How did you get started playing Smash?

[AeroFalcon]

The first time I played was when I went to the beach my cousin. He told me about this game with all these Nintendo characters. I asked him if it had Link, and when he said yes I was so excited. (I was obsessed with the Legend of Zelda back then) That game was Super Smash Brothers Melee. I played that game so much over those 3 days we spent there. It blew my mind that you could play as whatever Nintendo character you wanted. I had a Nintendo 64, but somehow I never heard of Super Smash Brothers 64. Regardless, I got Melee as soon as possible. You can't imagine how excited I was when I heard about Brawl. The idea of playing online with people was great. So here I am today, and I still love the game. So, what's your story?

 

[SuperMetroid44]

I got into SSB because of my cousin. She had a N64 and SSB, I had a N64 but I never heard about it until she told me. I was so excited when she said "You could play as Kirby!" I was a big Kirby-freak back then. We played it nonstop the whole day and unlocked all the characters and everything, when SSBM came out, I was like "Whoa, I gotta get that!" and I did like a couple weeks later, I was slightly disappointed on how Kirby was nerfed, but I still loved it to death. And hearing Peach was playable, that only got me more excited to play the game, and ever since then, I've loved SSB. SSBB coming out was also great, I hope I explained that right lol This was around 2001 when SSBM just came out, which is why I heard of the game when I did. My cousin, she started caring less about games as she got older, but I always thank her for getting me into the series.

 

[Beninator]

I got Brawl for Christmas, and over the summer, I got Melee off eBay (I heard from friends it was better.) I later attended a local tournament, and I preformed well. I now attend tournaments at my library every month.

I got SM64 in November, because I wanted to have it.

 

[Gatlin]

It is really hard to even remember playing Smash 64, I think I was only around the age of 7 when it came out. I do remember that I was living in California at the time and had a friend who had the game. I didn't really understand how to play so I just pressed random buttons and hoped to achieve something. I also didn't know like any of the characters at that time except for Link, so I chose him nearly every time. Then when I moved from California to Arizona a year or so later, I kind of grew out of Nintendo and switched over to Playstation, which lasted pretty much until the Wii was released.

Even when the Wii was released, I was in no hurry really to get any games, all I had was Mario Galaxy which didn't last too long. I never really viewed the Wii as being much of a gaming console, I even sold my first one to my Uncle who had purchased "Wii Fit" previously for it. It wasn't until I visited his house and played Wii Fit before I knew the Wii could actually entertain me. Wii Fit lasted pretty much all of that Summer before it finally got fairly repetitive and boring. I had some spare money at the time, so I figured I would check out Gamestop to see if I could find anything worth buying.

I looked around for a little bit, and noticed Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and I remembered that it was fun to play the N64 version when I was younger so I bought it. I had no idea what Melee was at that time, so I kinda skipped over it by accident. I thought Brawl was really fun, even though I was still terrible at it, and had no idea what an "FAir" or "tilt" was. I played through the Subspace Emissary which I personally thoroughly enjoyed. It got me a lot more knowledgeable about the game, but I wanted to still learn more, so I randomly found this site two months later, and... yeah.

 

[FIREL]

N64... Discovered tons on of crap on that and never got bored. I would play 99 minute matches or 99 stock matches, and finish them. If i can remeber, i think we got a used version at a near by video game store. Never got melee. And now brawl....

 

[Roller]

Smash64, my friend across the street got it and I remember thinking it was the coolest idea ever. Immediately became hooked. And here we are over a decade later...

 

[Sephy95]

It was about 12 years ago. I can remember playing it when I was in pre-kinder. I think I owe it to my cousin when I used to visit him weekly and play N64. He got SSB64 and I immediatly got into it. We started seeing less of eachother so my parents got me an N64 and SSB64(along with Paper Mario). The years continued as I got SSBM and SSBB.

 

[MarthTrinity]

I remember getting a copy of Tips & Tricks back in the day that had Smash 64 on the cover and became interested in it from that. That and the amazing commercial for Smash 64...

