I promised myself that this would not be a video gaming blog. After all, there are many people out there who do it much better and more frequently than me. I cannot compete. Nevertheless, I had to share this revelation with you.
We all know and love the Super Smash Brothers game series. From its humble beginnings on the N64, it grew to be quickly popular. However, why would it begin on the N64? It can technically be played in 2D.
In addition, the title is rather odd. While just about every other game released for the N64 had "64" stuck onto the end of its name, the Smash. Bros. series was a notable exception. In the SNES era, most games were prefixed with Super. The title of the series is Super Smash Brothers.
It is my duty to conclude, therefore, that this game was originally an ambitious project designed for the SNES.
As far as I have been able to gather, the Nintendo people wanted a good clean fighting game--this was in the time before ESRB ratings, when Nintendo was extremely anxious to be kid-friendly. All other fighting games of the time involved too much violence, and that did not translate well the the SNES. (For instance, the infamous Mortal Kombat port.)
They thus wanted to create a fighting game that would not involve elements of violence, other than a bit of the "cartoonish" sort. Thus Super Smash Brothers was born.
However, they realized that this game was a lot trickier to make than it was thought to be. As the game was already planned late in the life of the SNES, it was quietly moved to the N64 and there completed. However, in order to get it out, they had to cut a lot of detail from it: some characters, some stages, etc.
This also explains why some obscure characters such as the Ice Climbers were in Melee. They were intended for the original but had to be cut, partly because they had deadlines to meet and partly because Nintendo was unsure whether they would be popular enough. Ness, who ended up being an unlockable character in Smash Bros., faced the same conundrum but luckily made it in.
And, for final proof, for those last people who doubt my word, I have a screenshot.
AotA signing off. 