Brendan Vo

Taylor Evans

English 001C

3/13/2022

The Brothers of Super Smash Brothers

In Charles H. Vogl’s book “The Art of Community'', the term community is defined as “a

group of individuals who share a mutual concern for one another’s welfare.” Many attribute the

formation of communities to Maslow’s third level of human needs for sense for love and

belonging. In a time of war, the community one aligns with will determine their values, identity,

and purpose, but in a time of peace communities can be treated with a less serious manner.

However, there is a true need to belong to a certain group and a desire to prove loyalty to a

group. When presented with this question, the examples of communities that may be most

prominent may be religion, fraternities, and political identity. As a participant in the field of

video games, however, a personal and beautiful example of community to me is the Super Smash

Bro’s Community (which I will abbreviate to SSB for the further discourse).

Just like other established communities, SSB has an “inner ring”, a more exclusive, inner

group that has its own practices and culture (Lewis). In the discourse of a fandom, it cannot be

constituted as such unless members are contributing towards the fandom and its purpose. Thus, a

community cannot simply be a group of individuals that share a similar interest. For example,

library card owners would not be considered to be part of a community that partakes in the

experience for the library insofar that they are not contributing to the cause of a library and may
have completely different purposes for being at the library. In short, they do not add onto the

experience of the library and there is no “inner ring” or sense of community

The SSB fandom is most established as a competitive 2d fighting game. In temples where

they compete against one another to see who is the best of the best and celebrate the power of

brotherhood in a shared video game. SSB members transcend being merely individuals with a

similar interest by having coordinated events such as tournaments, practices such as friendly

matches and content creation, and temples in the form of a venue that holds those tournaments

and creates an environment for practices. Unfortunately, players that are on the more casual level

of playing smash cannot be its own community, for these elements constitute the structure of the

fandom and contributing to that structure also means becoming a member of that community.

The Genesis of the Fandom

Super Smash Brother Melee’s (SSBM) lead director Masahiro Sakurai never intended to

design his game in such a way where players were having one on one duels using precise moving

and animation-canceling techniques (DYKG). SSBM was intended to be a party game filled with

ridiculous wacky stages that introduced random effect and items that could turn the tides to one

player and devastate many players at once. Nor was it intended to be solely a competitive one

player versus one player experience, allowing up to four players to enjoy a crazy, chaotic battle

where a family of four can scream and shout, having a casual, fun experience.

In the established fandom of competitive SSBM, the family and party experience is

replaced by an arguably more refined experience. Instead, two players are competing head to

head in a tournament bracket, egged on by over 2000 spectators to see who can be crowned the
strongest player of the year, winning prestige and honor. That is the exact scenario of a game set

played at the most prestigious and famous tournament, Evolution and it only made it so far due

to the accidental mechanics of the game that lead to its interesting, competitive uprising.

The two main mechanics in SSBM’s design that Sakurai would have deemed to be a

mistake is the wave-dash and l-canceling. Wave-dashing refers to the act of performing an

air-dodge towards the ground shortly after performing a jump. The air-dodge was formally

designed as a dodging mechanic and players were able to abuse it to travel a set distance and

having the freedom to perform any action shortly after. L-canceling refers to a technique where

after performing an attack in the air, a player can tap the shield button right when their character

model hits the ground. Performing such a technique causes the character to recover on the

ground faster than usual and, thus, gives the character the freedom to perform any action

afterwards. This “freedom” that the mechanisms give the players gives way to incredibly precise,

fluid, fast-paced gameplay that is akin to most traditional fighting games.

Sakurai detested the competitive scene and felt that his game was ruined by this fandom.

The first and one of the most colossal indirect attacks from Sakurai towards the fandom was the

removal of wave-dashing and l-canceling in SSBM’s successor, Super Smash Bros Brawl

(abbreviated to Brawl). While Brawl had one of the highest engrossing sales in gaming history

with 13.32 million copies released by 2008, it was hated by the competitive Smash community.

And, subsequently, most of the player base decided to stick with SSBM.

To iterate how dedicated the fandom was to competitive Smash Bros, when Evolution

held a fundraiser event for breast cancer research to decide which game would be featured as the

eight official game of the Evolution 2013 tournament selection, the competitive SSBM
community rose up and raised over $90,000, which was the most out of competing spot over

other established fandoms such as Street Fighter and Guilty Gear who had their game developers

and directors supporting them (Mallory). However, this story takes a dark turn, as when SSBM

was able to secure the eighth spot and be featured, Nintendo issued a ban on streaming the game

online to thousands of viewers and indirectly shut down the whole SSBM section (Pitcher).

