Super Smash Bros. Tourney

Super Smash Bros. Tourney's Box Art

Super Smash Bros. Tourney, often shortened to SSBT, Tourney or Tourney 1, is the fifth game in the Super Smash Bros. series published by Nintendo and the video game adaptation of Tekken: Blood Vengeance. Like the other games in the series, it features a diverse roster of characters from Nintendo and its second parties and many third-party characters to fight in various kinds of matches. However, Tourney is the first Super Smash Bros. game to feature television, movie, comic book, or anime characters, as well as imitation fighters such as Mokujin. Most of the game's music is made up of arranged versions of pieces that originated in previously released video games; though some play exactly as they did in their original games, others are arranged by various video game composers.

Main Theme

Like in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Tourney has its own Main Theme. It has a lot of variations.

The Tourney Begins Lyrics

The lyrics for The Tourney Begins are listed below:

• Land of Hope and Glory,
• Mother of the Free,
• How shall we extol thee,
• Who are born of thee?
• Wider still and wider
• Shall thy bounds be set;
• God, who made thee mighty,
• Make thee mightier yet,
• God, who made thee mighty,
• Make thee mightier yet.
• Land of Hope and Glory,
• Mother of the Free,
• How shall we extol thee,
• Who are born of thee?
• Wider still and wider
• Shall thy bounds be set;
• God, who made thee mighty,
• Make thee mightier yet,
• God, who made thee mighty,
• Make thee mightier yet!

The lyrics listed above are the same for all The Tourney Begins variants found in the game.

