Speed Weed
Smash Master
...OK, so first of all how the hell didn't he have a thread yet lmao
Welcome to the Sukapon Support Thread!
Sukapon, in all his glory.
What is Joy Mech Fight and who is Sukapon?
Short answer: Joy Mech Fight is a 2D fighting game released by Nintendo (and development usually credited to their R&D1 division) in 1993 for the Famicom as a Japan-exclusive, featuring an extensive cast of limbless robots fighting each other.
Long answer: Joy Mech Fight's origins can probably be traced back to the fighting game boom of the early 90s: Street Fighter 2 had just exploded onto the scene, reinventing a genre in such a way that many other companies at the time were inspired to make their own 2D fighters.
Enter two programmers: Koichi Hayashida and Koichiro Eto, who met in a programming seminar hosted by Nintendo and had an idea for their own take on this wildly popular new formula. During the seminar, they completed the game and called it Battle Battle League, and after both started actually working for Nintendo, they sold the game under the name we know it as today: Joy Mech Fight.
Since it was released during the transitional period where the Famicom was being phased out in favor of the Super Famicom - enough time had passed for devs to really know their way around the former - the game got the chance to take full advantage of the console's audio and visual capacity. In addition, pulling off relatively detailed animations for large, realistically proportioned sprites like what was usual for fighting games would obviously have not been possible for the Famicom, so they circumvented this by making the characters limbless robots with separate body parts and simple designs. This proved to be a really good decision on its own because dividing each character into individual sprites made animation much smoother and it allowed for the game to have a really large roster of 36 characters. It was actually the largest roster in a fighting game for a while, until it was eventually beaten out by The King of Fighters '98!
As for the story, which bears a bizarre resemblance to a certain popular series: Sukapon is an owarai (term for Japanese stand-up comedian) robot created by two inventors: Dr. Little Emon and Dr. Ivan Walnuts. One day, Dr. Walnuts suddenly declares his intention to rule the world and takes most of their robots with him, and in a last-ditch effort to stop him, Emon reworks Sukapon into a fighting robot. After a lotta fights, a final battle on the moon and a sudden change of heart by Walnuts, Sukapon returns happily ever after to his time as the world's favorite robotic funnyman.
Joy Mech Fight's History with Smash
As with countless other obscure Nintendo IPs, Joy Mech Fight's gotten the occasional shout-out in Smash. Why don't we take a look at it?
The first sign of....anything, really, was in this old blog post or something from the old Melee website where Sakurai mentions that Sukapon was actually meant to be an item you could ride on, but was cut due to "adult matters" (presumably copyright issues with the original creators of JMF). Apparently, around this time, he did another post going into detail on why Sukapon wouldn't be in, which if that's the case, then ouch.
Fast-forward to Brawl, and hey, would ya look at that, we got actual tangible content this time! They must have managed to sort it out! Namely, we got a single sticker. Not much, but it's still nice. Additionally, a snippet of the game's menu theme is a part of Brawl's Famicom medley, which died for our sins.
(UPDATE: I've since come across some more specifics on the game's previous rights situation: they never got to deliver the rights transfer paperwork in the first place, placing the game in a legal limbo for years - until one of the original creators saw Sakurai's blog post on the matter and rectified the issue. This is why the game got to make cameos from Brawl onwards)
Suddenly, in Smash 4, we're back to nothing. When you look at the big picture though, it's normal: in Smash's history of representing Nintendo's back catalog through smaller means, 4 is notable for cutting off a bunch of that representation for no good reason. Joy Mech Fight was not alone: we also lost the likes of Custom Robo, Hotel Dusk, Wave Race, Famicom Detective Club, etc.
And this is in stark contrast to Ultimate, which probably is the Smash game with the most comprehensive representation of Nintendo's IPs. This included giving all those other IPs something again, so neat! We're probably getting a Sukapon spirit or someth-OHHHHHH **** WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY GUY GOT A WHOLE-ASS ASSIST TROPHY
This is unironically awesome. Looking back, it's honestly kinda crazy that in this day and age they gave us such a deep pull. He's technically not playable, but look at him! He's got a 3D model! He's actually running around and beating people up! Sukapon can physically kill Sephiroth!
Now then, let's summarize Joy Mech Fight's representation in the Smash series through SmashWiki's metrics (primary universe = characters and stages, secondary universe = assists and items, minor universes = music, collectables and Mii costumes)
Nothing at all: 64, 4
Considered: Melee
Minor universe: Brawl
Secondary universe: Ultimate
When you lay it out like that, you realize that Ultimate is the biggest role Sukapon's ever had in this series, which is fantastic.
What's the appeal of Sukapon?
