My essay as to why I think clones are necessary for future Smash Bros. insallments...

[Hestix]

I was 7 years old and traded my friend an Alakazam and Gengar for his N64, but he cheated me! He wanted more cards for the cords and controllers, so I gave him Blastoise, Gyarados and Vileplume for the controllers, AV cord, and power cord. Then 1 Charizard for SSB64, Mario Kart 64, Star Fox 64, Kirby The Crystal Shards, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, Bomberman, Ocarina of Time, and Rayman: The Great Escape.

Bowser side---> NO REGRETS

 

[F00LY]

I saw the commercials and heard a little hype on the internet. Me and my friend bought it and spent weeks trying to do break the targets to unlock Luigi...we couldn't figure out how to reach one of them. I forget which one, when all you had to do was smash through a wall. Haha.

 

[Trela]

I wuz like 5 or 6 when I got SSB64 LOL

My brother is the reason I love Smash. He used to beat me EVERY game in Melee, so I started "looking" around for things like the Advanced How To Play Video. Now he hates fighting me for some reason d:

=Trela=

 

[:mad:]

I originally played Smash 64, like most people.
I used Captain Falcon because I never heard of him until Smash. xD
And after that, I used Ness every game since.

 

[reedkmeister]

I went over to my cousins house to go play some games with him, and he said he got a new game. He said it was the best game he ever played, but when he told me about it I thought it sounded stupid. When I finally got to his house, I immediatly freaked out! I saw Kirby killing Mario!

Mario was my favorite character way back then and so I had to redeem him. At first I was just button mashing, but then once I got used to the way the game played and all of the moves, I started to well. Ever since then I've had all three of the games and it's always been a blast to have friends come over and play.

 

[Swordmaster69]

I first got into in when like 10 years ago when I was 7 or 6 my dad rented a game for me and it was that. Me and my cousin loved it and got my dad to buy for me, and ever since then I've been hooked. I remember seeing the commercial for Melee and I was so excited for it!

 

[Aranqualla]

SSB 64. Nonstop fun for months

 

[Best101]

I saw a commercial for Smash 64 and got it the day it came out. I've played the Smash Bros. games nearly every day up to now.

 

[Lemonwater]

SSB 64. Nonstop fun for months

More like nonstop fun for years. I still play it and love it lol

 

[Thunder Of Zeus]

Well, my brother got an N64 for his birthday one year. the second game we got was smash. once we got it and our cousins played it, they got 64 and ssb as well. when melee came out we were already hooked tho all we did was spam across A since we were in our early elementary school years but last year my cousin and I delved into the competitive world of melee and JUST last month we got brawl and a wii. So here we are years later playing the game as devotedly as ever. Just two days ago we revisited 64 and thoroughly enjoyed the terrible graphics lack of >B and no rolling shield / step dodging
happy 10 years

 

[fabianmo]

Back when I used to live in the Bahamas my neighboor had the game, and I practilly lived in that house lol
We used to be 4, and always played with items lulz
I remember playing with Kirby and only doing grab and throw to the right, it was so much fun

 

[ChronoBound]

I editted the opening post, and added a new essay for the Smash community to discuss. The topic this week is about how we become fans of series we never played before due to the inclusion of characters from Nintendo's many different series. I would like you all to share your thoughts on the essay as well as whether you all ever became a fan of a certain series due to the inclusion of a character in Smash Bros.

 

[Dokutayuu]

I'd never played a Star Fox game before I tried Lylat Wars in the Masterpieces. Great game. I'm tempted to hunt down others in the series.

 

[DylantheNinja]

I was a little late on the super smash bros thing. What happened was my aunt got an N64 with a bunch of games, and she gave us super smash bros. Now, my friends had been telling me about this game for quite some time, but none of them had owned it, and only played it like twice, and I had never played it. man I was little back then. I still remember the first time I met Captain Falcon. He was the first mystery char (Jiggs was already unlocked on it) and I fought him on Zebes. I was like woah. When he pulled out his up b I didn't know what to think. I was truly dumbfounded. My friends always sang the praises of Ness, only they called him Nez. I tried so long to unlock Ness, but I didn't know how. First I though it was normal mode, no die. I did that, nothing. Then I thought it was hard mode, no continue. I tried for months to beat hard no continue (I was little).Once I did, nothing happened. I gave up after beating hard no die, and didn't unlock Ness until MUCH later, after a kid I met on a vacation told me it was normal, three lives, no continue (I always bumped it up to 5). Those were good times. I had no clue who fox, samus, C Falcon, Ness, or Yoshi were. Now StarFox, Metroid, and F Zero are some of my favorite games.

 

[justaway12]

when Melee was realeased I got star fox assult.
When Brawl was realeased my sister and me got radient dawn, she (by herself) got shadow dragon.

