50 Fun Facts About Super Smash Bros.

Who created the Super Smash Bros. series?

He had already created Kirby at HAL Laboratory when he was 19; Iwata handled the programming on the first Smash.

Instead of a health bar, how does Super Smash Bros. track how hurt a fighter is?

The higher the percentage, the further a hit sends you, so the goal is to knock rivals off the stage rather than to zero.

What was the working title of the prototype that became Super Smash Bros.?

Sakurai built it without permission and only showed Miyamoto once the four-character demo was balanced.

Which four fighters were in the demo that persuaded Shigeru Miyamoto to allow Nintendo characters in Smash?

Miyamoto had initially rejected the idea of using Nintendo's characters at all.

Which studio developed the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64?

The same studio made Kirby; the game reached Japan on 21 January 1999 and North America that April.

How many playable fighters did the original 1999 Super Smash Bros. have?

Eight were available from the start and four - Luigi, Ness, Jigglypuff and Captain Falcon - had to be unlocked.

Which of these was an unlockable, not a starting, fighter in the first Super Smash Bros.?

The EarthBound hero was one of four secret characters alongside Luigi, Jigglypuff and Captain Falcon.

Which future Nintendo president handled the programming on the first Super Smash Bros.?

Iwata later encouraged Sakurai to keep directing the series after he left HAL in 2003.

Which giant glove is the classic final boss of Smash's single-player mode?

Crazy Hand joined as its erratic left-handed partner in Melee; Tabuu is the villain of Brawl's story mode.

Super Smash Bros. Melee was famously developed in how many months?

It launched in Japan on 21 November 2001 and sold 358,525 copies in its first week there, the fastest-selling GameCube game.

Marth and Roy debuted in Melee representing which series that had not yet been released outside Japan?

Their popularity helped bring the strategy series west; Mewtwo, the Ice Climbers and Mr. Game & Watch also debuted in Melee.

Melee holds which sales distinction?

It passed seven million copies by 2008 and at its peak an estimated 70% of GameCube owners had it.

Which single-player addition in Melee took players through side-scrolling Nintendo worlds?

Melee also introduced collectible trophies and the Home-Run Contest, in which you whack a Sandbag as far as possible.

Which fan-made effort gave Melee rollback netcode and online play, extending its competitive life?

Project M was a different mod that reworked Brawl to play more like Melee.

The 2013 crowdfunded documentary about the competitive Melee community was called what?

The same year Nintendo tried to cancel Melee's EVO tournament and backed down after a fan backlash.

What happened when Melee was scheduled for the EVO 2013 fighting-game championship?

The community had voted Melee in through a charity drive; the incident is a landmark in Smash esports history.

The advanced Smash technique of air-dodging diagonally into the ground to slide is called what?

It is a hallmark of competitive Melee; later games changed air-dodge physics so it works differently or not at all.

Which company did Sakurai found in 2005 after leaving the studio that made Kirby?

He set it up with his wife Michiko; it worked with Bandai Namco on the later Smash games and he directed Kid Icarus: Uprising in 2012.

Which two characters in Super Smash Bros. Brawl were the series' first third-party fighters?

Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima had asked Sakurai to include Snake as far back as Melee.

What was the name of Brawl's plot-driven side-scrolling story mode?

Its villain, Tabuu, is the only main Smash antagonist created for the series rather than borrowed from another game.

Which item, introduced in Brawl, must be broken to unleash a character's ultimate attack?

Brawl also introduced Assist Trophies, which summon non-playable characters, and online play over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Roughly how many copies did Super Smash Bros. Brawl sell worldwide?

That made it the eighth best-selling Wii game; it scored 93 on Metacritic and was named Fighting Game of the Year by the AIAS.

Which website did Sakurai run to teach players strategies and reveal Brawl's content day by day?

In 2022 he took the same teaching instinct to YouTube with a self-funded channel of 256 game-design videos.

Which studio co-developed the 3DS/Wii U games and Ultimate with Sora Ltd.?

The 3DS game, out in Japan in September 2014, was the first handheld entry in the series.