Against the whole corporation and its own director, the fandom banded together and sent out

complaints to the corporation and tried to do everything they could to get their game back on

Evolution. Eventually, Sakurai and Nintendo gave into these mass complaints and backlash,

showing how persistent and resilient the fandom can be.

Boundaries of the Fandom in respect to other Fandoms and itself

As mentioned previously, the general SSB franchise is centered around practices and

culture of a competitive 2d fighting game. Yet, it is important to acknowledge that it holds a

volatile position within the fighting game community (abbreviated and commonly coined as

FGC). This is largely due to the design and philosophy of SSB and traditional fighting games.

Where general fighting games were made with the intention of competition between 2 people

within a strategic fighting game and, thus, subsequent game balance is kept in mind. The balance

refers to how strengths of a character are offset by proportional drawbacks in other areas to

ensure a fair experience (technopedia). And since the smash franchise was not initially intended

for focused competitive gameplay there was no game balance in the design for the characters in

SSBM, leading to highly polarized move sets. Therefore, some characters are significantly more

competitively viable than other characters, and usually players consider only 8 characters truly
viable for the game (however it should be noted that these characters can change out with other

characters since players are always figuring out new techniques and exploits even today!)

compared to other traditional fighting games who intend for almost every character to be on the

same level as others.

Intentions also play another important role in how the games are supported. Video game

company Capcom and their golden video game franchise Street Fighter can be interpreted as an

antithesis to Sakurai and SSB . It can be said that competitive Street Fighter IV players loved

their game as it contained many ways to express their skill and an intricate mind game behind

stunning visuals. So when Street Fighter V (SFV) came out with more simpler game play, a

significantly smaller cast, and lower quality online play, aspects of game design that are mostly

viewed negatively, it may have been an astonishing sight to see how most of the competitive

fandom still decided to move to SFV. This is mainly because players can trust in Capcom to host

big events, contribute to prize pools for more individual events, and regularly regulate gameplay

through “patches”; a set of changes brought to the game after its production designed to update,

fix, or improve it and usually brought upon by downloading from the internet.

On the contrary SSBM was never patched and was never truly succeeded by Brawl due to

its tense relationship between the fandom and the director of the game. Therefore, the

competitive fandom of Super Smash Bros Melee was resilient without any support and made way

for itself through mostly community effort and grassroot events, which are events run and

supported by the main body of the fandom. With no patches from the creators themselves, the

fandom also learned how to adapt to the meta-game, a term coined by players who are

experienced in terms of game play and knowledge and use it to their advantage. Characters that

seem unfairly strong and strategies that could seem overturned or “cheap” were challenges that
SSBM players tackled, rather than complained about. Where SFV players may complain about

certain characters being too powerful and needing developers to patch them and make them

worse, SSBM players would tell you to shut up and adapt.

Nowadays, the SSBM fandom stands strong and their culture of tournaments and

competition have always met the respect of the FGC, regardless of whether they are accepted or

not as a “fighting game.” What does that say of the future smash iterations? While SSBM is the

genesis of competitive SSB, it would be a harsh understatement to say that there was no

competitive fire behind Brawl, insofar that, despite the fact that Sakurai intended for the game to

be fully casual. However, that did not stop players from exploring Brawl and forming a

competitive community around it, forming a new community separate from the SSBM

community, even if their beloved developer, and even gaming company Nintendo, would never

set foot on its grounds.

However, the days of Nintendo and Sakurai suppressing the competitive fandom are no

more, especially with their newest iteration of Smash Bros, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate

(SSBU). In terms of support and care given from competitive fighting game developers to their

games, SSBU has followed the paradigm loosely, but is highly appreciated for doing so. In terms

of game balance, Super Smash Bros Ultimate holds a very well balanced cast of characters,

where most players and I, personally, feel that half of the cast is competitively viable and allow

for skill expression and technical play. Subsequently, SSBU boasts a ridiculously large cast of 82

unique characters to choose from, which reinforces how impressively difficult it must be to

maintain game balance over the entire cast (Super Smash Bros for the Nintendo Switch). The

final 13th main patch of the game was released December 1st and marked an end to patching

SSBU and an open interpretation of whether there would be a sequel or not.

