Super Smash Bros. 4
Opening Cinematic Script - Edited
I’ve been writing two scripts for my ideal SSB4 opening. It comes in two versions; one “normal” version that plays if the player has not unlocked every collectible in the game (that includes characters, stages, music, trophies, stickers, etc.), and a “full” version that only plays once all collectibles have been unlocked.
The version is an
edited version; made because people felt the camera and music cues distracted them from reading and visualizing the actual action. So here is a version that removes all music cues and most camera cues (some remain just to give a sense of what you're looking at, but they refer to "we" instead of "the camera" to make it more immersive).
Note: The characters used in this opening are not necessarily who I expect to appear in SSB4, nor necessarily who I want to appear in SSB4. Many of the character appearances are only cameos. Those who are bolded are characters I think are potential SSB4 candidates.
Note 2: Any shouts or “sounds” noted in this script except for the explosion at the end do not exist in the music and cannot be heard.
[COLLAPSE=SSB4 Opening Cinematic Script - Edited]The screen dimly lights up and reveals a trophy display case. The camera zooms in. The case is empty but for one trophy in the center of the top row – Mario. The camera stops zooming in once Mario comes into clear view.
Master Hand moves out in front of the screen from behind. He grabs the Mario trophy and takes it out, closing the case behind him. He turns with the Mario trophy in his hand and flies out behind the screen, the Mario trophy visibly right in front of the camera briefly. The now-empty trophy case lies alone.
The camera changes to a zoomed-in shot of a dimly-lit empty space on a clear table-like surface. Master Hand approaches from behind the screen with the Mario trophy in his hand (the camera is zoomed in very close to Master Hand and the Mario trophy). He gently places the Mario trophy in the empty space. Master Hand tilts the bottom of the Mario trophy to make it face forward. He flies out behind the camera. The Mario trophy is clearly right in front of the camera.
Camera zooms out from the Mario trophy and gradually reveals an entire row of trophies in which Mario was positioned. The trophies in order from left to right are:
Luigi, Fox, Captain Falcon, Yoshi, Samus, Kirby, Mario, Link, Pikachu, Donkey Kong, Ness, Jigglypuff
This row of trophies is dimly lit with a blue hue. Behind the trophies is complete darkness and shadow.
Image fades out to a black screen. The Nintendo and HAL Laboratory logos pop up – Nintendo on top, HAL at bottom.
The logos fade out.
The camera suddenly lights up with golden light. The shot has changed to a distant view of the first row of trophies at sky level. Light enters the room from a distant sunrise rising over mountain peaks. The light shines over the trophies, revealing they are located on a large rock island in a sea of water with the mountains and sun in the distance.
As the room lights up it reveals three more rows of trophies behind the first row. You see these trophies from the backside as with the first row.
The camera changes to a view in front of the trophies from roughly half the height of the distant mountain peaks and sunrise and about a basic suburban house distance away. From the front, the light now reveals the faces of the trophies in the back rows.
The camera suddenly zooms in on the Mario trophy as it emits a blue, fiery aura around itself.
The screen turns black. Writing in the bottom-left corner; “All-Stars of Nintendo In”
Mario transforms as in the Melee opening. The camera is still focused on Mario, but is zoomed in on him than in the Melee opening. In the background and far sides, you can see the other characters transforming as well.
Mario is completely transformed from a trophy into a living being. The camera changes to a more zoomed-out position from a left angle, showing both Mario and the six closest trophies in his row as they enter cool battle poses. The camera slowly zooms out during his segment to show the rest of the trophies changing into battle poses.
A clawed foot stomps on the ground in front of the screen. Mario and his row of trophies are completely in battle poses now.
The camera quickly spins around 180 degrees to a right angle. The camera shows Bowser and a separate group of characters moving into battle positions. Visible in front of the camera showing off their battle poses are Bowser, Ganondorf, Ridley, King Dedede, King K. Rool, Wolf, and Victini. This sequence is in slight slow-motion.
We are now looking at the space in-between the two groups of characters. Now the characters from each side dash to the opposing side and charge up their attacks. As they prepare to attack, the camera enters slow-motion.
