It’s strange to think about now, but for a long time, nobody really knew what to make of the Super Smash Bros. series. Not regarding critical reception—the games were beloved practically from day one—but in how to classify them. Nowadays, no one bats an eye if you call Smash a fighting game. But this distinction used to be so hotly debated that some gatekeepers rejoiced when Nintendo themselves defined Super Smash Bros. Brawl as an “action” game on its official website. That settles it, right? It’s an “action” game, not a “fighting” game—whatever that means.
Of course, that’s not how things ended. Unlike a climactic best-of-three bout, culture develops incidentally. People gradually stopped resisting Smash’s place in the fighting game pantheon, possibly due in part to its regular representation at the world’s premier fighting game competition EVO, but that’s neither here nor there…
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