Smashmania: Super Smash Bros. and our imagination

Super smash bros had a very simple start, like a simple fighting game with an unorthodox way of playing what was known at the time. It was a coincidence that Nintendo characters were used and that coincidence was what ended up launching it to fame.

On many occasions, justifying a crossover borders on the insanity (whatever is or looks great doesn’t take away the ridiculousness and most of the time, trying to justify a crossover takes away the most exciting parts), however, from the beginning the Smash saga already handled a small plot, not at a complex level but simple that explains very well the reason why all these universes cross each other: everything is a game (literally), the characters are trophies or toys and Master Hand and Crazy Hand the hands of a child who serves as the main villain so that his toys look cool.

The background of figures fighting each other makes sense in explaining how many (and increasingly) universes cross each other because... in what other way could it be explained? (Sakurai is very adept to figures, which makes all this more understandable)

We have always wanted to see a story that unifies them regardless of whether it makes no sense, because we really only want to see cinematics that spit fanservice. This is the reason why, from Smash 4 onwards, the trailers began to raise a lot of hype, because each one could be considered as a little story that made us wake up our imagination, thinking in a context where all this was possible. In fact, here are stories and memes emerged from these trailers that are worth remembering.

Where we saw Villager’s trailer, many saw a psycho killer with a cold face.

Where we saw Megaman’s trailer, fans saw Nintendo characters rescuing an ancient hero so that he could be a legend again.

Where we saw the trailer of Little Mac hitting Samus because she mocked his height, the fans ended up inventing a love story between them.

Where we saw the trailer of World of Light, fans imagined an epic story where Kirby had to undertake the mission of saving all his friends facing evil copies of themselves.

Where we saw Incineroar’s trailer, fans saw Jalapeño.

Where we saw Sans being revealed, we saw this:

Or this:

Do you realize what I’m trying to say? Why stories that have nothing to do with the trailer or the character itself are created? The answer is simple:

Smash is a simple game. It doesn’t have a fixed plot, rather the plot advances according to what our imagination allows us and this is something that Sakurai confirmed in the last Direct dedicated to Ultimate.

That is the magic of Smash: it’s capable of fueling our imagination that many of us had as children. Who didn’t have figures of different series and made them fight each other imagining stories where they face each other? In fact, YOU, who complain about clones or Echo Fighters, you never had 2 Batman or Spider-man figures and treated them as if they were different characters? Well, here’s the same.

It’s not necessary for each Smash to have a Subspace Emissary or a World of Light, as many request, it simply needs the necessary elements for us to continue creating and visualizing the possibilities as more and more characters are added to the template, each new character revealed is a new figure that joins the team and our collection. And this is something I praise a lot about Smash, because with today’s children being less and less encouraged by their imagination, I’m glad that this saga exists, whose strong point is precisely that we imagine and believe our own stories.

Remember: never stop encouraging your imagination, because the day you do, the child you once was... will cease to exist.