Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U are fighting video games developed by Sora Ltd. and Bandai Namco Games, with assistance from tri-Crescendo, and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U game consoles. Despite being similarly titled games, even with almost similar content, the two titles are officially considered the fourth and fifth installments, respectively, in the Super Smash Bros. series of games by creator and game director Masahiro Sakurai.
Like the rest of the series, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U are non-traditional fighting games where players use different attacks to weaken their opponents and knock them out of an arena. The games are crossover titles that feature characters, items, music, and stages from various Nintendo franchises, including Mario, Donkey Kong, Pokémon, Fire Emblem, Kirby, Metroid, Star Fox, The Legend of Zelda, Kid Icarus, and Animal Crossing, as well as from several third-party franchises, including Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog and Bayonetta, Capcom's Mega Man and Street Fighter, Bandai Namco's Pac-Man, and Square-Enix's Final Fantasy. New features include having up to eight players fighting at a time on the Wii U, support for Amiibo, using Miis as fighters, post-release downloadable content including new fighters and stages, and customizable special moves unlockable for every non-DLC character. Some features from previous games in the series were removed, such as the story mode in Brawl.
A sequel to Brawl was announced at E3 2011, but development did not begin until 2012 and the game's official unveiling did not come until E3 2013. The gameplay was designed to be somewhere between that of the faster, more competition-oriented Melee and the slower, more casual-friendly Brawl. The 3DS version was released in Japan in September 2014, and in North America, Europe, and Australia in October 2014. The Wii U version was released in North America, Europe, and Australia in November 2014, and in Japan in December 2014.
Critics applauded the fine-tuning of existing Super Smash Bros. gameplay elements, but criticized some issues with online play. Both versions sold well, with the 3DS version selling over 7.92 million copies worldwide by December 2015, and the Wii U version selling over 4.61 million copies during the same period of time.
