Super Smash Flash

Super Smash Flash
Logo for the original, Super Smash Flash (top), and logo for the reboot, Super Smash Flash 2 (bottom).
Genres	Fighting, action, platformer
Developers	McLeodGaming, Cleod9 Productions
Publishers	McLeodGaming
Creators	Gregory McLeod (Cleod9)
Platforms	Super Smash Flash Microsoft Windows Super Smash Flash 2 Microsoft Windows, macOS, Linux
Platform of origin	PC
Original release	Super Smash Flash April 21, 2006 Super Smash Flash 2 (demo) December 25, 2007

Super Smash Flash is a series of non-profit, fighting, crossover, fan-made Flash games published by indie website McLeodGaming, led by Gregory McLeod under the alias Cleod9. It is based on the Super Smash Bros. series.^[1] The original, Super Smash Flash, is based specifically off of the Nintendo-made game, Super Smash Bros. Melee. The series altogether has spawned a large community on their official forums.

Gameplay

The common objective, much like official Super Smash Bros. titles, is to knock opponents off of the screen. Players are given a percentage counter instead of a health bar, which increases as they take damage. A higher damage percentage means that attacks will send the player farther, which may ultimately lead to a KO.^[2]

The games are not direct clones of the official titles, featuring adjusted mechanics and playable content, both stages and characters, not present in the original Super Smash Bros. series by virtue of being fanmade projects.

In the original Super Smash Flash, characters only have a total of five attacks each, activated by pressing the "P" key along with an arrow key, additionally, some characters presented an extra attack while jumping. The reboot, Super Smash Flash 2, tries to greater emulate the feel of a console game by giving characters a much wider variety of movement options, and while keyboard control is still the default configuration, there exist settings and guides to facilitate play with USB controllers.^[3]

Single-player

As with the official Super Smash Bros. games, both Super Smash Flash and Super Smash Flash 2 include several modes designed specifically for one player, such as campaigns to defeat a series of computer-controlled opponents, participating of events that have specific goals to clear, mini-game to test the player, etc. Players are awarded with numerous rewards and other collectibles by clearing single-player modes.

The original game features three single-player modes. In Regular Match, players can choose between Classic and Adventure Modes; once the whole roster has been unlocked, All-Star Mode becomes available. In Stadium, several mini-games and challenges are pitched to the player such as destroying eight targets using each characters's own abilities in Target Test or defeating grey-shaded versions of the playable roster in Multi-Man Melee. In Training Mode, players can tune up their playing skills by setting several parameters of their own.

The reboot has pretty much expanded the single-player experience. Classic Mode (to be included in the forthcoming Beta version), for instance, will get more levels to play and will a new system called the "Peril Roulette" which randomly chooses an advantage or disadvantage for the player and the opponent(s) depending on the difficulty.^[4] For Stadium, Target Test has been renamed Target Smash!! and features two ways for playing: the first is a general system that features several levels and difficulties with a set pattern for targets on each level, the second one (which will be available in the Beta version) is more similar to the original's system, in which each character has a specifically-designed, individual level that tests the character's own abilities to destroy the targets.^[4] An Event Mode was also implemented, where players have to complete specific missions or defeat certain characters to accomplish the event.

Multiplayer

Both Super Smash Flash and Super Smash Flash 2 feature standard multiplayer battles, both against other players on the same machine and against computer-controlled characters with configurable difficulty levels.

The original game was very limited by its software Flash capacity; aside only one multiplayer mode (crowned as Melee mode), matches were limited for only two human players per match, the other remaining two slots could be filled with CPU entries only. Playing this way was also very disadvantaged for player-two as the camera was programmed to solely follow player-one.

The reboot further expanded the multiplayer mode by finally allowing 4 player-entries controlled by human players, in addition to an improved camera system that follows all the players. Version 0.9b introduced Special Mode, a similar mode in which certain "game modifiers" like Mini, Slow, or Turbo can be applied to matches.^[5] The Beta version will introduce a brand new original mode called Arena Mode, which will enable players to participate is some minigames playing with the existing physics and characters in unorthodox-for-the-series ways, much like Stadium on single-player mode. For now, only one sub-mode called Sandbag Soccer has been revealed, in this mode players are pitched in an enclosed stage sorted two teams, red and blue, and have to get the Sandbag into the opposing team's goal and the first team that reaches the set amount of goals prior the match, wins.^[4]

Online

In the latest demo of Super Smash Flash 2, version 0.9b, players are given the ability to fight against opponents online through a proprietary system dubbed the "McLeodGaming Network".^[5][6] Connections use the proprietary Adobe RTMFP technology unless the "high latency" setting is chosen, which hands the players off to a server rather than using a P2P connection.

Playable characters

The original Super Smash Flash features 30 characters.^[7] These characters represent a wide variety of media, spanning not only their respective video games but also manga, animated film, and fan-made creations. Like in the Super Smash Bros. series, a number of these characters must be "unlocked" through various means.

