Super Smash Bros. can be considered as one of Nintendo's biggest series, bringing together characters from all of Nintendo's history and beyond. Smash has not only featured characters from other series but has also influenced others to revive or rebrand themselves. Today, we're taking a look at the series that have received the most influence from Smash to become what they are right now.
We begin with one of the prime examples of the great changes that Smash can make: the Fire Emblem series.
Fire Emblem
Roy and Marth, the first Fire Emblem characters to appear in Smash
Back in Melee, no one outside Japan knew those odd characters that spoke Japanese. They hailed from a JRPG series called Fire Emblem. But even people in Japan did not know who Roy was. It was his first time ever to appear in a game, and it wasn't his home series.
Roy and Marth, the first Fire Emblem characters to appear in Smash
Melee brought knowledge of Roy to the world as his upcoming game, Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade was near launching and the development team wanted a way to spread the word about him. However, The Binding Blade was kept a Japan-only title.
As Roy had never appeared in a game, the development team behind Melee had little base to start from, and they decided to build him a personality that, in the end, did not match the Roy depicted in The Binding Blade.
But that's enough of Roy Now it's time for the blue haired, Japanese-speaking guy.
Marth was the protagonist of the first Fire Emblem game, released only in Japan, which is why he had such success with Japanese audiences. However, the west was just starting to hear about him and his red-haired compatriot. They were both considered at a point to be Japan-only characters, but the team saw the chance to give Fire Emblem publicity around the world, and that's how they ended up in the western versions of Melee. Marth was also at one point considered to be in Smash 64, but the idea was later scrapped and the desire to include him remained, hence his appearance in Melee.
Another scrapped idea was a stage in Melee, the Kingdom of Akaneia. It appears in the debug mode as "AKANEIA", but it cannot be accessed. Thus, the Fire Emblem characters were left without a home stage. This affects the Fire Emblem characters' appearances in various modes, such as Marth's appearance in Classic Mode and Event Match #46 both taking place at Hyrule Temple.
When Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken ("Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword", or just "Fire Emblem") launched in 2003, it was a huge success, especially in America and Europe, and it was all thanks to the fame the series got with Melee. To this day, Fire Emblem is one of the most recognized RPG series in the west and has become well-established with American and European audiences.
Roy was the only publicity-aimed addition to a Smash roster until last month, when Corrin from Fire Emblem: Fates was announced to release two weeks before the actual game released in America.
If it weren't for Smash, Fire Emblem would have never seen a western release, or, if it had, it would not have met the large amount of success it has achieved over the years. This makes Fire Emblem one of the prime examples of Smash's influence.
F-Zero and Earthbound
Lucas and Captain Falcon on the Onett stage.
They are both series that were somehow forgotten, or left out of the main course of gaming. But both series have received so much special care in the Smash series, that in a way, these two franchises are still alive.
The first one is the F-Zero series. Its main protagonist, Captain Douglas Jay Falcon, or just Captain Falcon, is a super-sonic speed racer and bounty hunter. However, his appearance in Smash 64 was not as established as it may look, despite being one of the franchise's staples today.
As many of you may know, unlockable characters in Smash 64 were all somehow clone characters, using recycled assets from other characters. Captain Falcon used Samus's models and moves, combined with the original character designs for what could have been Smash if it weren't for Sakurai, another game called Dragon King: The Fighting Game. This was all added into the roster pretty late in development.
F-Zero hasn't had a game in over a decade but still manages to stay alive with Captain Falcon's inclusion in Smash, remaining one of Nintendo's most recognized racing series.
The other one is the Earthbound series, known in Japan as Mother. Mother is an amazing RPG series with incredible stories, and two of its protagonists are duking it out in Smash. Ness first appeared on the SNES game Earthbound (or Mother 2) and was part of the original Smash cast. Lucas, on the other hand, first appeared in Brawl and now he's back in Smash as a DLC character.
However, that wasn't always the original plan. As you can see by Ness's Melee website description (here's a translation, done by Source Gaming), Ness was at some point planned to be replaced by "Mother 3's protagonist" (Lucas) for a similar reason as Roy's inclusion to the game. In the end he was scrapped due to the risks of delays.
Ness and Lucas are iconic thanks to their appearances in both Brawl and Wii U. Although Mother 2 was once localized (as Earthbound) and Mother was planned to follow suit (it is now under the name Earthbound Beginnings, but solid evidence suggests that it would have been localized years ago under the name Earthbound Zero), Mother 3 is left, and many fans of the series, as well as people who got into it because of Smash, are requesting a localization, even though it has been ten years since the original release.
Both are immensely iconic franchises that were largely forgotten by Nintendo but are still in the hearts of many fans. Smash has kept them alive and fresh to newer audiences.
Pokémon
One of the most discussed topics is Jigglypuff's inclusion in Smash 64
Well, it was popular as a new, flashy thing in Japan. It even had an anime series, and an enormous fanbase. In fact, nobody has ever complained about or discussed Pikachu's appearance (maybe because he's actually a good character?). That's not the case for Jigglypuff. You see, Sakurai has stated before that Jigglypuff was sort of a joke character and that its power to make foes fall asleep was a fun idea to play with. Therefore, Jigglypuff was not intended to be a "serious character".
