Super Smash Flash

Info

Super Smash Flash, commonly abbreviated SSF or SSF1, is an non-profit Flash fangame developed by Cleod9 Productions and published by McLeodGaming on August 21, 2006. The game is based on Super Smash Bros. Melee in the menu format, music, and numerous other fields such as game play modes. The game features several characters from the Super Smash Bros. series, such as Mario, Samus, Link, Kirby, and Pikachu. It also features many third-party characters, including Sonic (who, at the time of the game's creation, was not confirmed to be a character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl) and Mega Man X. Besides that, it also includes original fan characters like Blade. Super Smash Flash will rebooted with a new game called Super Smash Flash 2, which will completely ignore the basis of the first game and start a new with new gameplay mechanism.

Gameplay

Super Smash Flash's gameplay is very similar to the official Super Smash Bros. games. Unlike most traditional 2D fighting games, each character's health is measured by a damage percentage counter. As the character is attacked, damage is accumulated and the percent value increases. The higher the percentage, the weaker the character is, and the easier it is for them to be KO'd off the stage.

The arrow keys (or A, S, D, and W for a second player) are used to move the character around and crouch. The O and P keys (or G and F for a second player) are used to jump and attack, respectively. Pressing a movement button and the attack button together will initiate a special attack, much like Melee's B button attacks.

Matches can be played in either Time Mode, Stock Mode, or a combination of the two. In Time mode, each player receives a point when they KO an opponent, and loses a point if they are KO'd or self-destruct. At the end of the designated time limit, the player with the most points wins. In Stock mode, each player is given a chosen amount of lives, and every time they are KO'd or self-destruct, they lose a life. When a player loses all their lives, they are out of the game, and the match's conclusion is reached when there is only one player left standing. In the Classic and Adventure Modes, every level has both a time limit and a chosen amount of lives; if the player does not KO the opponent before time runs out, they lose a life and have to restart the level. Both modes can also be selected in the game's Melee mode, but if a winner is not decided when the time runs out, the player with the highest number of lives left is declared the winner. Melee's Coin is absent.

The game is loosely similar to Melee, but most, if not all game mechanics are missing. The characters only have five total attacks (not counting their jump, which surprisingly some does damage) and it is almost impossible to recover since every character is lightweight, jumping doesn't send your character very high into the air, the character cannot perform a third jump, and all attacks do 50%+ damage (even the normal ones). Additionally, it is possible to rack up over 1000% damage, even though it is not possible in Melee. The game also lacks hit effects for all attacks. All of these mechanic flaws resulted in negative responses.

Characters

There is a total of 28 playable characters (30 if double characters are counted) whose 13 are starter and 15 are unlockable. Each one of these characters have a very simplistic moveset consisting of only 5 attacks (a standard attack, an up attack, a side attack, a down attack and an aerial down attack). Due to this, in addition to the properties for some attacks, all characters are considered tier-less as they don't offer real advantages or disadvantages over other characters. Despite this, it has been noted that characters with projectile attacks have a greater advantage over those characters who lack them thanks to the infinite range projectiles cover. Though there are only 5 attacks for each moveset, some characters gain an extra attack while jumping.

Starter Characters

Mario
Link
Zelda
Sheik
Samus
Kirby
Meta Knight
Captain Falcon
Fox
Pikachu
Sonic the Hedgehog
Tails
Knuckles
Mega Man X
Blade

Unlockable Characters

Luigi
Young Link
Jigglypuff
Mewtwo
Mr. Game & Watch
Shadow
Super Sonic
Zero
Crono
Cloud
Lloyd
InuYasha
Naruto
Mr. Incredible
Blue

Stages

Most of the eight stages are based off of actual Super Smash Bros. series' stages but there are also some original stages not present in the official games.

Starter Stages

Peach's Castle
Mushroom Kingdom 2
Hyrule Temple
Dream Land
Pokemon Stadium
Emerald Hill Zone

Reception

Super Smash Flash was met with mixed reviews from the day it was launched. Various reviewers on multiple websites, including Newgrounds (which gave this game a 4.18 / 5.00) and McLeodGaming itself, declared that it was one of the best Smash fan games ever created because unlike other fan games, it was complete with a full character roster and single-player modes. Many others, however, were more critical of the game, pointing out its horrendous physics flaws, lack of item regulation, lack of VS. mode customization, and game-breaking glitches, such as the infamous Skip glitch.

The character roster was met with mixed reception, although it was arguably the main reason why Smash Flash received recognition. This was because it included lots of characters that many fans of different franchises wanted in the real Smash Bros. games, such as Sonic and Mega Man X, and many were excited that they could finally pit these characters against their favorite Nintendo characters. Many others criticized the selection, claiming the character additions were excessive and out of place. They stated that there were more Sonic characters than Mario characters (including a "Super Sonic" character and even custom Sonic characters known as Blade and Blue who are nothing more than recolors of Sonic but with swords,) which is ridiculous in a work that should be based off of the Nintendo-created Melee. A lot of people were also fed up with the insane number of other third- and fourth- party characters, including Crono, Cloud, Lloyd, InuYasha, Naruto, and most notoriously Mr. Incredible, who all have little to no backing of being in a Smash game, have seldom or never showed up on Nintendo console games, and have extremely inaccurate representations in Smash Flash (for example, Naruto cannot use anything but kicks and headbutts, while in his original series he could use ninja-based attacks.) All of these pieces of criticism accumulate into the idea that the creators randomly chose characters with no regard to whether they would fit into Smash Bros.

The controls and physics also garnered criticism. Super Smash Flash is notable for having an extremely watered-down control scheme, using only one button and four directional keys to play. All attacks, including some jumps, deal insane amounts of knockback even at low percentages, sending characters either horizontally or on a semi-spike trajectory that is impossible to recover from. This is exacerbated by the fact that most characters only have one midair jump for their recovery and lack an up special move to gain more distance, causing matches to end crazily, unfairly, and too quickly. Characters with projectiles and five midair jumps also dominated to the point of complete centralization. Overall, while the game was received well by fans for introducing desired characters into a Smash Bros.-like environment, it was panned by critics for lacking the depth that defined the series as a whole.

Glitches

"See Glitches"

As the game was created in a very short time by an unexperienced Cleod9, there are a lot of glitches. Notable glitches include Knuckles' down jump and the possibility of unlocking Final Destination with only starter characters and Jigglypuff. Some glitches only occur with certain characters; in Classic mode, Mario always runs off and dies, and Samus shortly follows.

But the most popular glitch is that if the player right-clicks at the start of anything, goes on settings, and while the settings box appears, right-click on the screen again and click on 'play'. This will skip the stage/event and count as a win. If this is used on one of the multi-man melees, the player will automatically be sent through all the events before being challenged.

This glitch does not work on the Newgrounds version, or the Mario Games sites. Instead the player must press forward. If the player presses rewind, they will be sent to the loading screen.

One of the most crippling game bugs, however, was that all attacks were capable of KOing in one hit. Virtually all of the playable characters in the game had at least one move that would instantly kill an opponent at approximately 50% or higher. Most of the time, this move was an up tilt attack that would send the opponent flying perfectly sideways until they died (which was usually within moments of getting hit, causing the move to appear as an instant kill). Other variations of this move include Master Hand's push (which sends the opponent straight up), and Master Hand's fist (which sent the player straight downwards and through the main platform). The existence of this bug made the game nearly impossible to unlock InuYasha and complete All-Star mode because one was almost certain to lose at least one life. But another glitch was found to help this, in which, when you fight Master hand, if you pause the game as Master hand is attacking, you will take no damage, and Master hands attack continues. This glitch doesn't work against any other opponent.