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The History of Mr Game and Watch
Back in the very first post in the Game Lounge we looked at Dopefish, the character who has appeared in a huge number of games! I only went through his first 10 years so you can bet we're coming back to Dopefish one day but what about a character on the polar opposite? A character that has only really appeared in 3 games (5 if you count an easter egg as an appearance) but embodies lots of games into one avatar. The only character that comes to my mind is Super Smash Bros' Mr Game and Watch! Let's take a dive into the days before the NES and Gameboy, before Donkey Kong to Nintendo of 1980.
In 1980 Nintendo launched a series of games on consoles known as Game and Watch consoles. Each console had its own game and many titles were released on this platform all the way until 1991. From this console came the controller staple of the D-pad which is still used on current console controllers such as the PS4 and Xbox One! These systems also cemented the handheld market in the gaming industry with Nintendo at the forefront with very little competition until the SEGA Game Gear and Atari Lynx. The system was even an alarm clock! This also made Nintendo a household name after a few failed arcade games and their own Pong consoles (I promise we will get there and I know I promised this back when we talked about the Magnavox Odyssey!), these games were extremely popular so it only seems fair that this chapter in Nintendo's history should make it in to Nintendo's huge series of Super Smash Bros! In 2001 with the launch of the GameCube Nintendo released the second game in the Smash Bros series: Super Smash Bros Melee and with that came the creation of Mr Game and Watch. With all of that history which games in the Game and Watch series does he represent with his Smash Bros moveset?
His standard attack is from the title Green House.
His dash attack comes from the title Helmet.
His strong side attack comes from the title Lion.
His strong down attack comes from the title Manhole.
His strong up attack comes from the title Flagman.
His side smash attack is from the title Fire Attack.
His down smash attack comes from the title Vermin.
His up smash attack comes from the Octopus.
In Melee his standard aerial comes from the title Parachute whereas in Super Smash Bros Brawl it comes from the title Tropical Fish.
His forward aerial comes from Mario Bros.
His back aerial is from the title Turtle Bridge.
His down aerial comes from the title Donkey Kong Jr.
His up aerial comes from the title Spitball Sparky.
His standard special comes from the title Chef.
His side special comes from the title Judge.
His down special is from the title Oil Panic.
His up special is from the titles Fire and in Super Smash Bros Brawl Parachute.
His final Smash comes from the title Octopus.
His floor attack is from the title Vermin.
His trip attack is also from the title Vermin.
His Ledge Recovery, Grab and Throw and Taunt resembles the alarm from Game and Watch titles that functioned as alarms.
Another Grab and Throw comes from the title Ball.
That's a lot of titles this character covers! However, he plays a vital role in the story mode known as the Subspace Emissary in Super Smash Bros Brawl as it is revealed that his body can produce Shadow Bugs. When the antagonist of the game Tabuu discovers this he used the Shadow Bugs to then make clones of Mr Game and Watch and placed these clones on the Battlestation Halberd. Let's go back for a second, Mr Game and Watch can produce Shadow Bugs and then the Shadow Bugs can make further clones of Mr Game and Watch? Ok then, let's move on now that's cleared up (it's still confusing!) as we discover that mr Game and Watch holds no concept of good or evil, he can't see his part in Tabuu's army as a bad thing. After meta Knight and Snake regain control of the Halberd a Mr Game and Watch trophy is left behind and Fox tries to shoot it and destroy it. Peach stops him and brings him back to life (by touching the statue, the mechanic in the story mode) and he happily joins their team to fight Tabuu and the Subspace army, and the Shadow Bugs he made...
Mr Game and Watch has been in enough titles to rival that of Dopefish and mario! However, he represents a chapter of Nintendo's history and really that of video games. If the Game and Watch series never launched would we have the iconic D-Pad? A small detail which doesn't really effect the actual games we use the D-Pad to play but just look at almost any controller since (and before you think of the iconic Atari 2600 controller that was released before the first Game and Watch title in 1980) and it still being there today! In a way, Mr Game and Watch represents one of the most important times in Nintendo and video game history in both the home console and handheld markets.