Glad ya asked, random strawman! Three things mainly:
-The "retro character" aspect. Many will point you to the apparent "retro rep" quota that's taken place in most Smash games since Melee, and while that can be reasonably called into question, it is indeed true that since Melee, every Smash game except for Ultimate has had at least one character that's a long-gone first-party from the NES/Famicom days. I don't think it's a hard quota they always try to follow, but I do think it's a category of characters they show interest in and like to include (I'd attribute Ultimate's lack of one to a long-term combination of limited newcomer slots for base game and then focus on more marketable characters for DLC). It's a popular idea with fans too: especially these days when Smash tends to lean more towards what's the hot new thing for its first-party selection, there's definitely a certain allure to seeing these old-ass characters from Nintendo history come back into the public spotlight - and in gaming's biggest crossover, no less. And there's a lot of great candidates in that area: Takamaru, Ayumi Tachibana, Balloon Fighter, Mike Jones, Mach Rider, the list goes on. But it does feel like Sukapon's become a bit of an underappreciated potential candidate in recent years, which does sting, seeing as - at least IMO - he's definitely one of the more standout characters in that category.
-The historical aspect. Doesn't take much explaining, some people just think it'd be cool to see a fighter from one of Nintendo's early fighting game experiments in their premier fighting game.
-And then there's people who are simply attracted by Sukapon himself. Which yeah, he's a very unique character with an undeniable charm to his simple design. Seeing this weird limbless pink orb man running around and chucking his head at you while making chiptune noises and choppy animations would stick out like a sore thumb, and that's another simple aspect of Sukapon's appeal: even besides all the "retro character finally coming back" romanticism or desire to showcase your diehard knowledge of Nintendo history, he's just a funky dude.
He's also, again, a Japanese comedian robot, so his taunts would be glorious.
In Closing
So there you have it. Sukapon is just a character I really like and am surprised he didn't have an Ultimate-era support thread. He's probably not getting in, but it's still just fun to discuss him. And who knows, we might get something kickin'?
Supporters
Speed Weed
ShotoStar
smashkirby
Megadoomer
GoodGrief741
TheThingamajigRayman
WaddleKing
silenthunder
@MichaelChristle560
Geno Boost
Sage of Ice
HYRULESHERO42
Champion of Hyrule
ninjahmos
Tankman from Newgrounds
Opossum
Sukapon, in all his glory.
What is Joy Mech Fight and who is Sukapon?
Short answer: Joy Mech Fight is a 2D fighting game released by Nintendo (and development usually credited to their R&D1 division) in 1993 for the Famicom as a Japan-exclusive, featuring an extensive cast of limbless robots fighting each other.
Long answer: Joy Mech Fight's origins can probably be traced back to the fighting game boom of the early 90s: Street Fighter 2 had just exploded onto the scene, reinventing a genre in such a way that many other companies at the time were inspired to make their own 2D fighters.
Enter two programmers: Koichi Hayashida and Koichiro Eto, who met in a programming seminar hosted by Nintendo and had an idea for their own take on this wildly popular new formula. During the seminar, they completed the game and called it Battle Battle League, and after both started actually working for Nintendo, they sold the game under the name we know it as today: Joy Mech Fight.
Since it was released during the transitional period where the Famicom was being phased out in favor of the Super Famicom - enough time had passed for devs to really know their way around the former - the game got the chance to take full advantage of the console's audio and visual capacity. In addition, pulling off relatively detailed animations for large, realistically proportioned sprites like what was usual for fighting games would obviously have not been possible for the Famicom, so they circumvented this by making the characters limbless robots with separate body parts and simple designs. This proved to be a really good decision on its own because dividing each character into individual sprites made animation much smoother and it allowed for the game to have a really large roster of 36 characters. It was actually the largest roster in a fighting game for a while, until it was eventually beaten out by The King of Fighters '98!
As for the story, which bears a bizarre resemblance to a certain popular series: Sukapon is an owarai (term for Japanese stand-up comedian) robot created by two inventors: Dr. Little Emon and Dr. Ivan Walnuts. One day, Dr. Walnuts suddenly declares his intention to rule the world and takes most of their robots with him, and in a last-ditch effort to stop him, Emon reworks Sukapon into a fighting robot. After a lotta fights, a final battle on the moon and a sudden change of heart by Walnuts, Sukapon returns happily ever after to his time as the world's favorite robotic funnyman.
Joy Mech Fight's History with Smash
As with countless other obscure Nintendo IPs, Joy Mech Fight's gotten the occasional shout-out in Smash. Why don't we take a look at it?
