Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. (大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ, Dai-Rantō Sumasshu Burazāzu, Great Fray Smash Brothers) is a series of fighting games made by Nintendo, featuring characters from established video games. The series had a successful start in 1999 with Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64. It achieved even greater success with Super Smash Bros. Melee, released in 2001 for the GameCube, becoming the best selling game on that system. The third installment, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, is scheduled for release on the Wii in 2007. Masahiro Sakurai, the director for all three games in the series, has stated he will do his best to make Brawl Wi-Fi compatible.
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Games in the series
- Super Smash Bros. (Nintendo 64; 1999)
- Super Smash Bros. Melee (Nintendo GameCube; 2001)
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii; TBA 2007)
History and Criticsism
Super Smash Bros.
Super Smash Bros. was introduced in 1999 for the Nintendo 64. Originally a low-budget game with polygonal shaped figures that was exclusive to Japan, it was released worldwide after selling over a million copies in Japan [1]. It featured eight characters from the start, with four unlockable characters, all of them created by Nintendo or one of their second-party developers.
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. 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. has 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, using three items which heal all taken damage. 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 players can participate at the same time. And it had 12 more modes such as being judged by bonuses usually given in classic and adventure, being in slow motion, being giant, etc.
Super Smash Bros. Melee introduced trophies, officially 293 in place of the character profiles of Super Smash Bros. The trophies list included the three different 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, stages, enemies, and elements.
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.
The only Criticsism in the game is it has no God Damn Storyline!
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, in which one of the types is called juggling keeping an opponent in the air by attacking up. 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 more traditional "Stamina Mode" is available in Super Smash Bros. Melee, giving players a life bar that depletes from taking damage. Taking damage does not affect how far the opponent can be sent flying, but one can still win by ringout.
A third difference is the inclusion of items. While most fighting games require players 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 come in a variety of forms, 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. Question marks indicate that the character has not been confirmed.
Non-playable fighters
The following fighters are non-playable characters (except Master Hand) that appear only in the various Single Player modes throughout the series. They all have the offical Super Smash Bros. logo as their symbol. A human can control them in battle using various cheat devices.
| NPC | SSB | Melee | Brawl |
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| Master Hand |  |
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| Crazy Hand |  |
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| Giga Bowser | |
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| Fighting Polygons | |
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| Fighting Wire Frames | |
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| Sandbag | |
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Master Hand
Master Hand (マスターハンド, Masutā Hando) 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 bosses of Candy Constellation. It also makes an appearance in Kirby: Squeak Squad as well, as a gray hand that can shift its shape to form swords and the like.
When controlled using Action Replay. Master Hand can only be effectively played as by the third controller. Attempting to control this character using another controller (player 1, 2 or 4) will result in Master Hand not responding to button presses. Unlike all other fighters, Master Hand does not use the analog stick for attacks. Its moves can only be executed by using combinations of the D-Pad and Z, B, A, L and R. In the "Kanto - Pokemon Stadium" stage in Melee, its name is displayed as "Masterhand".
Crazy Hand
Crazy Hand (クレイジーハンド, Kureijī Hando) is the left hand counterpart of Master Hand, appearing in the 50th Event Match "Final Destination Match", as well as in Classic Mode if it is cleared on Normal difficulty or harder in under 15 minutes. 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 the fingers act more erratic and chaotic in general. It is impulsive, destructive, and consumed with a hollow feeling which comes from destroying one’s own creations, and its fingers move differently when it's preparing for an attack. However some attacks are the same as the Master Hand, including blue finger lasers, and when it attacks it turns to grey or red for a couple of seconds.
With Action Replay, Crazy Hand can only be effectively played as by the fourth controller. Attempting to control this character using another controller (player 1, 2 or 3) will result in Crazy Hand not responding to button commands. Like Master Hand, its arsenal of moves is executed with combinations of the D-Pad, Z, B, A, R and L. Also, attempting to use the finger laser attack (D-Pad-Up and B) will crash the game. In the "Kanto - Pokemon Stadium" stage in Melee, its name is displayed as "Crazyhand".
Giga Bowser
Giga Bowser (ギガクッパ, Giga Kuppa, Giga Koopa) 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 by going through Adventure Mode on Normal or higher and completing the mode in under 18 minutes or by starting with 3 lives and no use of continues. 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 as Bowser (except for Event 51 where he is slightly larger than his normal size), with a more monstrous appearance that makes him look rather suprising to some the first time he is seen, and has a body that is proportionally different. Giga Bowser's manic eyes also contrast with Bowser's more concentrated facial expression. Giga Bowser's tail is plated, longer and has many more spikes on it, as does his shell. His jaws hold more teeth than Bowser's, and he has bigger horns which look bull-like. 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 knocked out). Also, some of Giga Bowser's attacks have different properties than normal Bowser's, and characters cannot grab him, nor can Kirby copy him.
When controlled using Action Replay, Giga Bowser appears to maneuver like a normal playable character, except when the match is won. There are no restrictions as to what he cannot do. In the "Kanto - Pokemon Stadium" stage in Melee, his name is displayed as "G-Bowser".
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. They use the same models as their character-counterparts, but a purple, slightly noisy, texture. 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. They are primarily based on Ness's character (seen when they perform double jumps) but do not possess any of his special moves.
Fighting Wire Frames
The Fighting Wire Frames (謎のザコ敵軍団, Nazo no Zako Tekigun Dan, Mysterious Small Fry Enemy Army Group) 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 and crates, a box item used in gameplay. 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. Both models lack special moves ("B" moves). 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, being ridiculously strong, teaming up on the player. What makes Cruel Melee so difficult is that your damage ratio is higher than normal, meaning that you can be sent flying off the screen with a relatively low damage percentage. Even Bowser can be easily KOed because of this.
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, including a 100 man Melee and 15 minute Melee, staying alive for 15 minutes.
When controlled using Action Replay, the Wire Frames retain all their normal stats and are fairly easy to control. However, they are given an additional handicap: they cannot take advantage of charged smash attacks.
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, Sandobaggu-kun) 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 the trophy description. 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 while keeping on the orange platform so that it will fly farther. Once it has hit the lower floor the try is automatically cancelled. In addition, players are supplied with a Home Run Bat, one of the most powerful items, with which to smash the bag.
With Action Replay, controlling the Sandbag is very risky. One can safely make it "slide" across the stage and jump once, but double jumping, although occasionally possible, or attempting to do anything else will crash the game. Also, the Sandbag cannot be KO'd. It will simply fall off the stage and freeze the game after a while. The Sandbag's name is the only usually unplayable character name that is displayed correctly in the "Kanto - Pokemon Stadium" stage.
References
Criticsism IT HAS NO GOD DAMN STORYLINE!
