6. Super Smash Bros.
The original title in the series, Super Smash Bros. laid the foundation down for the franchise’s ascendancy to fame, and we absolutely love it for that. However, going back to classic Smash these days is unsurprisingly jarring. The controls will feel alien to anyone used to more modern versions, and above all else, it’s a comparatively slow and plodding experience. There’s also a totally different dynamic to items, too, which are especially potent. The hammer is an assured kill, while the home run bat has practically no wind-up time whatsoever. Racking up five KOs in a row with that bat is sickly satisfying, slugging foes all over the place like Barry Bonds.
The roster is sparse, but all of your key guys are there: Mario, Link, Samus, and not one but two representatives from the wildly popular new craze known as Pokemon. To that end, Pikachu is far and away the best fighter available, capable of chilling on the lower levels and spamming Thunder for cheap shots. Though he’s become a staple of the Smash series, the oddball inclusion of Ness was a little surprising at the time. He had only starred in one game up to that point (and still to this point, actually), and it had been about five years since EarthBound premiered – which, you have to recall, was still considered something of a failure at the time, before becoming a cult classic.
There’s no shame in the shortcomings of the original Smash. As a standalone title and the first of its ilk, it’s a remarkable achievement that’s still huge fun. In fact, it still gets regular tournament play to this day.
5. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
How far we have come in such a short span of time. When Smash Bros. was first doing the rounds on the Nintendo 64, we were thrilled and delighted by the palette on offer on the Game Boy Color: a portable Smash Bros. title couldn’t have been further from reality at that time. So when it arrived on 3DS in 2014, it felt like a hugely ambitious title for the platform.
As cool as portable Smash Bros. was, the ambition occasionally impacted the experience. The console could barely keep up at times, with painfully long loading times that prevented access to the Miiverse during gameplay. But once you were in there and flinging fools around left, right and center, you hardly cared about the limitations.
That being said, veteran players used to the GameCube controller found the handheld’s wee circle button finicky, and sweaty fingertips often led to botched moves aplenty. Not to mention that ensuring cross-platform play with the Wii-U hamstrung the console version somewhat. Admissions had to be made for the portable version, and it led to fan favorites like the Ice Climbers getting axed, as well as the end of transforming characters.
4. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Brawl is something of an anomaly in the Smash echelons – so deeply entrenched in our collective memories thanks to the sheer thrill that was the Smash Bros. Dojo’s weekday updates, but largely forgotten for its place in the Smash fandom. The general consensus: Wii U is newer, Melee is better, Brawl is just plain okay.
It’s a shame because Smash Bros. Brawl paved the way for the great things yet to come: the online mode was rudimentary, borderline insulting by most accounts, but it was there, in an era where Nintendo treated online gameplay with the kind of animosity a child feels towards vegetables. The stage builder, again, had its drawbacks, but it allowed for all kinds of insane levels overflowing with hazards that would make the standard tourney player lose their lunch.
Sensing a theme here? That was Brawl, as a whole. It was fantastically flawed and received a degree of vitriol for daring to adjust the formula that had made Melee such a sensation. But it tried, dammit, and when it delivered, it did so immensely. The roster was absolutely stellar, adding long-time holdouts like Wario and Pit of Kid Icarus fame. The Pokemon Trainer felt right in so many ways, although wrong in several others: the awkward pause waiting to swap between the three creatures giving your opponents ample time to wallop you in the kisser.
Perhaps most significantly, Brawl was our first taste of third-party dabbling in the series. Pitting Mario against Sonic the Hedgehog at long last was like a dream come true, and Solid Snake’s reveal at the end of the first gameplay trailer? Exquisite. Thank you for the thrills, Smash Bros. Brawl. It’s almost enough to forgive you for tripping.
3. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U
Nintendo’s Wii U entry to the series was a wonderful display of progression in a relatively short span of time, and arguably even holds a claim for the top slot.
The roster was simply bananas: from Nintendo icons like Little Mac and the Duck Hunt Dog to newer faces like the Wii Fit Trainer and Animal Crossing’s sinister little Villager. And the guest characters? They read like a list of the biggest stars in gaming’s history: Sonic, Pac-Man, Mega Man, Ryu, Bayonetta… and Cloud freaking Strife. The protagonist from one of Sony’s greatest hits, and the man who somehow evaded even the PlayStations All-Stars roster. We never thought we’d see the day. We all lost our marbles upon his unveiling, celebrating this impossible marriage with fervor.
And of course, Cloud’s addition was made possible thanks to a new element in Smash Bros. history: online updates. Not only did this give us a veritable buttload of DLC, but it also allowed for balancing and fixes to be patched in, post-release. This was an amazing step forward (for everyone except Greninja players), and in addition to competent online matchmaking, it really showed that Smash had arrived in the modern era of gaming.
Besides an underwhelming single-player mode (something that the series has always struggled with), the major recurring criticism for this game is that it isn’t Smash Bros. Melee. And it was never trying to be, either. Striking a balance between Melee and Brawl, this entry has something for everyone, and its wealth of options and versatility made it the most pliable Smash up to that point. Custom moves, amiibo functionality, nonsensical eight-player kerfuffles, seven different controller options, Smash Tour if you’re into that kind of thing… And this is in addition to almost all of the modes and content available in previous titles.
2. Super Smash Bros. Melee
The stalwart. The industry standard. The host with the most. You get the point.
Melee was a game-changer in every sense of the word, and easily the biggest jump from one generation to the next. The modest offerings on the Nintendo 64 were taken, shook all about, slapped around the face until they were purple, and then multiplied by fifty. Strange analogy, but it’s hard to quantify just how significant Melee was in the Smash echelons. The roster size doubled from its predecessor, and the number of levels even more so: going from 9 to a muscular total of 29.
But more than anything else, Melee became a phenomenon because of its gameplay. It’s fast to the point of being foreboding to newcomers, and watching two top-level players go at it is absolutely breathtaking (especially if you like no items, Fox only, Final Destination). In much the same way that a programming oversight in Street Fighter 2 created the combo system which has now become standard in fighting games, the discovery of wavedashing completely transformed the metagame beyond anything Sakurai and company could have imagined.
Additionally, Melee remains an absolute visual masterpiece, to this day. The number of details on every single texture brought the characters to life, particle effects were used to great effect to make the special attacks really pop, and Fox McCloud finally looked like the good doggo we had always envisioned in our ill-fated cosplay attempts.
It’s #1 in most people’s minds, and that’s with good reason. It’s simply magical and deserves the adulation it receives. Look no further than the competitive scene, where Melee still reigns supreme – this is no coincidence. It struck a chord with its pristine level of polish, boldness, and playability. It may yet stand the test of time better than its contemporaries, even if Pichu will forever remain hot, stinking garbage.
1. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
That’s right, kids, there’s a new king in town.
Finally supplanting Melee from its lofty perch, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate deservedly takes home the golden trophy as the best entry in this beloved series.
It managed this feat, quite simply, by being the most complete package to date, defying the odds and bringing back every character from its predecessors, while even adding shocking new additions like Simon Belmont, King K. Rool and Ridley, with others like Banjo-Kazooie on the horizon.
It embodies the name Ultimate in almost every way, bursting at the seams with content, and though some classic elements fell to the wayside like the home run contest, break the targets, and board the platforms (it was amazing, don’t try to deny it), we were given so much new stuff in return, we could hardly complain.
World of Light is a robust and interesting single player offering, and though it doesn’t have the storytelling panache of the Subspace Emissary, it’s riddled with neat surprises and more than a thousand cameos from gaming’s yesteryear.
Remember Alfonzo? He’s back! In spirit form.
There will forever be Melee purists who will put their fingers in their ears and ignore the merits of Ultimate, but by most accounts, this one is about as good as it gets. The mind reels at how Sakurai and company could possibly top this next time, short of Mario coming to your house and literally punching you in the face.
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