The first sign of....anything, really, was in this old blog post or something from the old Melee website where Sakurai mentions that Sukapon was actually meant to be an item you could ride on, but was cut due to "adult matters" (presumably copyright issues with the original creators of JMF). Apparently, around this time, he did another post going into detail on why Sukapon wouldn't be in, which if that's the case, then ouch.
Fast-forward to Brawl, and hey, would ya look at that, we got actual tangible content this time! They must have managed to sort it out! Namely, we got a single sticker. Not much, but it's still nice. Additionally, a snippet of the game's menu theme is a part of Brawl's Famicom medley, which died for our sins.
(UPDATE: I've since come across some more specifics on the game's previous rights situation: they never got to deliver the rights transfer paperwork in the first place, placing the game in a legal limbo for years - until one of the original creators saw Sakurai's blog post on the matter and rectified the issue. This is why the game got to make cameos from Brawl onwards)
Suddenly, in Smash 4, we're back to nothing. When you look at the big picture though, it's normal: in Smash's history of representing Nintendo's back catalog through smaller means, 4 is notable for cutting off a bunch of that representation for no good reason. Joy Mech Fight was not alone: we also lost the likes of Custom Robo, Hotel Dusk, Wave Race, Famicom Detective Club, etc.
And this is in stark contrast to Ultimate, which probably is the Smash game with the most comprehensive representation of Nintendo's IPs. This included giving all those other IPs something again, so neat! We're probably getting a Sukapon spirit or someth-OHHHHHH **** WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY GUY GOT A WHOLE-ASS ASSIST TROPHY
This is unironically awesome. Looking back, it's honestly kinda crazy that in this day and age they gave us such a deep pull. He's technically not playable, but look at him! He's got a 3D model! He's actually running around and beating people up! Sukapon can physically kill Sephiroth!
Now then, let's summarize Joy Mech Fight's representation in the Smash series through SmashWiki's metrics (primary universe = characters and stages, secondary universe = assists and items, minor universes = music, collectables and Mii costumes)
Nothing at all: 64, 4
Considered: Melee
Minor universe: Brawl
Secondary universe: Ultimate
When you lay it out like that, you realize that Ultimate is the biggest role Sukapon's ever had in this series, which is fantastic.
What's the appeal of Sukapon?
Glad ya asked, random strawman! Three things mainly:
-The "retro character" aspect. Many will point you to the apparent "retro rep" quota that's taken place in most Smash games since Melee, and while that can be reasonably called into question, it is indeed true that since Melee, every Smash game except for Ultimate has had at least one character that's a long-gone first-party from the NES/Famicom days. I don't think it's a hard quota they always try to follow, but I do think it's a category of characters they show interest in and like to include (I'd attribute Ultimate's lack of one to a long-term combination of limited newcomer slots for base game and then focus on more marketable characters for DLC). It's a popular idea with fans too: especially these days when Smash tends to lean more towards what's the hot new thing for its first-party selection, there's definitely a certain allure to seeing these old-ass characters from Nintendo history come back into the public spotlight - and in gaming's biggest crossover, no less. And there's a lot of great candidates in that area: Takamaru, Ayumi Tachibana, Balloon Fighter, Mike Jones, Mach Rider, the list goes on. But it does feel like Sukapon's become a bit of an underappreciated potential candidate in recent years, which does sting, seeing as - at least IMO - he's definitely one of the more standout characters in that category.
-The historical aspect. Doesn't take much explaining, some people just think it'd be cool to see a fighter from one of Nintendo's early fighting game experiments in their premier fighting game.
-And then there's people who are simply attracted by Sukapon himself. Which yeah, he's a very unique character with an undeniable charm to his simple design. Seeing this weird limbless pink orb man running around and chucking his head at you while making chiptune noises and choppy animations would stick out like a sore thumb, and that's another simple aspect of Sukapon's appeal: even besides all the "retro character finally coming back" romanticism or desire to showcase your diehard knowledge of Nintendo history, he's just a funky dude.
He's also, again, a Japanese comedian robot, so his taunts would be glorious.
In Closing
So there you have it. Sukapon is just a character I really like and am surprised he didn't have an Ultimate-era support thread. He's probably not getting in, but it's still just fun to discuss him. And who knows, we might get something kickin'?
Supporters
Speed Weed
ShotoStar
smashkirby
Megadoomer
GoodGrief741
TheThingamajigRayman
WaddleKing
silenthunder
@MichaelChristle560
Geno Boost
Sage of Ice
HYRULESHERO42
Champion of Hyrule
ninjahmos
Tankman from Newgrounds
Opossum
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. doing both Duck Hunt Dog and Ridley long before 4 or Ultimate came along, and so much more.
