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 87276 TIMES

There are no comments yet.

Why Chrono Trigger matters

Through the era of early computers, 8-bit and 16-bit consoles, many role-playing games have had their own story to tell. Whether it's about a mai...

Retro Christmas Memories: Reclaimed!

Merry Christmas, RetroDazers! Recently my older sister took on the task of organizing my Mom’s boxes and boxes of photos from over the years. In the...

Super Smash Bros. Melee: Star Studded Sequel

The original Super Smash Bros. on the Nintendo 64 definitely became an unexpected high seller, and with so many rentals, sales, and friendly get-toget...

5 Times Scooby-Doo Met Real Monsters

One of my favorite Scooby-Doo movies, if not my all-time favorite Scooby-Doo movie, is Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. I mean, why wouldn't it be my ...

Skating Through The Years

There are moments in my life that seem inconsequential in hindsight; however, the smallest item can instantly transport me back to my youth and all th...

MOST RECENT RETRORATING FEATURED OFFICIAL

Go to page: