Super Smash Bros.

Super Smash Bros. (known as ニンテンドウオールスター! 大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ  in Japan), also simply known as Smash, is a video game series spanning from the years 1999 (with Super Smash Bros.) to 2018 (with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate). It features many of Nintendo's most famous IPs, such as Mario, Link, and Pikachu, fighting against each other in a fighting game style not seen in any video game until the series' first installment, Super Smash Bros.. The series received overwhelmingly positive reviews from both critics and Nintendo fans alike as they could play as their favorite video game characters alongside others... and then mercilessly beat the ever-loving Christ out of them.

Gameplay
What possibly makes Super Smash Bros. stand out from many other fighting games can be three things: its featuring of many different elements from varying franchises, having more to it than "YO YOU SEE THAT GUY OVER THERE NOW BEAT THE SHIT OUTTA HIM", and its gameplay bringing something new to the fighting genre's table.

The part of Smash that can initially found to be interesting is its inversion of how health in battle works: instead of a number or bar displaying the player's current health, there is a percentage (%) representing it called damage. The more a fighter gets hit by foes, items, stage hazards, or staying off the screen for too long, the higher their damage becomes. When someone has lots of damage, it will be easier to launch them, a term used to refer to when one of their opponents hits them and sends them flying. For example, if Mario has 20% (or 20 damage) and Bowser hits him, he won't be launched as far as if he had 70%. If a fighter is launched far enough, they will be sent flying off-screen, then be KO'd. Depending on the game's current rules, they can then return to battle on a platform floating off the stage. When they get off that platform, they will have invincibility frames for about four seconds until becoming vulnerable to enemy attacks again.

A skill that all fighters have beyond Super Smash Bros. 64 is their Final Smash. A fighter's Final Smash is, in most casesundefined, a very powerful attack that can deal much damage to anyone caught by it in little time. Some fighters' Final Smashes have changed from game to game while others, like Mario, have stayed at least mostly loyal to theirs. In Super Smash Bros. Melee, the Final Smash debuted and was usable after a fighter breaks the Smash Ball, a relatively uncommon item that randomly spawns in any time during the battle, by inflicting a certain amount of damage on it with attacks. Although most Final Smashes need to either be in range of or make contact with their target, there are some that can be used anywhere on the stage and be successful such as Ness and Lucas's PK Starstorm. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, fighters can fill up their Final Smash Meter (also called the FS Meter) and use their Final Smash without the Smash Ball.

64
Super Smash Bros. began with the Nintendo 64's 1999 title, Super Smash Bros., also called Super Smash Bros. 64 or simply 64 to not confuse it with the whole series. In it, the player could choose 12 fighters to play as: Mario, Luigi, Samus, Captain Falcon, Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Donkey Kong, Link, Kirby, Yoshi, Fox, and Ness. As one of those fighters, they can fight on one of eleven stages: Peach's Castle, Kongoundefined Jungle, Hyrule Castle, Planet Zebes, Saffron City, Dream Land, Yoshi's Island, Sector Z, Mushroom Kingdom, Battlefieldundefined, and Final Destinationundefined. Obviously, being the first game in the series, 64 is what introduced many basic elements of Smash, such as damage, items, and the announcer and his voice.

The gameplay, compared to later installments, is very basic in 64 and does not feature side specials, Final Smashes, or advanced moved such as wavedashing. However, it has multiple stages that are exclusive to it as well as a melody that is heard is every other game in the series, with that melody being the "Fighter Selection" theme that plays as the player is choosing their character and opponents.

Melee
Super Smash Bros. Melee (alternatively SSBM or Melee) is the second installment of the Super Smash Bros. series. It was released on the Nintendo GameCubeundefined in 2001 in both Japan and North America. Naturally, it added on to what 64 began with, adding more fightersundefined, stagesundefined, and Crazy Hand to accompany Master Hand, as well as other features.

Melee 's high-speed action in battle allows players to use combos on each other, leading to an unpredictable outcome. The game's physics engine is what allows the installment to be the one in which players can perform the most advanced moved as they fight, which lets them battle in stylish and satisfying fights. Because of this, it is considered by some Smash fans the peak of the franchise with Ultimate being a contender for the top position.

Brawl
Super Smash Bros. Brawl (also called SSBB or Brawl) is the third game in the line of Super Smash Bros. entries. The game was released for the Nintendo Wii in the year 2008, seven years after Melee, and is also the console's eighth bestselling game. To add on to the 26 fighters and 29 stages the franchise had before, Brawl brought 18 new fighters and 29 stages. It was also the first title of the two to have a story mode with the other game being Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch.

4
Smash 4undefined (also called Sm4sh, Smash 4, 4, and SSB4) is the fourth (technically also fifth if the two versions are considered separate) installment in the Super Smash Bros. line of games. In almost all parts of the world in which the games were releasedundefined, both versions were made available in 2014.

Ultimate
True to its name, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (also called SSBU or Ultimate) is the fifth (sixth if the Wii U and 3DS versions of Smash 4 are counted as individual games) and final game in the Super Smash Bros. franchise. It was released for the Nintendo Switch in December 2018 and the bestselling game out of any other in the franchise, also becoming the fourth bestselling fighting game in history.

Ultimate features every fighter who was playable in previous Super Smash Bros. installments plus new DLC fighters, stages, music, and Mii costumes. Like Brawl, Ultimate has its own story mode, albeit written less like a traditional story.

Trivia

 * The name "Super Smash Bros." is a reference to the Mario Bros., not actual brothers whose last name is Smash.