 

[MonkUnit]

I'm surprised by the amount of people that went from SSB64 to Brawl and skipped melee.

 

[SupaSairentoZ7℠]

I was introduced to Smash by a friend way back when the N64 was still the popular system. I quickly got very addicted to the game.

 

[Life]

64 for first time: Huh, this is kinda cool.
Melee for first time: Huh, this is kinda cool.
*a couple years pass*
NP article on Melee: Whoa, people still play this? Cool. *picks up again for a while*
*more time passes*
Gamefaqs: Wait, Melee is the most active Gamecube board? *plays more, learns a couple ATs* (I don't go there anymore, lol)
And then Brawl was announced, and I was hyped.

 

[Supreme Dirt]

12 years ago, wrecking my friends at Smash 64 on release day (I think, I was 7 years old, excuse me if I can't remember perfectly).

I was an epic 7 years old, and the only one who had a grasp on techskill of any kind.

*EDIT* lol not 15, chronology fail. Which also means I was 7. Damn my *** memory. w/e, it was around when 64 was released.

 

[OmegaZeroX]

I'd say it was about 12 years ago...The year was 1999, I remember being at home with my N64 and then this intruiging comercial of my favorite nintendo characters started to appear, they were frolicing in a meadow...then they started beating up each other, I remember thinking "Hahaha wtf!?" then I figured out it was a comercial for a NEW N64 Game. And as soon as I had finished seeing the comercial, I went straight to my parents and told them "I want that game!" Ah yes...I also remembered that my parents would NOT get me the game until I came to an agreement of taking a shot...and I hated needles at the time badly, but nonetheless I did it for the game. But once I played it the first time I thought to myself "OMFG I need to fight someone!" XD then that's when I got competitive in the game. Then later I was introduce to Melee then Brawl.
But those were good memories nonetheless, I feel good sharing this type of information since I know most people have nostalgia when they play the game. I still own SSB64 and I'm hapy for that. Forever will my childhood stay in the game...

 

[Onomanic]

I went to a friend's house in like 2004, when I was around 8 or 9 and they had Melee. I knew nothing of Nintendo, I hardly had any video games growing up. I loved playing outside and fighting monsters with my swords and shields, so when I played Melee, I gravitated towards Link, because he had a sword and shield. I played with my brother for hours a day like 2 years. It was a lot of fun, discovering you could shield and roll and grab. Oh boy. It wasn't until Brawl that finally got me onto SWF, where I went back to Melee to learn the ATs, for fun. I've now balanced both, and play some mods as well.

 

[EmperorB-rad2kj]

Cant quite recall my memory isnt the best, I cant re-call anything from my childhood tbh but it was when I was 5 or 6. Everything I had was nintendo. I knew about other systems but didnt even consider them. N64 was when I was introduced and ive played ever since. 12 years of experience and still going.

 

[BirthNote]

I'd say it was about 12 years ago...The year was 1999, I remember being at home with my N64 and then this intruiging comercial of my favorite nintendo characters started to appear, they were frolicing in a meadow...then they started beating up each other, I remember thinking "Hahaha wtf!?" then I figured out it was a comercial for a NEW N64 Game. And as soon as I had finished seeing the comercial, I went straight to my parents and told them "I want that game!"

LOL, that's EXACTLY how my brother and I reacted when we saw the commercial. XD

Anyway, we got the game 2 days after seeing the commercial and we loved it. Then, years later in 2002, I was walking in Target. I looked at the games and said "What? They made a part 2 to Super Smash Bros?! Mom! Can we get this?!" We did, and we loved that game even more. I played Melee for a while, took a break from it for about a year and then tried it again in 2005--that's when I got better. Before, I would always lose to my brother. He picked Fox and I picked Dr. Mario. When I first got the game, I had NO idea that Mario's cape could reverse moves. When I found out, all of my brother's mind games were useless >:D.

So anyway, I was still playing Melee in 2005. When E3 came around, I saw nothing but one amazing game after the next--Halo 3, Mario Galaxy, etc. Then at the end I saw Brawl's trailer and I went through the roof when I saw Solid Snake. As soon as he lifted the box, I was all "OMG WHAT'S HE DOING HERE!? This is AMAZING!!" I got the game on its release date.

 

[Sephy95]

12 years ago, wrecking my friends at Smash 64 on release day (I think, I was 7 years old, excuse me if I can't remember perfectly).

I was an epic 7 years old, and the only one who had a grasp on techskill of any kind.

*EDIT* lol not 15, chronology fail. Which also means I was 7. Damn my *** memory. w/e, it was around when 64 was released.

I'd say it was about 12 years ago...The year was 1999, I remember being at home with my N64 and then this intruiging comercial of my favorite nintendo characters started to appear, they were frolicing in a meadow...then they started beating up each other, I remember thinking "Hahaha wtf!?" then I figured out it was a comercial for a NEW N64 Game. And as soon as I had finished seeing the comercial, I went straight to my parents and told them "I want that game!" Ah yes...I also remembered that my parents would NOT get me the game until I came to an agreement of taking a shot...and I hated needles at the time badly, but nonetheless I did it for the game. But once I played it the first time I thought to myself "OMFG I need to fight someone!" XD then that's when I got competitive in the game. Then later I was introduce to Melee then Brawl.
But those were good memories nonetheless, I feel good sharing this type of information since I know most people have nostalgia when they play the game. I still own SSB64 and I'm hapy for that. Forever will my childhood stay in the game...

12 must be a lucky number.

 

[OmegaZeroX]

12 must be a lucky number.

It might be. I might make it my lucky number from now on. Thanks for the idea.

 

[PCHU]

I was over at my (former) best friend's house, and he had Melee.
It was awhile back, but I remember picking Mewtwo (but I dropped him because he "sucked").
He kicked my tail over and over and over again (with items, of course), but I was always looking for a rematch.

It took me a few years, but I finally got Melee myself, and started off using...Link, I think?
I've gone through a lot (thought I was awesome when I first got a grasp on ATs, but I didn't know how to utilize them so I got trashed by a casual at my own birthday party; it was my 14th. After that, I started learning more stuff like waveshining, and thought that I was amazing; I got trashed by the Fox boards....and there's even more crap concerning Brawl and Falco's Bread <<.
But I'm glad my friend introduced me to Melee.
Thanks to him, I've gained respect among my local friends and perhaps some distant ones (though I can't say they're really friends).

It's been 4 years of Melee for me...fun stuff, fun stuff.

 

[Sephy95]

It might be. I might make it my lucky number from now on. Thanks for the idea.

Your very welcome good sir. Best of luck to you...

 

[CaptainFalcon9000]

i got into smash thanks to a cousin, he had a gamecube and meele, i also had a gamecube so i taked my controller to his house and we used to play for hours in tounaments, then i got meele.

 

[refugee]

I played the original SSB before this happened but w/e. The first time I played SSB and got into it was when I went over to someone's house and they had Melee. I was pretty excited about it because I always wanted to play as Kirby (but never had play any of the games). I wrecked the kid who was playing as Marth with a controller that didn't work through button mashing. After that I begged to get a GCN with Melee for Christmas. Got it and had tons of fun.

After awhile I stopped playing. Then I got back into Meele after a year and reading my first Nintendo Power magazine that there is possibly a new SSB in development. SSBB was announced the next year and I was hyped. Little did I know it would be another two years for this game to come out. Brawl finally comes out and I had fun for weeks. After realizing how crappy the online was, along with my brothers losing interest in the game, and also noticing flaws like tripping, I slowly stopped playing the game.

A few years later, one of my brothers asked me if I wanted to play SSBB again. Since I had nothing better to do I said sure. I am now interested in SSB again and have a strong feeling that a 4th SSB will be announced this E3 with the new console. Thus concludes a very condensed history of SSB and me.

 

[TSM ZeRo]

Nintendo 64, what is that? It's a plane? No, it's a videogame console!

I was a nintendo fan since the beggining of the SNES era (I loved Super Mario Bros All Stars+ Mario World). My mom bought me a N64 with a Smash 64 cartridge with it it, because she tought it was cool (the box had Mario, my favorite character back then). I got addicted to the game (I was like 6-7 years old) I played it every day after school! My characters were Fox and Mario/Link.

Purple Lunchbox!

In 2002, my mom bought me a GameCube. I enjoyed Melee much more than 64. In 2006 I discovered Smashboards, and in 2007 (or late 2006) tournaments. Learning wavedash and L-Cancel for the first time is a great memory . I used to play with items ON, but when I discovered Smashboards, I discovered techniques like Wavedashing, L-Cancel, Short Hop, SHFL, etc. My characters were Fox (my favorite) and Falco. I was so impressed with everything I could do with both characters! Thanks Smashboards! In my first tournament, I got 17th out of 40. In my second and third tournament I got 2nd. And in my fourth tournament, I took 1st place. Those memories always bring a tear to my eyes

Nintendo Wiiiiiii

I never got the money to buy a Wii, but I liked Brawl a lot. I took second or first at every tournament I attended for it, I played with Meta Knight and Ice Climbers since the beggining. I took 7th in the Chilean National tournament in 2009 (with Ice Climbers, and without chaingrabs, because they were banned) This year, I won the national tournament with Meta Knight! It felt great This year I bought my wii with Brawl, and it's great. I can practice whenever I want now! The only thing that I didn't liked in this game was Fox (and L-Cancelling)

Now:

I go to a lot of tournaments (the closest smash scene is 5 hours away of my city), I met new people every month with the same likes, travel around the country, it's been great, and I have loved every second of my experience with the game.

I love Smash!

 

[Shawn101589]

In 1998, my mom would take us to Hollywood Video every week to rent a game. I fell in love with smash 64 and used to play it with my brother constantly. We would have 50 stock matches with 2 level 9s, all items on. For 3 months straight we rented it every week, and then my mom finally caved and just bought it realizing it would save her money in the long run

We played it for a while, and I started hearing about Melee coming out and got very excited. I begged my mom for a gamecube and unfortunately never got one.

There were a few times between 2001 and 2004 that I was able to play Melee at my cousins house, but they were mainly interested in Halo (they owned both systems) so I never got to play for long.

In 2005 I was a freshman in high school and I met these kids Travis and Derrek. We started hanging out quite a bit and the first time I went to Travis' house, and saw that he had a GC. The first thing I asked was if he had Melee, and he said that was all that they played. I started telling him about how I was amazing as Smash 64, and they both kind of scoffed at me saying there was no way I could beat them. I was a bit taken aback, how could they be so sure of themselves that they could beat me in this party game?

Boy was I wrong. They were far better then I. Granted, their knowledge of the game was very basic compared to what we all know today, they didn't wd, L cancel, etc. They just knew how to space, how to spot dodge proficiently, etc. I was astounded. I wanted to learn. Could this game that I have always yearned to own have a competitive nature to it?

So I practiced. For the next 2 years I played with them at least two days a week. We started learning about advanced techniques, practicing them often.


We heard about a tournament that was happening in our local mall, and practiced even harder. I eventually surpassed Derrek, and Travis and I have been very even ever since, learning at generally the same pace. We all went to it, and we all did fairly well, but were completely destroyed by "Haiyoto" (who I think said he was on this board but idr what his name was, his tag at the tournament was "Kirby" ) and his brother who I remember dominating me with Link ._.


We kept playing inside our own clique, never really traveling to tournaments. Just kept improving in any way we could.



When Brawl came out, we were all very disappointed with it. We went back to Melee and were hoping that other people would to.


Eventually through a mutual friend, we met Tichinde who is a very good player who happened to live around the block from us, and he came to see how good we were. When we met his expectations, he introduced us to ZoSo, and we have all become really solid friends.


We went to RoM 2 and had an amazing time.