Bowser swipes at Mario with his claws, but Mario sidesteps him to the right. With claws still in the air after his unsuccessful attack, Bowser start spewing flames from his mouth. Mario rolls backwards from the flames. Mario then jumps towards Bowser and uses his Fair as he nears his arch enemy; Bowser looks upwards at Mario approaching from the air with his Fair and prepares to slash at Mario.
Link shoots an arrow from his bow at Ganondorf. Ganondorf sidesteps the arrow; the arrow falls to the ground and sticks into the soil.
Ganondorf grabs his sword with both hands, raises it to shoulder level and begins dashing at Link (camera zoomed in on front of Ganondorf as he raises his sword and start dashing). As Ganondorf dashes towards him, Link readies his shield to counter the attack.
Olimar, with his loyal Pikmin following behind his footsteps, rushes between the feet of the combatants. As Olimar and his Pikmin disappear off the side of the screen, a hammer smashes onto the ground where they once were. King Dedede lifts his hammer from the ground into his hands, waiting for someone to attack while wearing a look of villainous determination on his face.
Kirby jumps up from behind Dedede and footstool jumps on Dedede’s head; Dedede’s head flattens down from impact. Kirby jumps off Dedede’s head and behind the camera; Dedede’s head returns to it’s normal form as Dedede raises a fist up in the air at Kirby, a villainous, vengeful look on his face.
Marth and Isaac pop up from sides of screen. Marth uses his Dancing Blade combo against Isaac. Isaac is struck by the first two slashes, but uses Move in front of him to push Marth back with a giant, magical hand. Marth’s sword strikes against Isaac’s hand and the hand disintegrates; Marth stumbles a little from the impact, but remains ready to strike back. Marth then takes his blade back and is about to stab forward with his Shield Breaker.
Fox is fighting Ness; Ness is about to swing with his baseball bat at Fox, but Fox initiates his Fire Fox attack. Taking Ness up with him, he shoots upwards, surrounded by flames as in his Fire Fox attack. A flash of light dashes at Fox in the air from somewhere in the distance behind Ness and sends Ness and Fox flying away, leaving embers behind. The flash of light loses it’s shine and reveals Wolf. Wolf falls back down to the ground, a villainous smile on his face.
Samus is shown firing consecutive beams at someone beyond the camera. While firing beams, Ridley flies in from behind Samus from up in the sky, grabs Samus with his talons, and flies off with him.
Victini is levitating high above the ground, pillars of flames forming around him and his V-shaped ears enshrouded in fire. On the ground watching up in awe at him are Pikachu, Little Mac, Toad, Yoshi, and Ike.
Shot of Mushroom Kingdom from cloud level. Camera quickly zooms in in a curved fashion downwards to a battle between Mario, Luigi, and Bowser Jr. Bowser Jr. is inside his Koopa Clown Car at above ground level, while Mario and Luigi are in battle poses on the ground to the left of Bowser Jr.
Luigi jumps towards Bower Jr. and uppercuts his Koopa Clown Car in a Super Jump Punch-type manner. Mario follows Luigi’s attack by jumping and using his Nair to knock Bowser Jr. off his Clown Car and into the distance. Princess Peach’s castle can be seen in the distance.
Peach is outside her castle on a balcony, waving at the Mario Bros. with a smile on her face. There is an open, empty doorway behind Peach that leads onto the balcony.
While Peach waves, flames ignite in the empty doorway as the figure of Bowser emerges from the darkness, his face focused on the princess.
We see a jungle floor below and, moving rapidly through the treetops, see as the blurry image of Donkey Kong[ with Diddy Kong on his back runs through the plant growth.
We now see a Kremling ship with beach shoreline and jungle behind the ship. King K. Rool is right in front of us. He is carrying his Blunderbuss with him and is prepared to fire it. Donkey Kong & Diddy Kong jump up from behind the bottom of the ship at K. Rool. K. Rool aims his Blunderbuss upwards at them as Donkey/Diddy Kong are about to smash into K. Rool.
We’re in Norfair on a chunk of volcanic rock floating in lava. Samus is in front of the camera in a prepared-for-battle pose, her arm cannon at ready.
