Honestly, if you spent any time on FanFiction.net or Archive of Our Own (AO3) in the late 2000s, you probably bumped into a story about Mario and Link fighting a cosmic horror. Or maybe they were just having tea. That's the thing about Smash Bros fan fiction. It is essentially the "Everything Bagel" of the writing world.
When Masahiro Sakurai first decided to toss Nintendo’s icons into a blender back in 1999, he didn't just create a platform fighter. He accidentally handed the keys to the kingdom to thousands of writers who had very specific ideas about what happens when the cameras stop rolling.
Most people think of fanfic as just "shipping" or weird romance. While there’s plenty of that—seriously, some people are very committed to the idea of Samus and Little Mac—the scene is actually much weirder and more ambitious than that. We are talking about 500,000-word epics that attempt to explain the metaphysical nature of the Trophy World. It’s a massive, sprawling subculture that has outlasted almost every other gaming fandom of its era.
The Subspace Emissary Changed Everything
Before Super Smash Bros. Brawl dropped in 2008, fan stories were mostly "one-shots." Short. Sweet. Usually just a fight scene. But then the Subspace Emissary happened.
Nintendo gave us a silent, cinematic campaign that proved these characters could exist in the same space with a cohesive (if confusing) plot. It was like pouring gasoline on a fire. Suddenly, writers weren't just making up scenarios; they were trying to outdo Nintendo’s own storytelling.
Take The Subspace Emissary's Worlds Conquest. It’s a legendary—and somewhat infamous—entry in the world of Smash Bros fan fiction. Written by an author known as AuraChannelerChris, it once held the Guinness World Record for the longest work of fiction in the English language. It’s over four million words long. To put that in perspective, the entire Harry Potter series is about one million words.
This isn't just a hobby for some people. It's a marathon. The community saw that Nintendo could bridge these worlds, and they decided to take it ten steps further. They started building complex hierarchies, power-scaling systems, and deep psychological trauma for characters who, in their original games, mostly just jump on mushrooms or eat ghosts.
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Why People Keep Writing About a Fighting Game
You’d think a game with no real dialogue would be hard to write for. Wrong. It’s actually the opposite.
Because Link doesn't say much and Kirby is just a hungry pink orb, writers have a "blank slate" effect. You can project almost any personality onto them. In the world of Smash Bros fan fiction, Captain Falcon is often portrayed as a boisterous, over-the-top hero or a deeply lonely retired racer. There is no middle ground.
- The Found Family Trope: This is huge. People love the idea of these disparate heroes living in a giant mansion together. It’s basically The Real World, but with Pikachu and Solid Snake.
- The Power Dynamics: How does a goddess like Palutena interact with a regular guy like Duck Hunt Dog? Writers love exploring that friction.
- The Grief Factor: Many stories focus on the "Trophy" lore. The idea that these characters are just dolls being played with by a Master Hand is inherently dark. Writers lean into that existential dread.
It's about the "what if." What if Snake had to teach Isabelle how to use a rocket launcher? What if Sonic and Mario actually sat down and talked about their rivalry? These are the questions that drive the hits on AO3.
The "Smash Mansion" Obsession
If you look up Smash Bros fan fiction right now, you’re going to see the "Mansion" mentioned everywhere. It’s the unofficial setting for 80% of the stories out there.
There is no mansion in the games. Not really. But the fans collectively decided that all 80+ fighters live in a giant, chaotic dormitory. This setting allows for "slice of life" stories. It turns a violent fighting game into a sitcom.
You’ll find stories where the main conflict isn't a world-ending threat, but rather who ate Kirby’s leftover cake in the communal fridge. This tonal shift is why the fandom stays so healthy. It’s a break from the high-stress competitive scene. While pro players are arguing about frame data and tier lists on Twitter, the fanfic writers are debating whether or not Bowser is a good dad to the inklings.
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Crossing Over the Crossovers
We can't talk about this without mentioning the sheer scale of the crossovers. Since Smash is already a crossover, writers feel they have permission to bring in anybody.
It’s not uncommon to see a Smash Bros fan fiction where characters from Genshin Impact, Dragon Ball Z, or even Marvel show up. The "Smash Invitation" has become a literary device in its own right. It’s a golden ticket that lets a writer pull any character from any media into their world.
But there is a hierarchy.
Serious writers in the community often frown upon "Self-Inserts"—where the author puts themselves into the game to date their favorite character. But even those have a massive audience. The "Self-Insert" is basically the foundation of the early 2010s fanfic era. It’s cringey, sure, but it’s also how a lot of young writers learned how to pace a story.
The Technical Challenge of Writing Combat
Writing a fight in a book is hard. Writing a fight where one character uses a laser gun and the other uses a magical sword and the third is a literal 2D flat man from the 80s? That is a nightmare.
Expert writers in this space have to balance "game logic" with "story logic." If Link gets hit by a Falcon Punch, does he just fly back 20 feet and stand up, or does he get his ribs shattered?
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Most successful Smash Bros fan fiction sticks to story logic. They treat the characters as flesh and blood. This raises the stakes. When Marth gets injured in a fanfic, it feels real because we’ve seen him as an invincible pixel-perfect swordsman for years. Seeing him vulnerable is a powerful hook.
Where to Find the Good Stuff
If you're looking to dive in, don't just search "Smash Bros" on Google and click the first link. You’ll get a mixed bag.
Archive of Our Own (AO3) is currently the gold standard. Their tagging system is elite. You can filter out the weird stuff and find high-quality "Gen" (general audience) stories that focus on world-building. FanFiction.net is like a time capsule. It’s where the older, massive epics live, but the interface is a bit of a relic.
Wattpad is... well, it's Wattpad. It’s mostly for a younger audience and leans heavily into the "X Reader" style of stories.
Actionable Tips for Navigating the Fandom
If you’re interested in reading or even writing your own Smash Bros fan fiction, here is how you do it without getting overwhelmed:
- Filter by Kudos on AO3: This is the most reliable way to find stories that are actually well-written. If thousands of people liked it, there’s usually a reason.
- Look for "World-Building" tags: If you want more than just romance, these tags lead to stories that expand the lore of the Smash universe.
- Check the "Completed" box: There is nothing worse than getting 200,000 words into a story only to realize it hasn't been updated since 2014.
- Embrace the Weirdness: You are going to see things that don't make sense. That’s the point. The charm of Smash is the absurdity of Mr. Game & Watch standing next to Sephiroth.
The community isn't going anywhere. Every time a new "Challenger Approaching" trailer dropped for Ultimate, the fanfic community gained a whole new set of prompts. Even now, years after the final DLC, the writers are still going. They aren't waiting for a new game. They’re busy writing the one they’ve already built in their heads.
To start your journey, pick a character you main in the game. Search for them specifically. See how a writer has interpreted their silence or their catchphrases. You might find that the "meaningless" fighting game actually has a lot more heart than you gave it credit for.