You want more? Well, you've come to the right place.  Enjoy another round of personal accounts of what the Super Smash Bros series means to us here at N-Europe.

I think it's about time to confess, my first foray into the world of Super Smash Bros. didn't actually begin until the seminal release of the utterly mesmerising Super Smash Brothers Meleeeeeeeeee! [/Announcer] because although as a regular reader of Nintendo magazines at the time with full knowledge of the original Super Smash Bros. coming out on the N64 it was a different time back then, I was a lot younger for one and cartridge-based games had reached an all-time high at sometimes more than £50 a pop! So tough decisions had to be made, missing out on the first game in this fantastic series was one of them.

But thankfully by the time Melee was due for release I was in a slightly more stable financial position owing to my excellent attendance at college which would net me around fifty pounds every two weeks... still not a lot perhaps but enough to make more considered game purchases, so being that I had bought a Nintendo Gamecube at launch with two controllers both me and my brothers were ready to battle it out for digital glory!

So launch day arrived, the game was purchased - from a physical store, fancy that! - and then when that glorious 8cm disc was inserted into the tray of that wonderful cube of delight, magic was played out before our very eyes in the form of the most fantastic intro ever to grace the screen of my portable CRT TV screen at the time. We must have battled from dinner time until the daylight disappeared that day with fights breaking out in the land of Hyrule with Link versus Ganondorf, Kirby taking on every form imaginable and then some! Then there were moments of pure hilarity derived from using the pause screen to create scenes of downright depravity involving Mario, Ness and Mr Saturn! (All in good fun though!)

Oh how we laughed... those were the days where multiplayer madess would reign supreme but more than that the second game in the series was also packed with the most content we'd ever seen in a Nintendo game up to that point, there were all of the single-player modes you could possibly want including the excellent adventure mode where you could play as Link slicing through re-deads in a Zelda II style dungeon or as Samus mirroring her classic side-scrolling adventures before Metroid Prime arrived which would change the gaming world once again.

Then there were the trophies, so many fantastic franchises respresented in those tiny capsule toys... little did we know then that they would one day be made into ACTUAL FIGURES which could then be scanned into the game where you can watch up to EIGHT of them battle it out on the screen at once in even more varied locations, across more modes than before or even play against other people online or choose to play an entire portable version in 3D! Imagine if we had known what was to come...

In all honesty though, the second entry will still rank the most fondly in my memories more than any other game in the series to date due to it being simpler, happier times. But that's not to say that I'm not more than happy with the latest titles, afterall who would have thought that in addition to playing as almost every major Nintendo character that we'd be battling it out as Sonic, Shulk, Pac-Man, Mega Man, Ryu and even Cloud? Nintendo have surpassed my expectations as far as Super Smash Bros. goes, so I really don't see where they can go from here but I am glad to still have Smash in my life and a Gamecube controller in my hands.

Verdict: Super Smash Bros remains a spectacular series which retains a multitude of memories to which in Sakurai we entrust!

I remember reading about Super Smash Bros. in N64 Magazine and getting ridiculously hyped because I could control Pikachu directly! How cool was that? Giving him orders was nice and all, but I needed to shock some fools! Link was there too, I needed to have this game!

Sure enough, when it launched I got hooked. Yeah, Smash 64 was pretty barebones, but the Nintendo Fun ™ was there, having all those Nintendo characters duke it out was a fanboy’s dream and pausing the game at the right time produced hilarious and compromising poses.

Then Melee came out, smack dab in a period of my life where I had all the time in the world and all my friends played videogames, so it didn’t take long to rack up hundreds of hours. Melee was indispensable when we got together, core and casual gamers alike got glued to the screen, holding that wonderful GameCube controller, shouting, laughing, cursing and most of all, smashing. Wave dashing? L-cancelling? No one cared, we just wanted some cartoon violence.

When I wasn’t playing, I was listening to the soundtrack or the orchestrated concert and it’s not like I didn’t play it when I was alone either; I played the hell out of it, there was just so much content and love for Nintendo’s past, and by extension my own, that it was hard to put it down. Collecting trophies, getting high scores, training, whatever, it didn’t matter, it was fun, I was young and I could hit Jigglypuff in the face with Captain Falcon’s knee, what more could teenage me want?

Time marched on and never again did I have that kind of free time to invest in a game, but that’s not to say I didn’t love the subsequent Smash games. The wait for Brawl was excruciating, I even imported the Japanese version, which means the play time on my PAL save only tells half the story. Recently, getting to play Smash on the train was an amazing turning point, it’s a bit hard to play on a small screen sometimes, but I just couldn’t say no to portable Smash.

With that said, and even if I haven’t put in the hundreds of hours I wish I could, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is totally my favourite of the series. Sakurai’s dedication to Smash is nothing short of awe inspiring, the amount of love, polish and content he and his team put in the game is staggering and balance between Melee and Brawl’s speed make it a no brainer for me. I might not be a great player, I don’t know any advanced techniques or tier lists, but I’ll be damned if I don’t always have a fantastic time whenever I boot the game or any other Smash Bros.

As a kid I loved my N64 but back then I was fairly isolated from a gaming perspective. I didn't read gaming magazines and whilst the Internet was around, it wasn't something I had easy access to – So I loved the world of Nintendo but for me that world was pretty much Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokémon. Smash Bros is what changed that.

