64. Super Smash Bros (N64)
I consider myself very, very lucky to have been able to own and play most of the very best N64 games ever made while they were experiencing their heyday back in the late 90s and early 2000s. I was right there when most of them came out, and being wrapped up in the hype around a specific game in the pre-internet days looked like talking about it with your friends at school, planning after school hang outs or weekend sleepovers just to play a specific game, and getting totally amped when seeing the game on the cover of some video game magazine at the grocery store. It was truly simpler times and ones I sorely miss. While there were many games I experienced this with during my childhood and adolescence, one of the most talked about and hyped games I can remember was the original Super Smash Bros on the N64.
Like most people my age, my first exposure to smash was because of that awesome an hilarious TV commercial of actors dressed up as mascot looking depictions of some of the Smash characters beating the crap out of each other while Happy Together by The Turtles played in the background. Combined with my love for Nintendo and the N64 at the time, it was enough for me to want nothing more than to get my hands on a copy of Super Smash Bros, get a few of my friends together, and beat the shit out of each other while playing as our favorite Nintendo characters. Also being super into Pokemon at the time, I mained Pikachu and after countless hours of playing with friends and alone, Smash Bros was one of those seminal games for me growing up and one I have a ton of nostalgia for.
Despite this and with some irony, replaying through Smash tonight was probably my first reunion with the game in nearly two decades. For context, I don't think I'd played Smash Bros on the N64 since around the time Brawl came out on the Wii. Yeah, it's been that long. It also didn't help that I leant my original and only copy of Smash to my brother at one point since then and he never returned it, forcing me to purchase another copy several years later. Moral of the story, don't lend people your games no matter how much you think you know them or trust them. But anyhow, I finally sat down with Super Smash Bros again after around 20 years away and while I expected the game to feel a little outdated, it actually still holds up surprisingly well.
I'm not going to sit here and pretend the original Smash game holds its own against any of its sequels. It simply does not. Smash Bros on the N64 laid a foundation that Melee, Brawl, Sm4sh, and Ultimate would improve and expand upon again and again, making those game control better, look better, and have far more features that dramatically improved those games replayability and accessibility. Still, even though Melee on the Gamecube was a pretty meaningful leap forward for the series at the time, the first Smash is still surprisingly good and fun to play. A but ton of love went into designing it, with characters possessing their signature moves and abilities from their respective game franchises, stages all being faithful to whoever they were themed after, and music and audio being just as faithful. Maybe my only ding on this game's presentation is one I have for a lot of spinoff titles on the N64 where the polygons on the characters just didn't have the same level of polish or quality as they did on their main, core games. I know this might sound a little ridiculous when discussing N64 games, but look at Mario from Super Mario 64 and then look at him in Mario Golf or yes, in Smash, and you will see how much lower quality he looks. This is true of practically every character in the Smash roster who had a core game on the N64. But this is a minor enough issue where it barely distracts from what is otherwise good looking game for the time.
Probably Super Smash Bros' biggest weakness is its controls. While by no means are the controls bad, and in fact, they're pretty good overall, they absolutely lack the tightness, precession and balance present in future Smash titles. However, this is to be expected given, well, this was the first game in the Smash series, so they had to start somewhere. And for a first effort HAL and Nintendo did an excellent job at making a unique fighting game with some of their most loved and recognizable characters. However, things are not perfect and this becomes most evident in the single player bonus levels where you're required to break targets or land on platforms. Yes, all of these are very possible once you get the hang of how specific characters control, but anyone who has spent any good amount of times with future Smash titles will immediately notice how less polished things are here. However, one very impressive aspect of Smash's characters that I just mentioned in passing is how varied and unique each character is to control and play.
There are characters in Super Smash Bros, as well as all the future sequels that I abolutely love to play as, some I think are okay, and other's I hate so much to play as. It's not because some characters are extremely broken, janky, or poorly designed, but rather they just never clicked with my preferred play style. The same is 100% true of the first Smash where playing through the game as Samus vs Link is a very different experience requiring different strategies and timing depending on who you're playing as. This attention to detail is impressive now and was even more impressive when Smash first came out. It creates a game that is fun and casual for most, but truly deep and hardcore for those wanting to get compeitive with this game. Of course, Melee took the depth and competitive angle to a completely different level, but for what it's worth, it's older N64 brother paved the way for how varied and unique each character is.
I find myself pleasantly surprised by how much Super Smash Bros still holds up despite living in a world where it now has almost 30 years of sequels that represent major leaps in the franchise's evolution. So would I choose to play Smash on the N64 over Melee or Ultimate? No. Smash Bros on the N64 is an enjoyable game, I've made that clear, but unless you have a soft spot in your Millennial heart for this game like I do, you're going to find a game that has been surpassed in nearly every meaningful way by the games that followed it, yes, even Brawl. Still, if you want to see where it all began or just want to experience one of the N64's must play games, Super Smash Bros is a necessity that still holds up surprisingly well. (11/11/26) [35/50]
