2/25/2008 - FINAL SMASH

Undoubtedly, one of the things that made Street Fighter II so great was the special moves each character had. These were powerful moves that were a signature for each character and were almost magical in nature. Truthfully, the original Street Fighter did have special moves for Ryu and Ken like the Hadoken and Shoryuken, but they were so incredibly hard to pull off that it seemed like an accident when you actually were able to perform it. In Street Fighter II, however, the programmers made the joystick motions for the special moves so forgiving that they were easily repeatable... but you had to know what the motions were in the first place. And that was what made SF2 such a social game... when you saw a special move being done, you would just go and ask the player how he or she did it. That is, if he or she was willing to. Remember that it is a competitive game, after all.

Perhaps inspired by the progression of all the other fighting games with their special moves and in some cases, fatality moves (a special finishing move at the end of a match where your defeated opponent would be at your mercy to be killed creatively and often violently), Capcom upped the ante in Super Street Fighter II Turbo by introducing the "Super" move. Think of it as an even more powerful version of a special move that can be used as an act of desperation or as a cool finishing move. A Super move could only be used when your "Super meter" filled up by doing regular special moves or by attempting to hit your opponent. Of course, the other fighting game publishers *cough*SNK*cough* would follow Capcom's lead and "introduce" Supers in their fighting games. Supers became a staple of these games and got kind of crazy with multiple-level Super meters and combos that hit in the dozens with the Marvel vs. Capcom series.

Despite Super Smash Bros. coming out years after the Capcom games, they did not really have Super moves... that is, until Super Smash Bros. Brawl next month. Of course, the Smash Bros. series does things a little different and in this case there won't be a Super meter. Instead, there will be an item called a Smash Ball that will appear randomly which you have to hit to activate and then collect. Your character will then be able to do a Super, or the Final Smash, as it is called. Spoilers ahead, as this video reveals the Final Smashes of every character: