Dragon King

Dragon King: The Fighting Game Before Super Smash Bros. (N64)
Dragon King was an early Nintendo 64 prototype fighting game developed in 1998 by HAL Laboratory under the direction of Masahiro Sakurai. It featured a simple, damage-percentage-based combat system but originally used generic, non-Nintendo characters.

Key points:

  • Focused on easy-to-learn controls rather than complex inputs

  • Introduced the core percentage damage system that carried over to Smash Bros.

  • Lacked items, stages, and Nintendo IP at first

  • Sakurai later proposed adding Nintendo characters to make the game more appealing

This prototype evolved directly into Super Smash Bros. (1999) for Nintendo 64, becoming the foundation of the entire Smash franchise.

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