More Than a Smash Clone | The History of Platform Fighters

This video has been a passion project of mine for some time. Thank you for watching! I'll be doing more platform fighter videos in the future, so subscribe!
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#smash #smashbros #smashultimate #supersmashbros #multiversus #brawlhalla #platformfighter #gaming #videoessay

[@E_Fig05]

Personally, I've never liked the Assists mechanic in any fighting games, but you're right about it feeling like a Niche.

[@thomasffrench3639]

I love how Smash Bros was made because he felt bad that he was too good a video games.

[@user-pg4wi4ew2g]

It's weird how Brawlhalla doesn't get much attention when it has 100 million players with 20million monthly players (crossplay). Insanely good tournament entries online and LAN, massive prize pools, consistent developer support, extremely active community. It's not nearly as recognized as Smash (it does not have the massive legacy or storied history of it), but it deserves some praise imo. It's different from Smash in basically every way but the genre. People are very quick to discount it without giving it a serious try and how good high level competitive play is. Also one of the most balanced fighting games ever.

[@mikederdrache3305]

Yeah and unlike smash, the developers actually listen to the community.

[@phantomt516]

Great job with this video. Although a platform fighter that not a lot of people talk about is Newgrounds Rumble. What is Newgrounds Rumble? Ok so you know Fraymakers, it's Fraymakers fifteen years ago in made in Flash...kinda. Newgrounds Rumble is a Newgrounds All-Star game featuring Newgrounds characters such as Pico and Nene from Pico School, Alloy from Alloy Arena, P-Bot (Newgrounds original character), Samurai Asshole from Samurai Asshole, Salad Fingers from Salad Fingers, Alien Hominid from Alien Hominid, Tankman (Newgrounds original character and is based on the cartoon), Piconjo and Convict are both fanmade Pico School characters and are the main antagonist for Newgrounds Rumble with the game even getting updates for two years adding 2-3 character such as Hank and Henchman/Grunt from Madness Combat (Henchman is a secret character), and Fancy Pants from Fancy Pants. Every character (except for Henchman and Fancy Pants) got a stage. The game also includes power-ups which are these game items from smash bros which can aid the player if they're collected. Also, the game has so many nods to Newgrounds history from the characters all the way to the power-ups. Even the arcade/story mode and challenges mode is super creative with their character interaction. Anyway' enough of the baby stuff how about the gameplay? Gameplay is honestly a successor to The Outfoxes with air combos. The game is a mix of both traditional and smash. Traditional because you have a health bar and smash because you can move around and controls are simple. Ok so now imagine MvC2 air combos in Smash...that's Newgrounds Rumble. You do have defenses such as a block button when used on the ground and a parry when pressing the block button in the air. The game plays better than most Flash fighting games at the time and Newgrounds Rumble was released in 2007. Go play Super Smash Flash 1 and early builds of Super Smash Flash 2 and compare them I dare you. Although a trivia fact, when doing research I discovered from going to the way back machine that Newgrounds Rumble was originally going to be called Newground's Brawl and was going to share mechanics similar to Smash Bros Melee but in the final release it was scrapped. Newground's Brawl name was changed last month before release to Newgrounds Rumble but Smash Bros Melee mechanics are a mystery. And finally the game development. I won't be going in deep detail but to give you a short version of it: NegativeOne (Director of NG Rumble) was playing Smash Bros Melee and had the thought "ok so what if Smash...but with Newgrounds characters" and it hit him "why not make a Smash game but with Newgrounds characters?" So NegativeOne contacted Luis (a Newgrounds user), Mindchamber (another Newgrounds user), and other Newgrounds users to create a game similar to Smash bros but trying to not rip-off any of its mechanics. The game was planned to release in December 2006... which was later delayed to May 2007. Why was it delayed? Sprites weren't finished and unfortunately, a couple of characters were cut and that include Fancy Pants who were cut for the base game and were made by Brad Borne. Who is Brad Borne? The guy who created Fancy Pants. Yes, NegativeOne contacted the creator who made Fancy Pants to make Fancy Pants sprites for Newgrounds Rumble, not only that but Brad was also involved with Fancy Pants story mode for Newgrounds Rumble which is kina insane to think about. Luckily after fans begged NegativeOne to contact Brad to finish the sprites, Fancy Pants was able to make it into the game as the final character. Oh, and as for Hank and Henchman, it was quite simple. Hank was the most popular character people wanted for Newgrounds Rumble and luckily NegativeOne and Mindchamber were able to contact the creator of Madness Combat to add Hank in the game but also Henchman as a secret character for Madness Day...although in the game files, someone found Henchman was planned to have a story mode but was scrapped as a secret character. The final update the game got was achievements back in 2009 and that's it. For Flash game, I respect the devs for making something like this, a game like this shouldn't happen but they were able to make it a reality. You can play Newgrounds Rumble on Newgrounds, plus it's free. A game can't exist like this nowadays since money needs to be involved but Newgrounds Rumble was made for free with the devs not even getting paid a single cent.

