Super Smash Bros. (series)

Super Smash Bros. is a series of crossover fighting video games published by Nintendo. It primarily features characters from their own franchises. The series was created by Masahiro Sakurai, who has directed every game in the series.

Super Smash Bros. (1999)
The first installment released on the Nintendo 64 in 1999. It included 12 characters from various Nintendo video games, including Mario, Pikachu, Link, Yoshi, Samus Aran, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Fox McCloud, Ness, Luigi, Captain Falcon and Jigglypuff.

Super Smash Bros. Melee (2001)
The second installment, released for the Nintendo Gamecube, featured a much larger cast of characters including all of the originals, in which some were still locked others were available from the start. Some new characters were Peach, Bowser, Zelda and Ice Climbers.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008)
The third installment for the Wii, featured a slightly larger cast then Melee, including a lot of "character replacements" since some of the characters from Melee are gone from this one. Perhaps the most effective replacement on the Smash community was Lucario replacing Melee's Mewtwo. Some new characters were Pokémon Trainer, Lucas, Pit, Olimar, Diddy Kong and Meta Knight. The first one in the series to contain third party characters (Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake) and is the first game in the series to include the Final Smash. This game introduced a fully-fledged Story Mode.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U (2014)
The fourth and fifth installments was released for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. The two titles have the ability to trade custom fighters. The two games also share a roster but, they both otherwise have numerous different features, with the Wii U version having the most content. It was also confirmed by Nintendo that Namco Bandai developed the game to increase production. New 3rd party characters were; Mega Man, Pac-Man, Ryu, Cloud, and Bayonetta. While Solid Snake was completely removed from the games roster.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (2018)
On March 8th 2018, at the end of their scheduled Nintendo Direct broadcast, Nintendo confirmed that a Super Smash Bros. game was scheduled for release on the Nintendo Switch later in 2018. The game was unveiled via a pre-rendered teaser trailer, which confirmed the return of series veterans Mario and Link, while also revealing that the Inkling from the Splatoon series would debut as a playable fighter in the roster. While no other fighters were confirmed during the teaser, they could be seen silhouetted in front of the fiery Smash logo. Certain characters were easily distinguishable by various features, including Samus' shoulder pads, Bowser's horns and mane, Donkey Kong's fur, Pikachu's ears, Pit's hair and wings, Yoshi's head, and Marth's stance. While Solid Snake from Metal Gear will be back from the game roster.

Playable characters
There are 67 playable characters in the series as a whole. Super Smash Bros. has 12, Melee has 26, Brawl has 39, and 3DS/Wii U has 58. Some characters are playable from the start, but some are unlockable through achievements. Bold indicates that a character doesn't need to be unlocked through any special criteria, but isn't seen on the character select screen at the start of the game.

Competitive Community
The Super Smash Bros. series has a dedicated community known for playing an older entry over newer ones. Super Smash Bros. Melee is by far the most played game. It has also quite a large following in general, being one of the most watched streams at EVO.

Brawl was received incredibly poorly by the community, so much so, that there were a few quite a few mods that took off. Notable ones include Project M and Brawl Minus.

Reception
Super Smash Bros. has received praise for its multiplayer mode. The single-player mode was criticized for its perceived difficulty and lack of features.

Super Smash Bros. Melee received a positive reception from reviewers. IGN's Fran Mirabella III stated that it was "in an entirely different league than the N64 version"; GameSpot's Miguel Lopez praised the game for offering an advanced "classic-mode" compared to its predecessor, while detailing the Adventure Mode as "really a hit-or-miss experience."

Super Smash Bros. Brawl received a perfect score from the Japanese magazine Famitsu. Thunderbolt Games gave the game 10 out of 10, calling it "a vastly improved entry into the venerable series". IGN critic Matt Casamassina, in his February 11 Wii-k in Review podcast, noted that although Brawl is a "solid fighter," it does have "some issues that need to be acknowledged," including "long loading times" and repetition in the Subspace Emissary.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U held ratings of 85/100 and 92/100 on Metacritic and 86.10% and 92.39% on GameRankings.

Daniel Dischoff of Game Revolution stated "It's true that Super Smash Bros. evolves every time with regard to new features, items, and characters to choose from. While your favorite character may not return or a few annoying pickups may force you to turn off items altogether, this represents the biggest leap forward Smashers have seen yet." 

Super Smash Bros sold 1.4 million copies in Japan, and 2.3 million in the U.S. Melee sold over 7 million units worldwide, becoming the best-selling GameCube title. Brawl sold 1.524 million units in Japan as of March 30, 2008, and sold 1.4 million units in its first week in the United States, becoming Nintendo of America's fastest selling title. The 3DS version has sold more than 3.22 million copies worldwide as of October 2014, while the Wii U version became the fastest-selling Wii U game, with 3.39 million units worldwide in two months.

Trivia

 * In Kid Icarus: Uprising, Palutena mentions a parody of it named, "Super Bash Sisters".


 * Playstation All Stars: Battle Royale is a game made on the concept of this game but instead of Nintendo characters, it is replaced with with Playstation characters.
 * It was originally suggested by the series creator and director, Masahiro Sakurai, that Super Smash Bros. Brawl was supposed to be the last game he would direct.