There aren’t many games where I can pinpoint the exact moment I first played and fell in love with them.Super Smash Brosis one such game. Old enough to remember a time when everything you needed to know about anything wasn’t available at your fingertips, I had no idea there was a game out there on where you could pit characters from different video games against one another, especially since until that point in my life I had only owned a Mega Drive and aPlayStation.
This moment also happened long enough ago that consoles were still set up in video game stores so potential suitors - or kids like me killing time while their mums shopped elsewhere - could take them for a spin. It was in a game store with a setup just like this where I experiencedSuper Smash Bros. Meleefor the first time. The opportunity to haveMariofight Pikachu, to pit Link against Samus, forDonkey Kongto throw hands withKirby. It blew my mind.
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My penchant for Smash Bros. was born that day and I have carried it with me ever since. I regularly commandeered my sister’sGameCubeto play Melee and insisted on monopolizing theWiiwhenever someone else wanted to play Wii Sports once Brawl launched. Years of playing Smash Bros. across two generations of consoles, when I finally gotUltimateand had played enough of the single-player modes, I thought to myself hell, I’m good enough, let’s take this show online.
As much Smash Bros. as I had played for the 20 years prior, I was not prepared to play online. I was quickly dispatched by one opponent after the next and I haven’t dared challenge an online stranger since. It seems silly to say, but I’ve been a little ashamed of that. I thought I was good, but clearly, I’m not. However, Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Smash Bros. and director of every game in the series so far, has my back.
Sakurai has been sharing secrets and stories from throughout his gaming journey since Ultimate’s development ended, using a recent video in which he talks extensively about Brawl to discuss Smash Bros. going online. The iconic director openly admitshe was against Smash players competing online, but sinceNintendoinsisted it be implemented, he made it happen.
Other than how difficult it was technically to make online play work for the Smash Bros. series, Sakurai touched on the feeling I’ve had ever since I had my ass handed to me more times than I care to admit, never to return to the online arena. That Smash should be played among friends, and that it’s a nice feeling to be the champion of your own little group. Playing, and probably losing, online results in a loss of confidence and perhaps even abandoning the series entirely, something I can definitely attest to.
When I would play Melee and Brawl with friends, if one of them did get the better of me over and over again, I always wanted to come back for more. Not only because that was a time in my life when I could sit at a friend’s house and play Smash all night, but because sooner or later, I would get a win back, and then another, and maybe some more after that, no matter how good they were. There have been match-ups online where I’ve not even managed to land a single hit, let alone score a victory.
There’s also a different feel to losing to a friend sitting alongside you than there is when you lose to a faceless stranger online. There might be friendly banter between you and your buddies. That doesn’t happen when playing online because, well, those strangers aren’t your friends. If some of the people who have chased me back into my offline shell were able to chat to me about it after, odds are what they had to say would have deterred me from returning to their arena even more.
Playing Smash online is a single example of a feeling I had gaming as a child that neither I nor the current and future generations of gamers will ever be able to replicate. The feeling that you might just be the very best player of a particular game. Whether it be getting hammered online playing Smash, watching speedrunners race through games I’ve completed over and over in a fraction of the time, or stumbling upon an easter egg someone found minutes after the game launched, there are some gamer feelings that have sadly been lost to time thanks to the advent of online gaming and social media.
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