This month marks the 20th anniversary of the original Super Smash Bros.’ release for Nintendo 64 in North America. Yes, it may be hard to believe that so much time has already passed. There are hardly any words needed to explain how much the game paved the way for Nintendo’s success and fortune.
It became such a huge success that it turned into one of the studio’s most treasured and extravagant franchise. It sold over millions of copies and has since then opened the way for four sequels across all Nintendo consoles. It even inspired several imitators on various platforms.
Times were much simpler then as only a total of twelve characters were available. The game only had Yoshi, Samus, Pikachu, Ness, Mario, Luigi, Link, Kirby, Jigglypuff, as well as Fox McCloud.
It also included Donkey Kong and even Falcon. Super Smash Bros. release was the first time that the community saw all the characters together in just one game. The game was an all-star cast of the mascots of Nintendo. It marked the crossover of Nintendo’s biggest franchises.
That time, only a few games tried to bring as many characters from other titles as possible in one site. This gave way for Super Smash Bros. to become the blockbuster on the crossover genre.
But this wasn’t always what the company thought it to be. Super Smash Bros. started as a side project of Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata under the codename of “Kakuto-Geemu Ryuoh.” It was Sakurai who got the idea of using Nintendo’s existing mascots and bringing them together.
At first, the community was reluctant to support the idea of bringing together an all-star cast of characters. They didn’t enjoy the idea of pitting characters such as Pikachu or Mario against each other.
The creators had a difficult time convincing the community on how fun it could be.
Eventually, Sakurai’s ideas proved to be a success, and the game then became one of Nintendo 64’s best-selling titles. The all-star roster is a huge reason for its success.
It gave way for some hilarious match-off that was never before imagined. It also helped that each mascot had its own fan base and crossing them over created one big community.
The game became a huge hit which would go on to sell over than five million copies across the globe. And all these have led to the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate on Nintendo Switch.
And much like its predecessor, the game has also become a huge success. Although it’s only been released in December, it has already become Nintendo’s best-selling game in the franchise.
