Super Smash Flash (series)


 * 105

The Super Smash Flash series is a very popular, unofficial Flash game series notable for using characters from outside of the Super Smash Bros. series, as well as "fan entries".

Super Smash Flash
The first game in the series is Super Smash Flash, also known as SSF, and was released on August 21, 2006. It is based on Super Smash Bros. Melee.

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, and as the character is attacked, damage is accumulated and the percentage value increases. The higher the percentage, the further the character gets launched when attacked, so the easier it is for them to be KOd by being hit off the stage.

The arrow keys (or W, A, S and D 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 KOd 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 KOd 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. There is no equivalent of the Coin mode and Bonus mode from Super Smash Bros. Melee.

The game is very similar to Melee, but most game mechanics are missing, and all characters are lightweight and somewhat hard to control. In addition, most characters lack recovery methods other than jumping. However, in a select few situations button inputs can be made before a character floats to his or her death, which will make the character "teleport" back onto the stage. The camera in Super Smash Flash will only follow player 1, making multiplayer gameplay disadvantageous for player 2.

Characters
Many of the characters in the Super Smash Flash games are sprite versions of those in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but there are also several characters from third-party developers. Some characters come from media other than video games, such as comics, anime, TV shows, and movies.

Features
Most stages are based off of actual Melee stages and have simplistic platforms and features. Super Smash Flash contains several game modes from Super Smash Bros. Melee game modes such as Classic, Adventure, All-Star, Target Test, Multi-Man Melee, and the multiplayer Melee.

Super Smash Flash 2
The sequel, Super Smash Flash 2, also known as SSF2, is based off of Super Smash Bros. Brawl and was scheduled for release in 2008. However, multiple reasons have caused the game to be delayed indefinitely, and no real release date has been revealed yet. A demo is available for play on the McLeodGaming website, and is currently in Version 0.7. The game will feature enhanced sprites, graphics, running speed and AI. On the gameplay side, it will work a lot like Brawl, with features like Final Smashes.

Gameplay
The following explanation is based on the gameplay of the current demo:

The gameplay is now more similar to the official games, particularly to Brawl. Character's health is still measured by a damage percentage counter. There is also a menu to customize the controls and a camera that zooms in and out to fit all the characters on the screen.

The controls are more different than it's predecessor. Now, for default, the controls are switched. The W, A, S and D keys now work for Player 1, while the arrow keys are used by Player 2. These keys are used to move the character around, jump and crouch. However the O and P keys still remain in the P-1 possession using: O key for special attacks (or activate a Final Smash), P key for standard attacks, I key for shield and 1 key for taunt; while for P-2 uses Numpad 1 for special attacks (or activated Final Smash), Numpad 2 for standard attacks, Numpad 3 for shield and Numpad 4 for taunt.

The Time mode and Stock mode also returned with the same mechanism of the previous game; also, although not confirmed by the moment, exists the possibility that other modes such as the ones seen in Special Brawl, could make an appearance.

Characters
The game features more characters than its predecessor, with a total of 45 playable characters each one with special, normal attacks and a unique and different Final Smash, However a new feature allows the player to download any other character (besides the original 45), known as expansion characters (with complete movesets), into the game, which enlarges the possibilities and combinations of new characters.

Features
Like the characters, more stages are featured. SSF2 includes stages from the 3 original Super Smash Bros. installments, and new custom stages as well. Many other new game modes are featured including the previous ones. Also it has a Adventure Mode with a similar style to the The Subspace Emissary entitled The Flash Of Shadows.

Smash Flash DOJO!!
SSF2 has had many DOJO!!'s:


 * First DOJO!! - The first DOJO!! was simply a forum pasted with attachments of character profiles and more. It was called Super Smash Flash Central. Eventually, it was closed down due to a generally disrespectful community.


 * Second DOJO!! - The second DOJO!! had a resemblance to the actual Smash Bros. Dojo. It was created by Naruto [NU], but was recreated by Stoat.tamer used to solve the member disrespect problem. It was temporarily put on hold for a remodeling, and due to a completely rewritten code, marked a new dojo.


 * Third DOJO!! - The third official DOJO!!, and the fourth DOJO!! released, has been online since April 29th, 2009 and is coded in flash by Neron of McLeodGaming. It is at the same location as the second dojo.


 * Fan DOJO!! - The first third "DOJO!!" was created by Tid, under the name Flash2dojo. The head of the dojo is Tid, with help from Xviyz. It was temporarily out of service for a while, before closing down.

Praise
Super Smash Flash has received a lot of praise. Although there are several copies of Super Smash Bros on the internet, all of them are either incomplete, been given up on, or have very few characters. Super Smash Flash is popular due to the fact that it is similar to Melee but has its own touch. The team has completed notable feats such as copying very large classic stages from Melee such as Hyrule Temple. It has its own classic mode and Adventure, with Master Hand and Crazy hand at the end. There are classic characters as well as plenty of new ones. Some of the classic characters have been changed slightly from Melee such as Kirby being able to switch to Meta Knight any time and vice versa. The creators have also made mechanics that are regularly hard to create, such as inertia.

Criticism and Controversy
There has also been a lot of criticism on the Super Smash Flash series as a whole. Most of this comes from the fact that the majority of characters are either from third parties, fan made, or have apparently no reason to be in the game. For example, a lot of people were annoyed that there were more Sonic characters in SSF then there were Mario characters. Another example is that a secret character, Mr. Incredible, has no backing to actually be in the game as he has no historical significance to Nintendo except for a movie based game. Another thing comes from the abundance of anime characters, most of them either very unpopular or virtually unheard of to the majority of Super Smash Bros. players.

Another piece of criticism comes from the idea that the original Super Smash Flash is known to have very awkward controls (two player controls are always used) and are almost never preferred for a single player experience, making it unnecessarily difficult. Another complaint was the use of only one button for all attacks, while SSB is known to have two buttons for attacks, thus omitting a lot of characters' special and standard attacks. Some have absolutely no melee or hand to hand attacks whatsoever, making some characters very difficult to control.

Another complaint comes from the fact that the physics engine in the original SSF was absolutely horrid and damage was accumulated far too quickly. Instead of a character flying upwards or downwards the character would just fly sideways, oftentimes in a ridiculous length that results in a death. In regular SSB, this wouldn't happen. This was fixed in SSF2.

Originally, Mega Man X was meant to return in SSF2. However, he was replaced with the real Mega Man; which has sparked some controversy regarding whether Mega Man should be regarded as a newcomer or veteran.

More criticism has actually come from developers working on Super Smash Flash 2 themselves, developers have called the team "inefficient," "too argumentative," and claim they have "ridiculous ideas." One claimed that there was an argument on what color Sonic's eyes should be, another on the idea of Mario retaining his trademark Cape special from Melee and Brawl. Peach was originally planned to use her parasol Perry for all her attacks, thus eliminating almost all of her Brawl and Melee standard attacks. Two retired developers had both stated that they are thankful that they quit, and show very deep disapproval for the current path of Super Smash Flash 2. Those still with the team are beginning to question why.