I have a lot of respect for HAL Laboratory. They basically reworked the rules of the fighting game genre in Super Smash Bros. The fundamentals haven’t changed much since the formula was popularized with Street Fighter II. In most cases, you have two fighters going head-to-head on a single screen with the goal of depleting each others’ life bar.
Obviously there are so many more layers on top of that basic concept that change from game to game. At a base level, BlazBlue, Street Fighter, Soul Calibur and Dead or Alive look the same from an outsider’s perspective. Even if they watched a whole match, they might not be able to pick out any nuisances between them.
Super Smash Bros. is immediately different. Life gauges are exchanged for a rising percentages that influence how far the players will be knocked back. Ring outs existed as an option to win in other games like Virtua Fighter, but Super Smash Bros. is built entirely around it.
Movement is key in this genre, but HAL lets the players loose from being locked in combat with another foe. They can freely navigate the environment, albeit still in a 2D plane. This is essential given the ability for up to four players to take part in each round. As with Mario Kart, items help even the odds for new and less skillful players.
It’s different enough that many consider it not to be a fighting game. I can see that perspective. It subverts many of the basics of what makes one. However, it shares enough in terms of movement, spacing, combos and other concepts that I believe it’s closely related.
