20 years ago this month, the original Super Smash Bros. launched for Nintendo 64 in North America. It hardly needs to be stated how important that game would prove to be for Nintendo's fortunes. The mascot brawler would eventually grow into one of the company's most beloved and lavish franchises, selling millions of copies and inspiring a string of imitators on other platforms in its wake. But despite all of the marquee characters attached to the game, it was also a big risk for Nintendo, a curious experiment within a genre it had little familiarity with, and its eventual success was far from assured.
By the time Super Smash Bros. arrived in 1999, Nintendo was already well-versed in spinning its mascots off into seemingly incongruous genres. The company's dungareed workhorse, Mario, had by that point starred in even more off-shoot games than he had platformers, running the gamut from puzzlers to racers, and he certainly wasn't the only one; the lovable puffball Kirby had a similar predilection for genre-hopping, appearing in his own interpretations of pinball, Breakout, and even minigolf, while the Pokemon series would go on to inspire a raft of its own off-shoot games following its explosive debut.
N64's Super Smash Bros., however, differed from other spin-offs in one significant way: it marked the first time these disparate characters appeared together in the same game. While its roster may seem quaint by today's standards, at the time it was a veritable all-star cast of Nintendo mascots. Mario, of course, featured prominently in advertisements and on the game's box, but now he shared the spotlight with Link, Pikachu, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and even a couple of relatively obscure characters like EarthBound's Ness and F-Zero's Captain Falcon, representing a cross-section of the company's biggest franchises.
Few other games at the time attempted to bring this many properties together under one banner, giving Super Smash Bros. the air of a blockbuster crossover event. However, it wasn't always envisioned as such. The game initially began life under the codename "Kakuto-Geemu Ryuoh," a side project that Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai and then-HAL programmer (and future Nintendo president), the late Satoru Iwata, collaborated on in their spare time. From its inception, Sakurai wanted the project to offer a different type of experience than other fighting games on the market, emphasizing four-player free-for-alls and easy-to-learn controls.
When it came time to replace the game's generic stand-in fighters with an actual cast, Sakurai asked to use characters from Nintendo's vast stable of mascots, but the idea was initially met with some reluctance. "Nowadays, we take it for granted, but at the time, people had reservations about mobilizing an all-star cast of characters," Iwata recalled during a 2008 interview with Sakurai. "I guess fans were upset by the prospect of pitting characters like Mario, Link, and Pikachu against one another. We had a hard time convincing them the fun and depth that were so obviously present in the Smash Bros. trademark fighting style."
Despite this hesitance, Sakurai's instincts proved to be correct, and Super Smash Bros. would go on to become one of the N64's best-selling releases thanks in large part to its star-studded roster. The diverse cast of fighters gave the game a crossover appeal that many of Nintendo's other spin-offs lacked. While Mario's sports outings inherently drew in those who were already fans of the plumber, Super Smash Bros. appealed to anyone who had ever played a Nintendo game, be it Zelda, Donkey Kong, or Pokemon. Moreover, it allowed for some hilarious, never-before-possible confrontations, further adding to the novelty. Here was an official Nintendo game in which players could shoot Pikachu in the face using a ray gun or smack Yoshi with a hammer and send him flying into the background.
It certainly helped that the title was easy to pick up and play as well. Sakurai's work as a game designer had long been characterized by its accessibility, and with Smash Bros., he applied that same sensibility to what was traditionally an inaccessible genre. Where most contemporary fighting games required players to memorize complex strings of inputs to pull off combos, Smash emphasized simplicity, tying each character's full repertoire of attacks to two buttons and directional tilts. This setup still afforded enough nuance for advanced play, but even those who had never proven to be particularly adept at fighting games were able to pick the title up and join the fray with relative ease. The stages on which these bouts were contested also contributed to the unpredictability, as each featured its own unique hazards that players needed to carefully navigate while fighting.
Super Smash Bros. would go on to sell more than five million copies worldwide. While it wasn't enough to reverse the N64's fortunes against Sony's insurgent PlayStation, it helped solidify the system's reputation as a party machine. More importantly, it laid the groundwork for even greater things to come. While the original game was a commercial success in its own right, the series wouldn't truly explode in popularity until its sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, arrived two years later on the freshly launched GameCube. And the franchise only continued to grow from there, each successive installment introducing more fighters, gameplay modes, music, and other content until each game became a spectacle unto itself.
