LiteralGrill
Smokin' Hot~
Super Smash Flash 2 is sometimes overlooked when it comes to the fanmade Smash games. Many do not realize it has a vibrant competitive scene with its own top players, notable tournament organizers, and intricate development history. Each Wednesday over the month of September will feature an article covering a unique aspect of the game or scene. This first week we discuss a bit about the history of the game and provide a primer on it for those unfamiliar on it with the help of SSF2 developer TSON.
It all began with the original Super Smash Flash. The game began development some time in 2006 and was released on August 21, 2006. It featured several smash character classics alongside some anime characters, unique Sonic fanmade characters, and even Mr. Incredible. The ease of being able to go to a website and load up a fully functioning Smash game did not go unnoticed and it was played a ton out of school computer labs and in countries where Nintendo consoles were not as affordable or easy to get. It was given a special feature by Newgrounds, made "Flash Portal History" for 2006, and won other minor awards.
This was the first game in Flash that Cleod9 had ever made. Not only was he young during the time of its creation but he coded the game by himself. By the time he had finished years later he had many ideas on how to improve the game but did not want to go back and simply redo what he had already created. Instead he looked forward and decided to use his ideas on a sequel: Super Smash Flash 2 was born.
This time instead of just releasing a final fully formed game they would release updates along the way to allow experiments with the game engine, character designs, and balancing choices. This also allowed getting feedback along the way which was something not possible with the original SSF.
Super Smash Flash 2 has so far been a wild success with millions of players, Online Play, and feedback from many top players from the likes of Mew2King, dmbrandon, Vex Kasrani, TKBreezy and more. It has gone beyond a little Flash game and developed its own competitive following and tournaments. Along the way however it never lost how easy it was to play. Pulling up a browser in a library, computer lab, home PC, or even a windows tablet has players minutes away from their favorite game.
However while trying to show the game for how legitimate it is they still face issues. "The real struggle is to get people past the whole "this is a Flash game" thing." said TSON, a developer for Super Smash Flash 2. "A Flash game is automatically thought of to be a poor-man's game with very little room for the content, depth, and interactivity of a console game."
So why not move to another platform? Flash can make time-wasters and hilarious animations like Brawl Taunts, but it can also make a game like Super Smash Flash 2 in the right hands." said TSON. "No other language allows us to optimize our working environment the way we have with Flash. We COULD make a "Super Smash C++", but that name sucks. It also wouldn't be played by nearly as many people, and it wouldn't invade the internet the way our games have so far. Flash is a special thing for us and we aim to be a team that shows you what it's REALLY capable of."
Super Smash Flash 2 also has had its fair share of controversy over certain characters from Anime being included in the game. While there were originally seven anime characters planned to be in the roster only Goku, Naruto, Ichigo have made it into the game. Sasuke Uchiha, Vegeta, and Renji Abarai were all confirmed to have at one time been planned for the game, with the prior two being background characters on stages and the later becoming an assist trophy. Most infamously Rock Lee was cut from the roster after a large anti-Rock Lee campaign orchestrated on the McLeodGaming Forums.
These inclusions have not been something approved of by all fans but they remain in the game for good reasons. "Around the release of the v0.7 demo, Super Smash Flash 2 had a team of developers that established the need for regulation of content to prevent recreation of SSF's 'infamous' roster. Ichigo, Goku, and Naruto debuted before that, so unfortunately we can't rule them out."
So what rules cover who can appear in the game? "The rule that we limit our roster to is called the "Rule of Appearance" - that is, a character must have starred in a game on a Nintendo console in order to be featured. It doesn't matter where a character has originated, if a character has made an impact on a Nintendo console, we can include them. This means that we are not at all just throwing in Sonic OCs - the entire roster is carefully planned already, as is the order we announce these characters in. We are taking this very seriously but we have no plans to go back and remove content that is already finished."
The development of these Shonen characters has been taken even more seriously to make sure the experience of playing with them is a good one. "All three are balanced carefully, their sprites are not direct rips from a game anymore, and their movesets are planned carefully to bring very different things to the table. These characters are designed to feel good in a Smash environment and thus far it seems that once you get past the initial 'Ugh, is this Goku?' feeling players have a set of characters that have extreme amounts of depth. Look at Goku's down special for example. It literally is the Zelda-Sheik transformation except you can combo out of it. What other character in Smash can do that?"
A Screenshot from XPadder
Hopefully this has readers seeing Super Smash Flash 2 in a new light. With this new understanding on the game's history, development, and more maybe this has inspired some to check out the game. To discuss more be sure to check out the game's discussion thread on Smashboards or consider learning more about its tournament scene. Be sure to come back next week Wednesday to learn more about the game. Until then, we'll let the game speak for itself:
SmashCapps is a huge fan of Super Smash Flash 2 (Black Mage for life!) and is incredibly excited for this series. Be sure to follow him on Twitter to discuss Super Smash Flash 2 and all things Smash.
![[OCK]LLama](/data/avatars/l/270/270079.jpg?1480303817){kind=avatar}
![[TSON]](/data/avatars/l/114/114196.jpg?1360761019){kind=avatar}