References to past media

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl: All playable characters, except Lucario and Toon Link, return from this game. The Final Smash returns as well, but players now have to destroy a golden Smash Ball to activate a Final Smash.
• Super Smash Bros. 4: Dr. Mario and Dark Pit are alternate costumes for Mario and Pit, respectively.
  • Super Smash Bros. for Wii U: The Big Battlefield stage makes a comeback, and Master Core is a hidden final boss in the game's Classic Mode; though the aforementioned game mode is styled like it was in Brawl.
  • Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS: The Smash Run returns; complete with new enemies and speaking roles for all the enemies, both old and new. All enemies who double as playable characters are voiced by the same person who voices that character's playable equivalent (such as Adam Hunter voicing Orne).
• Tekken series: A majority of the characters make a comeback. Some of them speak English for the first time, and some of them speak English again with their English voice actors reprising their roles from either Tekken: Blood Vengeance, Street Fighter X Tekken, or Tekken Tag Tournamen 2.
  • Tekken: Blood Vengeance: Most of the Tekken universe characters' quotes originate from this film. All characters from this film, including Shin Kamiya, make a comeback and are reprised by their respective voice actors in both English and Japanese, except for Mokujin (until the sequel). Various actions from certain characters from the first third of the Kyoto Castle battle scene (and one from the final third of the same scene) in this film are reused as victory poses for various characters, and various actions from the last third of the final battle scene in this film are reused as character select screen animations for various characters. Alisa Bosconovitch's first name is again pronounced as Alissa, Jin Kazama's first name is again pronounced Gene, and Shin Kamiya's first name is again pronounced Sheen. Both locations where the major fights took place, as well as the principal's office that Ganryu sent Xiaoyu to, return as playable stages. The Mokujin Monster also appears, both as an unlockabe playable character and hidden Semifinal Stage opponent, but is no longer piloted by Heihachi Mishima and is now piloted by Garma Zabi.
  • Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Many characters in this game make a comeback, and some of these characters who only spoke their native language speak English for the first time. Some intro poses, for both Player 1 and Player 2, are reused as character select screen animations.
  • Tekken 6: Tougou, Azazel, and Nancy-MI847J make a comeback.
  • Tekken Revolution: Mokujin, Tetsujin, and Kinjin are hidden Semifinal Stage opponents. Eliza also returns, though she is now available from the beginning.
• Soul series: All playable characters from this series have their quotes recycled from this series, and are restricted to these quotes.
  • Soul Calibur: Inferno returns, but now he has a voice.
  • Soul Calibur II: Berserker and Necrid return, but they still lack a dialect as they cannot speak barring the cutscenes.
  • Soul Calibur III: Abyss, Olcadan, Lynette, and Hualin return, but the latter receives a new English voice actress.
  • Soul Calibur IV: All the newcomers, and all the bonus characters from this game, make a comeback, but Algol now imitates other characters.
  • Soul Calibur V: Almost all of the newcomers make a comeback. Dampierre returns as well.
• Marvel vs. Capcom series: A lot of characters from this series make a comeback.
  • Clash of Super Heroes: Various characters, such as Gambit and Venom, return.
  • New Age of Heroes: Cable and Marrow are playable characters.
  • Fate of Two Worlds: Every Marvel character but Super-Skrull makes a return. These characters are restricted to quotes from this game.
• Street Fighter series: The rival system originates from this game.
  • Street Fighter: Eagle returns, now fully capable of speaking English.
  • Street Fighter II: The bonus stages, Smash the Car and Break the Barrels, return.
  • Street Fighter II V: Dorai, Zochi, Kokuja, and Donu return.
  • Street Fighter IV: Language swapping from this game makes a comeback. All characters from this series are reprised by their voice actors in this game in both English and Japanese. Some retry poses have been reused as either character select screen animations or victory poses.
    • Super Street Fighter IV: Second rivals return.
    • Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition: Oni Akuma makes his return, but now he must be unlocked.
    • Ultra Street Fighter IV: Decapre makes a comeback.
  • Street Fighter Alpha 3: Karin and Rainbow Mika return.
• King of Fighters series: A lot of characters from this series sans Heavy D!, Lucky Glauber and Brian Battler return.
• Fatal Fury series: Most of the characters featured here become playable
  • Fatal Fury: King of Fighters: Hwa Jai makes his second full fledged playable appearance. Jeff Bogard becomes playable for the first time.
  • Fatal Fury 2: Axel Hawk returns
  • Fatal Fury 3-Real Bout Fatal Fury: Alfred, Bob and Sokaku return
  • Garou: Mark of the Wolves: Kevin Rian and Grant return
• Samurai Shodown series: One of the referees the player can set is Kuroko.
• Star Trek series: One of the contributors to the Tourney is the UFP (United Federation of Planets).
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure series: Much of the cast were playable in JJBA: Heritage for the Future and JJBA: All-Star Battle respectively.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Heritage for the Future: Characters who appeared in said game (Jotaro, Kakyoin, Polnareff, etc) would use their super portraits from it as their Hyper and Final Smash portraits.

