Super Smash Keyboards (1992 video game)


 * This article is about the first Super Smash Keyboards game. For the franchise as a whole, see Super Smash Keyboards.

Super Smash Keyboards (大乱闘スマッシュキーボード) is a 1992 fighting game developed by Drillimation Studios and published by Namco. It is the first installment in the Super Smash Keyboards series.

Originally started off as the fourth game in the Angry German Kid series, the game focuses on the young hacker Leopold Slikk who must save Earth from Keel Sark, with their confrontation ending the tournament known as Super Smash Keyboards. It introduced many of the series' aspects, such as a simplified control scheme that would later be used in the spin-off series Super Smash Bros., and bloody finishing moves.

The game received critical acclaim upon release and became a best-seller, being ported to almost every home console and computer. The game remains one of the most important games in the history of fighting games, spawning numerous sequels and spin-offs, starting with Super Smash Keyboards 2 in 1994, and an Academy Award-winning anime film Super Smash Keyboards: Rising of the Advent God Fist in 1995. However, it generated controversy in North America for its depiction of blood using The Drillimation Series as the norm, resulting in the founding of the Entertainment Software Rating Board.

Gameplay
Super Smash Keyboards is a fighting game where players compete in one-on-one matches. Players punch, kick, and use a series of magical and supernatural attacks to drain their opponent's health, and the first to drain it completely wins the round, and the player must win two out of three rounds to win a match. Each round is timed, and if time runs out when both fighters still have health, the fighter with more health wins.

The game uses a simplified fighting system, with one button mainly using physical moves while special moves uses another. This is the first fighting game to use a block button

In the single-player mode, the player faces all eight playable characters, including their own at the end before they face Eguri Hatakeyama and Keel Sark at the end. Between every three matches, there is a minigame break, with the first one testing the player if they can break ten targets within 90 seconds, the second being boarding a series of platforms in order, and the last being the player to see if they can race to the finish within 90 seconds.

Behind the Scenes

 * Because of the game's violent nature, this is the first Drillimation game to to be rated Teen by the ESRB.