The formula of Super Smash Bros. is perhaps the most likable innovation I've ever seen in a fighting game. Health bars (especially in JRPGs) are certainly easy to put stock in. But instead of thinking about your character as a living being, one starts to think of them as a car, high or low on gas. A loss is merely a moment for refueling. But Super Smash Bros. is immersive because it connects your victory or defeat to your character's positioning. You being exposed, vulnerable, or perhaps not even visible onscreen. The percentage is only a guide. It doesn't really even need to be there, but it doesn't obstruct from the genius of this new combat paradigm. What's also stunning is how inimitable it is. How could you copy the Smash Bros. formula without it being transparently obvious, especially with how deservedly iconic the franchise has become?

Since this is the first entry, of course there are fewer stages, but what's helpful about this being the franchise debut is that the game isn't about having every single character Nintendo (plus other video game companies) have had, and putting them in a game. It was just a handful of iconic stars, so most of them have very different methods of maneuvering and interacting. There are some redundancies, but not nearly as many as when you get to Melee, Brawl, and especially by the time we get to Ultimate. By then it's more about having everyones' favorite characters represented, which I'm okay with. But I'm glad we still have this, because this was a game that justified itself as a game primarily, not merely as an inevitable piece of our culture.