Super Smash Flash

Super Smash Flash, commonly abbreviated SSF or SSF1, is an unofficial Flash fangame developed by Cleod9 Productions and published by McLeodGaming. The game is based on Super Smash Bros. Melee in the menu format, music, and numerous other fields such as game play modes. The game features several characters from the Super Smash Bros. series, such as Mario, Samus, Link, Kirby, and Pikachu. It features many third-party characters, including Sonic (who, at the time of the game's creation, was not confirmed to be a character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl) and Mega Man X. Besides that, it also includes original fan characters like Blade. The official sequel to this game is Super Smash Flash 2.

Gameplay
Super Smash Flash's gameplay is very similar to the official Super Smash Bros. games. Unlike most traditional 2D fighting games, each character's health is measured by a damage percentage counter. As the character is attacked, damage is accumulated and the percent value increases. The higher the percentage, the weaker the character is, and the easier it is for them to be KO'd off the stage.

The arrow keys (or A, S, D, and W for a second player) are used to move the character around and crouch. The O and P keys (or G and F for a second player) are used to jump and attack, respectively. Pressing a movement button and the attack button together will initiate a special attack, much like Melee's B button attacks.

Matches can be played in either Time mode, Stock mode, or a combination of the two. In Time mode, each player receives a point when they KO an opponent, and loses a point if they are KO'd or self-destruct. At the end of the designated time limit, the player with the most points wins. In Stock mode, each player is given a chosen amount of lives, and every time they are KO'd or self-destruct, they lose a life. When a player loses all their lives, they are out of the game, and the match's conclusion is reached when there is only one player left standing. In the Classic and Adventure modes, every level has both a time limit and a chosen amount of lives; if the player does not KO the opponent before time runs out, they lose a life and have to restart the level. Both modes can also be selected in the *game's Melee mode, but if a winner is not decided when the time runs out, the player with the highest number of lives left is declared the winner. Super Smash Bros. Melee's Coin and Bonus modes are absent.

The game is very similar to Melee, but most, if not all game mechanics are missing. The characters only have five total attacks (not counting their jump, which surprisingly some does damage) and it is almost impossible to recover since every character is lightweight, jumping doesn't send your character very high into the air, the character cannot perform a third jump, and all attacks do 50%+ damage (even the normal ones). Additionally, it is possible to rack up over 1000% damage, even though it is not possible in Melee. All of these mechanic flaws resulted in negative responses.

Characters


This list is a compilation of the characters in Super Smash Flash that appear as playable characters and they are listed in alphabetical order. Shaded cells denote unlockable characters. To learn how to unlock them, click here.

Stages
Most of the eight stages in Super Smash Flash are based off of actual Melee stages, and have simplistic platforms and features.

Starter stages
Six of the eight stages do not have to be unlocked and can be selected in Melee and Training modes.


 * Dream Land: Credited as Whispy Woods, the stage is a direct copy of Super Smash Bros.'s stage with the same name, complete with three floating platforms and a sprite version of Whispy Woods. It also returns in the sequel with a completely new design.


 * Emerald Hill Zone: Credited as Emerald Hills, is a grassy area from the Sonic series, Emerald Hill Zone consists of a large, flat platform below three floating platforms, all at the same height. An extended version is available in SSF's Classic mode and Adventure mode, in which the player is forced to reach the end before time runs out.


 * Hyrule Temple: Hyrule Temple has a barren, flat platform with rock pillars that support four platforms above. There is a small sign post in the middle of the stage that anyone can stand on.


 * Mushroom Kingdom II: Credited as Subcon, a stage based off of Melee ' s stage with the same name, this level consists of three platforms, each separated by a waterfall that, if fallen into, counts as a lost life. This is another stage that can be "walked off" if the player is not careful enough. It returns in the sequel with a completely new design.


