Super Smash Wars is a mash-up of Star Wars and Super Smash Bros. created by James Farr, and is his most ambitious project to date. It was originally part of his "Saturday Morning Multiverse"
series of mash-ups, but it has gotten so big that it deserved a separate playlist.
The series follows Link Skywaker, a young boy from TatooWii. After purchasing the C-3PROB and R2-D-TOAD droids, he suddenly finds himself thrust into a space-faring adventure along with Owlbi-Wan Kaepora, Han Brolo, Chewie Kong, and Princess Pleia (along with many others) as they battle the Phantom Lord Ganondarth and his evil Empire, which is seeking to build a world-destroying weapon known as Majora.
With the release of the sequel trilogy, the story continues, now following Reysy, Vinn, Kir-B-8, and Pit Dameron as they lead the Wiisistance against Shylo Ren (whose identity is revealed to be Baby Brolo) and the First Level.
Please note that, due to being a Star Wars parody, many spoilers from that series will be unmarked on this page.
List of Episodes
- A Link To The Hope
- The Empire Smashes Back
- Return of the Hero
- The Triforce Awakens
- The Last Hero
Super Smash Wars contains examples of:
- Adaptation Distillation: The mutiny sub-plot between Poe and Vice Admiral Holdo is removed almost entirely in The Last Hero, only given a brief reference when Pit Dameron chooses to take action now instead of take orders blindly. Likewise, the "Rashomon"-Style backstory of Luke Skywalker and Kylo Ren, which serves as a major aspect of their characterization, is entirely excised.
- Adaptational Heroism: In his home series, Ganondorf has only ever been an unrepentant villain, even in his most sympathetic appearance. As Ganakin Skywaker, he still has some good left in him and ultimately finds that Redemption Equals Death.
- Adaptational Villainy:
- Several non-villainous characters from The Legend of Zelda, such as the Bomb Shop Owner, Linebeck, and the Happy Mask Salesman, are shown to be working for the Empire.
- Samus Aran works with the villains here due to being cast as Boba Fett.
- Solid Snake appears to be another bounty hunter hired by the Empire in The Empire Smashes Back, taking the role of Dengar, the bandage-headed sniper.
- The laid-back Bean Seller, whose greatest "crime" is charging 100 rupees for a single bean, is cast in the role of the Fat Bastard Unkar Plutt in The Triforce Awakens.
- As Bazine Fital, the Wii Fit Trainer is a spy working for the First Level in The Triforce Awakens Part 1.
- As Baby Brolo, Baby Mario goes from being the infant form of one of gaming's greatest heroes to being one of the main villains of the sequel trilogy.
- The Duck Hunt dog may be smug and have an annoying mocking laugh, but when cast as DJ in The Last Hero, he betrays Rosabelle and Vinn to the First Level.
- Artificial Limbs: The Power Glove appears as Link Skywaker's robotic hand.
- Butt-Monkey: Sonic Calrissian, in The Empire Smashes Back, mostly serves as Chewie Kong's punching bag. Justified as he did hand them over to Lord Ganondarth and let Han Brolo be turned into a trophy. It continues through the first half of Return of the Hero until he finally gets his moment that subverts the trope in the second half.
- The Cameo: Ruto makes a short appearance in Return of the Hero as Wiiba's dancing girl before being unceremoniously dropped into the pit of the Imprisoned.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Link avoids a nasty fall in The Empire Smashes Back thanks to the hookshot he got in A Link To The Hope.
- Link defeats Mew-Jora by catching him with Yodachu's pokeball.
- Chekhov's Skill: In Part 2 of The Triforce Awakens, when Baby Brolo first unmasks himself, one of his specials is listed to be "Saber Stretch". This foreshadows the manner in which he kills Han Brolo.
- Circling Birdies: Link gets several Cuccos flying around his head after falling out of bed in Super Smash Wars.
- Cool Sword:
- The Master Saber, which is the Master Sword as a Lightsaber, resulting in one of the coolest fictional swords ever conceived.
- Link's Warp Saber in Return of the Hero, which can not only fire Sword Beams, but also create warp zones.
- Composite Character: Pretty much every single character, so here are just a few notable examples:
- Emperor Mew-Jora himself is triple mash-up, of Emperor Palpatine, Mewtwo, and Majora's Mask. His One-Winged Angel form, Mew-Jora's Wrath, combines Mega Mewtwo X, Mega Mewtwo Y, and Majora's Wrath.
- Phantom Lord Ganondarth looks like the Wind Waker version of Phantom Ganon crossed with Darth Vader, but has the personality, overall role, and unmasked face of Ganondorf himself.
- Princess Pleia is Princess Peach as Princess Leia. In Return of the Hero, Pleia also disguises herself as Sniper Joe (as Boushh). Like the Emperor, she's actually a triple mash-up, even without the Sniper Joe disguise: it is later revealed in Return of the Hero that Pleia is secretly Princess Zelda in disguise.
- Link Skywaker is a mashup of Luke Skywalker and Link. For the original trilogy, that Link is the Hero of Winds; in the sequel trilogy, Link is instead modeled after the adult Hero of Time in a couple key scenes, while he is inspired by his Link's Awakening remake design through most of The Last Hero. Additionally, Return of the Hero reveals that Dark Link (based upon Toon Link's Super Smash Bros. Palette Swap, although the setting is based upon Dark Link's appearance in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link) is Link Skywaker's Superpowered Evil Side rather than a separate entity.
- Sonic Calrissian is a mashup of Sonic the Hedgehog and Lando Calrissian. Much like the Pleia/Sniper Joe example above, Sonic also disguises himself as Meta Knight in Return of the Hero.
