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Super Smash Bros. is a series of fighting games from Nintendo. Rather than starring an original cast, the series features characters from other Nintendo franchises, both well known and obscure.

Gameplay[]

The Super Smash Bros series is a departure from the traditional Fighting game. The goal, rather than depleting an enemy's health bar, is to knock one's opponents off of the stage. Damaging an opponent makes them knock back further in reaction to an attack, but it is possible to either defeat an opponent while inflicting minimal damage or lose despite inflicting the most damage.

The controls of Super Smash Bros are also somewhat different from a traditional fighting game's. Forgoing the multi-button combos of games like Street Fighter, Smash Bros instead uses a combination of one button and which direction the analog stick is moved in order to execute unique attacks. This system has minimally less depth at the benefit of being very simple to execute.

Other elements Super Smash Bros is known for include dynamic stages, picking up and using items mid-stage, and combat that can support up to four players at a time, either in a free-for-all or in teams.

History[]

Super Smash Bros

The original game

The original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64 was created in 1998 by HAL Laboratories. Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Kirby, served as the director. The game was released in January 1999 in Japan and later in the year in the West. The game was an immediate success.

Development of Super Smash Bros. Melee began in 2000, and lasted for more than a year. Melee was meant to showcase the power of the GameCube, and came out within the first months of the system's life. In general, Melee was a much bigger game than its predecessor, having over double the characters and many more modes, options, and collectables. The game was ultimately released on November 21, 2001 in Japan, with an American release the next month.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl began development well before the Revolution's launch, in late 2005. However, the game would not come out until March 13, 2008. Brawl was notable for its online play, a first for the series. Otherwise, the game added more characters and content, a new single-player campaign inspired by the Kirby series, and HD graphics.

Super Smash Bros Rumble

A scene from the Game Boy Nitro game, Rumble.

Super Smash Bros. Rumble was the first game in the series not to be directed by Masahiro Sakurai, instead being created by a relatively inexperienced team at HAL Laboratory. The game was Nintendo's main release for the Game Boy Nitro Holiday 2010, and was first released on November 2. The game was essentially a somewhat stripped down version of the main game, with most of the same basic features but with less characters and stages.

Development of the fifth Super Smash Bros. game was confirmed to have begun in early 2012. First shown at E3 2013, ity is confirmed for both the Stream and Game Boy 3DS.

Characters[]

The Super Smash Bros. series has featured dozens of playable characters who debuted in other games.

Appeared in Super Smash Bros[]

Appeared in Super Smash Bros Melee[]

Appeared in Super Smash Bros Brawl[]

Rumble Characters[]

Reception[]

The Super Smash Bros series is one of the predominant Fighting series in video game history. The first four games in the series have sold over 31 million units, and both Melee and Brawl have received extremely high reviews. Almost as importantly, the series has introduced generations of gamers to Nintendo franchises, helping to reinvigorate or internationalize various series. For example, the appearance of Fire Emblem characters in Melee helped raise enough interest in the series to lead to its localization in the West. Also, the appearance of characters such as Pit and the Ice Climbers in these games kept interest in their franchises alive while fans were waiting for sequels, sometimes decades after the original games.

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