Super Smash Bros. 64

Super Smash Bros. (also called Super Smash Bros. 64, Smash 64 or Super Smash Bros. N64), released in Japan as 'Nintendo All Star! Dairantō Smash Brothers (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, Nintendo All-Star! Great Fray Smash Brothers), often shortened to "SSB", retronymously "Smash 64" or "SSB64'", is the first game of the Super Smash Bros. series.

The game released in Japan on January 21st, 1999, in North America on April 26th, 1999 and in Europe on November 19th, 1999 for the Nintendo 64. Subsequently, it released on the iQue Player in China on November 15, 2005. The Wii's Virtual Console version released on January 20th, 2009 in Japan, a day before its 10-year anniversary and later that year in Europe and North America. However, because the Wii Shop Channel ceased operations on January 30th, 2019 (with the ability to add Wii Points permanently removed on March 26, 2018), the only way to currently obtain the game is by purchasing a used copy or playing it on an emulator.

Super Smash Bros. received positive reviews, with most praise going to its multiplayer mode, while its single-player mode received some criticism. The game has sold 5 million units worldwide as of 2001, making it the fifth best-selling Nintendo 64 game of all time.

Opening movie
The opening movie in Super Smash Bros., unlike later games in the Super Smash Bros. series, completely lacks pre-rendered footage. It instead opts to use the game engine to render everything in real-time.

When the opening movie starts, two random starter characters are placed by Master Hand on top of a desk, which shortly transitions to a scene resembling Peach's Castle. This process is repeated every time the opening movie is played.

As the opening movie concludes, the figures of the four unlockable characters are flashed against a white background. If a character hasn't been unlocked, they will simply be shown as a silhouette; conversely, they will be revealed once unlocked.

Finally, the opening movie segues into the title screen, a trend which would be followed by future installments, along with the announcer calling out the game's title.

Characters
There are twelve playable characters in Super Smash Bros., eight of whom are available from the start and four of whom are unlockable.

The highest amount of character slots are given to the Mario and Pokémon universes with each receiving two fighters: Mario alongside his brother Luigi, and Pikachu and Jigglypuff respectively, with the latter characters in both universes being unlockable.

Two more slots are given to reoccurring Mario characters Donkey Kong and Yoshi as starting fighters from their sub-universes of the same names, Donkey Kong and Yoshi.

The other starter characters are Link, Samus, Kirby and Fox from The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Kirby and Star Fox universes, respectively. The final remaining characters, as with Luigi and Jigglypuff, are unlockable: Ness of EarthBound and Captain Falcon of F-Zero.

Stages
The game features nine stages derived from each character's universe, exceptions being EarthBound and F-Zero. While most universes receive a single stage, Mario uniquely has two instead: Peach's Castle and the only unlockable stage in the game, Mushroom Kingdom. Besides of that, the other stages consist of Congo Jungle, Hyrule Castle, Planet Zebes, Yoshi's Island, Dream Land, Sector Z, and Saffron City from Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, Yoshi, Kirby, Star Fox, and Pokémon respectively.

Trivia

 * The starting eight characters are placed in the order of when they first appeared (as a whole) in their respective debut titles on the character selection screen, starting with the oldest, Mario and Donkey Kong, and ending with the most recent, Pikachu. This same order is used when listing the cast of the original Super Smash Bros. in later games, such as when organizing trophies and fighter numbers. This chronological ordering also applies to the four unlockable characters on the character selection screen, though this is only relative to each other and not the other characters.
 * Super Smash Bros. marks the first appearance of Samus, Kirby, and Ness in 3D.
 * Additionally, this game is both Samus and Ness's only appearance on the N64.
 * This game has the fewest amount of unlockable characters with four.
 * This game is one of two that uses 2D illustrations on the box art, alongside Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
 * This game is one of two Super Smash Bros. games to not feature Adventure Mode, the second being Super Smash Bros. 4.
 * This game is one of two Super Smash Bros. games to not feature All-Star Mode, the second being Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
 * If the player achieves No Miss x11 at the end of Classic Mode, the announcer will say "Incredible!" instead of "Congratulations!" on the victory screen.
 * Counting both versions of Super Smash Bros. 4 as one game, this is the only game in the series with more fighters than stages.
 * Despite Super Smash Bros. having its own Australian version, the European version was used for Australia's Virtual Console.
 * Although the iQue player has a built-in controller, a message, albeit in Chinese, exists dictating that the controller isn't plugged in.
 * This is the only Smash game to:
 * Have fewer than 5 playable characters from The Legend of Zelda with one, and 4 from both Mario and Pokémon with 2 each.
 * Receive an "E" ESRB rating and a "7" PEGI rating.
 * Not feature Home-Run Contest, as Super Smash Bros. Melee introduced the mode. (Although Ultimate would not get the mode until a later update)
 * Not be released in the 21st century.
 * Not introduce a fighter from the Fire Emblem universe.
 * Excluding the opening cutscene, not feature any Pokémon human characters.
 * Feature only playable protagonists and no playable antagonists, although Mario and Donkey Kong were temporarily portrayed as antagonists early in their history.
 * Introduce new characters for the F-Zero and Yoshi universes respectively.