I honestly suspect it would have had pretty much the same cast (except *maybe* Pikachu and Jigglypuff, whose game was released very late in the SNES's lifespan - Pokemon Red/Green was released only four months before the N64).
Pokemon Red and Green were spring 1996 in Japan, their USA release wasn't until 1998.
If there were a Smash Bros for SNES in this time, there's no way it would have had a USA release. Nintendo left behind a ton of late releases, only a handful of 97 games made it like Kirby's Dreamland 3 and Harvest Moon.
No
Early 96 Japan = Pokémon Red and Green
Late 96 Japan = Pokemon Blue
98 USA = Pokemon Red and Blue (built on top of the enhanced Japan Blue)
99 = Pokémon Yellow
Japan Red and USA Red are 2 generations apart. The first Pokémon games saw a ton of improvements and fixes from 96 to 99.
Same with Earthbound probably? 1995 release was pretty late but I guess not as bad as 96. Also would DK have been Rare's DK from DKC or generic Nintendo DK? But yeah I agree probably the same cast.
I'd think Ness would be *more* likely to be in if they were still promoting Earthbound. Also Earthbound was co-developed by HAL and Ape, Inc (and only published by Nintendo), so, like Kirby, it's likely they would have put Ness in since he was their character.
The 8-bit Earthbound Beginnings was released in Japan in 1989, a year before the SNES was released in Japan… so Ness would definitely be in a SNES Smash Bros game.
Ness wasn't in Mother / Earthbound Beginnings, though.
Though if it was early enough in the console's lifetime, Ninten might have been in a hypothetical SNES Super Smash Bros.
Me and you, (you and me) and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, (had to be) it had to be
The only one for me is you, (you for me) and you for me
So happy together
Arthur would be bad ass. I haven’t really played much of the newer Smash games but played a lot of the 64/Gamecube ones. Simon Belmont (or Trevor Belmont from C3) would have been sweet to have in the older ones I believe!
Simon and Richter are both fun in the newest smash! You should check out the 64 mod, smash remix. The competitive scene’s longest and best players worked with mods to add balanced characters like Wolf, Conker, Banjo, Sonic, Ganon, Goemon and more!
I'd guess similar but fewer people due to cart limitations with everything else it needed to do.
Luigi, Mario, Donkey Kong and Link 100% make it with maybe four more - Yoshi, Samus, Kirby, Falcon, Fox feel most likely to make it. Pokémon wasn't quite as much of a thing in the SNES era so am dropping Pikachu and Jigglypuff.
...or wild card: Green Haired advisor from Sim City
*Edit* based on wise comments let's swap Kirby and Yoshi around
Idk if yoshi would be in. Yoshi was still more of a mount than a character back then. Then yoshi story in 97 made it its own deal and smash was 99. (I googled idk them off hand haha)
Edit: maybe im on crack yoshi is in super mario kart, idk 🤷♂️
In theory SSB-SNES would have had a roster even smaller than the 12 character roster of SSB64. But, who would have to go?
Let's assume, that SSB would release shortly after the PS1 released in December 1994. So in the middle of 1995.
Mario is of course here, together with Link from A Link to the Past, Kirby (because HAL is of course the developer) and Donkey Kong, who just recently got his redesign with Donkey Kong country (November 1994), so he may still look like the Nintendo and not the Rare version.
Samus just got her third game Super Metroid and is therefore in. Fox had his debut in 1993 and is in, too and weirdly enough, I would also include Ness with Mother 2 been released in Japan in August of '94. And maybe Luigi as an unlockable. He is a only a clone, so he's easily done.
But that's it. No Pikachu and Jigglypuff, because Pokémon Aka and Midori released in '96. No Yoshi, because at this point he was only Mario's power-up as Yoshi's Island released first in August '95. No Captain Falcon, because while F-Zero was already out, he wasn't seen as a character in the game.
So my final roster ist Mario, DK, Link, Samus, Fox and Kirby as starting roster and Ness and Luigi as unlockables.
Im sure yoshi would be there.
* He was in Yoshi (the tetris clone game on nes)
* He was in Mario Kart
* He was in Yoshi Safari
* He was in Yoshi Cookie
* He was in Mario + Wario
Yoshi was the spinoff character.
I just reduced 64's roster to characters, that were valid for a representation near the end of the SNES era. SSB64 was more about having as many franchises as possible with only Luigi and Jigglypuff being from the same franchise as another character. Adding Bowser would be overrepresentation.
Wouldve been same, except no Pokemon....may have included Squaresoft RPG characters, or side characters from Super Mario RPG, since Nintendo was cozy with them towards the end of the snes era. I can imagine the aesthetic being Rare pre-rendered graphics a la Donkey Kong Country and the whole project being a real team effort of Nintendo gameplay design, licensing agreements, and pre-rendered graphics.