Trivia

• Unlike Brawl, Tourney allows the player to switch between English, French, Japanese, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, and German voices for several characters, not just the whole game. For the sequel, players can switch between the same languages of these voices for several characters. The only character that will speak English regardless of the setting is Nancy-MI847J. The only character that will speak Japanese regardless of the setting (cutscenes do not count) is Marth (this would be the same with Roy in the sequel).
• The Smash Bros. Tourney is the Super Smash Bros. counterpart to Tekken's King of Iron Fist Tournament. However, the Smash Bros. Tourney 2 that is found in the sequel is the Super Smash Bros. counterpart to Fatal Fury's King of Fighters tournaments.
• The game's theme song is also featured in the film Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted during the musical score, Fur Power! The same song has been recently confirmed to be played on the Battlefield stage.
• Despite being the fifth game by release date, this game is the second game by timeline. The first game in the timeline was Super Smash Bros. The third game in the timeline was Super Smash Bros. Melee, The fourth game in the timeline was Super Smash Bros. 4. The fifth game in the timeline was the sequel of this game. The latest game in the timeline was Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
  • Because of the timeline, the game takes place before Tekken: Blood Vengeance, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, The King of Fighters 2000, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, Barney's Great Adventure, and Soul Calibur IV, despite many characters from after those times are in the Super Smash Bros. Tourney series.
• The announcer was originally going to be Jamieson Price, who was previously the announcer of Super Street Fighter IV, but he is going to voice Heihachi, Lu Bu, HR-H, Iron Tager, Chad, Anakaris, and Algol in the final release. Later on, Paul St. Peter, who was previously the announcer of Soul Calibur V, was going to be the announcer, but Ganryu, the Grand Doomer, and Plastic Man were confirmed and Paul St. Peter is going to voice them instead. Finally, it was confirmed that Herman Sanchez, the announcer of the Mortal Kombat series, will be the announcer, but in a Pat Cashman style.
• The American cartoon and comic characters were going to speak just English, until it was confirmed they would speak Japanese, making it the first fighting game for Marvel characters to speak Japanese; the same thing goes with DC Universe characters.
• Unlockable characters continue to be unlocked from Versus Mode matches, beating the single player modes, and completing the Stadium modes. Characters can also be unlocked by purchasing them from the Smash Store, and purchasing them from there will make the unlockable characters available instantly without having to be fought. These unlocking conditions are carried over to the sequel, with an additional method: making a wish for them from the Dragon Ball wish dragons such as Porunga.
• This is the first Smash Bros. game where:
  • Characters with Chinese names are pronounced the correct way, mostly for the Dynasty Warriors universe. Feng Wei's name is pronounced Fung Wei for example (despite being known as Feng ingame, so therefore the announcer pronounces his name as Fung). Xiaoyu's name and Leixia's name are still pronounced the same way as they were in Tekken: Blood Vengeance and Soul Calibur V, respectively.
    • These pronunciations would be carried over to the sequel.
  • Characters with certain names are pronounced differently, mostly for the Tekken universe. Alisa's name is pronounced Alissa for example.
    • These pronunciations would be carried over to the sequel.
  • Players can hear fireworks as a sound effect in the background of the Character Select Screen.
    • This SFX would be carried over to the sequel.
  • Characters have an intro and outro FMV cutscene in the Classic Mode.
    • This feature would be carried over to the sequel.
  • Full voice acting is used, even before matches.
    • This feature would be carried over to the sequel.
  • The rival system is used.
    • This feature would be carried over to the sequel.
  • Characters can have unlockable costumes, dubbed Bonus Costumes. When a Bonus Costume is unlocked, the character who owns the Bonus Costume will have his/her name in red, and when the Bonus Costume is first highlighted, the color of the character's name goes back to purple if the character is already available after creating a new save file or yellow if the character had to be unlocked after creating a new save file.
    • This feature would be carried over to the sequel.
  • Notices no longer appear on a separate screen. Instead, a notice will appear on the lower-right section of the screen with a similar look to the notifications on the Xbox 360 with the Super Smash Bros, series symbol in lieu of the Xbox 360 orb. These notices are called Smash Ball Messages.
    • This concept would be carried over to the sequel.
  • Almost every stage from a past Smash game gets a new song for My Music. Example: Rainbow Cruise from Super Mario can now have Let's Go Lightly from the original Mario Party in addition to the Rainbow Cruise theme from Melee.