I continue to improve to this day, after nearly 7 years of playing. I feel that my improvement was extremely slow due to lack of tournament experience, but I think I'm finally coming into my own as a very solid player. And I've made a lot of new friends, and been going to a lot more smashfests recently.





I didn't expect this post to be so long.

 

[Deleted member]

My dad bought the game and I played it. Never really had any idea that it existed before, didn't see anything, so it came at an incredibly pleasant surprise.

I have loved Smash ever since and every installment has been great. It has gone on to be my all-time favorite video game franchise and I will buy Project Cafe just for SSB4.

 

[Panta]

I went to a birthday party at a friend's house. After the party had basically ended and I was waiting for my parents to pick me up, my friend started to play Super Smash Brothers. I asked him if I could play and he said sure. This was the first time I had played a console game. I couldn't even hurt him I was so bad at the game. After a few matches of me basically jumping off the stage, my parents came and brought along my sister. She had played the game before at her own friend's house and then proceeded to team up with my friend and dominate me for about 20 minutes while our parents talked with each other.

I flipped out because I couldn't do anything to protect myself and protested to my parents to buy me the new console. They gave in after a few weeks of me constantly pestering them and that is how I began to smash. I was never really good at SSB because I mainly played Donkey Kong and Mario Party (I was pretty good at the multiplayer in that). However, when I bought Melee I blossomed into a true Smash Player maining Sheik and Fox. I've always preferred fast players like Fox, but I was disappointed what they did to him in Brawl. Same with Sheik. :| I really don't play Brawl actively anymore, but when I did Olimar was my favorite. And Luigi because of his back jump (a bunch of really smooth back flips). The little things please me, lmao.

 

[Benify]

SSB: Got it at my local Blockbuster, thinking it was a Mario game because it had Mario on the cover , but then I got something better ^_^ (eventually owned it)

SSBM: Went to a cousin's house for a while and he had melee, and I remembered so much fun I had playing SSB, I got it for my (I don't remember which) birthday.

SSBB: While looking on the internet for stuff to do on SSBM, looked on a Smash Bros website to see that Brawl will be coming for Wii, so much hype. (Got it a few months after it came out).

yep.

 

[Anthon1996]

I kinda remember seeing the Smash 64 commercial. That alone got me into getting it. I don't remember watching the commercial for Melee, but I do remember playing as Bowser on Peach's Castle at one of those little demo stations you see at places like Wal-Mart, probably in early 2002. I had to look up to the TV (which I hate). I probably won, because I'm Anthony. There were probably other people playing with me.

Then, I got Brawl one day after release, where my first match was against my brother on Pictochat, and I was Dedede, and he was Lucas. He won, which isn't funny. Should've saved a replay.

Those were the days.

 

[OmegaXXII]

12 must be a lucky number.

Strangly this would also apply to me, I first started playing SSB64 from my dear friend back in 2000, we ended up trading consoles for a while but in the time that it was in my possession, I had no complaints about it whatsoever, In fact I ended up loving the game but sadly
never played it again. nor would I play Melee until some years passed.

Yup. good times!

 

[SupaSairentoZ7℠]

Nobody can say that commercial wasn't responsible for me to getting into this game. XD

 

[PG-13]

When I was young my Cousin was playing Smash 64, which looked interesting, so I played it.
When Melee came it was THE game to play with friends, and I was really good at it. My mains were Falco and Pikachu. I was real nice with Falco, but that cousin I was talking about had a dangerous Sheik. I couldn't beat him, and my brother couldn't beat him, and we both together couldn't beat him. We played Melee from the day the game came out until the night before Brawl came out and we never beat that cousin until the day before Brawl came out. That night it took ALL of my Pikachu strength to beat him(none of us were tournament players so don't start going "WTF HOW IS A PIKACHU SUPPOSED TO KILL A SHEIK"). That made me really confident in Smash, and so now I am the best smasher in my city.

So over time, I became a pretty nice smasher. Nothing too special, but good. However, as for my cousin, his life became really busy with too much to do(he never did play too much brawl, but I remember he had a nice ZSS) and quit Smash Bros. He never did forget us though. When I was at his parent's house once, I asked where he took the N64 and his games when he left home because I wanted to play them. His parents told me he took them with when he left. That told me that he remembered me and his Smash legacy.
Well, thats my story.

 

[Teran]

Was like 9 years old and Smash 64 had an ad campaign on TV. Pikachu was in it. Rest was history.

 

[*rotaryTXR*]

2001 - My aunt gives me a package for my birthday. Inside was a GCN, silver controller, and SSBM.
Ended up that the disc went bald because I played it so much.

 

[Lahmaster]

I started playing Smash when I first hired out the original on the 64 at a local video store. That wasn't the only game I hired out of course. Sigh, the memories of the 64, I had so many of them.

 

[Yamato Hong]

I was born at the time when the N64 was most prominent. My sister and I rented Smash 64 and enjoyed it very much. The only characters I knew then were Mario, Link, Fox, and Kirby.

From there, I became a dedicated Nintendo gamer and eventually had a Gamecube, where Melee would be my first Smash game I owned. I found new interests in characters, especially those from the Fire Emblem series.

Melee has kept me company for years until Brawl came out. Ike became my main, while Marth serves as my secondary, and since 2010 I decided to play it at competitive level. After about a decade since I played the original, I want to return to playing it occasionally, so I download by virtual console. ^-^

 

[LAKing715]

When my parents got me a gc when it came out n they got me melee ^^

 

[SonicBOOM XS]

Sonic in Brawl. I was cruising around IGN and found that Sonic was going to be in Brawl. Went on the official Dojo site and read about the game.

You can't imagine my sadness when I was told I couldn't get the game.

So, I decided to get 64. Loved it, still play it. Eventually borrowed Brawl and loved it to death. Melee I played in my high school's video game club (yay lack of responsibilities in freshman year!) and owned at it, eventually.

So, yeah, it was in 2007 that I got into SSB.

 

[shinhed-echi]

Went to a friends house, saw it had Pikachu, Donkey Kong, Mario, Link, Star Fox, Jigglypuff, etc in it. I was all over the game.

I picked Ness, saw his yoyo and bat attacks, and I thought "who's this Mike ripoff? ... Oh well, he's got nice fire and lightning moves too" and I started maining him. Then before I knew it, I was obsessed with the game.

I even fell for an april fool's trick that you could unlock Metal Mario by playing Jiggs vs Jiggs 99 times...



Then Melee came along, and we were having even MORE fun. I don't remember who I was maining then... I think I was still going at Ness and Luigi, then a bit of Marth, before settling with Fox.

Then I was introduced to the competitive scene, and my Fox just couldn't keep up.. So I switched to Luigi, then Peach, and then Ice Climbers. Went to a bunch of tourneys and got together with friends to play all the time.


Brawl was announced and dang... I was obsessed with it. I was working now, and I was saving my sallary to buy a Wii and SSBB. I bought the wii and got Melee to practice. Then Brawl came out. When I first tried the controller, it felt like heaven...
Sure it was a bit floatier, but I could feel I had actual control over the characters now.

I enjoyed every entry to the fullest.

 

[Deleted member]

My first experience playing Smash was at my cousins' house. We were over for a little visit (we live in the same town), and they offered to play Melee. I remember that one of them was playing as Yoshi and I was playing as Pikachu, and the stage was Temple.

I eventually got a GameCube, I think in second or third grade, and about four months later I finally had a copy of Melee.

Not quite on-topic, but I remember, some time afterwards, going to a friend's house with my memory card and having him and another friend help unlock Luigi, Marth, Roy, and Pichu, none of whom I had known about. They also showed me Mr. Game & Watch and Mewtwo, and tried to convince me that Sonic and Knuckles were unlockable as well.

 

[BlueStar03]

My brother and his friends had Smash 64, I started to get into it with them and continued playing after they got bored with it. I anxiously awaited Melee, it was one of the most anticipated games of my life. Ever since the Smash Bros. games are an event for me.