As stated before, Pokémon had an anime series, which made Jigglypuff very popular in Japan, as well as the whole franchise; but it did not have that kind of massive success overseas. It was a good title, but they needed more publicity, and that's where Smash came in.
Smash took in Jigglypuff near completion, included as a sort of joke character, since the anime series was a huge success, and it was easier to do because they could reuse Kirby's model and some animations.
Kirby
Smash developer, Masahiro Sakurai is also the creator of the Kirby series
In some games, Kirby has had an an ability called "Smash" (The Amazing Mirror, the 20th Anniversary Special Edition, and the recently announced Planet Robobot), which uses his trademark moveset from the Smash series. Even Master Hand and Crazy Hand appear as bosses in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror. In addition, the Fountain of Dreams track from Melee was later reused in Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land.
Kirby has also influenced Smash in many ways. The All-Star Mode Rest Area theme is the same one as in Kirby series Colosseum Mode. Additionally, the idea of an All-Star Mode comes from Kirby's Colosseum Mode, where Kirby faces against enemies with only one life and three life regeneration items. It doesn't come as much of a surprise because, as we have said before, Masahiro Sakurai is the creator of both series.
Kid Icarus
Sora Ltd. (Masahiro Sakurai's company) produced Kid Icarus: Uprising
Before Uprising came out, the Kid Icarus series was in a serious drought. Not until 2008 did Pit and Palutena see the light once again with the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. These characters received major redesigns that were more fitting for the modern era and consoles.
Sora Ltd. (Masahiro Sakurai's company) produced Kid Icarus: Uprising
The Brawl redesign was the base for reviving the franchise. Interestinglyenough, Sakurai'scompany Sora Ltd. took the project of doing a new Kid Icarus game. This title entered the market under the name "Kid Icarus: Uprising", and is now one of the most successful 3DS games to this day.
It certainly was an Uprising, as there were two newcomers to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U that came from that franchise: Palutena and Dark Pit. Dark Pit was an alternate costume of Pit back in Brawl who then became his own character in Kid Icarus: Uprising. In Smash 4, he was once against planned to be another palette swap, but his many differences from the original Pit drew him more to the "Clone Zone", leading fans to mistakenly believe that "Dark Pit took the spot that another character could have used". Sakurai has stated that this is not true, because they were separated from their main characters more deep into development and that the clones were more of an "extra".
Retro Franchises
Mr Game & Watch, the Ice Climbers, R.O.B., and Duck Hunt are seen as the "8-bit era ambassadors"
We are sure that until Smash 4 came out, many of you thought that beating a certain smug dog's face could only ever be a dream. Similarly, nobody would have ever expected him and other childhood icons like R.O.B. and the Ice Climbers to be in Smash.
Mr Game & Watch, the Ice Climbers, R.O.B., and Duck Hunt are seen as the "8-bit era ambassadors"
Sakurai himself has stated that these characters were sort of ambassadors of the 8-bit era, but these are only the ones that made it into the game. Other 8-bit characters that were considered to be in Melee were the Excitebike Racer from Excitebike, Bubble from Clu Clu Land, Urban Champion from Urban Champion, and Balloon Fighter from Balloon Fight.
Smash has surely brought some retro to the scene and knowledge of Nintendo's past to newer generations. Anyone else notice that a lot of these characters are named after their games? (Or are their games named after them?)
Third Party Franchises
Cloud and Sonic, both iconic, non-Nintendo, figures in their respective genres.
Solid Snake, Sonic the Hedgehog, PAC-MAN, [Super Fighting Robot] Mega Man, Ryu, Cloud Strife, and Bayonetta. Twn years ago it would have sounded crazy to say that these characters would be in Smash.
Cloud and Sonic, both iconic, non-Nintendo, figures in their respective genres.
As crazy as it may sound, the first two characters were considered to be in Melee, but they did not make it due to time constraints. They both appeared in Brawl, making the bonds between Nintendo and the producers of both series stronger than ever. Sega and Nintendo were known to have a huge rivalry, but with Sonic's inclusion in Smash and their constant partnership to release Olympic Games titles.
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS was developed in partnership with Bandai Namco, which resulted in
PAC-MAN roster and the striking resemblance of the Final Destination stage with the Soul Calibur series' trademark blades..
Cloud's inclusion into the roster was also a bond-maker with Square Enix, as it was also announced that another Final Fantasy (spin-off) title was being published on a Nintendo console under the name Final Fantasy Explorers.
In the late 80s and early 90s, Nintendo published the whole [Super Fighting Robot] Mega Man series, a huge success in the platformer-shooter genre, and recently a compilation of the original series called Mega Man Legacy Collection. Does this indicate the revival of one of the industry's most beloved franchises? Who knows? But one thing is sure. Another Capcom franchise, Street Fighter, is in fact, more active than ever, with Ryu appearing in Smash and the recent release of Street Fighter V.
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So what do you think? How influential do you consider Smash to be? Did you learn anything new from this? Let us know in the comments!
Author's Note: A lot of information in this article was from Source Gaming or translated by them, so i wanted to give a huge thanks to them. Go check them out and follow them on Twitter @AllSourceGaming.
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