Franchise: Super Smash Bros.

The platform fighter genre has typically been thought of as having originated with the Super Smash Bros. franchise, to the point where it is common for the genre to be called "Smash Clones". However, while Smash did introduce almost all of the defining mechanics to the subgenre, such as ring-out based KOs, wavedashing, and the 3/4-way-input special move system, there are at least two titles that predate Nintendo's crossover and attempted to merge platforming with fighting gameplay - the multiplayer mode within 1991's Captain America and the Avengers for NES, and 1995's arcade title The Outfoxies. Both titles had characters with limited movepools compared to the style Smash would popularize and were lifebar-based. The Outfoxies also included damaging stage hazards and items, two mechanics popular within Smash but scantly used in other platform fighters.

Also of mention is Savage Reign, a traditional fighting game from 1995 featuring a platform gimmick, though this game has far less in common with platform fighters than The Outfoxies or Captain America, simply serving as a traditional fighting game with two planes to stand on as opposed to mobility-based platforming.

It is not known if anyone who worked on Super Smash Bros. was aware of or consciously took inspiration from these 3 games.

According to series creator Masahiro Sakurai in a 2024 video, ideas for the series' name were first brainstormed by team members at HAL Laboratory, while the "Bros." part of the name was picked out by its president Satoru Iwata during a meeting with him, Sakurai, and Ape Inc. founder Shigesato Itoi. Iwata's reasoning for adding Bros. to the title was that despite the game's roster not all being "brothers", he believed the word added the nuance that they were "friends who were settling a little disagreement" instead of just simply fighting.

In an interview with Miketendo64, Nihon Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo stated that if Nintendo ever decided to ask the company to use one of its characters in Super Smash Bros., he would most like to see Adol Christin from the Ys series. His reasoning was that unlike many other characters created by the company, Adol has been the main character of several games and has been around for a long time. He also noted how unlike The Legend of Heroes: Trails series where the protagonist changes every arc (i.e. Van Arkride being the main character of the Calvard arc started in The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak), Adol has had a consistent presence in his series, thus making him more recognizable as a character.