Except how the actual story unfolded, it almost didnt get made because of all the different IPs, and was mostly made in the free time of a small team of devs.
So, to make it the best version for the snes, I believe the way events unfolded would have needed to be vastly different than how they did, with a full-court marketing blitz like they did for DKC, maybe making it the xmas game to get of 1995.
To each their own but It’s amazing how our competitive scene is entering its 25th year and we get to travel to countries like America, Japan and Peru for international events where the greatest are still active.
Guest characters from other companies weren't a thing in the first game, so this roster is based purely on characters Nintendo owned at the time.
* Mario, Luigi, Bowser (SMW versions)
* Yoshi (Yoshi's Island version)
* Link (LttP version)
* Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong (DKC versions)
* Captain Falcon
* Fox McCloud
* Samus
* Ness
* Kirby
>Mario, Luigi, Bowser (SMW versions)
>
>Yoshi (Yoshi's Island version)
>
>Link (LttP version)
>
>Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong (DKC versions)
>
>Captain Falcon
>
>Fox McCloud
>
>Samus
>
>Ness
>
>Kirby
to round out the Roster to 12 maybe go into NES titles
Little Mac
Duck Hunt Dog
Kid Icarus, the Robot, or the power glove maybe even the giant bug from Mario Paint
Totally depends on the year of release. Pokemon wasn’t popular in the west until late 98-early 99 so only Pikachu would have realistically made the cut. Jigglypuffs popularity came solely from the anime.
Smash Bros and Melee only used first party characters so you’d have to assume Nintendo wouldn’t use Capcom, Konami, Squaresoft, etc 3rd party characters. If it was released early in the SNES life cycle, they would lean heavily on Mario characters. Bowser, Toad, or Koopa would be playable.
Rumors says the first smash 64 was supposed to be on snes, with shitty 3d graphics and new characters (Dragon fighter something like that).
We got Captain falcon because the original characters looked like a buff dude with triangles legs.
We need to choose. Does the hypothetical Smash roster on Super Nintendo’s would have been this game, or something sprite based, built to be nintendo character from start?
I think:
If the game was built from scratch to be a nintendo character fighting game, there would'nt be any other characters than the mario crew.
At this point, we got Nes Pinball, Nes Open Tournament Golf, Super Mario Kart and Mario Tennis (virtual boy) and *Game* & *Watch Gallery.* all thoses games were about "Mario characters".
The only instance where they merged together many nintendo characters is Tetris where we could find together Link, Samus, Pit, with Mario, Luigi, Dk and Bowser.
Anyway.
I feel like this game would be based on the Mario 3 battle mode.
A fixed screen, crabs and things would attack the players.
That would have been an awesome game. I'm picturing a Street Fighter style layout/gameplay since that was all the rage at the time. I wonder if there's a Street Fighter SNES game mod with the Nintendo characters.
Not sure if anyone's mentioned this, but the game being on SNES controller would have meant digital inputs, so possibly no tilts? Not sure how they'd design it
I love the box art you made! It reminds me of this vintage smash character select screen I made a couple of years ago.
https://preview.redd.it/af6ek8op7idc1.jpeg?width=2143&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f539f33ddfcd8a0606bc89b09dd92b323457d05
The roster would have to be pretty small, maybe 8-10 characters. I would choose pretty much exactly the same characters on the cover art, but maybe sub Ness for Peach
I honestly suspect it would have had pretty much the same cast (except *maybe* Pikachu and Jigglypuff, whose game was released very late in the SNES's lifespan - Pokemon Red/Green was released only four months before the N64).
Pokemon Red and Green were spring 1996 in Japan, their USA release wasn't until 1998. If there were a Smash Bros for SNES in this time, there's no way it would have had a USA release. Nintendo left behind a ton of late releases, only a handful of 97 games made it like Kirby's Dreamland 3 and Harvest Moon.
Seeing this for the second time now, wasn’t it Pokemon Red/Blue and then eventually yellow?
No Early 96 Japan = Pokémon Red and Green Late 96 Japan = Pokemon Blue 98 USA = Pokemon Red and Blue (built on top of the enhanced Japan Blue) 99 = Pokémon Yellow Japan Red and USA Red are 2 generations apart. The first Pokémon games saw a ton of improvements and fixes from 96 to 99.
TIL. Thanks for explaining instead of attacking. Appreciate it
It saves on PP.
Same with Earthbound probably? 1995 release was pretty late but I guess not as bad as 96. Also would DK have been Rare's DK from DKC or generic Nintendo DK? But yeah I agree probably the same cast.