 * Peach's Castle: This stage consists of two flat platforms overlapping each other, and is another stage where characters can walk off the stage boundaries, much like Flat Zone and Icicle Mountain. Holding the Down key for a few seconds will allow the player to jump down to the lower platform, while a simple jump allows the character to return to the starting platform. Players can also jump onto a Pipe.


 * Pokémon Stadium: Based off of Melee ' s Pokémon Stadium stage, this simple level contains only two floating platforms above a flat field. Unlike the official Pokémon Stadium stage, however, this stage does not change forms.

Unlockable stages
Two stages can be unlocked for use in Melee and Training modes by completing certain criteria in the game. They are also available in several one-player modes where the stages are automatically chosen:


 * Battlefield: The home of Multi-Man Melee, and based off of the Battlefield stages in Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, SSF's Battlefield is a three-platformed stage that looks nearly identical to Dream Land. It can be unlocked by completing the All-Star mode with any character.


 * Final Destination: A completely flat, one-platformed level based off of Melee ' s own Final Destination can be unlocked by unlocking every character. It will return in the sequel as an unlockable stage again.

1-P Mode stages
These stages only appear in the game's Classic, Adventure and All-Star mode and aren't available in Versus mode and/or Training Mode.


 * Emerald Hill Zone (extended version): There are actually two versions of this stage. This version is an extended version of the playable stage in the game. The goal is to reach a platform at the end of the stage. Several enemies known as Buzzers fly toward the player to prevent him/her from reaching the goal.


 * Floating Islands: This stage is the biggest in the game. It has little, and big platforms throughout the stage. The goal is to reach a rock door at the top of the islands.


 * Rest Station: This stage is only available in the All-Star mode. It's similar to the Floating Islands because it has the same sprites. Here, the player can heal him/herself by grabbing one of the 3 Heart Containers available and make a pause before the next battle.


 * Super Mario World: An exact replica of the second level in Super Mario World with Red Koopa Troopas and Paragoombas surrounding the stage. The main goal is to reach the ending posts.


 * Kirby Hub Room: The target tests take place in here and is the same to all playable characters with the only difference that the targets have different moves and places.

Game Modes
Super Smash Flash contains several game modes based off of traditional Melee game modes. All, save for All-Star, are unlocked from the beginning.


 * Classic Mode: Based off of Super Smash Bros. ' s 1P Game and Melee ' s Classic Mode. Classic Mode is a single-player game where the player advances from level to level, fighting a certain amount of enemies on each level. These battles can range from anything between one single opponent to a Multi-Man Melee-like showdown. At the end is Master Hand, his sprite is directly taken from Kirby and the Amazing Mirror for the Game Boy Advance.


 * Adventure Mode: A tip-of-the-hat to Melee ' s Adventure Mode, the Adventure is a single-player mode in which the player goes through several diverse worlds, fighting enemies as they go along. Some are traditional battles, but a few stages force the player to reach a designated finish line before time runs out.


 * All-Star Mode: All-Star mode is based off of Melee ' s All-Star Mode, and is automatically unlocked after all characters are unlocked. The goal is to fight against all 28 playable characters.


 * Target Test: Super Smash Flash's Target Test is a relatively short minigame in which a character must destroy eight targets as fast as they can. This mode is also included in SSF's Classic mode and is based off of Super Smash Bros. ' s Break the Targets and Melee ' s Target Test.


 * Multi-Man Melee: Based off of Melee ' s Multi-Man Melee mode, this mode has several sub-modes. However, the Endless Melee mode made popular by Melee is absent, and instead of fighting wireframes, the opponents are simply grayed-out versions of other playable characters denominated the Fighting Shadow Team. The sub-modes are:
 * 10-Man Melee
 * 100-Man Melee
 * 3-Minute Melee
 * 15-Minute Melee
 * Cruel Melee
 * Burly Brawl Melee


