Countdown to Smashpoint, known as Countdown to Final Wars (カウントダウン・トゥ・ファイナル・ウォーズ Kauntodaun Tu Fainaru Wōzu) in Japan, is a series of games headed by Nintendo with a collaboration of Japan's top gaming publishers such as Capcom, Sega, Square-Enix, Konami and Bandai-Namco and designed for the Japanese game industry as a whole to compete with Western gaming and revitalize the declining popularity of console gaming into the world market. The series is composed of twenty-four games released from 2019 to 2022. As the name states, the games within the series are buildup prequels to Super Smash Bros. Smashpoint.
With extensive marketing and advertising, the series was an extensive success, with all the games receiving critical acclaim and selling a grand total of $2.1 billion worldwide.
Development[]
On May 30, 2018, Tatsumi Kimishima, the CEO of Nintendo, said in an interview that he felt that "the Western gaming industry is becoming more popular worldwide than Japanese gaming". He also expressed his concerns on the "decline of console gaming" in favor of the ever-growing popularity of mobile gaming and the "losings of the Japanese game market to American sources: a major turnaround since the 1983 video game crash". Also, surveys showed that as of the start of summer 2018, Western companies like Rockstar, NetherRealms, Bethesda and Ubisoft were making better and higher-quality games than Japanese-made games.
On December 21, 2018, the creator of the Super Smash Bros. series, Masahiro Sakurai, announced a plan to create a crossover series of games that would tie in and "counting down" to a new Super Smash Bros. game which started development by the end of Q1 2020, months after the release of Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo Switch, and is scheduled for a worldwide release in late 2022 to "celebrate the 50 years of the video game industry that began in 1972". In February 2019, the plan was officially entitled in Japan as Countdown to Final Wars, confirming that "Final Wars" will be the title of the new Super Smash Bros. entry. Nintendo of America changed the title to Smashpoint for a Western release.
In an effort to compete with the Western game industry as a whole and bring back the popularity of console gaming, the company signed a multi-partnership deal with various Japanese gaming companies such as Capcom, Square-Enix, Sega and Bandai-Namco to create twenty-four new games together with twelve of them to be made by Nintendo and the other half distributed by other companies; all of which are to be released apart of each other for a month at most in the span of two years leading up to Super Smash Bros. Smashpoint. Sakurai stated that all the entries will be canon to their respective series and in-continuity with each other and the upcoming Super Smash Bros. game.
On Q2 2021, an announcement in a game conference in New York was made in public that shortly after the release of Smashpoint, Nintendo will reboot all of its franchises in a massive relaunch event in the following year.
Games[]
Countdown to Smashpoint is composed of 24 titles, all of which are released in Nintendo consoles. Entries developed only by Nintendo, as well as Switch/3DS versions of multi-platform games, have exclusive cover layouts and a special title: "Countdown to Smashpoint".
No. | Title | Release Date(s) | Console(s) | Developer(s) | Publisher(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
24 | Mario Party 11 | March 15, 2019 | Switch | Nintendo | Nintendo |
23 | Metroid: Identity Crisis | May 13, 2019 | Switch | Nintendo | Nintendo |
22 | Kirby's Paradise Island | July 12, 2019 | 3DS | Nintendo | Nintendo |
22 | Resident Evil: Downfall | September 17, 2019 | PS4, XB1, Switch | Capcom | Capcom |
20 | The Legend of Zelda: New Light | October 30, 2019 | Switch | Nintendo | Nintendo |
19 | Sonic: Dark Masters | December 25, 2019 | PS4, XB1, PC, Switch | Sega | Sega |
18 | Kid Icarus: Tower of Babel | February 7, 2020 | Switch | Nintendo
Nintendo |
Nintendo |
17 | Fire Emblem: Ultimatum | April 12, 2020 | Switch | Nintendo | Nintendo |
16 | Nintendo & Sega at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games | June 15, 2020 | Switch, 3DS | Nintendo, Sega | Nintendo |
15 | Super Mario: Mushroom Kingdom Origins | September 30, 2020 | Switch | Nintendo | Nintendo |
14 | Tekken x Street Fighter | October 20, 2020 | PS4, Switch | Bandai-Namco, Capcom | Bandai-Namco |
13 | Capcom vs. SNK 3: The End of a Millenium | December 12, 2020 | PS4, PSV, XB1, PC, Switch | Capcom, SNK | Capcom |
12 | Mega Man Legends 3 | January 7, 2021 | Switch, 3DS | Capcom | Capcom |
11 | The Past, Present and Future: A Kingdom Hearts Story | February 29, 2021 | PS4, Switch | Square-Enix | Square-Enix |
10 | Star Fox: Collision Course | April 29, 2021 | Switch, 3DS | Nintendo | Nintendo |
09 | Darkstalkers: Rain of Blood | July 8, 2021 | PS4, PSV, XB1, PC, Switch | Capcom | Capcom |
08 | Pokémon: Arena Battle | September 28, 2021 | Switch | Nintendo | Nintendo |
07 | Sega vs. Capcom | November 12, 2021 | PS4, PSV, XB1, PC, Switch | Capcom, Sega | Capcom |
06 | Mario Kart/F-Zero | January 12, 2022 | Switch, 3DS | Nintendo | Nintendo |
05 | Final Fantasy Versus | March 27, 2022 | PS4, PSV, XB1, PC, Switch | Square-Enix | Square-Enix |
04 | Bayonetta 3 | May 5, 2022 | PS4, XB1, Switch | Sega, Nintendo | Nintendo |
03 | Super Mario Galaxy 3 | June 30, 2022 | Switch | Nintendo | Nintendo |
02 | Metal Gear Solid VI: Insurrection | July 25, 2022 | PS4, XB1, PC, Switch | Konami | Konami |
01 | Smashpoint Prologue: Earth-Prime | August 30, 2022 | Switch, 3DS | Bandai-Namco, Nintendo | Nintendo |
Gallery[]
NOTE: This gallery is incomplete.