  • Video clips featuring many characters from this game can be watched from the Vault. All characters from kid's shows who are playable will be voiced by whoever voices him/her in the Classic Mode cutscenes, while every other character will be voiced by whoever voiced him/her in the actual gameplay of the Tourney series. Some clips are updated to include voices for characters who never spoke and some voices change. Example: In a Barney & Friends clip where Barney was getting presents, Barney's voice changed to that of Shin Kamiya's Blood Vengeance voice and when Baby Bop tells Barney that her present is under her blankey, her blankey says "Look under me and you'll get a birthday miracle!" and when Barney uncovers the present, her blankey says "Tricked you!" and then, when Baby Bop hugs Barney, he says "I tricked him for nothing?!"
    • These clips would be carried over to the sequel.
  • Regardless of the game's difficulty, Crazy Hand will be fought alongside Master Hand in the Classic Mode, no matter what the player does.
    • This concept would be carried over to the sequel's Classic Mode.
  • The announcer takes on a more narrative role; now he (she in the sequel) speaks when the player is about to fight an unlockable character before he/she is unlocked, when the player unlocks something, or unlocks absolutely everything.
    • This role for the announcer would be carried over to the sequel.
  • There are two newcomers from the Star Fox universe instead of one due to SSB4 not receiving any newcomers from said universe and instead cutting Wolf. Those two Star Fox characters are the much requested Krystal and the completely new Leon.
    • In the sequel, there will be a lot more Star Fox newcomers.
  • The Smash Store is added. Players can purchase trophies (like in SSB4), parts for the Super Stage Builder, customization items for the Custom Costume Builder, dossiers, and all of the unlockable playable characters in the game.
    • The Smash Store returns in the sequel.
  • There is no Sudden Death at the end of timed matches. The Sudden Death feature has been replaced with Judgement from the Street Fighter III series, in which three judges appear holding signs that they slowly turn to reveal the winner of the match. The voting result is always 2:1, and the decision is made before the signs are turned. The final judgement is completely random.
    • This feature would be carried over to the sequel.
  • Masahiro Sakurai is not the director, due to his likely retirement. The director is now Kei Yamamoto, who directed King of Fighters XIII.
    • Kei Yamamoto will also be the director of the sequel.
• This is the second Smash game where:
  • Solid Snake is a playable character. The first Smash game where this occured was Brawl.
  • The entire cast of characters from the very first Smash game are available from the beginning. The first Smash game where this occured was the Wii U version of SSB4.
  • The Fighting Alloy Team appears in the Multi-Man mode. The first Smash game where this occured was Brawl.
  • Special Orders is a playable game mode, which includes Master Orders, Crazy Orders, and the new Red Dragon Orders. The first Smash game where this occured was the Wii U version of SSB4.
• In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the menu jump cuts to the Character Select Screen before you choose your characters. In Super Smash Bros. Tourney, the main menu's background will have a black Crystal Star (similar to the ones from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door) create three holes in the screen, similar to the Showstopper move from the same game. The screen will then flash three times, and then the screen will explode, revealing the Character Select Screen. This will be carried over to the sequel and many other crossover Nintendo fanon projects. The background of the first Super Smash Bros. Tourney game's character select screen resembles the colosseum in Greece.
• Starter characters have their names shown in purple. If a character hasn't yet been unlocked, their panel will show a question mark in their character panel, and the caption below the question mark will say "Locked" in yellow. Unlocking a playable character will show his/her name in glowing rainbow colors, and then his/her name will be shown in yellow.
• Super Smash Bros. Tourney and the original Super Smash Bros. have four similarities, all of which would be carried over to the sequel:
  • Both games have different main menu and character select screen music.
  • Both games have a character viewer.
  • Both games include character animations on the Character Select Screen.
  • Both games are rated E for Everyone instead of T for Teen.
• When a character is chosen, they perform a special animation in their player's display box below the character select array, usually with the camera zooming in on him/her. Until the announcer calls his/her name, the characters will be doing an idle pose. The idle poses work exactly how they did in Soul Calibur IV, in which the highlighted character's name shows up, then the idle pose of the character that corresponds to that name.
  • Some characters reuse their Character Select animation from Soul Calibur II, Soul Calibur III, and/or Soul Calibur IV, either with some minor changes or totally unchanged. An example is Heihachi Mishima.
  • A majority of characters use a completely different animation, while still being styled like Soul Calibur II/Soul Calibur III/Soul Calibur IV's Character Select animations. An example is Feng Wei.