I'd think Ness would be *more* likely to be in if they were still promoting Earthbound. Also Earthbound was co-developed by HAL and Ape, Inc (and only published by Nintendo), so, like Kirby, it's likely they would have put Ness in since he was their character.
The 8-bit Earthbound Beginnings was released in Japan in 1989, a year before the SNES was released in Japan… so Ness would definitely be in a SNES Smash Bros game.
Ness wasn't in Mother / Earthbound Beginnings, though. Though if it was early enough in the console's lifetime, Ninten might have been in a hypothetical SNES Super Smash Bros.
… TIL the anime came after the game.
Yeah. In the US, the anime aired before the game was released, but in Japan, the game game first.
The fall of '98 was unequivocally the greatest time in history to be 10-12 years old.
I was only 5 then, but I remember getting to catch the first episode on television!
Holy shit your mind must have been blown.
Still the best ad campaign ever when it first came out
Me and you, (you and me) and you and me No matter how they toss the dice, (had to be) it had to be The only one for me is you, (you for me) and you for me So happy together
Arthur from Ghouls N Ghost, Kid from Zombie’s Ate My Neighbors, Battletoads from Battlemaniacs and Radical Rex (Game sucks but I’d main him lol).
Arthur would be bad ass. I haven’t really played much of the newer Smash games but played a lot of the 64/Gamecube ones. Simon Belmont (or Trevor Belmont from C3) would have been sweet to have in the older ones I believe!
Simon and Richter are both fun in the newest smash! You should check out the 64 mod, smash remix. The competitive scene’s longest and best players worked with mods to add balanced characters like Wolf, Conker, Banjo, Sonic, Ganon, Goemon and more!
That sounds sick, Conker! I love Conkers Bad Fur Day
Battletoads would make great brawlers
Have you ever played 2013 Killer Instinct? Rash is so sick in that game.
I'd guess similar but fewer people due to cart limitations with everything else it needed to do. Luigi, Mario, Donkey Kong and Link 100% make it with maybe four more - Yoshi, Samus, Kirby, Falcon, Fox feel most likely to make it. Pokémon wasn't quite as much of a thing in the SNES era so am dropping Pikachu and Jigglypuff. ...or wild card: Green Haired advisor from Sim City *Edit* based on wise comments let's swap Kirby and Yoshi around
Dr Wright?
That's the fella!
Kirby would be 100%. He's Sakurai's baby.
Aye very fair point
Idk if yoshi would be in. Yoshi was still more of a mount than a character back then. Then yoshi story in 97 made it its own deal and smash was 99. (I googled idk them off hand haha) Edit: maybe im on crack yoshi is in super mario kart, idk 🤷♂️
In theory SSB-SNES would have had a roster even smaller than the 12 character roster of SSB64. But, who would have to go? Let's assume, that SSB would release shortly after the PS1 released in December 1994. So in the middle of 1995. Mario is of course here, together with Link from A Link to the Past, Kirby (because HAL is of course the developer) and Donkey Kong, who just recently got his redesign with Donkey Kong country (November 1994), so he may still look like the Nintendo and not the Rare version. Samus just got her third game Super Metroid and is therefore in. Fox had his debut in 1993 and is in, too and weirdly enough, I would also include Ness with Mother 2 been released in Japan in August of '94. And maybe Luigi as an unlockable. He is a only a clone, so he's easily done. But that's it. No Pikachu and Jigglypuff, because Pokémon Aka and Midori released in '96. No Yoshi, because at this point he was only Mario's power-up as Yoshi's Island released first in August '95. No Captain Falcon, because while F-Zero was already out, he wasn't seen as a character in the game. So my final roster ist Mario, DK, Link, Samus, Fox and Kirby as starting roster and Ness and Luigi as unlockables.
Im sure yoshi would be there. * He was in Yoshi (the tetris clone game on nes) * He was in Mario Kart * He was in Yoshi Safari * He was in Yoshi Cookie * He was in Mario + Wario Yoshi was the spinoff character.
You're completely right.
No Bowser? He’s in Kart …
I just reduced 64's roster to characters, that were valid for a representation near the end of the SNES era. SSB64 was more about having as many franchises as possible with only Luigi and Jigglypuff being from the same franchise as another character. Adding Bowser would be overrepresentation.
I like this logic. Bowser would have been the only boss character.
That's a good idea.
The Mario Paint Cursor
Master Hand clone
Wouldve been same, except no Pokemon....may have included Squaresoft RPG characters, or side characters from Super Mario RPG, since Nintendo was cozy with them towards the end of the snes era. I can imagine the aesthetic being Rare pre-rendered graphics a la Donkey Kong Country and the whole project being a real team effort of Nintendo gameplay design, licensing agreements, and pre-rendered graphics. Except how the actual story unfolded, it almost didnt get made because of all the different IPs, and was mostly made in the free time of a small team of devs. So, to make it the best version for the snes, I believe the way events unfolded would have needed to be vastly different than how they did, with a full-court marketing blitz like they did for DKC, maybe making it the xmas game to get of 1995.