Ridley falls down from above and lands on the opposite side of the rock, his head down. He lifts his head up, spewing flames out of his maw before he makes a lunge for Samus. Samus rolls into Morph Ball mode and uses the Boost Ball to roll under Ridley’s attack. Samus unrolls herself, turns around, and prepares to fire a charged beam of golden energy from her arm cannon.
We see a green background with Link and Toon Link at front. In the background, images of Link in his various games appear. As the background moves by, normal Link pulls out the Master Sword from it’s resting place and raises it above his head, while Toon Link is using his Wind Waker to guide his boat across some waves.
With background still moving through images, the images of Link and Toon Link disappear and Zelda’s image appears in front of the screen at the left side. The background is now colored purple and is scrolling through images of Zelda in her game appearances. Zelda spins and magically transforms into Sheik, who appears from the smoke in a battle pose. She then straightens herself up, pulls out her harp, and begins playing it.
Sheik disappears. Ganondorf appears, and the background is now brown and scrolls through images of Ganondorf. Ganondorf lowers his head and back down before raising them and shouting out to above.
Ganondorf image disappears. The background changes to a panorama of Hyrule, with Hyrule Castle and the surrounding city in the center and distance and Hyrule Field surrounding it. Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, and Toon Link’s hands meet togeth in the air, with Toon Link’s hand in front creating the Triforce symbol.
A Yoshi runs past the screen, bringing the transition as the Zelda sequence disappears behind his movement.
The Yoshi running across the screen brings us to an image of Yoshi’s island. In front of the screen, a nest with a row three Yoshi eggs lies seemingly untended. Yoshi then pops up from behind the middle egg with a smile on his face. Following him appearing, a herd of Yoshis rush out from beyond the sides of the nest and run towards us.
We’re now in space. From the distance, an Arwing and a Wolfen fly out. We see the front of the Arwing, the Wolfen visibly trailing behind. In the cockpit of the Arwing behind the glass is Fox, steering his controls to dodge the missile fire of the Arwing. In the cockpit of the Wolfen farther behind is Wolf.
Suddenly, an Arwing flies straight at the Wolfen, forcing the Wolfen to dodge impact and get off Fox’s back. We see the other Arwing turn around in flight. Behind the glass in the Arwing cockpit is Falco.
We look inside the cockpit of the Arwing with Falco in front of the camera. Falco’s inner eyebrows curve downward and he smiles, ready to kick some Star Wolf butt.
We now see a boxing ring. Little Mac and Doc Louis are on opposing sides of the ring. King Hippo is punching his gloves together with a glare on his face aimed at Little Mac. We see bruised and battered Little Mac as Doc Louis speaks to him. Little Mac stands up and leaves Doc Louis behind. Little Mac and King Hippo are now standing in the center of the ring. Little Mac grinds his teeth together as he prepares to uppercut King Hippo.
Kirby runs past the screen. We see Kirby land, ready to attack, on one side of the Fountain of Dreams. We then see King Dedede standing on the opposite side of the Fountain.
The two rivals dash towards each other from the center of the Fountain of Dreams. In the distance in this shot, beyond the Fountain of Dreams, the Halberd can be seen. Before Kirby and King Dedede make impact with each other, we zoom in on the Halberd, seeing Metaknight as he stares amused at the event occurring in front of him.
A Pokeball flies across the screen in front of Metaknight. We follow behind the Pokeball as it flies through the air towards the blurry image of Pokemon Stadium.
The Pokeball lands in the center of the stadium and and opens up, releasing Charizard. We can see Pokemon Trainer at the other edge of the stadium, issuing a command to Charizard as Charizard roars. From behind Charizard and his wings, Squirtle and Ivysaur pop out.
We now see Ike and the Black Knight about to strike each other with their claymores from a short distance away. Their swords stop each other, and Black Knight is about to push Ike away with his claymore when a flash of blue light with the figure of a human dashes towards Black Knight from behind Ike and slashes at him with it’s own sword. Black Knight jumps backwards to avoid being struck. We turn back to see Marth kneeled down in a battle pose while Ike behind him gets into his own battle position.
An image of the entire SSB4 roster appears for a second or two. The image then fades out into pitch black.