 

[.Kiyo]

When it first came out, I loved it only because I could play as Kirby some more. Kirby, being my favorite icon at the time, in a fighter? That was so cash I had to have it. It's not like that anymore, but I never looked back and thought if this game was for me or not.

 

[beenman]

For me smash bros origianl was my first ever nintendo game, and i rarley play any nintendo games that arn't part of smash bros (excluding trophies cause those things cover almost ALL games).

 

[Jimnymebob]

I never played an actual Mario game before Super Paper Mario, and the first main game I played was Mario 64 on the VC, although I got SMB and Galaxy the same day.

Seriously.

I'm not sure SSB influenced me on this, but probably, because the game got me into wanting a Gamecube for Melee, and a Wii for Brawl.
I probably wouldn't have been interested in any of the series, except Pokemon, if it wasn't for SSB.

 

[Frown]

I knew nothing about Nintendo berfore SSB.

Now, I'm a happy Nintendo nerd.

 

[MarthFanatique]

For me, I never heard of Metroid, Mother/Earthbound, F-Zero, Fire Emblem, Star Fox, Game & Watch, Metal Gear Solid (sadly yes; I never heard of Snake until his creator did the famous begging Sakurai event during Melee's production). Those series were introduced to me by Smash. I played Fox in the 64 version, and was all like, "Woah, a fox. Cool!" I remember that I used Fox's up-b before and he lit on fire, and I was all scared and excited and confused! I thought, "Holy crap! He just caught fire and flew into the air!" My video game collection is the SNES, GBC, GBA, PS2, GC, Wii, DS. As you can see, there is a big gap between the SNES and PS2 era. I was pretty ignorant of all of it. I was...retro until I got my PS2!

 

[Patinator]

To be honest, I didn't know what a "franchise" was when I was little. I didn't know what a "Nintendo" was, until I got the internet, which was after I got the GameCube in '04. All I knew was Mario, Bomberman, Pokemon, and Glover after getting them for my N64.

When I got my hands on Melee, I was introduced to everything but the above. I've got at least one game in each series, except for the weird ones. Star Fox Command and now Assault, Metroid Prime 3 and Hunters, Fire Emblem Sacred Stones, Radiant Dawn, and now Path of Radiance, LoZ: Twilight Princess and Phantom Hourglass... Uhhh... My mind's gone blank now.

 

[Sonic Phantom]

This:
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=44CRrJVhUIo

oh man, those DBR videos. Those definitely got me into playing Smash on a competitive level. Anyways, my first encounter with Smash was the 64 version. I went over to my friends house daily to play it with him and rented it quite often until I bought it from Circuit City (business went chapter 11 recently) order to same money from continuous renting. Those were the days, epic Pikachu versus Kirby battles. Midway through Melee's time before Brawl, I began playing Smash competitively during the same time that all the friends I used to play with stopped. I can still get them to play occasionally; it's funny how they still play decently even after five years. Like riding a bike I guess.

 

[pikpikcarrotmon]

My local McDonald's had different Nintendo 64 games available for limited play including Super Smash Bros. and Donkey Kong 64. Target had Ocarina of Time set up. When I eventually got my N64, it came with Zelda and I later bought DK64. I didn't pick up Smash Bros. until Melee, though, and once I played that for a bit, I got into Fire Emblem and Metroid Prime, now both among my favorite series. And I'll admit that on my VC, I've got Super Metroid, Kid Icarus, F-Zero X, Star Fox 64, Ocarina of Time (I got rid of my N64 when I got a GCN), Kirby + Crystal Shards, and even Yoshi's Story.

All because of Smash Bros. The darn thing is one enormous Nintendo advertisement!

 

[§leepy God]

Well, Fire Embelm and Mother/Earthbound. That's all for me because I knew most of the characters in the game already.

 

[SmashBrother2008]

No, I got into smash because of other game series.

 

[Meccs]

using Rashid's post as an outline:
I got the game for my 8th birthday (as my second N64 game), the only characters I knew were: people from Mario Kart 64, DK, every single Pokemon, that guy from legend of zelda, and the fox guy from that airplane game.

Mario: Cool, I love Mario Kart 64
Luigi: AWESOME! (proceeds to use a lot along with Pikachu)
Link: Wait, isn't that supposed to be Zelda?
Samus: Cool, a robot. IT'S A GIRL???!!
Pikachu: Yay, I love Pokemon! (proceeds to use a lot)
Jigglypuff: I don't care about Jigglypuff, but her down-B is cool!
Fox: Huh, I've played this game at my cousin's house, this guy's pretty cool I guess
DK: I've never played any DK games so IDK... but giant Donkey Kong is cool.
Captain Falcon: Who?
Kirby: cool, he can eat people!
Ness: I have no clue who he is, but this kid is the coolest character ever! I love PK Thunder! Is he from Kirby? (thought caused by the fact that you fight Ness at Kirby's stage)(proceeds to use a lot along with Pikachu and Luigi)
Yoshi: I know this guy, I've rented Yoshi's Story! Don't care for him much.

fun fact: I had no idea about adding CPU players in multiplayer, so for the first year or so I had the game, all I played by myself was one player XD
my first battle was me as Pikachu, and my dad as Yoshi. The first character I've tried in Melee and Brawl has also been Pikachu.

but I'm a MOTHER fan because of Smash Bros.

