Ep.2 Is all about the history of Smash 64!

History of Smash 64

Developed by HAL Laboratory under the direction of Masahiro Sakurai   

Originally only planned to be released Japan under the name Nintendo All-Star Great Fray Smash Brothers

Release date January 21st, 1999 in Japan, April 26th, 1999 for the US, and EU was November 19, 1999

Sakurai began development for a fighting game called Dragon King The Fighting Game. After showing Satoru Iwata he was on board. Knowing that fighting games didn’t sell well Sakurai used Nintendo characters without permission, Mario, Samus, Donkey Kong and Fox. before presenting the game to Nintendo higher-ups he made sure to present a balanced game and it was approved.

Marketing this game was like nothing we had seen before the first commercial featured a live-action Pikachu, Yoshi, Mario, and Donkey skipping through a field that quickly turns into an all-out mascot brawl. Sprinkled throughout the commercial was gameplay showcasing the characters fighting and I couldn’t believe my eyes.

The final game had 12 playable characters, 4 needed to be unlocked.

Mario

Donkey Kong

Link

Samus

Yoshi

Kirby

Fox

Pikachu

Luigi

Captain Falcon

Ness

Jigglypuff

Smash had a single player adventure that would put you against the other combatants. Training, Break the Targets and Board the Platforms were mini-games that you could play single player.

Multiplayer is where this game shined 4 players going to head to head lead to hours and hours fun.

Smash 64 sold 5 million copies worldwide. US 2.93 million copies 1.97 million copies in Japan. It was the 64’s 5th best selling game and received an above average score from most critics and news outlets. Beating your friends down with Nintendo characters in multiplayer combined with simple controls were the main factors in the decent scores.

Nintendo Power 7.7 out of 10

IGN 8.5 out of 10 (IGN gave it Best Fighting Game)

GameSpot 7.5

Metacritic 79 of 100

Easter Eggs

The eight characters that are unlocked from the beginning of the game are in order of when each of their games released.

Sumus and Ness’s only appearance on the 64 were in Smash  

Sources

Smash Bros Wiki https://www.ssbwiki.com/Super_Smash_Bros.

Gaming Historian https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myhBphil-Uw