We now see Medusa in her temple looking into a crystal ball. We zoom in on the crystal ball as Medusa’s fingers crackle over it, her snakes writhing. Smoke forms in the reflection on the crystal ball, and the clear image of Pit flying through the clouds at night is visible in the ball now. The image of Pit in the sky morphs, the reflection effect gone as it shows Pit in reality. He twirls through the clouds with his wings as the camera follows his movements from a short distance.
Pit flies off away from us, and we start descending quickly down through the clouds towards ground, following the figure of a star.
The figure is revealed to be Starfy, dropping from his home of Pufftop. We see the clouds disappear and an ocean below us. Starfy dives into the water, leaving waves in diverse directions along the ocean surface.
The image fades out to pitch black.
We’re now looking right above the water surface of the ocean. In the distance, a rock pedestal jutting out of the water with a figure poised on it.
We zoom in on the figure – Lucario. Lucario is poised on the pedestal, meditating, his head down and his eyes closed. A half-second later, his eyes open and he turns his head to his right, staring at the distant shape of an island and a funnel of water forming from the ocean in front of the island.
We zoom in on the water funnel Lucario was looking. While zooming in, we see Kirby flying past the camera on a Warp Star and Mario flying past using his Tanooki suit). We zoom onto the funnel and pushes through the water to reveal who’s inside the belly of the beast tornado.
We now see Alex – one of the antagonists of the Golden Sun series –within the funnel of water. Alex is the person responsible for forming the water funnel. Alex lifts his hands and summons the water of the funnel to form a massive wave of concentrated water that crashes onto the shore of the island. However, the wave is blocked off, the water gushing backwards from the impact. We can now see Isaac, his hands out having just formed a magic wall to protect himself from the water’s impact. Once the wave dies down, Isaac summons spire of earth to form around him. One of the spires blocks off our vision.
We move out of the way of the rock and see a view of a barren desert with tumbleweed rolling through and a wooden tower on the right side of the screen. There is a red object rolling rapidly towards us. As it approaches the camera and the side of the tower, the red object stops and unrolls itself – Jiro. Jiro, now unrolled, leans against the side of the tower, adjusting his belt as he does so and putting his head down.
Jiro and the tower disappear. Mr. Game & Watch jumps across the screen, followed by another Mr. Game & Watch, carrying a frying pan… and another one, with a scuba helmet on his head, as well as another one… and three more… four more… and so on. Eventually, the background changes to a view of an empty Flat Zone with a basic tan background. In the forefront, the entire horde of Mr. Game & Watches are doing their various actions. We zoom out to show everything here happening on a Game & Watch suspended in pitch black.
We now see Captain Olimar getting up from the ground with face down, emerging from the wreck of his spaceship. He tilts his head up and looks in front of him, surprised. The camera zooms out quickly to show a large mob of Pikmin standing outside his spaceship remains, looking at him.
We now see a full view of Murasame Castle from the outside. On the left edge of the top roof of Murasame Castle, a figure sits. We zoom in on the figure with face down, kneeling on the edge of the top roof of the castle – Takamaru. Takamaru lifts his face up, unsheathes his sword, stands up, and jumps right off the roof in an awesome ninja-type manner.
We are now looking at a ruined city – specifically, the ruined city seen in Sin and Punishment: Star Successor. We see some Keepers running amok on some platforms in the city. Then, beams fire out from the distance and knock one of the Keepers off the platform and into the abyss. The other Keepers, confused, turn back and see in the distance Saki flying in on a hoverboard. While on the hoverboard, Saki changes his cannon sword to sword mode, prepared to jump from his hoverbaord and slash at the Keepers.
As Saki flies towards the Keepers, Ray MK III flies in front of the screen, transitioning the background to Robo Holosseum. Here we see Ray as he flies through the air, shooting missiles and bombs and whatnot at Hadron in the distance. Ray then flies speedily towards Hadron, weapons at ready, us following him.
Fog and ice form in front of us, obscuring the previous image of Ray and Hadron. We fly through the fog and see the edge of a snowy mountain. Here, Popo and Nana are climbing steadily up to the top when Nana falls. We see Popo falling downwards, her back to the abyss below her when a tether rope falls down to his height and he grabs it. He looks up, smiling, the image of Nana holding the rope. Fog again fades in and blocks our vision.
