Prologue: Press Start

An imaginative youth sits at his bedroom desk, attempting to focus on his homework. Yet the words on the page seem to blur before his eyes as his mind wanders to more entertaining activities he could be doing. At last he pushes the book away and settles heavily into his chair. He's too bored to be doing something like this. Perhaps if he played a few minutes on his video game console, he'd be able to get into a better work mood. But that idea is struck down by his mother's stern instruction: "You are not going to play a minute of Nintendo until you finish your school work, young man."

Perhaps there is something else he could do? He gets up from his seat and makes his way over to his toy chest to search out anything diverting within it. Upon opening the lid, his eyes fall upon his action figures and dolls. Everything from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Chuck Norris can be found in this extensive collection. Surly there would be some game that could be invented with these. But what?

As the young man's thoughts begin to stir, his eyes fall upon two of his figurines: Mario and Kirby, two well known Nintendo characters. Lifting them from the chest, a funny thought crosses the boy's mind: wouldn't it be fun to see these two duke it out? As this thought sinks in, it ignites a string of other questions: Which of these is more powerful? Would Mario's jumps and fireballs be enough to overcome Kirby's flight and copy abilities? What would Kirby look like if he swallowed and mimicked the red-caped plumber? On and on, the youth's imagination wanders until it arrives at the thought train's clear conclusion: Why not find out?

The boy dives back into the toy box and begins to pull out each and every Nintendo character he has. Soon a sizable pile of dolls lay on the desk. Now that the contenders are present, they need a stage to fight it out on, the boy reasons. Clearing away his school materials, he begins to rearrange the books and tools on the desk top into a considerable battle field. He dashes over to his nearby stereo and pops in a disk containing his favorite Nintendo theme songs; fuel on the fire of creativity and brimming with fighting spirit.

By this time, a clear plan of action had formed in the lad's head. He would hold a tournament of sorts for these characters. Starting with two contestants, he would progress through the ranks of fighters to see who was the greatest in the world of Nintendo. With a snap of his fingers, the boy's room fades away, leaving only the stage of his imagination before him. And on that stage would now be played out some the greatest battles of all time. This was no longer the dismal Wasteland of Homework. This was the world of the Super Smash Brothers!