[@mildvanilla]

That sounds super interesting! I will have to check it out, thanks for the recommendation!!

[@anthonyferranti7018]

can’t wait for rivals 2 gonna no life the shit outta that game

[@mildvanilla]

Same here!!!

[@cosmic5665]

If rivals 2 dies then I die

[@cyprienramis1304]

That was my initial plan too but then I realised the game would come out when I'll be in college (and the first 2 years are extremely time consuming in France) so I might have to wait to be able to dedicate my soul and body to this game🥲

[@squircled6274]

Rivals 2, Combo devils, and Sentinels Inc all in the same year bout to be a movie

[@maxtubb8560]

SEGA should Seriously make their own Smash Bros clone especially. after the success of the SEGA All Stars games. I even had an idea for a hypothetical roster. Sonic (Sonic The Hedgehog) Tails (Sonic The Hedgehog) Knuckles (Sonic The Hedgehog) Dr. Eggman (Sonic The Hedgehog) Blaze (Sonic The Hedgehog) Aiai (Super Monkey Ball) Aika (Skies of Arcadia) Akira (Virtua Fighter) Jacky (Virtua Fighter) Alek Kidd Alis (Phantasy Star) Amigo (Samba de Amigo) Arle (Puyo Puyo) Axel (Streets of Rage) Bahn (Fighting Vipers) Blaze (Streets of Rage) Azel (Panzer Dragoon) Bayonetta BD Joe (Crazy Taxi) Beast/Centurion (Altered Beast) Beat (Jet Set Radio) Billy (Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg) Gilius (Golden Axe) Majima (Yakuza) Harrier (Space Harrier) Hatsune Miku Jack Cayman (MadWorld) Jack Frost (Shin Megami Tensei) Joe Musashi (Shinobi) Kiryu (Yakuza) Majima (Yakuza) Max (Shining Force) Nights (Nights into Dreams) Pepper (Clockwork Knight) Red (Gunstar Heroes) Ristar Ryo (Shenmue) Sam Gideon (Vanquish) Segata Sanshiro (SEGA Saturn) Skecth Turner (Comix Zone) Temjin (Virtual On) Toejam & Earl Ulala (Space Channel 5) Vectorman Vyse (Space Channel 5) Welkin & Alicia (Valkyria Chronicles)

[@angrygarbanzo5436]

Yes, yea they should

[@1989worms1]

Great video! I will be doing my own Platform Fighter called "Animated Battle Superstars" with characters and other stuff from classic and modern 3D CGI TV and Web series. Once I get enough money for licensing and copyright, I will make a Prototype and Demos for testing purposes before I will start working on the full version of the fan game. Keep up the good work!

[@mildvanilla]

I can't wait to play it!!

[@1989worms1]

@@mildvanilla I will let you know when a Prototype and Demo versions are ready!

[@mildvanilla]

@@1989worms1 Thank you!

[@1989worms1]

@@mildvanilla You're welcome!

