Picture this, an Italian plumber fighting an electric mouse. That my friends, is Smash Bros… wow, sometimes I impress myself with how well I explain things.

Smash Bros, as I am sure you are all well aware, is the ultimate fighting crossover game series, where video game all stars duke it out. Each game in the series is amazing… but there is definitely a black sheep in the family. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is considered (by most) to be the worst game in the series, but I would argue that whilst that might be true for the core gameplay, the game itself is still great. In fact, I would even argue that this game was more influential than any other in the series. I believe, this game specifically, created a generation of Nintendo fans. I count myself as one of those fans this game gave birth to, and her is why.

The very nature of Smash Bros lends itself well to the idea of creating new Nintendo fans, especially with icons like Mario and Pikachu in the mix. The theory behind this is fairly simple. Are you a Mario fan? Well, you’re likely to pick up this new game with Mario and a bunch of other Nintendo characters. What’s that, you like the look of the pink ball? Well, that’s Kirby, he has a ton of 2D platforming games just like Mario, you should check them out. Boom! Just like that, you’re in the Nintendo ecosystem, and trust me when I tell you, there is no escape. Kiss your wallet goodbye!

What made Brawl so special in this regards then? Brawl has one major advantage over it’s predecessors… it was released on the Wii.

I still remember seeing the cover of Super Smash Bros Melee and being so fascinated because it contained my favourite video game character and my favourite anime character. I wanted to play it so badly… but I couldn’t because I owned a PS2. Many others were in this same position, the PlayStation brand was HUGE so if your parents weren’t already Nintendo fans, you probably didn’t have a way to play Nintendo games (excluding handhelds). The Wii however, was a runaway success. It appealed to more casual audiences which meant many of us finally had a Nintendo system in our homes, and with it, a way to finally play Smash Bros.

Now, to address the elephant in the room, Super Smash Bros Ultimate is a thing. Am I claiming Brawl was more influential than Ultimate, released on an even more popular system, with even more characters, and selling almost double what Brawl did? Sorta.

 

Don’t get me wrong, in many ways Ultimate is way more influential than Brawl, but I’m willing to bet a huge part of Ultimate’s audience played Brawl first, and perhaps only played Brawl beforehand.

Also, Brawl came with demos for all sorts of Nintendo games you could then purchase on the Virtual Console, and I would also argue that Brawl’s roster size was better at introducing people to Nintendo’s IPs. Obviously Ultimate has more characters, but that in itself can be very overwhelming and furthermore, many are from third parties. Also, the Subspace Emissary… need I say more?

Regardless, I can only speak for myself when I say that I love Super Smash Bros Brawl because it transformed me from a Mario fan, into a Nintendo fan, and for that I will always be grateful! I’d love to know your views on Super Smash Bros Brawl, is that how you became a Nintendo fan? Was there another game that was way more influential to you personally? I’d love to know, so be sure to leave a comment.