Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a fighting game released by Nintendo in 2018 for the Nintendo Switch. It is the fifth game in the Super Smash Bros. franchise and features characters from many different video games that players can select from. The game has drawn in a wide audience from many different ages and backgrounds. The Nintendo Switch makes it accessible to groups of friends playing together, while the game has also climbed the ranks in popularity amongst professional and competitive gamers.
The game allows for players to play with a number of female characters. Of the 89 playable characters, around 26 of them could be considered as a more “female” player. While the game lacks a narrative for its female characters, it still far exceeds other fighting games when it comes to representing its females and allowing them to perform on the same stage without much adjustment to their behaviors. When playing as these characters, numerous design choices appear. For one, many of the female characters did not have a “fighting” role in their respective games that they came from. For instance, it makes sense that Mario attacks with fireballs as his nature, but Princess Peach, who has no attacking moves in other games, has different mechanics that initially seem new to the player. While initially it feels unfamiliar, the characters soon become extremely fun to play with, leveling the field between a player like Peach and a character like Marth who is a combat swordsman. The game does this without changing the identity of the female characters which, when playing as a feminist, supports the idea that a woman should not need to change their demeanor in order to fit the mold that some games might require. In a way, this does match Sarah Chess’ call to have games tell a feminist story. The female characters are unapologetically themselves and the strengths that their characters bring to the table are not only characteristic of their personalities but equally valuable in combat, even if such a motion would not be immediately imagined as a fighting move.
However, it does still fit the notion of games that Chess described — games that focus on fighting which draws in a more masculine audience. Due to the nature of Super Smash Bros., this idea will be hard to combat, and its inherent aggressive and fighting nature will always be prevalent. Thus, fully intertwining a feminist narrative continues to prove difficult to do. Because there are so many characters and the game begins and ends in the combat arena, there is not much opportunity to show character growth and development. Thus, if the game wanted to create a larger narrative for its female characters, it would need to skew away from the game’s main behaviors and principles. I thought about this idea while playing with characters such as Peach and Zelda, and I do believe that a narrative for the characters would hurt the overall gameplay. It would take away from the true draw of the game which is its combat and competitiveness. The game still separates itself from other fighting games, as female characters in others tend to have little to no representation. And even when they do, they are of an aggressive, warrior type of player. In Super Smash Bros., the female characters, like all characters, are presented in a manner that represents who they are. Peach is still a princess with all of her usual behaviors, Zelda and Sheik still maintain the warrior-like tendencies that they have in their games, and Isabellle still keeps the same manners that are in Animal Crossing. Overall, the game does a good job of balancing these two in order to create a game that can welcome a more female crowd in comparison to many other fighting games.
