After 25 years since the release of Nintendo's beloved crossover fighting game, we now have the official lore behind the naming of Super Smash Bros., thanks to its creator, Masahiro Sakurai.

Masahiro Sakurai Explains Why It's Called Smash Bros

Super Smash Bros. is a legendary fighting game that brings together a diverse cast of characters from Nintendo's vast universe of iconic games. Despite the name suggesting a familial connection, only a few characters in the roster are actually siblings, and not all are male. So, what's the story behind the "Super Smash Bros." title? While Nintendo has kept the official lore under wraps for years, Masahiro Sakurai recently shed light on the origin in his YouTube series.

In one of his episodes, Sakurai revealed that the name "Smash Bros" stems from the concept of "friends who were settling little disagreements." The late Satoru Iwata, former president of Nintendo, played a significant role in shaping the game's title, as per Sakurai's account.

"Mr. Iwata also had a part in coming up with the name Super Smash Bros. We had team members suggest a bunch of possible names and words we might use," Sakurai explained in his video. They then convened a meeting with Shigesato Itoi, the creator of the Mother/Earthbound series, to finalize the title. Sakurai further elaborated, "Mr. Iwata is the one who picked out the 'brothers' part. His reasoning was that, even though the characters weren't brothers at all, using the word added the nuance that they weren't simply fighting—they were friends who were settling a little disagreement!"

Beyond the lore of Smash Bros., Sakurai also shared personal anecdotes about his first meeting with Iwata and other cherished memories. Notably, Iwata personally contributed to the programming of the Super Smash Bros. prototype, initially known as Dragon King: The Fighting Game, for the Nintendo 64.