Crossover Smash Bros. (video game)

Crossover Smash Bros. is a crossover fighting video game developed by 1-Up Studio and published by Konami for the iQue Player. It was first released in North America on November 19, 2002. The first game in the Crossover Smash Bros. series, it is a crossover between several different Television series, including SpongeBob SquarePants, Danny Phantom, The Fairly OddParents, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, and The Powerpuff Girls. It presents a cast of characters and locations from these franchises and allows players to use each character's unique skills and the stage's hazards to inflict damage, recover health, and ultimately knock opponents off the stage.

Gameplay
The Super Smash Bros. series is a departure from the general genre of fighting games; instead of depleting an opponent's life bar, Smash Bros. players seek to knock opposing characters off a stage. Each player has a damage total, represented by a percentage, which rises as damage is taken and can reach a maximum damage of 999%. As this percentage rises, the character is knocked progressively farther by attacks. To knock out (KO) an opponent, the player must send that character flying off the edge of the stage, which is not an enclosed arena but rather an area with open boundaries.[7] When knocked off the stage, a character may use jumping moves in an attempt to return; some characters have longer-ranged jumps and may have an easier time "recovering" than others.[8] Additionally, characters have different weights, making it harder for heavier opponents to be knocked off the edge, but harder for them to recover once sent flying.

While games such as Street Fighter and Tekken require players to memorize complicated button-input combinations, Super Smash Bros.uses the same control combinations to access all moves for all characters.[9] Characters are additionally not limited to only facing opponents, instead being allowed to move freely. The game focuses more on aerial and platforming skills than other fighting games, with larger, more dynamic stages rather than a simple flat platform. Smash Bros. also implements blocking and dodging mechanics. Grabbing and throwing

Development
Crossover Smash Bros. was developed by HAL Laboratory, a Nintendo second-party developer, during 1998. Masahiro Sakurai was interested in making a fighting game for four players. As he did not yet have any original ideas, his first designs were of simple base characters. He made a presentation of what was then called Kakuto-Geemu Ryuoh (Dragon King: The Fighting Game)[16] to co-worker Satoru Iwata, who helped him continue. Sakurai understood that many fighting games did not sell well and that he had to think of a way to make his game original.[16] His first idea was to include famous Nintendo characters and put them in a fight.[16] Knowing he would not get permission, Sakurai made a prototype of the game without sanction from Nintendo and did not inform them until he was sure the game was well-balanced.[16] The prototype he presented featured Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus and Foxas playable characters.[17] The idea was later approved.[16][18] Although never acknowledged by Nintendo or any developers behind Super Smash Bros., third party sources have identified Namco's 1995 fighting game The Outfoxies as a possible inspiration.[19][20][21]

Super Smash Bros. features music from some of Nintendo's popular gaming franchises. While many are newly arranged for the game, some pieces are taken directly from their sources. The music for Super Smash Bros. was composed by Hirokazu Ando, who later returned as sound and music director for Super Smash Bros. Melee. A complete soundtrack was released on CD in Japan through Teichiku Records in 2000.