Super Smash Bros. exists twenty years

It’s been exactly twenty years today since the first Super Smash Bros. game was released in Japan for the Nintendo 64. What started as a small title has grown into one of the best-known crossover franchises in the world.

The development of Super Smash Bros. began in 1998. Masahiro Sakurai, series creator and creator of Kirby, wanted to develop a “four-player battle royale” game, offering an alternative to the 2D fighting games on the market. The prototype initially contained no Nintendo characters and was called Dragon King: The Fighting Game.

However, Sakurai thought it would be a good idea to add Nintendo characters for the “vibe”. He felt that a unique style was essential for a console-exclusive fighting game, Sakurai said in an interview with former CEO Satoru Iwata. Having a dark brown suspicion that he was not going to be allowed to use Nintendo characters due to the nature of the game, Sakurai implemented the Mario, Samus, Donkey Kong and Fox models into the prototype without notifying anyone. It wasn’t until he was sure that the gameplay was in balance that he presented the prototype. This was given the green light, allowing the development of Super Smash Bros. was a fact.

Today, the franchise is known for its large selection of characters and stages, but the first Super Smash Bros. is on the modest side in terms of content. There are twelve playable characters and nine stages available, if you omit the five single player stages. By comparison, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the latest iteration of the series released for Nintendo Switch on December 7, 2018, features 76 characters and over 100 stages.

On January 21, 1999, Super Smash Bros. in Japan, with a total of 1.97 million copies sold. Initially, the game was only intended for the Japanese market, but due to the great success, a release in the West followed in the same year. By 2001, there were over five million copies of Super Smash Bros. worldwide. sold. The series now has five games.