Super Smash Bros., sometimes shortened to Smash Bros. or Smash, is a fighting game crossover series developed by Nintendo through Hal Laboratory and later by Sora Ltd.
Primarily consisting of various characters from Nintendo's intellectual properties, including several from the Fire Emblem series.
Franchise History[]
Early Development[]
The Super Smash Bros. franchise began in 1998 by HAL Laboratory, a second-party developer for Nintendo, by Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of the Kirby franchise. He desired to create a four-player fighting game initially developed as 'Dragon King: The Fighting Game (格闘ゲーム竜王) with the help of then HAL Laboratory employee Satoru Iwata. Sakurai desired to stray from the then popular 2D fighters formula and make it more unique. Among the first ideas included implementing characters from various Nintendo properties, even though he had not directly sought permission to use such characters. Only after fine tuning the gameplay and developing the series core mechanics as a platform based fighter did Sakurai formally present a demo of the game featuring Mario, Donkey Kong, Fox McCloud, and Samus to Nintendo, who then approved of the project.
Super Smash Bros. (1999)[]
Super Smash Bros. was released for the Nintendo 64 initially as a Japan exclusive game on January 21, 1999, but the high sales of the game prompted Nintendo to release the game worldwide starting with North America on April 26, 1999 and later EU on November 19, 1999. The total roster features 12 characters from 10 Nintendo Franchises, however no Fire Emblem series character was featured in this iteration. Marth was heavily considered for a spot in the initial roster, but due to time constraints, he was scrapped in the development.
Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001)[]
Super Smash Bros. Melee is the sequel to Super Smash Bros. and was released for the Nintendo GameCube on November 21, 2001 in Japan followed by North America on December 03, 2001, and finally to the rest of the world by the end of May 2002. Development of Melee began shortly after the release of Super Smash Bros. in 2000 on a 13 month development cycle. Partially this was due to Nintendo intending on including the game as part of the GameCube's initial release.
After being scrapped in development for Super Smash Bros., Marth would eventually become a fully realized playable character in Melee. Leif, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, the most recent Fire Emblem title at the time of development, was briefly considered as a potential addition, but as ultimately scrapped in favor of Roy, the protagonist of the upcoming Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade.
Initially, due to the Fire Emblem franchise at the time being exclusive to Japan, Marth and Roy were nearly removed from the international release of Melee. However, due to the positive reception of the characters during localization, they were ultimately released in all versions of Melee. In part to newfound interest in the series by fans of the Smash series at the time as well as the success of the Advance Wars series on the Game Boy Advance resulted in the Fire Emblem franchise being released in the west starting with the seventh title Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, simply titled Fire Emblem at the time. A remix of Together, We Ride, the recruitment theme of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light was also included as an alternative theme for the Temple Stage if Marth or Roy was played on it.
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)[]
Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the third installment of the franchise first released on January 31, 2008 in Japan, March 9, 2008 in North America, and release Worldwide by the end of June 2008. Brawl was the first Smash Bros. title released by Masahiro Sakurai's new company Sora LTD. The game became notable for including the first set of characters not exclusively owned by a Nintendo subsidiary with the inclusion of Solid Snake from the Metal Gear Series owned by Konami and Sonic the Hedgehog owned by Sega.
Marth would return in Brawl, though Roy did not for an undisclosed reason. Ike from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance became a newcomer for the game and the Fire Emblem franchise received its first stage through Castle Siege. Various new soundtracks were added from various games in the Fire Emblem franchises, including several remixes, non-fighter related Trophies, and several characters made appearances as Stickers to augment characters. Lyn appears as a special non-combatant character called an Assist Trophy.
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (2014)[]
Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, commonly referred to as Super Smash Bros. 4, was the dual release of the fourth installment of the Smash Bros. series. The Nintendo 3DS version was initially released on September 13, 2014 in Japan, October 03, 2014 in both North America and EU, and in Australia on October 04, 2014. The Wii U version was the first and only version of Smash to debut outside of Japan first with North America on November 21, 2014, EU and Australia launching on November 28, 2014 and November 29, 2014 respectively, and finally in Japan on December 06, 2014.
Marth and Ike returned under the newly branded Veteran Fighter category while both genders of Robin and Lucina from Fire Emblem Awakening were simultaneously announced on July 14, 2014 as Newcomer Fighters. Chrom was considered initially as the Newcomer from Awakening, however in order to diversify movesets, Robin was chosen instead due to their use of Magic. Even more remixes were added to Smash Bros. alongside two brand new stages with the 3DS version receiving a stage based off of Arena Ferox and the Wii U version receiving a stage based off of the Arena feature called Colosseum.
Both versions received DLC post release which included Roy making his reappearance after being absent in Brawl as well as Mii Costumes based on Chrom and the Black Knight from the Tellius Series. Both genders of Corrin were later added as a DLC newcomer, released on February 3rd, 2016.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)[]
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the fifth and most recent release of the game released worldwide for the first time on December 7, 2018. In part to the game's goal of including all previous characters to appear in a Smash game, all six of the previous Veteran characters of the Fire Emblem franchise make a return in Ultimate as part of its base roster. A new character type distinction, the Echo Fighter, lead to Chrom becoming a new fully realized playable character after being relegated to cameos in the previous entries.
Ultimate produced two season passes after the initial release, adding thirteen new characters. Due to the recent release of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Byleth was added as a DLC Newcomer as the sixth character added and the fifth member of the Season 1 Pass DLC.