Which of these firsts belongs to Super Smash Bros. for Wii U?

The 3DS and Wii U games were also the first with amiibo support, Mii Fighters and downloadable characters.

Which of these newcomers made their Smash debut in the 3DS/Wii U games?

The others all arrived in Ultimate; Mega Man and Pac-Man were the 3DS/Wii U era's big third-party additions.

Which Final Fantasy VII hero arrived as DLC for the 3DS and Wii U games?

Sephiroth followed him into Ultimate as part of the second Fighters Pass.

How many copies had the 3DS version of Smash sold by September 2022?

The Wii U version, on a much smaller install base, sold 5.38 million.

On what date did Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launch on Nintendo Switch?

Despite reusing the look of the Wii U game, the team says it was built from scratch with new assets.

Including Echo Fighters and DLC, how many fighters does Super Smash Bros. Ultimate have?

The base game shipped with 74, including every character from previous entries plus 11 newcomers; two Fighters Passes added 15 more.

Which two beings of light and dark are the antagonists of Ultimate's World of Light mode?

The mode replaced trophies with a Spirits system of collectible characters that buff your fighter.

Which character was the final DLC fighter added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, in October 2021?

The Kingdom Hearts hero closed the second Fighters Pass; the first had opened with Persona 5's Joker and included Banjo-Kazooie.

Which fighter opened Ultimate's first Fighters Pass?

Hero, Banjo-Kazooie, Terry and Byleth rounded out that first pass.

How many stages does Super Smash Bros. Ultimate contain?

Any of them can be played in Battlefield or Omega (Final Destination-style) form, and up to eight players can fight at once.

What record had Super Smash Bros. Ultimate set by 2025 with 36 million copies sold?

By 2025 it had passed 36 million copies and sat third among Switch titles behind Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Roughly how many units had the Super Smash Bros. series sold combined by 2025?

Ultimate alone accounted for nearly half of that; the N64 original sold about 5.55 million.

Which Metal Gear creator personally asked Sakurai to put Snake in Melee?

The request came too late in Melee's development; Snake made the cut for the 2008 Wii game.

Which item summons a random Pokemon to help you in battle?

Assist Trophies, introduced in Brawl, do the same job for non-Pokemon characters like Waluigi and Nintendogs.

Sakurai created which Nintendo character when he was 19?

He directed Kirby's Dream Land in 1992; Kirby's ability to copy powers is a fair ancestor of Smash's crossover spirit.

Who funded the game-design YouTube channel Sakurai launched in 2022?

He wrote and recorded all 256 videos and spent about 90 million yen of his own money; the channel won him Japan's Art Encouragement Prize.

Which 3DS-era feature let owners train custom fighters that learn from how they are beaten?

The 3DS/Wii U games were the first Smash titles to support Nintendo's NFC figures.

Who composed 'Lifelight', the main theme of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate?

Many well-known game musicians contributed to a soundtrack of more than 900 tracks.

In Ultimate's World of Light story, which fighter alone escapes Galeem's opening attack?

He survives thanks to his Warp Star and must rescue the vaporised fighters across the new world.

What collectible mechanic did Ultimate introduce to replace the trophies of earlier games?

They power up fighters and are won in themed Spirit Battles, such as fighting a giant Ridley to earn Rayquaza.

What is Ultimate's mode called in which each character can be played only once?

Squad Strike pits teams of 3 or 5 characters against each other, and Tourney runs 32-player brackets.

How many playable fighters did Ultimate's base game ship with before DLC?

That covered all 63 previous fighters plus 11 newcomers, from the Inklings to Incineroar.

Which fighter was Ultimate's first DLC, free to early registrants in January 2019?

Two paid Fighters Pass bundles followed, beginning with Persona 5's Joker that April.

Which ARMS character opened Ultimate's second Fighters Pass in June 2020?

The first pass had closed with Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses in January 2020.

Which Nintendo Labo kit gained limited Ultimate support in a May 2019 update?

Players could watch computer-only matches in VR or play 1-on-1 against the CPU.

Roughly how many copies had Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold by December 2025?

That makes it the best-selling fighting game in history.