About this game
Super Smash Bros. is the game that Masahiro Sakurai built in secret. Working without Nintendo's knowledge, Sakurai created a prototype in September 1997 — then called Dragon King: The Fighting Game — and showed it to HAL Laboratory colleague Satoru Iwata (later Nintendo's president) before bringing it to Nintendo. The concept: a fighting game where the objective is not to reduce a health bar to zero but to knock opponents off a platform. Twelve Nintendo characters. A crowd that could join at any skill level. It sold over five million copies worldwide and launched one of gaming's enduring competitive communities.
Key Features
Platform-based combat — knock opponents off the stage rather than deplete a health bar. Damage percentage system — higher percentage means greater knockback on any hit. 12 playable characters from Nintendo's flagship franchises: Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox McCloud, Pikachu, Luigi, Captain Falcon, Ness, and Jigglypuff. Nine single-player stages and four multiplayer battle stages. 1-4 player simultaneous gameplay with stock or timed matches. Items drawn from across Nintendo's history.
The Story Behind
Super Smash Bros. arrived late in the N64's lifespan, in January 1999 in Japan. By this point, the PlayStation had captured market leadership globally, and the N64's release schedule was thinning. Into this context came a game that Nintendo's own internal teams had initially dismissed as unmarketable — a fighting game built not for fighting-game players but for people who wanted to play together regardless of skill. Its success proved that Nintendo's most unexpected ideas were sometimes its most durable ones. The competitive community that grew around Melee (2001) traces its DNA directly to this first entry, and major tournaments still feature the original as a side event.
Tricks & Tales
Sakurai developed the initial prototype entirely in his spare time without Nintendo's knowledge. He described his reasoning: fighting games were a commercially risky genre, so he needed to make something fully functional before showing it to anyone. Satoru Iwata joined the project to help with programming before it was presented to Nintendo. Ness was nearly cut from the roster due to concerns that EarthBound (Mother) was insufficiently known internationally. Captain Falcon's "FALCON PUNCH" voice acting became one of the most parodied audio clips in internet culture.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
Released worldwide, though with a significant delay between Japan (January 1999) and Europe (November 1999). Japanese cartridge plays on Japanese N64 and region-free modified units. The Japanese title — Dairantou Smash Brothers — differs from the English-language title.
Maintenance Tips
Super Smash Bros. N64 cartridges use SRAM for save data. Contact cleaning is the standard first step for any read issues. The game's cartridge is relatively compact and robust; the most common issue on surviving copies is contact oxidation from storage, which isopropyl cleaning resolves in most cases.
Available in our shop
Hand-cleaned and tested units shipped worldwide from Toyohashi, Japan. HP direct purchase exclusive: we include a printed shop owner's note card with every order.
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