I got a GameCube with Smash in the Christmas of 2002 and it was a gaming experience like none I'd ever had. Donkey Kong, Pikachu and Mario all in the same game and fighting in famous locations such as Peach’s Castle and DK Jungle was so exciting. The pure speed of the game was manic and the amount of crazy stuff going on, such as hammers and Pokéballs, was so new and exhilarating.

Smash was so big and so much fun that I literally didn't need any other games in my life, I was so content with this wonderful creation. In fact, for the first year I pretty much just hit everyone with the A button, not learning about charged attacks, shielding, all the different options in Smash mode (I played Solo for all that time) – it was a slow journey of discovery that lasted until the bitter end-days of my Cube and I loved every second. I can't imagine the amount of times I've seen those little cut-scenes in Adventure Mode or Smashed the hell out of Master Hand. Yet even in those early days, before I truly discovered the wonders of Melee, the single player had its exciting secrets. The random Starfox conversations on Corneria or the stomach churning excitement of getting Crazy hand or Giga Bowser as a final boss.

When I wasn't fighting I was being introduced to a world of Nintendo far bigger than I’d ever imagined. It introduced me to Samus, Ice Climbers (at that point I literally had no knowledge of Nintendo pre-SNES), Zelda, it was truly magical. From here I went on to buy monthly editions of CUBE and NOM, eating up Nintendo information and learning of their past as feverishly as I ate cookies and sandwiches (I was a chubby kid).

Just like my knowledge of Nintendo, Melee kept expanding more than I ever thought it would. Years later I was still randomly unlocking things, like N64 stages and Mr. Game & Watch whilst discovering characters we were yet to see in Europe via trophies. I remember the K.K. slider trophy well because I thought he looked so cute, then when Animal Crossing came out I nearly fainted – the mysterious Smash Bros. dog is alive, and he sings!

References and discoveries were hidden in every nook and cranny, some from my favourite film Pokémon The Movie 3 (guilty pleasure perhaps?) such as the Entei trophy stage and Unown Pokéball (obviously also appearing in Gold and Silver but their prominence was no doubt influenced by the anime) to the hidden Klaptrap in Jungle Japes or Tingle in Great Bay.

When I hear Melee music today it still gives me chills and reminds me of how awesome it was growing up with Nintendo as a young teen in the early 2000’s. Melee is a title that's so much more than just a game for me and no matter what is to come, nothing will ever top this masterpiece. If I could sum-up Melee in two words it would be… “Wow, incredible!!”

Here's a sample from the Smashing... Live! Concert, handpicked by Josh 64 himself...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHRZhRu2I1c

 And now a few memories from some of our forum members...

Smash Bros. Dojo was a really weird idea at first. "Let's drip feed small little nuggets of information about Brawl every weekday". Little did I know, I'd end up returning to the Smash Bros. site every day like someone with a serious problem. And I guarantee I wasn't the only one. It definitely proved to me that Smash Hype was and still is the best kind of hype!

Every Smash fan worth their salt would remember the magical moment Sonic was confirmed, but the thing I was most excited about was the overhaul of Melee's Adventure Mode, called "The Subspace Emissary".  This took the side-scrolling beat-em-up action Adventure mode started and expanded it to a ridiculous degree. Adding a story, FMV Cutscenes with no dialogue (Well, OK, except for Snake's one line), a lot of awesome bosses, both from Ninty series and original bosses, all sorts of secrets to find and even a 2-player co-op mode. This never got old for me.

I lost track of the amount times I played through the Subspace Emissary purely because I could. The humourous cutscenes also helped. My particular favourite is Lucario seeing through Solid Snake's impenetrable cardboard box, complete with Metal Gear Solid's alert sound effect.

The bosses were also top-notch as well, where else can you fight Petey Piranha, Ridley, Rayquaza and a certain spoileriffic Mother 3 boss all in one game? Boss Battles, an extra Boss Rush mode also added to the Single-player awesomeness.

Brawl is probably the only Smash game you could legitimately buy solely for the single player and still be satisfied. And it's mostly thanks to the Subspace Emissary mode.

Finally, we have Jimbob's memories of the Smash Bros series to share with you.

I've got some fond memories of Super Smash Brothers, picked up the 1st on the N64 pre-owned on a trip to town. Didn't know what to expect, but found it was something unique. A perfect addition to the multiplayer gaming nights with friends (along with Mario Kart 64 and Goldeneye). I remember the long nights just playing with friends, I always picked Link or Kirby.

Picked up Melee like a lot of us did when the Gamecube came out. This game just increased my love of the franchise. More characters, more stages and a lot more fun. I still had gaming nights with friends, but they were a lot less than before. Melee had a lot of improvements in side-activities, which I loved a heck of a lot.

Then Brawl, ok a lot of people say Melee is better than Brawl and in some cases, I'd agree, but in other cases I don't. Yes, this was the first Smash to feature online play, which was a great addition to the game. Ok it wasn't the best online mode, but I liked it. I liked being able to use the Gamecube control pad for this game, wasn't a fan of using the Nunchuck/Wiimote for this game.

And then we come to Smash Bros Wii U/3DS. One, or both of these games are a staple of Streetpass events I attend each month. Have at least a few matches each time an event is on, we even try to have regular online matches with the Wii U edition. I don't play Smash as I used to play it these days, but I do try and get a few matches going online to keep my appetite of the game going.

And there we have it.  Do you have any particular memories of the Smash Bros series that you cherish? Why not share them in our forums?

If you're interested in making some new memories of you own, keep an eye out for our own Super Smash Bros Anniversary Tournament, starting tonight at 20:30 here at N-Europe.