Twitch Plays Smash is Every Bit as Wild as you Think

Yep, it’s one of these again.

Twitch Plays Pokemon was genius.  Absolutely brilliant!  I didn’t ever participate because the brilliance was sandwiched between hours of tedious boredom, but the theory behind it and the mythology the players built around their avatar and the pokemon they used was equal parts fascinating and heartwarming.  It was a joy just knowing Twitch Plays Pokemon was a thing, a giant collaborative fanfiction where people loved and loathed even as their avatar slammed his or her face repeatedly into the walls of their bedroom.

So of course people started ripping off the formula immediately.  Other “Twitch Plays Pokemon” channels were started, Twich Plays Minecraft, FISH plays Pokémon (that one was interesting) and it’s beloved sequel “Fish play Street Fighter”… it was all in good fun but it never really had that charm of the original, and even the original channel started to fade in relevance.  It’s fans were as dedicated as ever, but it wasn’t ‘front page news’ anymore . 

But still, it’s a big channel, and when it pulls stuff like this, I think it’s worth noting.

While between Pokemon games, it’s not uncommon for the Lets Play Twitch channel to try something new.  This time, however, things have been taken up a giant notch, because as you read this a giant game of the new 3DS Super Smash Brothers is being played, and let me tell you: it’s every bit as crazy as you might think.    

The game was started fresh, so the Twitch players had to work together to unlock some of the characters.  It took hours to get something as simple as Jigglypuff, but since then they’ve had better luck unlocking other secret characters.  Probably the best thing in the stream is when they play full 4-player games, with different chatters controlling different characters.  It’s about as awkward as playing drunk, and every bit as hilarious.

Check out the stream here, if you have nothing better to do with your day.