 The Customs and Culture

As we enter into the new year of 2022, we turn to new ventures and technological

innovations. In the realm of televisions and computer monitors, there is a top ten ranking of

models discerned by unbiased data scientists and editors that use qualitative and qualitative data

to back up their choices. It may be common knowledge that an outdated, ancient CRT television

model is nowhere found in any of those results. There are minimal advantages to using CRT

TV’s such as straight-forward installation, easy and cheap shipping, and higher durability

(ECSTUFF4U). These TV’s are known more for their limitations insofar that they are limited to

a 40-inch screen size, weigh more and are bulkier (thus, harder to move around), and no longer

fit into modern aesthetics. However, if you were walking into the grand fighting game

tournament for Evo and turned your eyes toward the Super Smash Bro’s Melee section of players,

you will find over 60 CRT TV’s with the game linked to it.

In any ordinary setting CRT TV’s may be outdated, however, to the Super Smash Bro’s

community, they are treated as a crucial instrument to allow players to compete at the highest

level possible. The main reason for their niche popularity was their high refresh rate, referring to

the rate at which a display is able to draw a new image (Intel). The commitment these archaic,

heavy TV’s emphasizes the fandom’s ultimate desire to hold the most optimal, competitive

experience.

The second most crucial instrument in playing competitive Smash Bros is your controller.

The most optimal and popular controller of choice is the original gamecube controller. Playing

SSB optimally means pressing the attack button with precision and intention, while needing the
shield button to provide movement and more defensive options. The gamecube controller’s large

A button and two shoulder buttons conveniently gripped by the index fingers offer the best way

to frequently tap onto attacking and movement options (and even defensive options are usually

attacks that are meant to keep the opponent away, usually lingering moves or projectiles).

Competitions are also and obviously an integral part of any competitive fandom.

Authentic competitive play can be held both offline and online, with in person tournaments in a

venue of some sort or using online servers and a streaming website. However, major and the

most serious tournaments are usually held offline if possible, as it guarantees that the internet

would not be an issue. Netplay, or play on the internet, can shift game balance as inputs given

from the controller to the game will take more time to reach the actual game through the server

(as opposed to an offline setup in which controller inputs directly reach the game). These aspects

are shared with the general FGC in that they have competitions that are held with venues,

commentators, organizers, and tournament referees (also known as tournament officials or

“t.o’s“). Every person involved in the organization of the tournaments are also part of the inner

ring and can be referred to as true members of the community. Tournaments held by the FGC

usually feature SSBM and SSBU as main events due to their established communities.

Unlike most traditional fighting games, however, SSBM and SSBU both lack an official

ranking system online. Especially in the time of the epidemic, traditional fighting games found

themselves prioritizing the online mode insofar that it became the main source of play amidst

quarantine. SSBU’s supposed ranking system uses a flawed point system called “Global Smash

Points” where winning is equivalent to winning these points and advancing up the ranks. The

main problem with this system is that there is no real way to compare ranks with another player

in a meaningful way. There is also limited stage choice and you are locked to a character once
you play online in consecutive matches and players can leave the match whenever they want

with no penalties. SSBM has no official online play, however, the fandom had created their own

emulator and ranking system that is played on the computer.

This controversial ranking system and emulator has been named “Slippi” (Slippi).

Technically, using Slippi means using illegitimate methods to download the game for free,

insofar that players can find the game files online using websites that are heavily disapproved by

Nintendo. During the pandemic, Nintendo and the SSBM community clashed on the usage of

Slippi with streaming services and featuring netplay from Slippi in online tournament settings.

The fandom suffered greatly when Nintendo banned major tournaments from using Slippi and

saw a time period where there were no official SSBM competitions. In-person tournaments have

revived the community now, however, Nintendo has yet to introduce an official way to play

SSBM online, which feels like a slight to the fandom.

Conclusion

The SSB community is an amalgamation of perseverance, resilience and a unique case for

the FGC. Its popularity as a game and its grassroot community has kept it alive to this day and it

has yet to reach its potential. Nintendo has slowly been supporting the scene by sponsoring SSBU

tournaments, yet it has not formally held tournaments or series that are recognized by the fandom

just yet. Thus, the future remains uncertain for competitive smash until Nintendo chooses to tap

into the competitive nature of the fandom or the fandom itself naturally grows to the point where

it can even hold world tours and championships.

 Will the Super Smash Brothers Community someday outshine the FGC and become

something even more amazing? It may take years, even decades, but the future remains bright for

this beloved franchise.

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