The Super Smash Bros. franchise, on the surface, just seems like a fun party game to break out with friends. Each game has a decent amount of single-player content, and some of them have cool story modes or adventures to partake in. However, if you look a little deeper, a story, based somewhat on the events of director Masahiro Sakurai’s childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, begins to form. When put together, in the context of what Sakurai has been through, the franchise shows a lot of growth. This all began back in Smash 64, with the opening cutscene.
This room is where the first game is set, and is in the mind of a young boy playing with his plush toys. These characters are brought to life within the child’s mind through Master Hand, the representation for not only the child’s hand but also the creative forces to make this game possible. The four unlockable characters could be seen as newly purchased toys. The Arcade mode’s ending could be seen as the end of the play session and going out to do something else. Given information was small and simple, but it laid the groundwork.
The next set of information came up in Melee, at the end of its Classic Mode. It shows the bedroom again, but it’s changed a lot.
There’s more organization, more memorabilia, and more mature representation for the characters in the form of these trophies. Compared to the child from before, this is a tween growing up. No longer are the characters childish plush toys, but collectable figures. Very much like the amiibo that exist in real life. This game is also the introduction for Crazy Hand, the representation for destructive force in the series. Where Master Hand brings figures to the table, Crazy Hand sweeps them off the table. Sakurai’s way of introducing Crazy Hand, by needing decent speed in a Classic Mode run, was a decent reward for becoming fast enough.
Brawl will be an entry all to itself, due to how much its Subspace Emissary mode added to this subtextual story, so we must leave off here at Melee for now.