It’s natural forSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate,akathe best-selling fighting game of all time,to finally welcome the blocky poster boy for the best-selling video game ever,Minecraft’sSteve, to its enormous roster of fighters. Both franchises revolutionized gaming in their own way; Masahiro Sakurai’sSmash Bros.invented the platform fighter back 1999; whileMinecraftpretty much crafted its own thing when it started to make waves back in 2010.
Given both games' massive cultural impact, it’s also no wonder they each have popular documentaries that are not only big within their communities, but even hold up well in the eyes of all gamers. Funnily enough, both films started production around the same time in 2011, premiering less than one year apart from each other, though that’s where the similarities end as they take very different approaches to telling each game’s story.
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As its title suggests,Minecraft: The Story of Mojangmainly sets its gaze on the developers behind the game, the journey from a one-man indie operation to the worldwide phenomenon that made its way onto every device with a display feature. On the other hand,The Smash Brothersdocumentary, just like the competitive scene it showcases, is forced to play things a bit differently by instead focusing on the players behind the game, due to it lacking official company support from Nintendo.
UnlikeMinecraft,Super Smash Bros.was conceived with a very specific purpose in mind: a fighting game that absolutely anyone could pick up with instantly. It’s just a bunch of Nintendo’s lovable characters beating each other up, all fun and no complicated buttons. As seen in the documentary, that changed asSuper Smash Bros. Meleeopened up a new world of possibilities thanks to a wide repertory of advanced techniques still being discovered today.
WhileThe Smash Brothersis completely centered around the franchise’s second entry, spanning from 2004 to 2013, the birth of its competitive scene spread quickly ontoSmash 64and every subsequent sequel since, up until the current titleSuper Smash Bros. Ultimatewhichlast year was EVO’s biggest record-setting event. EvenMelee, set to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2021, is still a relevant competitive game, an almost unheard of feat in the world of e-sports.
And then there’sMinecraft, shown being built from scratch to be the ultimate sandbox experience, offering an almost infinite world with endless possibilities. Since its official release in 2011, players have built elaborate pieces likefunctioning music boxes, computers or entireMinecraftcities, with the game even finding its way inside classrooms for educational purposes.
DespiteMinecrafteffectively becoming a Microsoft property in 2014 with Mojang’s acquisition putting them under the Xbox Game Studios branch,the title’s indie roots and creative spiritkeep it free from the constraints that many games can only break from with the help of mods and other workarounds.
That independent spirit is echoed throughout nine episodesThe Smash Brothers,as it illustrates just how far gamers are willing to go in an effort to break those shackles, going from basement tournaments all the way to a fundraiser backed EVO 2013 bid, where Nintendo unsuccessfully tried to blockMeleefrom being streamed.
As Masahiro Sakurai puts it,Smash Bros.was meant to be a fun party game, not a competitive fighter likeStreet FighterorMortal Kombat. The developer goes as far as outright refusing to callSmasha fighting game and removing mechanics highlighted in the film asMelee’s appeal from its next entry, a move that only made the competitive scene stronger and to which the documentary probably its owes existence to.
The Story of Mojangdelves into the creative process of a game that lacks any hard-set rules as there is no proper way to playMinecraft, whether it’d be only embracing its initial survival free-roaming aspect, or byjumping in the kind of block-made rabbitholethat makes people work on their worlds for years.
The Smash Brothersis testament to the same premise that there is no right way to play a game, other than what its community decides to do with it. There is no other franchise likeSmash, because there is no party modeStreet Fighteror competitiveMario Party.It’s a unique game in the sense that two decades since its debut everyone can have fun with it, be it in 4 player free-for-all or no items competitive settings.
The stark contrast betweenMinecraft’srelaxing laid back musicandThe Smash Brothers’electronic intro, loud cheers and crowds suggests the two share nothing in common, yet it’s quite the contrary. Both community-made documentaries are among gaming’s finest and they emphasize the only thing that can keep a game going and growing for more than decade is a willingness to implement fresh ideas and a dedicated player base capable of expanding them well beyond what their developers could have imagined.
The Smash BrothersandMinecraft: The Story of Mojangare both available on YouTube.
Steve will be available as DLCforSuper Smash Bros. Ultimateon October 13.
