel Starky at GameSpot criticized the inconsistent online performance in the game, but still called it an "incredible game", noting "With the Wii U release, Smash Bros. has fully realized its goals." Jose Otero from IGN, praising the replayability of the game, states "Nearly every aspect of Smash Wii U seems fine-tuned not only to appeal to the nostalgia of long-time Nintendo fans, but also to be accessible to new players." Sales Super Smash Bros. sold 1.4 million copies in Japan, and 2.3 million in the U.S., with a total of 5.55 million units worldwide. and sold 1.4 million units in its first week in the United States, becoming Nintendo of America's fastest selling game. The 3DS version sold over a million copies in its first weekend on sale in Japan, and has sold more than 9.63 million copies worldwide . As of September 2021, it has sold 5.38 million copies worldwide. It sold an estimate of 5.6 million copies in global sales during its first week of launch, beating out records previously held by games such as ''Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Let's Go, Eevee!, Super Mario Odyssey, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. In Japan, Ultimate outsold the records held by Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS'' with 2.6 million copies sold in five weeks. It is also the third best-selling game for the Nintendo Switch and the best-selling fighting game of all time, with 36.24 million copies sold worldwide as of March 31, 2025. == Legacy ==

Super Smash Bros. is often credited with popularizing the platform fighter subgenre, notably by defining core mechanics such as an emphasis on ground movement and knocking characters into blast zones by accumulating damage percentages as opposed to traditional knockouts, which would subsequently be iterated on by games that would follow its release. Beginning in the mid-2010s, numerous independent developers took inspiration from the Smash series when creating their own variations of platform fighting games, notably including Rivals of Aether (2017), which according to lead designer and former competitive Smash Bros. player Dan Fornace, took specific inspiration from the faster, skill-based pacing of Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001). Other indie titles such as Brawlhalla and Brawlout (both 2017) have also been favorably compared to Super Smash Bros. by multiple gaming news outlets, with the latter being remarked upon for its focus on more aggressive mechanics reminiscent of traditional fighting games within the Smash Bros. template, while Brawhalla was praised for incorporating stronger weapon-based gameplay systems, leading to a more functionally diverse character roster. Given its nature as a crossover for various gaming properties, the Super Smash Bros. series has inspired numerous other crossover fighters involving licensed franchises, that employ similar gameplay and presentation. In 2012, Sony Computer Entertainment published PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, which was a conceptually similar platform fighter incorporating various PlayStation and third-party franchises in four-player timed and stock-based battles, set across 2D arenas with stage hazards. Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, a series of console fighting games by Ludiosity and Fair Play Labs, which spun out of the Nickelodeon Super Brawl line of browser and mobile games, features various characters from Nickelodeon animated series and follows similar gameplay conventions to Super Smash Bros., with the addition of differentiated light and heavy attacks similar to traditional fighting games being a notable distinction between All-Star Brawl and Smash. MultiVersus, which went into early access in 2022 ahead of a wide release in 2024, adopts the broader mechanics and presentation of Super Smash Bros. while utilizing various Warner Bros. film and television franchises, and includes features unique to its systems such as granting characters passive abilities in combat and having dedicated PvE modes. Outside general crossover fighting games modeled after Super Smash Bros., indie fighting games such as Brawlhalla and Rivals of Aether have routinely collaborated with third-party publishers to include their characters as guest fighters in a similar manner to Smash's inclusion of characters from non-Nintendo games. Despite higher-profile Super Smash Bros. alternatives garnering decent critical or commercial reception, they have generally been regarded as inferior substitutes when measured against the gameplay, roster and features of the aforementioned series. ==Notes==