A new "Super Smash Bros." game? Yes, a new "Super Smash Bros." game! And it's planned to launch this year on Nintendo's excellent Switch game console!
This is very exciting news.
Nintendo announced a new entry in the long-running "Super Smash Bros." franchise last week, and debuted a brief teaser alongside it that offered a surprising amount of information.
Having watched the teaser far too many times, and being a "Smash Bros." superfan, I've gleaned as much information as possible. Here's what I've got.
First things first: What is "Super Smash Bros."?
"Super Smash Bros." is a fighting game series from Nintendo that features the company's most iconic characters like Mario, Link, and Donkey Kong.
The first entry in the series debuted in 1999 on the Nintendo 64, and every Nintendo game console since has gotten a major "Smash Bros." entry. It's become a standard of Nintendo's gaming portfolio, alongside nostalgia-laced hits like "Mario Kart."
Rather than focusing on complex, expertly executed fighting moves, the "Smash Bros." series uses one control template across a massive list of characters — if you learn how to fight as one, you're able to control all of them.
Each character has different sets of moves that correspond to their gaming personas. Mario shoots fireballs, Link wields the Master Sword, Samus shoots balls of energy, etc.
The game has a devoted, hardcore following — but it's also a delightfully accessible game for the most casual of game players.
The next entry in the "Smash Bros." franchise is headed to the Nintendo Switch — but is it an entirely new game?
In Nintendo's press release announcing the new "Super Smash Bros." game, the language is extremely careful: "The Super Smash Bros. series comes to Nintendo Switch in 2018."
Whether the game is an entirely new entry in the series is unknown — the Nintendo Switch has a handful of major games that are updated re-releases of games that already came out on the Nintendo Wii U, the failed console Nintendo replaced with the Switch.
Last year's incredible "Mario Kart" game on the Switch, "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe," for instance? It was similarly incredible when it came out three years earlier on the Wii U.
It's entirely possible that Nintendo could do the same thing with "Super Smash Bros. for Wii U," the excellent "Smash Bros." game that launched on the Wii U in 2014. Considering how few people owned Nintendo's last console, re-releasing major Wii U games on the Switch makes a lot of sense — most Switch owners haven't played the games being re-released.
That said, the last major "Super Smash Bros." game also launched on the Nintendo 3DS — the outrageously popular handheld game console. And plenty of people played it there (just shy of 10 million copies were sold, according to Nintendo's own numbers) — about half that number got the game on Wii U.
Nintendo hasn't clarified whether "Super Smash Bros." on the Switch is an entirely new game or not, and a rep declined to comment.
We know of four characters so far, and we've got some strong guesses for the others.
In the teaser that revealed "Super Smash Bros." as coming to the Nintendo Switch, a handful of characters are shown.
Nintendo is direct about four of them: Mario, Link, and two inklings from "Splatoon" (in the foreground).
The rest are shown only as silhouettes in the shadow of a massive, burning "Super Smash Bros." logo. But we're talking about Nintendo characters here — it's pretty easy to pick out the shape of, say, Bowser from a silhouette.
So, starting from the left, here are the shapes we're able to pick out with certainty: Pit (from "Kid Icarus"), Donkey Kong, Kirby, Marth (from "Fire Emblem"), Mario, Link, Samus (from "Metroid"), Bowser, and Pikachu. Additionally, the two inklings from "Splatoon" are likely new characters.
There are also a handful of shapes that aren't sharp enough to say with certainty who they represent. Our best guesses put those shapes as Ness and Lucas (from "Earthbound"), Captain Falcon or Ganon (from "F-Zero" and "The Legend of Zelda," respectively), Little Mac (from "Punch-Out!!"), Princess Zelda, and Jigglypuff.
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