• Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!

    You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!

Brawl to Sm4sh to Ultimate - A “Trilogy”?

Pippin (Peregrin Took)

Formerly “ItalianBaptist”
Joined
Jan 28, 2014
Messages
949
Switch FC
SW-0542-4021-7641
I posted something about this in the headcanons thread but I think it deserves its own. Even if it’s ultimately all in goofy fun.

I’ve been chewing on this ever since Ultimate was more fully shown off at E3 and people were screaming that it was a port of Smash 4. I think the bigger issue with that is the fact that the Wii U failed and so we got a bunch of those games ported to the Switch.

But the truth is that Ultimate does reuse quite a bit of Smash 4’s assets. Just like Smash 4 reused a quite a bit of Brawl’s assets in its release. It made me look at the three (four) games and what they’ve brought to the series in terms of aesthetics and mechanics. They’re very different from one another, and each definitely improves on the last. At the same time, though, there seems to be a similar style that these games share that is distinct from both 64 and Melee.

It was most likely unintentional, but it looks like Masahiro Sakurai has given us an epic trilogy.

(Before anybody says that I don’t know how to count to four, I’m counting Smash for 3DS and Wii U as one game, like how the Hunger Games movies handled Mockingjay ;) )

I don’t know exactly how to describe it. Maybe it’s the bright menus with big buttons. Maybe it’s the fact that all these games were in one way or another a response to Melee and the competitive community (for better or worse). Or maybe it’s something as simple as Mario’s voice remaining unchanged since Brawl. Am I crazy or does anybody else see this?

I do think it would be neat to compare these games in particular and see how specific characters have evolved and what’s carried over from Brawl through Smash 4 to Ultimate.
 

TMNTSSB4

Smash Obsessed
Joined
Jun 15, 2014
Messages
29,396
Location
John Cena
NNID
No More
3DS FC
3368-4469-9312
Switch FC
SW-6414-0526-7609
I don’t think you can have a trilogy by only counting the last 3-4 Smash games. It would have to go from 64/Melee/Brawl to 3DS/Wii U/Ultimate
 

Pippin (Peregrin Took)

Formerly “ItalianBaptist”
Joined
Jan 28, 2014
Messages
949
Switch FC
SW-0542-4021-7641
Oh, there’s definitely a spot for 64 and Melee in all this. Comparing Sakurai to Tolkien (because who hasn’t?):

64 is our Hobbit. It’s smaller and relatively lighter in tone.

Melee is our Silmarillion - very technical in nature and sets the stage for the world by describing the roles of Master and Crazy hand in detail

So Brawl to Ultimate then is our Lord of the Rings :)

And also it’s the stylistic similarities between those three (four) games that connects them in my eyes.
 

TMNTSSB4

Smash Obsessed
Joined
Jun 15, 2014
Messages
29,396
Location
John Cena
NNID
No More
3DS FC
3368-4469-9312
Switch FC
SW-6414-0526-7609
Weird but doable analogy
 

osby

Smash Obsessed
Joined
Apr 25, 2018
Messages
23,513
I'd say Smash For feels like a trilogy with Melee and Brawl.
Ultimate is shaping to be some kind of a big finale or unexpected fourth installment.
Last game(s) wasn't perfect at combining previous entries but Ultimate can do it.
 

Al-kīmiyā'

Smash the State
Joined
Apr 22, 2010
Messages
2,574
What's the point of applying words like 'trilogy' to games with barely any story? The story modes of Melee and Brawl are only thematically related, and afaik that theme was abandoned in Smash 4 and 5.
 

Superyoshiom

Smash Master
Joined
Jul 15, 2013
Messages
4,337
Location
The Basement
NNID
Superyoshiom
Melee came during the awkward phase where Nintendo was still trying to get the look of their characters right in 3d. Following games like Sunshine and Twilight Princess we have standardized looks for most of the cast, so it only makes sense to reuse assets and visuals, aside from the smaller gaps in power.
 

smashingDoug

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 9, 2014
Messages
1,623
Location
Behind you.
I would love agree with you but the redesigns of Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf would contradict this statement a lot more than you think
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom