PixlBit

 Number 07

One thing I keep mentioning on these post is that majority of the games I tried are thanks to Super Smash Bros. I mentioned previously that Mario and Pokemon were the only game franchises I tried as a kid.

I remember in the 90’s when I first saw the commercial for Super Smash Bros. It was really weird but the idea seemed really neat. I remember getting it for Christmas that year and I was excited. The first thing I thought when I booted up the games was, who are all these other characters? I knew Mario, DK, Yoshi, and Pikachu, but the rest I didn’t know about. I remember that Christmas when we first tried it.

I remember choosing Mario and my brother was going to use Pikachu, but he instead opted for Kirby.
I was pretty impressed at the game. The wasn’t so complex to understand with the fighting mechanics. It was a simple game to get the hang of versus the different button inputs of arcade fighting games. Also, the more damage you had, the more likely you would get knocked off a stage, and the game was really platform heavy for a fighting game. It was really different. Then when my bro and I were fighting, I noticed that Kirby ate Mario and he had a hat, and suddenly Kirby could use Mario’s fireball attack. It was one of those wtf moments, but a good one. From that moment on I knew this game was going to be radically different from anything I was used to.

From then, I started to use the different character I didn’t know about. They were really fun to use and I went to a menu that showed backstories of the characters as well as the franchise they belonged to. I couldn’t believe such characters belonged to Nintendo as well as the games they came from. I then unlocked the secret characters, and besides Jigglypuff and Luigi, I had no idea who the rest were. I checked their bios too. I had a though, I had an N64 and according to the bios, there are games from these characters on the N64. I then thought of trying the games I could if they were available to me.
My friends even had Smash and we started talking about the game and how fun and crazy it was. This was before I unlocked all the characters. All of us then started speculating about who the other hidden fighters were. It was fun coming up with predictions, some of them even thought Sonic might be a playable character, but everyone agreed that there was no way he would appear in SSB. But looked what happened, I would of loved to see the look on their faces when Sonic was announced for Brawl. I then told everyone that I had unlocked a character called Captain Falcon and not that many people believed me. My best friend told me if I could unlock him in his game if he lent me his cart. I said sure, the problem was that I had no idea what I did to unlock him.

I then had his game the next day and I got to work on that after I finished my homework. I knew how to unlock Luigi so I got him Luigi. I even got him Captain Falcon too. I went to school the next day and the first thing my friend tells me is if I was able to unlock Captain F*****, yes that’s how he called him. I said yep and he was happy. Eventually another rumor started that there was another, 4th unlockable character. Everyone went by the polygon models of the fighting polygon team to deduce the characters identity. Everyone saw that Mario and Luigi’s models were the same, and they noticed that there was a third one that looked like them. Everyone suggested that it might be Wario. I told them that it couldn’t be Wario because the model wasn’t fat enough. We all came up with crazy theories on who could it be, some even suggested Mega Man. Then rumors around the play yard said that the character was someone called Ness. As before, I had no idea who that was. Someone in my school claimed to have him, but a lot of people called that person out since they didn’t have him. I did unlock him a year or 2 later. By then I was already in middle school and I never saw all of my friends ever again. I did see my best friend one last time, and we talked for a bit and the last thing he said to me is that if I ever unlocked Ness, I said yes. He told me how, I told him and we said our goodbyes. That was the last time I ever saw him, I wonder if he did unlock Ness. 

Later in 2002, I got a Gamecube for xmas and I got both a copy of Super Mario Sunshine and Super Smash Bros. Melee. I was excited and my brother and I played Smash. I was really surprised at how much the game had changed, in both look and feel. I saw the character roster and I couldn’t help but smile when I saw Captain Falcon and Ness available at the start. I pondered at how hard it was to unlock them in the previous game but laughed because the game has you play as them here at the start.
We played and eventually unlocked as characters we never seen before. Characters like the Ice Climbers and Mr. Game and Watch were unknown to me, and the biggest mystery was Marth and Roy. I had no idea who they were and neither did my brother, but I welcomed the chance to use characters who were previously unknown to us. They even had a trophy mode that had a lot of history of Nintendo’s past, present, and future franchises. It was a great learning experience and it broadened my horizon’s about all these different franchises.

Brawl then came years later, and at the time I had no idea there was even a new SSB game in the works. I had a feeling something was off because a read a Nintendo Power magazine and one of the stories they were covering was a retrospective on Melee and possible characters that might be in the next game. Characters included Wario, Olimar, Pit, and more. Funny thing is that they were guessing here and a few years after I read that, Brawl had some of these characters on the roster. They even had Sonic The Hedgehog in the game, I was blown away because my friends always joked at how he will never be in a Nintendo game, let alone Smash. They even added a character called Snake, who I had no idea who he was, but I was familiar with the games he was from. Which was odd, but didn’t mind as he was another character I could play as.

Brawl was the first time I had gotten a game from the franchise at the start. Me and my bros had a blast, and the first character I unlocked was a surprise. Can you guess who it was? Captain Falcon.
Years afterwards, a new one was announced after what seemed an eternity. I was really excited, and for the first time I was able to join the speculation about the games on the internet. I love the speculation about these games because it reminds me of the times me and friends had trying to speculate who the characters were.

This time not only was a new console installment announced, but for the first time ever, we were getting a portable entry too. I had always dreamed of having one of the games portable. It was great and my bros said they were getting their own copies on the 3DS because they said that there was no way we would be happy sharing one copy of the game. They had a good point. Eventually character speculation started on who would make it in, who would get cut out, and who were the new fighters we would see. Some of my character predictions even came true which was neat.

I got both games at launch. One of the first things I asked my brother when the 3DS version released was that if Ness was in the game. He was checking the roster, I told him not to tell me about anyone else they haven’t revealed and he said yes. We all knew the 3DS port would be inferior to the Wii U version, and I guess you can say that yeah. Maybe. Well at least in the graphics department. It did have exclusive stages that separated it from its console counterpart as well as an exclusive mode. It may be inferior, but one thing it does that the Wii U version can’t is portability. I mean sure if you own both versions and if you’re at home, you’re obviously going to play it on the Wii U. But if you’re going out or on vacation, the that’s where the 3DS version shines.

The Wii U version does blow the 3DS version out of the water. It looks great and it plays better. And one of the biggest additions to the game was 8-player Smash. It is probably one of the best things they added to the series. It might not seem like much to some, but it is a big game changer. I haven’t dabbled in it, I have tried it with CPU players and it was fun. I can see this being more fun with more people.

But I bet you’re wondering, which is my favorite right? Well I’m not sure exactly. I like them all for completely different reasons. I like SSB because it was the first game in the series I tried as well as introducing me to more franchises, I like Melee because it was a huge step up from the original, Brawl because well… online? Not sure but I like it, Smash 3DS because of its portability, and Smash Wii U the first HD entry in the series as well as the new 8-player Smash mode. But if I had to choose, I would say Smash 4 on 3DS/Wii U for bringing a lot of new features as well as having a better online.

I know a lot of people love Melee and hate Brawl, and I know a lot of people will say that nothing will ever top Melee. But for me, I would say the most recent entries are my favorites so far. They combine both of the elements from Melee and Brawl, and like I said, they added some welcome additions to the franchise. They aren’t perfect, but they are fun.

So that’s it for this one. Which is your favorite SSB game? Thanks for reading and later. 

*Images courtesy of me, SSB 4 Wii U and my Wii U*