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Super Smash Bros. (video game)

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This article is about the original Nintendo 64 game. For the series, see Super Smash Bros. (series).
Super Smash Titties.
North American box art
Developer(s)HAL Laboratory
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Designer(s)Masahiro Sakurai
Composer(s)Hirokazu Ando
SeriesSuper Smash Bros. (series)
Platform(s)Nintendo 64, iQue Player, Virtual Console
ReleaseNintendo 64
Virtual Console
Genre(s)Fighting
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Super Smash Titties., 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, "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,[1] 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 Template:Vgy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii in Template:Vgy. Super Smash Bros. was released for the Virtual Console in Japan on January 20, 2009, and in Europe on June 12, 2009.

Players can play as and against characters from Nintendo's video gaming franchises such as Mario, Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda. 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,[2] and 1.97 million copies sold in Japan.[3]

Gameplay

See also: Gameplay of the Super Smash Bros. series

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. [4] 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.[5] 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. [6] 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.

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.[7] 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.

Ness fighting Kirby in the Mushroom Kingdom.

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.

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.[8] 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.

If there is a tie between two or more combatants, the contenders are returned to the fighting stage in a "Sudden Death" battle with 300% damage each. This means players are easily knocked out, so as to quickly determine the winner.[9]

Characters

File:Ss charselect.jpg
The characters from the game
See also: Super Smash Bros. playable 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]

Playable characters

The characters from the game are the main protagonists of many Nintendo game series.[11] The game includes twelve characters in total as usable characters, eight characters are playable from the beginning of the game and four more characters who can be unlocked by completing the game.[12]

Non-playable characters

The following characters are non-playable characters that appear only in the various Single Player modes throughout the series, controlled by the computer. Most of the non-playable characters were created for use in the Super Smash Bros. In the Super Smash Bros. game there are three characters that are non-playable the first one is Master Hand (マスターハンド) serving as the final boss of Classic Mode.[13] Super Smash Bros. also introduced Metal Mario (originally from Super Mario 64) and Giant Donkey Kong, who are simply enhanced versions of their respective characters. Metal Mario is simply Mario with increased resistance to being knocked out of the stage as well as a faster falling speed and more attack power, while Giant Donkey Kong is simply a larger and more powerful version of Donkey Kong.

Development

Super Smash Bros. was developed by HAL Laboratory, a Nintendo second-party developer, during Template:Vgy. It began life as a prototype created by Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata in their spare time titled Kakuto-Gēmu Ryūō (格闘ゲーム竜王, lit. "Dragon King: The Fighting Game"), and originally featured no Nintendo characters. However, Sakurai hit on the idea of including fighters from different Nintendo franchises in order to provide "atmosphere" which he felt was necessary for a home console fighting game, and his idea was approved.[14][15] 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.[16]

Reception

Super Smash Bros. was commercially successful, and quickly became a Player's Choice title. In Japan, 1.97 million copies were sold,[3] and 2.93 million have been sold in the United States as of 2008.[2]

Super Smash Bros. received mostly positive reviews, with criticism mostly directed towards the game's single-player mode.[8] GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann noted the single-player game "won't exactly last a long time".[8] 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".[8] IGN's Peer Schneider agreed, calling the multiplayer mode "the game's main selling point",[18] 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" .[22] 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.[17]

References

  1. ^ "Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-12-13.
  2. ^ a b "US Platinum Game Chart". The Magic Box.
  3. ^ a b "Japan Platinum Game Chart". The Magic Box. Retrieved 2008-06-17.
  4. ^ "The Basic Rules". Smash Bros. DOJO!!. Smashbros.com. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  5. ^ "You Must Recover!". Smash Bros. DOJO!!. Smashbros.com. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
  6. ^ Peer Schneider (1999-04-27). "Super Smash Bros. review". IGN. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
  7. ^ Sakurai, Masahiro (2007-10-30). "Classic". Smashbros.com. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
  8. ^ a b c d e Gerstmann, Jeff (1999-02-18). "Super Smash Bros. Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  9. ^ "Super Smash Bros". IGN. Retrieved 2008-06-01.
  10. ^ Sakurai, Masahiro (2007-09-24). "Trophies". Smashbros.com. Retrieved 2008-06-05.
  11. ^ http://www.neoseeker.com/Games/Products/N64/supersmashbros/
  12. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Super-Smash-Bros-nintendo-64/dp/B00000J2W7
  13. ^ "Master Hand". Retrieved 2008-04-21.
  14. ^ "Iwata Asks: Super Smash Bros. Brawl". Wii.com. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
  15. ^ "Iwata Asks: Super Smash Bros. Brawl" (in Japanese). Wii.com. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
  16. ^ Anthony JC. "Super Smash Bros. Melee". N-Sider. Retrieved 2008-06-17.
  17. ^ a b Penniment, Brad. "Super Smash Bros. > Review". Allgame. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
  18. ^ a b Schneider, Peer (1999-04-27). "Super Smash Bros. Review". IGN. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  19. ^ IGN Staff (2001-11-14). "Famitsu Scores Smash Bros". IGN. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  20. ^ a b "Super Smash Bros. Reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  21. ^ "Super Smash Bros. (n64: 1999): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-04-26.
  22. ^ Weir, Dale (1999-07-05). "Game Critics Review". GameCritics.com. Retrieved 2008-05-09.
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