- Shylo Ren is a mashup of a Shy Guy and Kylo Ren. When unmasked, he is revealed to be Baby Brolo, a mashup of Baby Mario and Ben Solo.
- Crossover: Between Star Wars and Super Smash Bros..
- Decomposite Character: Baby Mario is simply the infant form of Mario in their home series. Here, they are separate characters, with Baby Brolo being Han Brolo's Identical Son.
- Deconstructive Parody:
- Remember the Galaxy selection screen? Have fun looking at it, repurposed as the display for a planetary destroyer.
- Common videogame words such as "Save" and "Quit" take on entirely different meanings in Super Smash Wars, with "Quit" often being used as a euphemism for fleeing or dying.
- Demoted to Extra: Bowser Jr. has an almost non-existent role in The Triforce Awakens and is absent in The Last Hero, despite General Hux being one of the main villains in both movies.
- Easter Egg: Several Luigi sprites are hidden throughout The Triforce Awakens Part 2.
- Enfant Terrible: Baby Brolo/Shylo Ren may be a baby, but he is also the main villain of the sequel trilogy.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: This is the manner in which VN-2187 was renamed Vinn by Pit Dameron.
- Heroic Mime: Link Skywaker keeps his status as demanded by his first name; as for his second name, any dialogue is replaced by either pantomime or as a response through captions/textboxes.
- Later-Installment Weirdness:
- Yodachu's design in The Last Hero is noticeably different from his appearance in The Empire Smashes Back and Return of the Hero, now looking more like an old man and less like an adorable Pikachu.
- The Last Hero is the first episode with a soundtrack that is almost entirely ripped directly from the original games' music, rather than using new orchestral arrangements by Joshua Peterson.
- Mood Whiplash:
- The famous "puzzle solved jingle" from The Legend of Zelda can be heard right after the words "I am your father" appear on screen.
- And the ensuing Big "NO!" is represented by the choosing of an option "Not really" from the menu.
- The Triforce Awakens Part 2 plays ping-pong with the mood due to the buildup of Han Brolo's death at the hands of his son being interrupted by several Super Mario Maker-style commentary windows warning him to turn back being just the first of many within about 30 seconds.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Parodied. At the end of The Last Hero, Zill takes the option to dramatically lift his broom. He attempts, but the result isn't very impressive.
- One-Winged Angel: After being apparently defeated by Ganakin Skywaker, Emperor Mew-Jora assumes a much more physically-intimidating form known as Mew-Jora's Wrath.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: A Link to the Hero begins with the humorous Content Warning "So. Many. References."
- Punny Name: Many characters and locations are given punny portmanteau names. For example, planet Ach-To is renamed Ach-To-Rock in The Triforce Awakens.
- Reference Overdosed: Good God. Even as far as James Farr's other works are concerned, the Super Smash Wars series takes the cake, as the Star Wars characters are mashed up with people coming from all over the Nintendo spectrum, even including third party characters who appeared in Super Smash Bros..
- Related in the Adaptation:
- Given that Link and Peach come from two entirely different franchises, it's only natural that this trope is put in effect when they take the roles of siblings Link Skywaker and Princess Pleia.
- Similarly, Rosabelle and Fayge Tico are sisters, despite Isabelle and Fay originating from different franchises.
- Single Tear: Link Skywaker sheds one as he's forced to escape from the destruction of his village.
- Spared by the Adaptation:
- In contrast to the fate of the Tauntaun that Yoshi takes the role of, he's revived by a 1-Up Mushroom.
- Emperor Mew-Jora gets caught by Link using a pokeball instead of falling down the shaft to the reactor and exploding.
- Spell My Name With An S: Sometimes, names are not written consistently through the series. For example, the C-3PO/R.O.B. mashup character is named C-3PROB in Return of the Hero and C3P-R.O.B. in The Triforce Awakens Part 2.
- Stock Scream: The Wilhelm Scream features Once an Episode in the Super Smash Wars series.
- Take That!
- As a joke at both Nintendo's and its fans' expense in The Empire Smashes Back. Owlbi-Wan Kaepora's ghost asks Link if he understood what Yodachu taught him. Link does give him an annoyed look, but then he chooses the correct option by scrolling between "yes" and "no" as slowly as any player should.
- The Last Hero has a lot of Take That moments to The Last Jedi, starting with the game glitching horribly after Rian Johnson updates the software, and then begging him to delete the software in the end ("Sweet merciful Christ, delete it. Delete it with fire."). Additionally, the player skips over Krystalyn Holdo's Metaphorgotten speech, and Yodachu's wisdom to Luke Skywaker is "Blew it, you did."
- Taken for Granite: Han Brolo is turned into a carbonite trophy, accomplished by the black arrow from the Subspace Emissary story mode of Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
- That's No Moon: A Link to the Hope has this trope, par of the course when it comes to a Star Wars parody. Guess which moon they went with?
- Took a Level in Badass:
- Between The Empire Smashes Back and Return of the Hero, Link takes a big one as effortlessly rips through both Wario's forces and Lord Ganondarth.
- In The Empire Smashes Back, Sonic is a Casanova Wannabe and The Chew Toy. In Return of the Hero, he's gone Super Sonic for the Battle of Endor and loses his obnoxiousness.
- Troll: Yodachu seems to enjoy toying with Link for his own amusement. His laughter is from the early Pokémon episodes.
- Visual Pun: During the Battle of Endor equivalent, Sonic Calrissian's call sign is Gold Leader.note
- Whole-Plot Reference: The opening battle of The Last Jedi is done entirely in the style of Star Fox 2.
May the Triforce be with you.
