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Ever since Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl was revealed, fans have labeled the game as a Smash Bros. killer. At first, there were some who really believed this to be the case, but since the game launched, almost everyone uses the ‘Smash Killer’ phrase ironically. The team behind the game is well aware of the phrase, and one developer is asking that fans cool it a bit.

Programmer Thaddeus Crews has taken to Twitter in a plea to ask fans to stop with the Smash Killer meme, as it has some negative real-world implications. You can see his entire message below.

Some videos/comments/etc are doing the “Smash killer” shtick again. I’d really rather you not. I’d really, REALLY prefer any other joke or punching bag or whatever that doesn’t have the kind of proven track-record of instigating conflict as a result of this branding.

I can’t stop anyone from making those jokes & I’m not personally bothered by them. It’s clearly all in good fun by the overwhelming majority of people & is “clickbaity” to a absurd degree; I get that, and in a vacuum it’s absolutely hilarious. But ramifications aren’t in a vacuum.

There’s no real way to not come off as a buzzkill in addressing this, but the image this kind of message creates has been so thoroughly harmful to a degree that I can’t just sit back and watch it happen again. I strongly encourage finding hyperbolic absurdist statements elsewhere.

[Programmer Thaddeus Crews]

As we all know, anytime you ask the internet to stop doing something, some people just do it more. Let’s hope that’s not the case here, but I certainly don’t have high hopes.

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Comments (4)

hawk

2y ago

When you make a game THAT much like Smash Bros., it's bound to invite comparisons.


bakfug

2y ago

Not that I believe this game had a chance of long term success, but people memeing in this way is absolutely killing the game faster than need be instead of giving it meaningful exposure, whether intentionally or not.

While I'm sure someone, even here possibly, might take offense, Nintendo fans online tend to be in way too deep and respond too emotionally. So when a game is even remotely similar to something from Nintendo, they will get extremely defensive and attempt to discredit said game.

Now are people doing it intentionally? I dunno. The Smash community is notoriously easy to troll, so I imagine at least a good chunk is solely to make them mad. While I do believe some people actually believe "Smash killer" or are genuinely interested in the game and put clickbait titles as a misguided way to garner interest, I am pretty sure they are the minority.

Either way, people will never stop saying it until the game is dead for whatever the reason is they've landed on.


streex

2y ago

The real Smash Killer is Shaq-Fu.


nekotaku

2y ago

Anyone who really thought it could possibly be is amazingly ignorant...