Super Smash Flash 2 is confirmed to feature at least 39 characters as well. Fan-made newcomers from the previous game will not reappear, due to the developers wanting to give a more professional tone to the game.^[8]

Development

Super Smash Flash

Development of the original Super Smash Flash began around mid-2006, as Cleod9's first Flash game project on his then TI-89-centric website, McLeodGaming, after understanding Flash coding well enough to make a full-fledged game. Originally, the game was a combat-oriented platform game with a Sonic the Hedgehog fan-character called "Blade" (whom would remain a playable character even in the final product) and the focus was to get through a large level with suspended platforms taking out flying robotic bees called Buzzers (enemies from the Sega Genesis game, Sonic the Hedgehog 2) The game was eventually reworked into a Super Smash Bros. fan game - then early called a "flash Smash engine" by Cleod9 - where small updates began incorporating new content, be new playable characters, stages or items^[1] It was based on Super Smash Bros. Melee as that was the current title in the official series at the time. As Cleod9's first big flash project, the game was considered "a great success for its time".^[9] The game was completed within roughly half a year's time without any outside coding assistance, and was released August 21, 2006 on Newgrounds, a website known for its user-made Flash content.^[10]

Super Smash Flash 2

The success of Super Smash Flash soon led to high demand for a sequel. When McLeodGaming first started development on Super Smash Flash 2 in 2007, the game was planned to be a sequel to the original Super Smash Flash, with the incremental aesthetic and gameplay improvements. This plan was ultimately discarded in favor of making a fresh, new start to reboot the series. Despite the title, Super Smash Flash 2 is not actually a sequel; it is an entirely new game, and only retains the original name of the project because of how widely known the title has become throughout the fanbase. Although the game is not complete yet, pre-releases – also known as demos of the game – have been posted to their website for users and fans to see how far in development the game is. Various attempts to post minor updates to the game have also been posted to the "Smash Flash DOJO!!!", one of several websites run by developers based on a similar Nintendo-run site for the Smash Bros. series, but each attempt has been abandoned.^[11] Updates are also occasionally posted on the team's Facebook and Twitter pages.

There were two major turning points in the game's development. The first was on January 1, 2009, on the release of v 0.4a. This was the point where the game began to sharply grow considerably more complex, leading to snags in development as the difficulty of adding new characters was stated by Cleod to have "increased exponentially" at this point.^[12] The second turning point came with the following release, v0.7, on January 1, 2011. Initially thought to merely be an update that added content, Black Mage was included as a hidden character after playing ten battles. This was a shock to the fanbase, as he was the first character to be introduced who was not in the originally planned character roster. Directly related to knowledge of his surprise inclusion spreading among the general fanbase, McLeodGaming soon made an announcement that the oft-criticized planned roster had undergone a complete overhaul.^[13]

The final demo, Super Smash Flash 2 Beta, was announced on January 25, 2015. It was notable for dropping both the version number and designating itself as a beta version rather than a demo. Though it is not yet feature complete, it has added various aspects to stand on its own as a game, both present in the official Super Smash Bros. titles, such as Classic Mode (primarily in the vein of the original Super Smash Bros., but with added elements), and original to the game, such as Arena Mode.

Reception

Super Smash Flash

Super Smash Flash garnered a mixed to positive critical reception. Though initially reviewed positively, later reviews such as one on FlashGN found the game to be "lacking control", and "simply a buggy and flawed attempt at recreating one of the best fighting games of all time."^[14] Despite some poor reviews, Super Smash Flash earned a Newgrounds daily feature award, over 11 million views, and a four star rating, and later was categorized as making "Flash Portal History" for 2006.^[15] The game has picked up several other minor awards.^[16]

Super Smash Flash 2

Super Smash Flash 2, though currently incomplete, has gained significantly more traction than its predecessor. It was featured in GamesRadar's "10 fan games that shouldn't be ceased or desisted" as number 5 while still in its infancy, and gained a feature article on GoNintendo.^[17][18] Shortly before the release of version 0.9b, one writer for the video gaming website Polygon opined that "There's a low-fi pixel art aesthetic and a sense of freedom that makes Super Smash Flash 2 more appealing to me than the real thing."^[19] Super Smash Flash 2's demos maintain over 400,000 plays a day on McLeodGaming alone, and peaked at over 1 million daily plays on January 20, 2013.^[20] Notably, the game's work-in-progress v0.9a demo was featured as an indie game at the worldwide Super Smash Bros. tournament Apex 2013, and returned the following two years with subsequent updates.^[21]

References

External links

• McLeodGaming website

Super Smash Bros. series
Games	Super Smash Bros. Melee Brawl 3DS and Wii U
Developers	HAL Laboratory Sora Ltd. Masahiro Sakurai Game Arts Bandai Namco Entertainment
Fan games	Project M Super Smash Flash Super Smash Bros. Crusade Super Smash Land
Community	Professional competition The Smash Brothers

Unofficial Mario media
Console games	Kart Fighter Somari
Computer games	Ennuigi Mario Bros. II Super Mario War Syobon Action Secret Maryo Chronicles Super Mario Bros. Crossover Tuper Tario Tros. Mari0 Super Smash Flash Super Smash Bros. Crusade Super Smash Land No Mario's Sky
Game mods	Kaizo Mario World Mario Kart: Source Project M
Movies	Super Hornio Brothers II
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