All of these advances would eventually culminate in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Switch, which is far and away the largest installment in the series to date, dwarfing the original's humble 12-character roster with more than 70 playable fighters. Despite only launching this past December, Ultimate has already become the best-selling game in the franchise, moving more than 13 million copies in four months--a testament to the series' enduring appeal even two decades after its debut. While the original Super Smash Bros. may seem antiquated compared to the games that would follow, it'll always be remembered for kickstarting one of Nintendo's most beloved and lucrative franchises, and it wouldn't have been possible if two visionary designers hadn't worked on a weird little experiment in their spare time 20 years ago.
After years of development, Sony's next big exclusive, Days Gone, is finally here for PlayStation 4. We caught up with the game's composer, Nathan Whitehead, for a chat about the soundtrack to the post-apocalyptic world the Pacific Northwest. Whitehead previously composed the music for the Purge film series and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, among other things.
In our conversation, Whitehead discusses how he came to be attached to the project, the challenges (and opportunities) of working with an interactive medium like video games, the overall tone and inspiration for Days Gone's music, and the task of not repeating himself after working professionally in music for so many years. We also asked what kind of music Deacon St. John and his biker gang would probably listen to--his response is pretty great.
You can find our full interview with Whitehead below.
Q: Can you talk about the origins of music in your life and your inspirations? Where did it all begin and how did you cultivate it into the career you have today?
My parents constantly played music when I was growing up. We weren't a family of musicians but there was always music playing. Lots of The Beatles and folk/rock from the '60s. We even had this film score compilation cassette tape that we nearly wore out. I was eight or nine years old and had never seen old movies like Dr. Zhivago but I knew the music from that tape. I was fascinated by music as far back as I can remember and I was also very curious. I started by just picking out melodies I had heard on the piano in our living room. I remember loving the way music could make me feel and thinking, 'What if I could write my own music?' It felt like having a superpower. A huge part of the inspiration to become a composer was all those powerful experiences I had growing up listening to music, watching movies, playing games, etc. I migrated from piano to guitar and that eventually led to forming a band in high school.
We played mostly punk rock. Punk is great but I always felt the urge to try writing all these different kinds of music that didn't fit the band. One day it clicked that, as a composer, I could explore all these different genres of music and be a part of films and games and the sort of experiences that had been so special to me. It immediately felt like the perfect job and it still feels that way today. My career path was basically moving from Tennessee to L.A. and working my way up through assistant jobs. I always continued to write music for short films, student projects, anything I could get my hands on. For me, moving to L.A. was really helpful and I was fortunate during this time to have some great mentors like Steve Jablonsky. After several years helping out with programming and arranging for other composers, I started getting some small films on my own and never looked back.
Q: How did you come to be attached to Days Gone?
John Garvin, the creative director at Sony Bend Studio, heard a piece of music I wrote for The Purge: Anarchy that he liked. That led to some meetings with the Sony music team and eventually with John. I was extremely excited by the project from day one and I wrote a couple of ideas for John to check out. Things seemed to click and shortly thereafter I was invited to join the team!
Q: Video games are highly interactive, unlike TV and movies. What were some of the challenges with Days Gone as it relates to making music for the game when you're not necessarily sure how the player will be interacting with the world at any point?
Days Gone is this big, open world experience with a really powerful story. I think combining those two elements is one of the biggest challenges for the music. The story is usually served well by a score that's more linear but the big, dynamic world means there is even more unpredictability in what could be happening at any moment.
I really wanted the player to have this immersive experience and if there's a weird music transition, it can take them out of that experience. The Sony team were geniuses at designing the interactive implementation and that informed the way I wrote the score. Rather than simply fading music out, I wrote longer transition pieces that would feel more like a band vamping and ending organically. I also wrote a lot of layered pieces where individual tiers could be turned off or on by the game engine according to what's happening in-game and it can make those transitions on musical beats. Hopefully, this all results in the unpredictable gameplay feeling much more like it's being scored in a linear fashion, just on the fly.
