Smash Remix is a massive mod bringing tons of new characters, stages, and features to Super Smash Bros. on N64, and the 13-minute trailer for its latest update has me absolutely mesmerized.
The project has been in development for years, and had its 1.0 launch way back in 2021. Since then, the community behind Smash Remix has slowly been adding more and more new characters and features, bringing beloved elements from later Smash games and a bunch of wholly original material to the N64 game.
Version 1.5.0 launched earlier this month with some cult classic characters, including the duo of Banjo-Kazooie and Ebisumaru from Konami's long-dormant Goemon series. There are a bunch of new stages, too, like the Poke Floats level from Melee - which I'm frankly astounded they managed to get up and running on N64. They've even gone and made Dragon King playable, in tribute to the original Smash Bros. prototype back when Nintendo refused to allow its iconic characters into a fighting game.
I'd have been blown away just by the feature list here, but the trailer for the new release is positively astounding. It features character reveals in the style of modern Smash, with custom cinematics and animations to introduce each fighter. I'm not sure I will ever recover from seeing blocky N64 Samus jammin' on the fiddle for the Banjo-Kazooie theme.
There are a lot of very cool homebrew projects for retro consoles, but Smash Remix really goes above and beyond. From the mod itself to the community-led marketing for it, you can feel the love the developers have poured in. Heck, that trailer even features an N64 remix of Happy Together by The Turtles in honor of Nintendo's bizarre commercial for the original game. That's the kind of deep cut I can appreciate.
All the best N64 games could use such a treatment.