We are now in a large room in Wario’s castle. A massive pile of treasures, gold, and Microgame cases takes up much of the space in the center of the room. Banners of Wario are dotted along the walls. Wario’s motorcycle is parked against the heap of treasure and microgames. Wario pops out of the top of the pile in his overalls attire, shouting out happily towards us.
We now see Professor Hector
(from Gyromite) watch some red and blue gates close and shut in front of him in a laboratory setting. Professor Hector turns his head to his left and give a thumbs-up to an unknown figure. The camera rotates to the left to show R.O.B. handling the “gyros”, or the controls for the gates. R.O.B. raises his “eyebrows” and waves back at Professor Hector, supposedly happy.
We are looking at Onett from the side of a street, watching the two Earthbound criminals walk across the opposite end of the street. Suddenly, a portal opens on one side of the street. Racing out with fire in their tracks are Ness and Lucas, surprising the criminals so much that they fall backwards. We follow Ness and Lucas as they race out to the other side of the street and stop. They turn back with grins on their faces. Mr. Saturn and Rope Snake appear on Ness and Lucas’s backs respectively.
We’re now moving past a long row of Pokemon. Then we’re in front of the horde of Pokemon. In the front are Pikachu, Mewtwo, Pichu, Zoroark, and many more. Jigglypuff and Victini pop out of the bottom two corners of the screen. Victini gives a peace sign.
We are in space now. In the distance is a large planet – Zebes. Suddenly, we see a part of Zebes explode and a small object rushing towards us. As the object approaches, we see that it is Samus’s gunship flying rapidly toward us. Once Samus’s gunship is completely in front of the screen, we look through the ship’s cockpit to show Zero Suit Samus at the controls, showing determination on her face as she drives her gunship elsewhere in the universe.
We’re now following Captain Falcon’s Blue Falcon as it races down Port Aero Town Drive. Goroh’s Fire Stingray races up besides Falcon’s aircraft, but Falcon bumps Goroh off the track. Far behind Falcon on the track, Black Shadow is sitting in his Black Bull and racing along the track, his fingers on his chin as he think on how to defeat his sworn enemy.
We return to the earlier “epic” fight.
Starfy uses his spin attack against Medusa, knocking Medusa slightly back. Donkey Kong, lifting King K. Rool on his back, smashes King K. Rool head-first into the ground, destroying his crown; Diddy Kong supports Donkey Kong from the side by clapping.
Jigglypuff is singing in the midst of the battlefield, with Bowser Jr. and Wario subdued by her ability. Captain Falcon is using his Falcon Kick against Ray, Metaknight, and Jiro knocking them to the sides as he kicks forward, flames enshrouding his leg.
Ivysaur, Charizard, and Squirtle are in front of screen with Pokemon Trainer a short distance behind them giving commands. The three Pokemon together are using their Triple Finish attack against Saki.
Link and Ganondorf have clashed with each other with their swords, staring into each other’s eyes with hate, attempting to push the other away.
Mario is rushing through the air at Bowser with his Nair, while Bowser jumps up towards Mario with his claws about to swipe at Mario.
A Bob-Omb falls down from the sky, about to crash onto the ground in the middle of the epic brawl occurring.
Screen turns pitch black and music silences. Then, the screen background changes to a golden color and the four third-party characters – Snake, Sonic, Megaman, and Slime on a Chocobo - are shown here moving in cool poses from the corners of the screen, with this sound effect from the original SSB opening playing. The third-party characters and background disappear within a second.
We are now in the sky above the island. The Bob-Omb explodes, sending
all of the characters flying upwards in trophy form and falling back down. We quickly ascend upwards through the clouds as the Super Smash Bros. 4 logo fades in.
Meanwhile:
“Super Smash Brothers. … Suubtitleeeeeeeeeee!!!!” (I’m sorry, but if you’re going to have the most awesome Smash Bros. game ever, you need the announcer shouting out the subtitle)[/COLLAPSE]
For those interested in seeing the original version with musical and camera cues, here is a link to the post:
SSB4 Opening Cinematic Script - Original Version.
EDIT: Fixed the link.
Black Shadow for SSB4.