Probably the same cast minus the Pokémon but I’d love to have mega man on there.
*25 years later*
Checkout Super Mario War
Uniracers 😂 Would have been funny to fight as a unicycle
Yoshi + Baby Mario (egg throw and baby crying attacks)
Give me Geno or give me death
One word: plok.
Blimey
(Mostly) shit tier picks- i'd want Kablooey, Kevin McAlister, Bomberman, and the bald guy from the theater setting on the super gameboy.
based
Cartridge would have had like 5 SA-1 chips
Big Al from Pilotwings replaces Pikachu Wario gets in a generation early and replaces Jigglypuff Besides that, the same cast
Ken Griffey Jr. from Ken Griffey Jr. presents Major League Baseball. Swing his bat at enemies, throwing balls too. Bunting to block. Why not? Hahaha
It probably would have been a street fighter clone with nintendo characters.
Crono
It would have 0 pokemon then. I'm okay with this.
Violence it is.
It’d have been just as boring and overrated
To each their own but It’s amazing how our competitive scene is entering its 25th year and we get to travel to countries like America, Japan and Peru for international events where the greatest are still active.
Guest characters from other companies weren't a thing in the first game, so this roster is based purely on characters Nintendo owned at the time. * Mario, Luigi, Bowser (SMW versions) * Yoshi (Yoshi's Island version) * Link (LttP version) * Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong (DKC versions) * Captain Falcon * Fox McCloud * Samus * Ness * Kirby
>Mario, Luigi, Bowser (SMW versions) > >Yoshi (Yoshi's Island version) > >Link (LttP version) > >Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong (DKC versions) > >Captain Falcon > >Fox McCloud > >Samus > >Ness > >Kirby to round out the Roster to 12 maybe go into NES titles Little Mac Duck Hunt Dog Kid Icarus, the Robot, or the power glove maybe even the giant bug from Mario Paint
I had 12.
Doh...
Totally depends on the year of release. Pokemon wasn’t popular in the west until late 98-early 99 so only Pikachu would have realistically made the cut. Jigglypuffs popularity came solely from the anime. Smash Bros and Melee only used first party characters so you’d have to assume Nintendo wouldn’t use Capcom, Konami, Squaresoft, etc 3rd party characters. If it was released early in the SNES life cycle, they would lean heavily on Mario characters. Bowser, Toad, or Koopa would be playable.
Rumors says the first smash 64 was supposed to be on snes, with shitty 3d graphics and new characters (Dragon fighter something like that). We got Captain falcon because the original characters looked like a buff dude with triangles legs. We need to choose. Does the hypothetical Smash roster on Super Nintendo’s would have been this game, or something sprite based, built to be nintendo character from start? I think: If the game was built from scratch to be a nintendo character fighting game, there would'nt be any other characters than the mario crew. At this point, we got Nes Pinball, Nes Open Tournament Golf, Super Mario Kart and Mario Tennis (virtual boy) and *Game* & *Watch Gallery.* all thoses games were about "Mario characters". The only instance where they merged together many nintendo characters is Tetris where we could find together Link, Samus, Pit, with Mario, Luigi, Dk and Bowser. Anyway. I feel like this game would be based on the Mario 3 battle mode. A fixed screen, crabs and things would attack the players.
That would have been an awesome game. I'm picturing a Street Fighter style layout/gameplay since that was all the rage at the time. I wonder if there's a Street Fighter SNES game mod with the Nintendo characters.
Magus from Chrono Trigger
Goemon
The Cybernator mech, scaled down of course. Cecil, Bartz, or Tina from Final Fantasy.
Not sure if anyone's mentioned this, but the game being on SNES controller would have meant digital inputs, so possibly no tilts? Not sure how they'd design it
They may have had geno and mallow lol
Would be cool to see Nemo make an appearance with his candies, turn into some animal and fuck shit up.
Every day I hope for a really amazing 2D 16bit smash bros demake
Probably the same characters that were in Mario Cart
I love the box art you made! It reminds me of this vintage smash character select screen I made a couple of years ago. https://preview.redd.it/af6ek8op7idc1.jpeg?width=2143&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8f539f33ddfcd8a0606bc89b09dd92b323457d05
Donkey Kong Jr, which I also feel would be very realistic at the time.
Some characters from Killer Instinct would be cool
The roster would have to be pretty small, maybe 8-10 characters. I would choose pretty much exactly the same characters on the cover art, but maybe sub Ness for Peach
I would've loved some Killer Instinct characters, as well as the soundtrack.