 * Melee: The only multiplayer mode in Super Smash Flash. Melee allows for up to two humans to battle simultaneously, as well as battle against up to 3 computers. This mode allows the player to set up single battles between computers or another human. As well as the standard free-for-all battle, Melee mode also allows for team battles, much like Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Items
Items from the Smash series, among other series, are featured. Unlike how they appear in the original Smash Bros games, all items have limited uses, even the Beam Sword or the Home-Run Bat, and disappear once they have been used a certain number of times. These are the items that appear in Super Smash Flash:


 * Beam Sword
 * Bob-omb
 * Fan
 * Fire Flower
 * Flipper
 * Green Shell
 * Home-Run Bat
 * Heart Container
 * Maxim Tomato
 * Motion-Sensor Bomb

Reception
The game received generally mixed reviews from the day of its launching. The reviews in Newgrounds, McLeodGaming site, and in other web sites clarified this game as one of the better Super Smash Bros. fan games ever created because of its similarities with the original Super Smash Bros. Melee, a choice of 28 playable characters (including a wish-list of characters), and its wealth of play modes. On the other hand, there exist other negative reviews that suggested it was a regular or even a bad game because of a critical number of annoying glitches. Those burdens would include only one Vs. Mode, few stages, hard-to-control characters, and lack of proper mechanics, which made the game uncomfortable to play, giving it an honest ending rating of 4.18/5.00 from reviews in the Newgrounds site.

Glitches
As the game was created in a very short time by an unexperienced Cleod9, there are a lot of glitches. Notable glitches include Knuckles' down jump and the possibility of unlocking Final Destination with only starter characters and Jigglypuff. Some glitches only occur with certain characters; in Classic mode, Mario always runs off and dies, and Samus shortly follows.

But the most popular glitch is that if the player right-clicks at the start of anything, goes on settings, and while the settings box appears, right-click on the screen again and click on 'play'. This will skip the stage/event and count as a win. If this is used on one of the multi-man melees, the player will automatically be sent through all the events before being challenged.

This glitch does not work on the Newgrounds version, or the Mario Games sites. Instead the player must press forward. If the player presses rewind, they will be sent to the loading screen.

One of the most crippling game bugs, however, was the instant-death attack. Virtually all of the playable characters in the game had at least one move that would instantly kill an opponent with approximately 50% or higher. Most of the time, this move was an up tilt attack that would send the opponent flying perfectly sideways until they died (which was usually within moments of getting hit, causing the move to appear as an instant kill). Other variations of this move include Master Hand's push (which sends the opponent straight up), and Master Hand's fist (which sent the player straight downwards and through the main platform). The existence of this bug made the game nearly impossible to unlock InuYasha and complete All-Star mode because one was almost certain to lose at least one life. But another glitch was found to help this, in which, when you fight Master hand, if you pause the game as Master hand is attacking, you will take no damage, and Master hands attack continues. This glitch doesn't work against any other opponent.

Trivia

 * Kirby and Meta Knight were a 2-in-1 character in this game due to the lack of Kirby's inhale and copy abilty. In the sequel, they are now spearate playable characters and Kirby's inhale and copy abilty is finally present.


 * A big rumor stated that Wario was planned to be playable in this game, but probably wasn't in the game due to the memory capacity not being sufficient to add him; so he had to wait till the sequel to be a playable character. It is most likely false due to the fact Wario is not playable in Melee. Ironically, Wario has a semi-reference: the Floating Islands stage in the Adventure Mode.


 * Like the first Super Smash Bros., the Mario universe, along with the Super Smash Bros. universe is the only universe that has more than 1 stage in the game: Peach's Castle and Mushroom Kingdom II.


 * According to the game's credits, the real name of the stages Dream Land, Emerald Hill Zone and Mushroom Kingdom II are Whispy Woods, Emerald Hills and Subcon respectively.


 * Super Smash Flash was originally hosted on both Newgrounds and Kongregate, but due to legal issues was removed from Kongregate in early 2009.


 * Super Smash Flash was created in a short 2 month period with minimal help, by Cleod9 and a group of his close friends.