- Genre: Fighting
- Genre: Platform
- Fastest completion
- Uses hardest difficulty
- Abuses programming errors
Super Smash Flash is a platform fighter game made by Greg McLeod under the pseudonym Cleod9 and published on Newgrounds in 2006. It’s a fangame based on the Super Smash Bros. series, drawing heavily from Super Smash Bros. Melee. Despite its glaring problems (such as extremely odd physics, having sonic OCs as playable characters, performance problems, Sonic OCs, audio inconsistencies, and above all Sonic OCs) the game caught on thanks to its ambitious large roster and being just fun. Its success would inspire its creator to expand on it with a sequel, Super Smash Flash 2, which is currently in development by a full team.
This run completes all levels of the Adventure mode.
Mechanics
SSF is a platform fighter much in the vein of Smash. Unlike traditional fighters, you do not win by depleting an HP bar, but rather by knocking your enemies off stage. Attacks deal knockback and the more damage an opponent has, the more knockback they take from attacks.
However, SSF has its own set of… issues when it comes to Smash mechanics, and I’ll explain the most relevant differences here
- All hitboxes hit once per frame. Hello, MK Advance!
- Knockback gets magnified if opponents have momentum when hit. As such, hitting moving targets is usually the fastest way to KO them.
- All attacks can be canceled by turning. While this allows to cancel and start moving right away, you cannot input another attack until the frame the previous one would have finished anyway
- Only 4 attacks exist: neutral, up, down and side. For Fox, these are Laser, Up Smash, Illusion and Fire Fox respectively.
- There is no dedicated special button, shield button, grabs, ledges, or even revival platforms.
Levels
Level 1 - Super Mario World
This level asks us to traverse thru a copy of Yoshi’s Island 2 from SMW. Here we showcase the full power of Fox’s Illusion: not only it can be endlessly chained for a gigantic speed boost, but by jump canceling it we can preserve its momentum, allowing us to make it across stages at high speed.
This level still manages to pose some issues, however. Most notably, we need to make it across the final pipe without colliding with the blocks above. We plan our jump routing in order to reach the final pipe at a good falling angle, allowing us to keep our speed for as long as possible.
Level 2 - Peach’s Castle
The first battle of the game, we must KO two Marios. We make use of Illusion to quickly rack up damage, then KO the first Mario by using Firefox as he runs back towards us. From there, we can use another Illusion chain to combo into Up-Smash for a quick KO on Mario number two.
I’d like to use this battle to show why we use Very Hard: harder CPU difficulties make CPUs behave more aggresively and therefore be more likely to move towards the player, which allows me to set up for faster KOs.
Level 3 - Floating Islands
The most infamous level in the game, Floating Islands is known for having caused major lag in old computers at the time. It got so bad that the downloadable version of SSF1 outright allows players to skip the level entirely at the press of a button. For completion’s sake, I opt to do the level regardless.
Unlike the previous level, this one is almost entirely focused on vertical platforming. Here we make heavy use of Firefox cancels: since there’s no fast falling, Fire Fox is the only way to gain downwards speed. We can then jump after landing from a firefox, allowing us to quickly make our way up.
Level 4 - Break the Targets
Break the Targets, a staple of Smash and TASing. In SSF1, all characters share this stage (based on Kirby and the Amazing Mirror) but each character has different target locations and movement patterns.
Because this game is… a lot, the BTT stage used in Adventure differs slightly from the one in the actual BTT mode, as the base floor is slightly raised in the BTT version. Due to this difference, we cannot reach the center top platform from the base floor. This forces us to take a detour to the left, and informs much of our strategy.
Level 5 - Pokémon Stadium
This level consists of two battles, with the first being a simple 1-on-3 battle against some Pikachu. The same strategies as usual apply. Fox’s position was carefully chosen to prevent any Pikachu from interrupting us by dealing damage.
The second battle is against a big Pikachungus. A quick Illusion chain + up-smash finishes it off.
Level 6 - Race to the Finish
Based on Sonic’s Emerald Hill Zone, this level is a combination of vertical and horizontal movement. It contains the only damage boost in the run, which we use to pop into a platform just out of reach otherwise. Everything else is easy to follow.
Level 7 - Hyrule Castle
In a stage partially inspired by Hyrule Temple from Melee, we must fight both Link and Zelda. Zelda has two stocks and Link has only one. As such, I set up for a KO on Zelda first, then use Zelda’s intangibility time to KO Link. While I’m on that, Zelda transforms into Sheik, but that makes little difference as Sheik is also easily KOd by our bread and butter Illusion combo.
Level 8 - Final Destination
The final stage, our first enemy is Master Hand. Here we can showcase the true power of Fox’s Up Smash. Dealing a whopping 2% per frame a single one can deal upwards of 40% damage. We also show the power of slide moves: unless an attack explicitly sets speed, you can still move while using them, so I can follow Master Hand across the stage as it tries to move away.
Then, Crazy Hand spawns. Sadly, as long as I have 0% damage it will always use the drill first, and any attempts to manip another attack induced considerably slower fights overall. So I let it chill up in space while I KO Master Hand.
Once Crazy Hand falls into the stage, all that’¿s left is quick consecutive up smashes to finish it up
Bonus - Unlock Matches
Two characters are unlocked at the end of the movie. Since the main goal of the TAS is already completed, I take these two battles as a chance to do something a bit more playaround focused. Both battles happen on Final Destination.
- Jigglypuff: Unlocked by beating Adventure for the first time. We opt for a slightly more interesting kill by carrying Puff offstager with Illusion.
- InuYasha: Unlocked by beating Adventure deathless. In a sort of book end, we kill him in the same way we killed the first Mario, with a combo and a Fire Fox.
slamo: Claiming for judging.
slamo: Nice TAS, lots of good superhuman action here. Optimization is fine: it beats the RTA record for every level except level 3 (due to not skipping it, which I approve of) and the Master Hand battle (HP is higher because of the difficulty choice). Accepting.
