Super Smash Bros. (universe)

The Super Smash Bros. universe refers to the Smash series' collection of characters, stages, and properties, original to the Super Smash Bros. series, featured alongside the other licensed game characters and properties seen in the series. It may be considered the universe that "hosts" the Smash Bros. series. It's icon or emblem is immediately recognizable yet deceptively simple--a simple circle crossed by two lines.

Franchise description
Through 1998, second-party Nintendo developer HAL Laboratory, creator of the Kirby franchise and led by Masahiro Sakurai, developed a fighting game for the Nintendo 64 titled Super Smash Bros. The game was originally planned to be released in Japan only, and it had a small budget and a small amount of promotion attached; it was developed more as a "novelty product" rather than a high-profile heavily-anticipated video game and was not expected to be a huge success. The event proved otherwise; the game was popular and successful enough in Japan after its 1999 release that it was decided to be distributed as an international release, and it garnered immense critical acclaim and sales figures abroad as well as at home. It was popular for featuring famous Nintendo characters such as Mario from the Mario series, Link from The Legend of Zelda, and Pikachu from the phenomenally popular Pokémon franchise, and it gained high marks for its unique take on the fighting genre.

The success of Super Smash Bros. provided HAL Laboratory the incentive and financial means to develop the series' 2001 GameCube sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, with a larger development team and higher production values. It was released to a massive amount of glowing, positive reviews and was widely received as a vast improvement over its predecessor, with upgraded graphics and audio, refined gameplay, and a tremendous amount of new characters and content. It became the GameCube's best-selling title, with sales of 6 million copies worldwide. The depth of the game was such that in the years after Melee's initial release, the appearances of various fan-organized tournaments set in motion thriving international tournament scenes for the game, and Melee was soon officially made part of the game rosters of Major League Gaming and Evolution Championship Series.

In May 2006, an E3 trailer depicted the long-awaited third game in the series, Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii, and six months later a second trailer for the game was shown at Nintendo World. Brawl is a heavily anticipated game by any standard. It is the first game in the series to feature characters from third-party developers and is being developed not by HAL Laboratory, but another group headed by Sakurai himself.

In the Smash Bros. series, the emphasis is not on lowering opponents health meters to zero to achieve a KO, but rather sending the opponent Out Of Bounds with strong Smash attacks that send them flying far away enough that they reach one of the stage's four borders and lose a life. Inflicting damage on opponents raises their percentage meters, and higher percentage meters mean that the opponents will fly away further when the character with that meter is attacked. Each of the available fighters aims to be unique, featuring their own move styles as well as their own collections of special moves. All fighters have the ability to double-jump, and most have a special move that constitutes a third jump, and what is often seen in standard competitive gameplay is a fighter sent flying away by an attack and trying to return to the edge of the stage with multiple jumps to avoid losing a life. With stages that come in all shapes and sizes, most of them featuring their own environmental hazards to complicate the action, and Smash items that can appear and be wielded to assist a character's game, a given entry in the Smash series is always a dramatic departure from the formula of standard fighting games. The popularity and legacy of Melee is such that regularly exploiting game physics to perform "advanced techniques" such as the Wavedash and the Shffl is standard in top-tier competitive tournament play.

The primary reason for the immense success of the series is that it features famous characters, worlds, and properties from many other well-established video game franchises, primarily franchises created by Nintendo, interacting with each other in a grand tournament. The game characters and worlds featured thus far come from the Mario series, the Zelda series, the Metroid series, the Kirby series, the Star Fox series, the Pokémon series, the F-Zero series, the EarthBound/Mother series, the game Ice Climber, the Fire Emblem series, the series of handheld game devices titled Game & Watch, the Kid Icarus series, the third-party Metal Gear series, the Sonic series, and the Pikmin series. Just as the inclusion of so many popular franchises help the Smash series command the attention of the game community, the inclusion of obscure franchises in the series helps gain renewed attention for such franchises worldwide, as is certainly the case with the Fire Emblem series.

Original Games

 * Super Smash Bros. - April 26, 1999
 * Super Smash Bros. Melee - December 3, 2001
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl - March 9, 2008

In Super Smash Flash
Super Smash Bros. Melee served as the base and inspiration for Super Smash Flash, can be said to feature much more than a standard universe's worth of content based on the universe introduced in the game itself, compared even to the Mario universe.

Bosses
None of the following can be considered selectable "characters" but they can be considered computer opponents because that is what they are in the game's single player mode.


 * Master Hand: A giant floating right-hand glove, this entity is described as the imaginary link between the real world and the Smash Bros. tournaments and can be considered the end-all, be-all host of the series. He features a voice that is heard calling out the names of combatants on the character select screen, as well as calling the status of matches before, during, and after matches, so he can be considered the narrator of the series as well. He functions as the "final boss" of the game in that the final match of the single-player mode pits the player's character against Master Hand in a 1-on-1 duel. He fights with a variety of unique movements and motions, and instead of a percentage meter, he carries a "traditional" health meter that lowers when taking damage from opponents, and reducing it to zero will defeat him and end the game in success for the player.


