The debut of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (such a catchy name!) has stoked the fires of Super Smash love that began earlier with Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (another pithy title!). The newest title has been well-praised by most—as of this writing it has a Metacritic score of 92 and user rating of 9.1. In his review, The A.V. Club’s Matt Gerardi called the game “a raucous, reverent celebration of Nintendo games and the people who play them.” And with the celebration of its latest incarnation, it’s only appropriate to look back on how the series began.
To this end, YouTube user GameChap has compiled every character introduction in the history of the Super Smash series. Starting with blocky, Lawnmower Man-esque graphics in 1999 and evolving into much more textured and detailed versions for the latest game, every character intro reel shows not just an advancement in computational power and graphics, but also the ever expanding cast of characters. Each reel is a time capsule, reflecting what was popular amongst gamers at the time and how they are portrayed in the game (not to mention the positive trend of an increasing number of female characters).
While it is an interesting look at the past 15 years and four (or four and a half, depending on how people count the 3DS version) iterations on its own, the video also works very well when paired up with Mastodon’s “Oblivion” from its album Crack The Skye. The original remains above for purists, but for those who want a bit more “oomph” with their images of video game characters, the pairing of Mastodon and the intros can be found below (be sure to mute the video on the left side).