  • Four of the game's characters have special sound effects during their Soul Calibur II/Soul Calibur III/Soul Calibur IV-styled Character Select animations. An example is Sgt. James Byrd.
  • A minority of characters borrow a Character Select animation from another Soul Calibur II/Soul Calibur III/Soul Calibur IV character, usually if it's an imitation character. An example is Toola.
• The game's theme song, which is called The Tourney Begins, is based on the British patriotic song, Land of Hope and Glory. There are also many different variants of The Tourney Begins, usually from the Last Night at the Prom events held by the BBC.
• Since players can connect up to two Wii U GamePads to one console, as well as the game being compatible with the Wii U Pro Controller and every peripheral that was compatible with Super Smash Bros. Brawl including the GameCube Controller if the players had a GameCube controller adaptor, Super Smash Bros. Tourney can be played with up to eight players, just like in SSB4.
• Lip movements for the Smash Bros. Tourney participants, as seen on the Results Screen, the Character Select Screen, and various Classic Mode Intro/Outro FMVs, but not actual gameplay, were previously seen in Super Smash Bros. 4 (Veteran Characters and those requested) and Tekken: Blood Vengeance (Newcomers).
  • For many newcomers, especially from the Tekken universe, all anime universes, all American cartoon universes, and all preschool television universes, the characters would sync to the Japanese track of the quotes. For some newcomers, especially the Soul Calibur universe, the characters would sync to the track of the quotes that is selected, so therefore if a player made Cassandra speak English, she would be syncing to the English version of her quotes, and she would be syncing to the Japanese version of her quotes if she is made to speak Japanese, etc.
    • For example, when Loonette says "Our day has come FULL circle!" on the character select screen, she would be syncing to "Watashitachi no tsuitachi wa!", which is the Japanese version of that same quote.
  • Non-human newcomers, such as Kuma, would move their mouths in a similar manner to the Muppets in various Muppet media of the Japanese version of their respective quotes.
• Lucario and Toon Link are the only two characters from Brawl to not return in Tourney. They have been replaced with Melee's Mewtwo and Young Link, respectively. They will return in the sequel.
• Since there are characters from shows for preschool children, such as Super Why! and Barney & Friends, the rating was changed to E for Everyone so that people of all ages would be able to play the game, despite there are some violent shows featured in the game, such as Mission: Impossible and Star Wars.
• FMV footage is provided by Digital Frontier while manga-style scenes were done by Hirohiko Araki, the writer of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure.
  • For the FMV footage from the Barney & Friends universe, Barney Home Video assists Digital Frontier.
• The only Assist Trophy character that returns in Super Smash Bros. Tourney that remains summonable is Mr. Resetti from Animal Crossing. Every other Assist Trophy found in a previous Smash game would either be cut completely from the Tourney series (Example: the Nintendog from Nintendogs), made playable in both Tourney series games (Example: Waluigi from Super Mario), made playable in the second Tourney series game (Example: Dark Samus from Metroid), or made into bosses for the Boss Battles Mode (Example: Andross from Star Fox).
  • The reason for the removal of the Nintendog is because many players disliked the fact that the Nintendog, regardless of its breed, blocks almost all of the screen. The reason for the removal of the other Assist Trophies from the past games is unknown. The Nintendog has been replaced with Courage and Julie from Courage the Cowardly Dog and Barney & Friends, respectively, and while the screen is almost completely obsecured, the opponents take damage; whereas before, they didn't.
• The crowd cheers from all past Smash games appear yet again in Super Smash Bros. Tourney. Even the sequel has these cheers.
• Despite being an E-rated game, the Tourney series is the first Smash Bros. game to allow girls to be made nude; whether it's a costume from the Custom Costume Builder or a victory pose (usually a hidden victory pose).
  • If a female character is already nude when doing a victory pose in which one becomes nude, or if a character with no clothing imitates that female character (such as Mokujin) and does a victory pose in which a female character is made nude, they will only do the animation of throwing off their clothes and do the victory pose as usual without taking any clothes off.
• In Classic Mode, if a certain character who has another character from this game as his/her default rival in the sequel, there will be a 15% chance that the player will fight their default Tourney 2 rival instead of their Tourney 1 default rival or their second rival.
• As a series first, openings and endings have been added to the Classic Mode. There are three different types of endings, standard, doing favors (which a certain character does a favor for his/her rival), and multiple choice. Unlike in Soul Calibur III, these cutscenes can be skipped; whereas in Tourney 2, they are unskippable.