Q: A lot of music, at least early on, is grimy and spooky--sort of like Alice in Chains-style guitars but darker in a way. Was this something intentional to represent the Pacific Northwest where the game is set and where grunge bands hail from?
I don't think we specifically mentioned grunge but the decision to incorporate guitars and other dark, grimy elements was very much informed by the Pacific Northwest setting. This mix of folk Americana and a touch of rock elements felt right for the place and also for the biker culture. I could see Deacon St. John listening to some classic Alice in Chains from time to time. These rougher textures in the score were also inspired by the way the world is now, two years after the apocalypse. Everything has lost its sheen and the music couldn't be too shiny and polished, either.
Q: What kind of overall tone and feel is the music for Days Gone trying to evoke?
There's a lot of opposing forces to juggle in Days Gone--hope and tragedy, beautiful nature and a world that will kill you, and Deacon's internal struggle with regrets and fears. My aim was for the music to possess some of the determination and grit we see in Deacon and to also feel a little introspective. And that all needed to be believable in the biker culture Deacon is a part of.
Q: You worked on Days Gone for two years, I think I heard; what was the process like? Is it creatively challenging or freeing to have so much time to work on a project, as compared to TV or movies where you have quicker turnarounds and deadlines?
A little over two years! I found it really creatively freeing to have so much time. I loved being able to really focus on our musical vocabulary and keep iterating until the identity of the score felt right. That is hard to do on any project and you never get that much time on quick TV turnarounds. It's rare with movies. We talked a lot about the various pillars of the score--the various thematic or conceptual elements that help tell the story the music needed to tell. I think of this as musical world-building and I loved having so much time to focus on this phase.
Nathan Whitehead / Photo credit: Leah Murphy
Q: Can you talk about the creative process of working with a game studio and their own music/audio director; how much back and forth was there?
One of the best things about scoring Days Gone was the amazing team I got to work with. I spoke regularly with Sony music producers Pete Scaturro and Keith Leary and also met with John Garvin as much as possible. There was a lot of back and forth and I loved that. I would write some music and we would talk about what worked and what didn't and new ideas would always arise from those meetings. John was great at immediately articulating his gut response to the music and he spoke in emotional terms.
To me, that is the most effective way to navigate this process – just discuss how the music makes us feel or talk about how we want to feel. A big part of the collaboration was also the tremendous support for my composing process. The team at Sony was phenomenal at managing all the details and logistics of music for a AAA game while also creating space for me to simply focus on writing music. It's a wonderful spot to be in as a composer and I'm so grateful for the collaboration.
Q: I think some of the best work oftentimes goes unnoticed or underappreciated, and this could apply to music. How do you feel about that, if it's even true?
I think that is true sometimes. What really excites me is storytelling and connecting with people through storytelling. Music has such special powers to do both of these things and a truly great score might be easier to overlook because the player is so engrossed in the game. That's a huge success in my opinion. I would rather someone be moved by experiencing Days Gone and not remember the music than have them disengage from the story but like the soundtrack.
Q: You have written so much music over the years, for video games, TV, movies, and more; how do you go about not repeating yourself?
I only really know if I'm on the right path if the music I'm writing makes me feel something. That goes a long way to helping me avoid repeating myself because the musical approach I took on one score will almost never feel good to me on another project. But if I feel stuck in a rut one thing that can help is to force some limitations on the project. If I chose to only use a string quartet and an analog synth on a score, it forces me into territory I might not have been before and makes it difficult to repeat past work. That obviously has to be right for the project at hand but that can be a great way to craft a unique sound.
Q: Kind of a weird one, but what kind of music do you think Deacon's biker gang likes?
Well, I think you nailed it earlier with the grunge connection. Alice in Chains and bikers go well together or hard-hitting Tom Morello stuff like Prophets of Rage. But Deacon is also a thinker and not simply an aggro biker. I could see him listening to Bon Iver or The National on occasion, too.
Q: Anything else you want to share about the music for Days Gone?
I've quickly learned how passionate and invested the game community is and I just want to say thank you to all the gamers out there for the excitement and anticipation they have already shown for Days Gone and for the music. It's been such a challenging and rewarding project and I'm so excited to share it with everyone.
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