Super Smash Bros : A Smashing Retrospective

By: Benjanime

A long, long time ago during the Spring of 1999 during a slow going weekend afternoon, I made plans to go outside when I took notice of a hilarious Nintendo commercial involving a group of Nintendo characters starting a beatdown as an ad for Super Smash Bros., a new fighting game that just hit the market. It was an ordinary sunny day so I ran outside to let my friends know about it. I had an N64 myself, but one of the friends amongst talking to also had one, though it was going to be a while before we could rent it for ourselves, as somebody else had beaten us to the rental, but we were hyped.

Production art for the game

Come next weekend, my friend chanced upon nabbing the rental, but on the same day we scheduled to do some Pok'emon trading card playing/trading. So our plan was to bring the other friends over, play just an hour of Super Smash Bros., and then go back outside for our Pok'emon card game business. To our dismay, we were hooked and we set our other activity aside. The previous guy to rent the game did kind of ruin the surprise of character and level unlocks though, as everything was already there, but it didn't hold us back. To see all these fighting stages based on Nintendo's gaming library was like a love letter to fans, and beating the snot out of familiar characters like Yoshi, Samus and Donkey Kong made for a thrilling and fun experience, and for its time it was like a fighting game like no other.

Ness being included in the roster had some players scratching their head for those who had never played Earthbound on the Super Nintendo, and from what I heard those who didn't play it saw this as their first time being introduced to the character.

We did rent the game a couple more times, but eventually the novelty did get tiring after playing so frequently. I rented the game for myself one summer just to play through the story mode with different characters, and obviously the experience wasn't as fun as multiplayer with friends, but it still made a good time waster. The fight against Master Hand is still a challenge even on hard difficulty, and it made for a good closing of the book upon finishing my time of enjoying an otherwise great game in the N64 library. As fun as it was playing other multiplayer games with my friends on the system, none matched the competitive rivalry of fighting with the many characters in Smash.

What are your memories of Super Smash Bros.? Leave a comment and as always, see you next article!

Looking for more from Benjanime?

READ 117231 TIMES

Vintage ThunderCats Merchandise

In 1985 ThunderCats were loose on TV screens in syndication and capturing the imaginations of elementary school age children across the worl...

Wolverine a Reader's Perspective Part 20

The Wolverine! Art by Dave Cockrum Wolverine a Reader's Perspective Part 20 Continuing our journey to understand the ...

Video game rumors from school discussions

When it came to having free time after classwork is done, or if you sat with other classmates during cafeteria lunch, it was always a good time for a ...

DJ Hoodie's Retro Post-Breakup Songs

As Valentines Day approaches, heart shaped sweets and jewelry are abound and so are specials for couples in restaurants as well as...

Serious Topics in Kids Shows

When you think of kids shows, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Happy, silly, and something age appropriate, right? Howev...

GoBots Merchandise Revisited

Let’s face it, GoBots never had the staying power of their fellow transforming robot vehicle competitors The Transformers. From box art, t...

The Under Appreciated “Road Rovers”

Road Rovers is admittedly a very goofy and absurd cartoon, even for the studio that gave us “Animaniacs,” but that doesn...

Ten games that should have been on the Sega Genesis Mini

As many of you already know, I owned a Sega Genesis years before I got to own a Super Nintendo, and with the Sega Genesis Mini having some missing tit...

The international DLC of Sonic Adventure

The Sega Dreamcast has always been known as an underrated treasure among video game consoles. Not only did it have a short life, but another feature t...

MOST RECENT RETRORATING FEATURED OFFICIAL

Go to page: