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The most important moment of Super Smash Bros. The story happened 13 years ago, at the 2006 E3.
The first trailer of Super Smash Bros. Brawl at the end of Nintendo's stage presentation, which also included the first look at Super Mario Galaxy and the announcement of the DS Lite. The trailer was good, but nothing had prepared the viewers to an end.
In the final seconds of the revelation trailer, after the end of Nobuo Uematsu's iconic theme song and the display of the logo on the screen, we heard the distinctive sound of the Metal Gear radio Solid. A meta conversation with Colonel later, and Solid Snake had officially joined Nintendo's flagship fighting franchise.
In a certain way, the Super Smash Bros. series. continues since the high emotion of this 30-second clip.
The power of cooperation
Crossovers and cameos in video games were certainly not a new concept in 2006, but they were particularly common in fighting games. SNK king of the fighters was the type of company-wide fighting game that Smash Bros. would eventually become, and it debuted in 1994. Alex Kidd in the world Shinobi was a platform game merging the two franchises holding the Sega Master System in 1990. And Namco triple dipped into the cameo territory by introducing Spawn, Heihachi and Link as exclusive guest characters to the platform in Soul Calibur II in 2002.
Nevertheless, see and hear Solid Snake in the loving details of a Nintendo game, whether it be the model of his character or the dozen fully codec conversations, was different. The usual rules of exclusivity of the video game were being folded, even completely broken.
And it was before Sonic the Hedgehog was later announced as a playable character. The younger generation may have grown up with Mario and Sonic working together or competing in a number of games, but many of us in our thirties again find it surreal. This kind of thing would have been unthinkable in the middle of the war of the Nintendo-Sega consoles.
The inclusion of new competitors in the Nintendo and non-Nintendo franchises has since become an essential part of the series and a source of both frenzied speculation and (often hilarious) celebrations by fans. Nintendo has focused on this anticipation and pageantry; the humble revelations in the engine of Snake and Sonic in Fight has paved the way for the beautifully animated shorts that fans love and expect.
I saw the Solid Snake turn out when I was 18 years old. I am about to be 32 years old. Participate in this cycle of sometimes unfounded speculation about adding new characters to smash has become my favorite part of the game culture in the years between these two events. It is a positive and optimistic activity that I can share with my friends and family. Nintendo again manages to surprise us, despite all the Internet trying to guess who will be next.
Seeing how Nintendo rejects our assumptions is part of the fun, actually. Ridley? I thought it was too big, so I never thought it would happen. I did not think Bayonetta had a chance in hell with a family-friendly Nintendo franchise. Joker? I never saw it coming, which even made it more fun.
Choose your character
The game industry as a whole would be much better if it looked more like Super Smash Bros. and put aside the short-term benefits, platform exclusivity and other practices that are often contrary to consumerism to create surprises that make people excited and happy.
And this approach is not an altruistic supporter service from Nintendo; Ultimate is the company's best-selling game of all time, and the hype around the new characters, as well as the anticipation of future characters via DLC, have certainly contributed to the strength of sales.
Similarly, a look at the game's credits will show you that every non-Nintendo property included, whether it's a Geno Mii Fighter suit from Super Mario RPG to each song, visual element and playable character of Castlevania frankness, was the result of what I can only assume to be a comprehensive and legally binding negotiation process. Nobody lent their intellectual property to Nintendo and hoped for the best. it seems that every publisher and developer was intimately involved to make sure his characters were treated well.
Yet, Nintendo does not have to have to do this. Masahiro Sakurai does not have to have to do this. But they did it, and the results are so well executed and satisfying that I have to ask myself: why not all games doing something like that, or at least more games trying crossovers more often? Nintendo creates its own reference version and heavy crossover of the Marvel film universe with the Smash Bros. series. and, just like Marvel, she seems to be winning out of this approach.
But crossovers with third parties are still both exciting and rare in games. The level of coordination and inter-brand partnership required to create games like X-Zone Project (a series of role plays featuring characters from the Sega, Bandai / Namco, Capcom and Nintendo franchises) and LEGO Dimensions (A game in which GLaDOS, Homer Simpson and Scooby Doo can spend time), the reality was probably extreme, but their publishers managed to get there anyway, with different results. These instances always have the appearance of exceptions and not examples of the way things are going.
And the process does not become instantly simple as only one company controls a wide variety of characters; the Disney Infinity series, now extinct, may have been removed, at least in part, by the various departments of the company that were demanding different concessions that could have served them individually, but which ultimately hurt the Thu.
There is no quick fix for these cross-promotional opportunities to run smoothly, and there is still no one managing it better than Nintendo and the companies it works with for each version of Smash Bros.
Challenger is approaching
The Super Smash Bros. series has become a kind of living document of the game's history. It's a continuous franchise developed and published by the company that saved the console game in the 80s and includes a list of characters from almost every decade of the history of the game and most of its platforms.
It's fair to say that being included in Smash Bros. gives a character (and his or her franchise) a level of prestige and recognition comparable to that of being added to a museum exhibit, while presenting the character to a larger audience than they would have otherwise . Game characters can become canonical without being a Smash Bros. game, of course, but inclusion in this sacred series certainly helps.
During the revelation of King K. Rool, I sent to my brother dozens of texts containing capital letters at the revelation of King K. This is because a key element of our childhood, the boss with whom we spent hours pooling our skills to beat four games and two generations of consoles, was going to be recognized on a larger stage.
Seeing Joker revealed as a DLC character had to be felt, for Persona fans, like seeing their favorite dark band on the main stage of a huge music festival. This is a validation, especially if you have lived the entire journey of this character or this franchise.
Most importantly, these crossovers push fans to imagine their own inclusions of wildest characters and ask a simple and vital question: why not? For years, it has been admitted that there was too much strange and bad blood story between Square-Enix and Nintendo for the Final Fantasy series to ever go back to one of their consoles.
But Cloud Strife participated in two Smash Bros. games. and every good 3D Final Fantasy title is available on the Switch. I doubt that it was simple, but since it seems that everyone has benefited, it was probably worth it.
A year ago, we thought that Persona was an exclusive Sony. Smash Bros. now represents the main character of Persona 5, and a collection of music pieces from the entire franchise. In addition, a Character The game finally arrives on Switch, even if it is not the one that people waited for or hoped for. These walls are collapsing and Nintendo often seems to be the most willing company to use the pestle hammer to help it.
Banjo and Kazooie, Steve from Minecraft, Erdrick's Dragon Quest, Sora Kingdom Hearts, Spider-Man, His Goku; why not? Nintendo has slowly wiped out our expectations regarding the possibilities of the video game industry and we live in a world where Thanos can manifest itself. Fortnite. These crosses are always surprising and delicious, but they are so numerous that I am always surprised that so few other large companies try to concretize them.
Nintendo has – unintentionally or not – revealed how many of these obstacles have always been arbitrary, and it has helped fans like me find a lot of joy and happiness to just hope for something new, exciting and better. .
Nintendo has changed the game by at least partially opening its doors, entering into agreements and inviting others into its space, one of the most revered in the history of the industry. And it has become clear that his peers have little reason to not do the same thing.
The real question is simple: are they ready for the challenge?
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