[@VitaStarz]

I played PlayStation All Stars with my older brothers when it first came out, it was the funnest platform fighter i ever played.

[@heyvictor4196]

Really like this video! a future NASB video would be sick

[@nightbrand8016]

Look, I'm not saying Sonic's shite moveset was a plot by Nintendo to make Mario look better but like... I'm not saying it wasn't 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@mildvanilla]

It makes you think tho 👀

[@kylespevak6781]

6:30 I think you're the only person on KZbin I've ever heard mention this game. Every time I tell people about it, they don't believe me

[@mildvanilla]

It's crazy more people don't know about it!

[@cosmic5665]

Its sad because calling platfighters a smash clones are basically calling them a worse version of smash

[@squircled6274]

Some news ones for people coming to the vid late: Smash city(sandbox plat fighter where u can make ur own stages and characters): out now Rivals 2: 2025 Sentinels Inc(MvC type mechanics in plat fighters with co-op mode where your secondary can be a teammate when u switch out): 2024 but prob 2025 Combo devils(anime fighter type combos in plat fighter): 2025

[@kylespevak6781]

14:40 I really liked the character design for this one but when I went to play it I had almost half a second of input lag making it basically unplayable

[@mildvanilla]

I had a similar experience, hopefully it will get better with time!

[@kylespevak6781]

@@mildvanilla I just wanted to play as the dinosaur. Every platform fighter needs a big scary lizard

[@mildvanilla]

@@kylespevak6781 I totally agree!

[@kylespevak6781]

@@mildvanilla hoping that Godzilla comes to Multiversus

[@mildvanilla]

@@kylespevak6781 Same here! I would like to see any kaiju in that game honestly

[@catgymforcats]

I am making a fantasy adventure platform fighter game

[@NeutralOfficial]

howdy, self describe "platfighter historian" here (only one whos a big enough loser to call myself that) A few games of notes thats missing for a full 'history; thing Icons battle arena is the game that TRULY popularized the term "smash clone", due to it being pushed everywhere at release and it just being, well, not good at the time Platfighter engine for being well, THE platfighter engine Not giving rushrev a full segment was a crime, its godlike, once its back out i HIGHLY recommend doing a deep dive into it and mentioning that slap city started the 'big youtuber calling a platfighter THE SMASH KILLER' trend w dunkys video called, well, THE SMASH KILLER aside from that and me disagreeing w dream mix being more of a platfighter then the outerfoxies this is a solid video, looking forward to more 👍

[@mildvanilla]

Thank you so much for the feedback! I got more into rushrev after this video came out, and you are right it deserves more! I will definitely do a deep dive when it comes back.

[@MDLZero]

Something to be noted that is also missing, Airdash Online. It didn't get far, kickstarted failed, but it is the game that coined the term "Platform Fighter" in the first place.

[@NeutralOfficial]

@@MDLZero yea, I tried to research airdash online (dmed a few ppl who were 'on the team') and sadly couldn't find out much that wasn't in trailers or the gameplay stream Def a important part of platfighter history that is currently lost media and forgotten to time

[@MDLZero]

@Neutral blue hexagons, they work on antistatic, same dev from airdash. The best info is the Kickstarter, though, it's still up without way back you can't play airdash and the dev said they tried to boot it back up in unity awhile back and the whole project was broken.

[@puppydragongirl]

no mention of stardust valkyries 🙃🥲

[@JovialEclipse]

You forgot Kung Fu Panda Showdown of Legendary Legends

[@Its-Tim]

Need a 2024 state of Platform fighters update video

[@TheBoneHeadClan]

I like how you covered a good amount of the history of both fighting games in general and platforms fighters over the years. You did skip some like Small Arms, Digimon Rumble Arena, etc. I know you probably can't cover literally all of them though.

[@cinemaguy1]

Did he say horn in?

[@belacolla8902]

'promosm' ☹️

[@shanks6603]

super smash flash 2 crying in the corner

[@davidmaxwell1354]

😠 "Promosm"

[@shadrachbaning7476]

Supersmash flash