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Super Smash Bros. was developed by HAL Laboratory, a Nintendo second-party developer, during 1998. It began life as a prototype created by Masahiro Sakurai and Satoru Iwata in their spare time titled Kakuto-Gēmu Ryūō (格闘ゲーム竜王 ?, lit. “Dragon King: The Fighting Game”), and originally featured no Nintendo characters. However, Sakurai hit on the idea of including fighters from different Nintendo franchises in order to provide “atmosphere” which he felt was necessary for a home console fighting game, and his idea was approved. The game had a small budget and little promotion, and was originally a Japan-only release, but its huge success saw the game released worldwide. [Info from Wikipedia]
Below you can read the “Iwaka Ask” chat about Smash Bros:
Iwata: Because we don’t often have the opportunity to sit down and talk about Smash Bros., I’d like to use the last part of this interview to turn back the clock and talk about the start of this series, beginning in 1999 with the Nintendo 64 title Super Smash Bros. You and I were responsible for developing this prototype.
Sakurai: Right. We called it “Kakuto-Geemu Ryuoh” (Dragon King: The Fighting Game)
Iwata: At that point in time, we weren’t utilizing any Nintendo characters, and while you handled the planning, specs, design, modeling and movement, I worked on programming all by myself. In some respects, it was the ultimate handcrafted project.
Sakurai: Right. I mean, we didn’t know at the time that we would be able to use Nintendo characters.
Iwata: In retrospect, the main reason I undertook the project was to build a 4-player game that utilized the N64’s unique 3D joystick. What were your reasons?
Sakurai: Well, I wanted to offer an alternative to the two-dimensional fighting games that were crowding out the market. I also wanted to see if it was possible to make an interesting 4-player game that offered a new experience every time you play. Simply put, I was aiming to design a 4-player battle royal.
Iwata: I seem to remember “4-player Battle Royal” being written on the cover of the project planning document.
Sakurai: Right. I hadn’t given it a title yet.
Iwata: We hadn’t even come up with the codename Ryuoh yet. I think we ended up using Ryuoh because we happened to use scenery from the Ryuoh-cho neighborhood, the location of HAL Laboratory in Yamanashi Prefecture, as the background for the game.
Thanks to Adriel for the contribution!
Images:
[Source: Iwata Ask]
Rumors say that in the original concept of Super Smash Bros. 64, Pit, Bowser, Peach, Mewtwo, Meowth and King Dedede were going to be playable characters, but was taken out due to limits in the hardware. It should be noted though that Meowth and King Dedede appeared in the game as a Poke Ball Pokemon and as a background character, respectivly.
Two beta Kirby stages are only playable with a GameShark. The stages have strange elements, such as invisible barriers. A working Dream Land stage can be viewed in the “How to Play” tutorial, which itself can be seen by waiting on the title screen. Also, in the character select, the question mark boxes were supposed to be colored and Saffron City also had pink with purple on the rooftops, the smash ball were suppsoed to be introduce in this game. [Info from Mariowiki]
Images:
Screen 1: Just some beta textures shown before (left) and after (right) on Hyrule Castle
Screen 2: There is no sign or bridge or sliding stone block
Infos by 8PM
Videos:
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U64 is an archive with articles, screens and videos for cancelled, beta & unseen videogames. Every change & cut creates a different gaming experience: we would like to save some documents about this evolution for curiosity, historic and artistic preservation.
15 Responses to Kakuto-Geemu Ryuoh (Super Smash Bros) [N64 - Beta / Proto]
SMBMadman
May 18th, 2008 at 11:18 pm
is there a rom?
monokoma
May 20th, 2008 at 2:17 am
No rom for now and probably never :( Nintendo knows how to hide his protos.
Xavio
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:16 am
Lol, they should make one of these guys playable in the next Smash Bros. :D
SMBMadman
May 28th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
I REALLY WANNA PLAY THESE BETAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dark Rayman
June 30th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
They look like the fighting polygon team only colored
Xavio
August 9th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
SMBMadman: This is proto, not beta.
SMBMadman
August 9th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
same thing, dude
8PM
November 3rd, 2008 at 3:35 am
If only nintendo still made succesfull games instead of all the crap mini game things(excluding mario party)
SMASH MASTER 9000
February 17th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
I use a gameshark and I can play these stuff such as Kirby beta stages, system debug, and more shit.
nomickok
April 12th, 2009 at 12:20 am
hmmm… when i look at these dragon-fighter dudes i just cant stop thinking about how their moveset is so familiar to c.falcon’s:O
hd
May 3rd, 2009 at 8:38 pm
You can the play kirby beta stages on the super smash bros n64 rom. with the help of a gameshark
Shade3c
May 10th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Is there ANY proof of Pit’s existence in this game?
Deekay
August 2nd, 2009 at 7:36 am
Lol, that second picture is actually from a texture hack. (The Mushroom Kingdom one)
monokoma
August 2nd, 2009 at 2:07 pm
ahah, ops! Thanks for the info Deekay, i’ll remove that picture :)
mr.m
November 1st, 2009 at 11:52 pm
man, the “dragon fighters” look SO much like capton falcon!