 * Crazy Hand: The "twin brother" of Master Hand, Crazy Hand is a left hand and is a "hidden boss" in the game. It is described as the embodiment of a child who derives pleasure from destroying his creations, as opposed to Master Hand's will to play around. In the final bout of Classic mode on Normal, Hard, or Very Hard difficulty, when Master Hand has had over half of his hit points depleted, Crazy Hand will erratically enter the battle and join the fight against you, making it a two-on-one battle - obviously this is much tougher. Crazy Hand features at least three of his own unique attacks, and the two "Hand Bros." will occasionally perform a special two-hand super attack together. If the player can beat both enemies in the match, he wins with an extra Crazy Hand KO bonus.

Stages
There are two Multiplayer-friendly stages that follow, however, both are indeed unlockable for selection:


 * Final Destination (SSBM): The flat, featureless platform is where many single-player boss encounters take place, and it is also among the most popular stages for use in Vs. Mode. It floats in a green-outlined space that it's aparently, the place between dimensions.


 * Battlefield (SSBM): It is the site of many stages and events such as the Multi-Man Melee competitions, and is where Grey Fighting Team are always fought. For its basic, standard layout, the stage is very popular.

Items
A large proportion of the game's items are original to the game itself:


 * Beam Sword: A powerful energy sword, this bludgeoning weapon carries sound effects similar to a Lightsaber in the Star Wars movie franchise in the Japanese version of the game, but it was changed for the U.S. release, possibly to avoid copyright trouble.


 * Home-Run Bat: This bludgeoning item is the most potentially deadly offensive measure in the game; while normally featuring unremarkable power with standard attacks, a Smash attack with the Bat carries so much knockback that it often causes a One-Hit KO to the target, regardless of how healthy the opponent is.


 * Fan: The polar opposite to the Home-Run Bat and the Hammer, the Fan is weak enough that picking it up may be considered a handicap. While it can attack extremely quickly, it does tiny damage and offers no knockback, so it is not considered a helpful item to many players, but if used correctly the Fan low knockback used continious can weaken the opponent.


 * Flipper: This item comes from the Balloon Fight franquise, when it's launched the Flipper will start to spinning around an hitting anyone that touch it, it no offers much knockback.


 * Motion-Sensor Bomb: The bomb from Gonden Eye 007; when thrown, it works as a projectile giving considered damage to opponents, later the bomb stucks in the ground and when any player steps on it, it will automatically explode.

In Super Smash Flash 2
Now Super Smash Bros. Brawl serves as the base and inspiration for Super Smash Flash 2 with a lot of features coming from this game.

Characters
As before, there are no original characters that have been revealed to be officially playable. The following distinctive entities make big appearances of some sort:


 * Sandbag: Because it seems that Home Run Contest could appear, the Sandbag is considered a character. He acts the same as a completely immobile thing and living up to his name as a punching bag.

Bosses

 * Master Hand: Reprises his role as the boss of the Classic Mode.


 * Crazy Hand: Reprises his role as Master Hand's partner in Classic Mode.

Stages

 * Battlefield (SSBB): The earliest stage revealed for this game is a newly visually designed version of the Battlefield stage from Flash 1, with natural and architectural elements and floating above an expansive canyon below. It is unknown if the day and night cycle will appear.


 * Final Destination (SSBB): Like Battlefield before it, Final Destination has been visually redesigned to make it similar like Brawl's one. It seem that still serves as the location of the battle against Master Hand. Unlike the previous game, this and Battlefield are considered starter stages.


 * Metal Cave: Also known as Metal Mario Stage, a small and simple stage consisting of a big platform with a small platform above it, this is the single-player stage where the battle against Metal Mario takes place. It is based off of the Metal Cave from Super Mario 64, in which Mario would find the Green P Switch.

Items

 * Smash Ball: Likely the most important item of all, the Smash Ball can be picked up by a character when it is destroyed, and that character will be able to perform a spectacular move unique to that character called a Final Smash.


 * Assist Trophy: A special trophy that, when grabbed, brings a random helper into the battle for a short period of time. While technically a Smash Bros. item, its main purpose is to summon characters from various other Nintendo franchises.


 * Bumper: The classic bumping item from the original Super Smash Bros. makes a return appearance with the same functionality and the added function of being able to be placed in midair like Flash 1's Flipper.


 * Home-Run Bat: Returns from Flash 1, although the wind up time for the smash attack is much longer.


 * Beam Sword: Returns from Flash 1 seemingly unaltered.


 * Motion-Sensor Bomb: Returns from Flash 1 seemingly unaltered.


 * Crate: One of the game's four Item-containment units, the crate is by far the biggest. It is a giant wooden box with the Smash symbol on it, and it can be picked up, carried, and hurled at opponents as a projectile. When it crashes into the ground, it splinters and up to three items contained inside can appear.


 * Barrel: Another item that can contain items within, the Barrel is somewhat less large and may contain less items than the Crate, but as a hurled weapon it can roll on its side before breaking. Some consider it a property native to the Donkey Kong franchise, but Melee's Trophy Gallery identifies the barrel as having made its first game appearance in the original Smash and not Donkey Kong. (Not to be confused with Melee's Barrel Cannon item).


 * Capsule: This pill-shaped item contains a single item inside. It can be thrown as a fast projectile.


 * Food: A new item that randomly spawns as tiny health-replenishers. There are 27 varieties of food in the game, and they restore usually 3% or so health per item.


 * Party Ball: A new containment unit, this is a big yellow ball that can be carried and hurled like the other containment units, but after it is thrown it will float up, make a noise, and open up to drop a bunch of stuff. Sometimes it drops random items, sometimes it drops a load of Food, and sometimes it drops Bob-ombs.