 

[Roy-Kun]

When I saw for the first time Super Smash Brothers, I had a fangasm. Probably the biggest fangasm I've ever had (loltoomuchinfoamirite?)

I mean, come on! In the game was Mario, Link, Kirby, Fox, Pikachu, DK, Yoshi and Samus! Without counting the 4 other surprising characters (except for one IMO): Luigi, C. Falcon, Ness and... Jigglypuff.

The only character that I didn't like (and still don't like) is Jigglypuff, the rest was fine by me.

 

[Kowz]

Well, I was 4-5 when melee first came out and I played it with my 14-15 year old brother. I was fail, but so was he. All items, Link vs. Young Link (me). Timed...good times, good times lol.

Anyway, about 6 years later I got it for myself. Then 2 years after that played it with my friends, found out about brawl...so on and so forth...

I <3 Brawl

 

[Nicole]

Man...I think I got Smash64 in 6th grade...I definitely knew most of the characters, except C. Falcon, Samus (who I thought was a man or robot), and Ness. But playing all 3 of the Smash games in general inspired me to play the Metroid series, Earthbound, Pikmin, and I even bought a R.O.B. on Amazon!

So Smash is not only insanely fun as is, but opens doors to other insanely fun games. How cool.

 

[CRASHiC]

Which kind of font do you suggest for me to change it to?

Edit: This is the normal font, albeit, only with a much larger size for easier reading.

JOKEWOOD
Jokewood rules

 

[yummynbeefy]

i got kid icarus on virtual console
i also had no idea who link was before i played smash 64 then i got ocarina of time and i was like whoa this game is awesome

 

[ExCeL 52]

I knew nothing about Nintendo berfore SSB.

Now, I'm a happy Nintendo nerd.

Wow.. thats freaking crazy..
As for me? No. Ive also loved Nintendo and I have alot of the platformers.

 

[Kraryo]

Before Smash, I never heard of Ness, but now I want them to release Earthbound on the Virtual Console (if they are really nice, then they'll rerelease it sometime before the end of time). I rented out Pikmin 2, because I liked that Olimar was really unique. I guess that Captain Falcon is alright, even though the only reason I like him is because he's the worst character.

 

[Red Arremer]

Yea, I got interested in the Stafy and Sin & Punishment series. Stafy I knew of before, though. The other series and games in Smash I already knew of. All of 'em. And played most of 'em, as well.

 

[kingdom-triforce]

The Smash series really got me into the Fire Emblem and Starfox series. A bit in the Metroid but not too much.

 

[Hyrus]

No... it actually turned me off to games i've never heard of :^p

 

[Browny]

Yep...

ive never owned a Sonic game in my life, as soon as i heard he was gonna be in brawl I decided id try his games out. Since then ive ended up 'acquring' sonic heroes/2006/rush 2/chronicles I also hadnt touched pokemon since spahhire came out, but only very recently got pokemon diamond, all so i could get a Lucario, and to hear the original dialga/palkia battle theme which is awesome in brawl

 

[MarthFanatique]

Yep...

ive never owned a Sonic game in my life, as soon as i heard he was gonna be in brawl I decided id try his games out. Since then ive ended up 'acquring' sonic heroes/2006/rush 2/chronicles I also hadnt touched pokemon since spahhire came out, but only very recently got pokemon diamond, all so i could get a Lucario, and to hear the original dialga/palkia battle theme which is awesome in brawl

Current Sonic games aren't quite as good as the old Genesis ones.

In terms of Pokémon, well, Lucario isn't as beasty as he is in Brawl. His defensive stats (HP, Def., and Sp. Def.) aren't extremely good. The few things that I do like about him are: he's STEEL-fighting (it's both a unique blend of types and it has STEEL in it!), learns Aura Sphere, Close Combat, Psychic (via TM), and Flash Cannon (via TM; my favorite Steel-type move). DP music in Brawl is awesome, but I would have preferred some Johto songs...

 

[Ice!]

I started playing Earthbound because of Smash Bros., I really like Ness, but I don't like Lucas too much.

 

[pikpikcarrotmon]

Lucario isn't as beasty as he is in Brawl.

ehwut

Lucario in the game is even more beastly than it is in Brawl. Its super-diverse move pool and base stats allow it to perform as a physical sweeper, special sweeper, or mixed sweeper all equally well, making it one of the most versatile Pokemon used in competitive play. When going up against a Lucario prediction is made much more difficult since it can pull almost anything out of its hat.