Super Smash Flash 2 V.09b

[Louella Kammann]

Theoriginal Super Smash Flash, released in August 2006 on Newgrounds, is somewhat weak; among other things featuring only one attack buttonnote Although, not one attack, like most reviews of the game incorrectly state. The in-game tutorial even says that you can do up to five moves with it depending on how you use it. It was nonetheless notable for its large amount of unlockable content.

The sequel, Super Smash Flash 2, which is currently in its beta release, started out as just a similar fun little project that added special moves but didn't even consider most of the mechanics at first. However, after a number of suggestions and positive reception from fans, it began to piece things together slowly around the bare-bones engine with each new demo version and, after having undergone a full-blown Retool in 2011 with a vow to aim for professional quality, is shaping up to be a true Flash installment of Super Smash Bros..

The All-Seeing A.I.: Much like the original series, the AI will most likely be more aware about its surrounds and nearby items than most human players would. Art Evolution: Very clear. From directly ripped and MS-painted sprites in the original game, to ripped-but-tweaked sprites in the early sequel demos, to every character having entirely-custom, uniformly-styled sprites. Home Stage: In the first game, despite its many characters, there were only five franchises having stages of their own. Which were: Peach's Castle and Mushroom Kingdom II for Mario. Temple for The Legend of Zelda. Dreamland for Kirby. Pokmon Stadium for Pokmon. And Emerald Hill Zone for Sonic. In the second game, due to the larger file size limits, every franchise with a playable character gets at least one stage based on their series. Meteor Move: In 1, every character's up attack and down aerial can dunk opponents. This can be difficult to pull off, as the opponent needs to not only be airborne, but also either moving slowly or not at all. 2 has meteor smashes and spikes, with the same functionality they have in the official Smash games, but a few characters don't have access to either. Platform Fighter: Much like the original Smash Bros. series. Retool: There were two notable ones in total: The transition from Flash to Flash 2 completely rebuilt the mechanics and the focus from the ground up. Demo v0.7 of 2 was the official turning point from "anything-goes fangame" to aiming for professional quality. Ring Out: Just like in the original Super Smash Bros. games. Stock Footage: Present, but diminishing rapidly. The original didn't have any of its own sprites, save for the Pokmon Stadium stage. All others were taken from The Spriters' Resource. The earliest demos of 2 also used ripped sprites; Lloyd and the Sonic characters used the same sprites as in Super Smash Flash, Sora was ripped from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and the anime characters were ripped from Jump Ultimate Stars. Gradually, however, more and more of the characters began getting entirely custom-made sprites, to the point where the series is now fairly well-known for its quality graphics. Amusingly, the earlier, lower-quality custom sprites for Link, Ness, and Mewtwo*He was planned for the original, pre-retool roster, but is now uncertain. later became stock footage when they were salvaged by Super Smash Bros. Crusade. The original also didn't have originally composed music (save for the How to Play track), ripping songs from Melee, the "Smashing... Live!" album for Melee, and in one case, The Matrix Reloaded. 2 also used ripped music from various sources, including remixes from other composers, before gradually replacing them with the dev team's own remixes and even giving SSF2 its own theme to use as a Leitmotif for all Smash-related content. Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: The first game is this, full stop, with characters like Blade and Mr. Incredible. Traces of this sentiment remain in 2, at least in development; Cleod thinks that the anime characters fit in well (although the other developers don't), and he has a personal soft spot for the Original Characters who were planned to be in but had to be removed due to losing contact with their creators.

