Super Smash Bros. (series)

The Super Smash Bros. video game series started out in 1999 with the initial release of Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64. The original title included 12 playable characters, four of which were unlockable. The eight characters playable from the start consisted of Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus Aran, Yoshi, Kirby, Fox McCloud, and Pikachu. The unlockable charcters were Luigi, Captain Falcon, Ness and Jigglypuff.

The game was an instant success for Nintendo and its developer HAL, though the series wouldn't become one of Nintendo's most popular until the second entry into the series was released for the GameCube - Super Smash Bros. Melee. The third video game (for the Wii), called Super Smash Bros. Brawl, introduced a full-fledged adventure mode and two "guest" (third party) characters: Snake and Sonic.

The series is best known for featuring Nintendo characters and themes. The characters fight against each other in attempts to defeat the other.

Video games
As aforementioned, there are three games in the series as of yet. It has been suggested by the series creator and director Masahiro Sakurai that the third game in the series would be the last that he would actually direct.

Super Smash Bros.
Main article: Super Smash Bros.

The original game in the series was released on the Nintendo 64 in 1999. It included 12 characters from various Nintendo video games, including Mario, Pikachu, Link, Yoshi, Samus Aran, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Fox McCloud, Ness, Luigi, Captain Falcon and Jigglypuff.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
Main article: Super Smash Bros. Melee

This was the second game in the series featuring a much larger cast of characters including all of the originals, some were still locked others were available from the start. Some new characters were Princess Peach, Bowser, Zelda and Ice Climbers.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Main article: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

This is the third game in the series featuring a slightly larger cast then Melee, including a lot of "character replacements" since some of the characters from Melee are gone from this one. Some new characters were Pokémon Trainer, Lucas, Diddy Kong and Meta Knight. The first one in the series to contain third party characters (Sonic the Hedgehog and Solid Snake).

Super Smash Bros. 3DS and Super Smash Bros. Wii U
At E3 2011, Nintendo have revealed that Super Smash Bros. games will be released for both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS and that the two titles will somehow be compatible with each other. It has also been stated by Nintendo that Capcom characters will try to be included in this game.