Super Smash Bros. (1999)

Super Smash Bros.

It's a Bumpin', Bruisin', Brawlin' Bash!

Genre:	Fighting
Platforms:	Nintendo 64 iQue Player Wii
Release Date:	Nintendo 64 JP: January 21, 1999 NA/BR: April 26, 1999 EU: November 19, 1999 AU: January 5, 2000 iQue Player CHN: November 15, 2005 Virtual Console (Wii) JP: January 20, 2009 EU/AU: June 12, 2009 NA: December 21, 2009
Developer:	HAL Laboratory
Publisher:	Nintendo
Made in:	Japan
Franchise:	Super Smash Bros.
Next Game:	Super Smash Bros. Melee

Super Smash Bros. is a crossover fighting game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the first game in the Super Smash Bros. series, released in 1999.

Why It Rocks

Play as one of 12 Nintendo characters from different franchises such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Kirby, Pokémon, Metroid, Donkey Kong, EarthBound, and F-Zero.
Excellent 3D graphics, even by Nintendo 64 standards.
It has completely unique mechanics from any other fighting games at the time. Instead of beating up an enemy until they take enough damage and get knocked out due to running out of health, you must literally knock the enemy out of bounds to get a point or make them lose a life. Some attacks will knock a damaged enemy further away than an undamaged one, and the amount of distance he or she will be launched increases with the amount of damage the character has sustained.
Great gameplay.
A single-player mode with twelve levels where you battle different pre-selected fighters in different stages. Some stages mix it up by requiring you to knock out an army of soldiers fighting three at a time, while others have two teams of two and you must knock out the other team with your ally fighting against the other team as well. Sometimes, you might fight modified versions of the playable characters, including Giant Donkey Kong, Metal Mario, and the Fighting Polygon Team. At the end, you must fight Master Hand, the character who moved the characters into the arena and gave life to them in the first place.
Nine stages to play on.
Play with up to four local players for lots of fun.

Bad Qualities

Despite having 12 characters in the roster, Luigi is very much a clone of Mario, making him rather pointless.
- To make matters worse, Luigi was considered by many to be one of the worst and mediocre fighters.
Being airborne leaves the player completely open for attack, something which would be taken care of in the next game.
Compared to the later games, Smash 64 has the least amount of content, such as having only 12 playable fighters, and only 9 stages. However, since it is the first game in the series, it is understandable for the most part outside of tournament play.
All of the fighters have only 3 special moves, while the later Smash games all have 4 special moves.

Trivia

This is the only game in the Super Smash Bros. series to have Link and Fox McCloud as the sole reps of their universe.
This is the only Smash game to not have any Fire Emblem content in it, even though Marth was considered for inclusion according in a 2015 interview.
Like Marth, the creators had also considered Bowser, Mewtwo, and King Dedede to appear for the first game. While they were ultimately scrapped, they would become characters for later entries in the series.