Canon Discontinuity: Super Smash Flash 2 is officially considered a reboot and not a sequel, as explained briefly here, thus pushing Super Smash Flash out of canon. Collision Damage: The enemies in Adventure Mode, along with the Mario brothers, the Sonic characters, and Samus while they're jumping. Combos: While normally impossible due to the primitive engine, some could be performed due to a bug with some characters, namely Mario, Zelda, and Captain Falcon. Early-Installment Weirdness: The second game seems much like the official Smash games. The first, not so much. Game-Breaking Bug: The famous "One-Hit KO" bug, which allows some attacks to kill instantly at just 50% while standing still. Unfortunately, though, Master Hand and Crazy Hand's attacks have this trait, too, which makes unlocking Inuyashanote Clear Adventure Mode without losing a single life nearly impossible without cheating. Gender Flip: The announcer is female here, voiced by Kira Buckland. Hitbox Dissonance: Samus' machine gun moves in the first game. The machine gun fire has a hitbox. Not Samus' gun, the actual machine gun's bullets have hitboxes. This can be seen in Adventure mode levels where if you use the machine gun specials at certain ranges, Samus will be the one to take damage and be knocked back. It's like something out of Daikatana. Mercy Invincibility: While the Smash games weren't known for this, it becomes a point in the first Flash which also averts this in the worst possible way. Especially in Adventure Mode, where just brushing against an enemy in any level could result in your damage skyrocketing to maximum in a very short time. A normal enemy can do this. Misbegotten Multiplayer Mode: You could battle it out with two players... but the camera always follows the first player, ignoring the second. Multi-Slot Character: Much like Super Smash Bros. Melee, the first Super Smash Flash has two playable Links from Ocarina of Time; one being his adult form and his young form. Sonic is also playable in this game, alongside his Super Form as an unlockable separate fighter. Compared to normal Sonic, Super Sonic has higher jumps and damage output, but ironically has slower attacks and a larger hitbox. Original Character: Blade the Hedgehog and Blue the Hedgehog, sword-wielding Sonic the Hedgehog fan characters someone made who ended up as characters in Super Smash Flash. Before the roster was revised, Super Smash Flash 2 had those two return, and added Azrael and Spikeman. Punched Across the Room: A Game-Breaking Bug allows this to happen with many normal attacks if one stands completely still as the opponent approaches. Shockwave Stomp: Mr. Incredible's ground down attack. Spotlight-Stealing Crossover: The official Super Smash Bros. is a crossover between various Nintendo franchises, yet the most repped franchise in the first Flash game was Sonic the Hedgehog, which got five characters (seven if Blade and Blue are counted). Swap Fighter: Kirby became a Swap Fighter with Meta Knight due to technical limitations of the developer being unable to implement the copy ability. Two Girls to a Team: More like "Two Girls to a Roster." Not counting Jigglypuff, who's gender is ambiguous, the only female characters are Zelda/Sheik and Samus Aran.

Aborted Arc: Before the retool, a story mode in the vein of The Subspace Emissary known as The Flash of Shadows was plotted out with all of the old roster's characters battling an army called the Cubots. A summary of the first half was posted publicly. The second half was kept under wraps and is presumably lost. Artificial Stupidity: The earlier demos were criticized for their incompetent A.I., but this was thankfully (or not) fixed. Brought Down to Normal: Several Final Smash transformations had an attack that functioned like a Final Smash in its own right. Call-Back: The first trailer, made in 2007, mirrored Super Smash Bros. Brawl's E3 2005 trailer. A newer trailer, released for v0.9b, was modeled after the same trailer. Despite the technical limitations of Flash's Palette Swap functionality, they were nevertheless able to successfully recreate the Melee colors of Mario, Link, Kirby, and Donkey Kong as alternate costumes.note all but Donkey Kong's have since been removed. Downloadable Content: Expansion characters for Super Smash Flash 2 were planned to be supported after the final release, though this has since been scrapped. Easter Egg: In one demo version, the credits said that the WarioWare, Inc. stage was "Made by Wario. Waa haa haa!" Surprisingly Creepy Moment: The 2nd Target Test stage from 2's demo v0.9. It has depressing music, seems to be aesthetically based on Limbo, and overall seems out of place in a Smash Bros. game. The Super Smash Flash 2 Beta stream at Super Smash Con 2016 on Saturday was very lighthearted and fun, even introducing Bandana Dee as a character. Then, at 2 AM on Sunday morning, the stream unexpectedly started up again with an extremely mysterious video featuring Giygas. This was foreshadowing Beta's inclusion of Devil's Machine, an unlockable stage based on the final battle of EarthBound (1994). Wallbonking: This was a problem in v0.6 on the Hidden Leaf Village stage, where the wall of the building on the right proved to be irresistible to computer players. Wheel of Decisions: The Peril Roulette, a now-scrapped new element in the higher difficulties of Classic Mode that spins a wheel to choose something to detriment the player, assist the opponent, or, on the hardest difficulty, both. This was presumably to make up for the notorious-for-the-series impossibility of making a hyperintelligent computer player.

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