The improvisational jam duo P(x3) was on the stage of the State House Wednesday creating great grooves to dance to. But the figures leaping and spinning on the screen behind him weren’t dancing; they were fighting, in kinetic and ludicrous ways — as is the style of Super Smash Bros., the hit fighting video game from Nintendo that’s now almost a quarter-century old and still going strong. The audience members gathered to watch were in rapt attention. On a couch pulled up close to the stage, two players, their eyes glued to the screen, were in mortal combat, though one that would end with a smile.
Voyce.
The State House’s monthly Super Smash Bros. tournament is organized by Elm Underground, a.k.a. Mike Voyce and Hannah Jacobson. The idea for the tournament started with music, when Voyce was running sound for a band using the State House for rehearsal. The band was late. “I had my Switch with me, so I just plugged it into the wall” and started playing it using the club’s projector, Voyce said. “Can you play something when we perform here next?” he recalled the band asking, as a visual backdrop to their music. Voyce agreed to do it, but it also planted the idea in his head of matching video games to live music in other ways.
He thought of having a video game tournament with live music accompaniment. “I wonder if I can get a band to play to what’s happening on the screen?” he recalled thinking. He thought of P(x3), who he knew were strong improvisers. “They’re so connected,” Voyce said, and their keyboard-based sound fit the context. He floated the idea to Madore and Young, and the two musicians were, as it were, game.
In deciding which game to base a tournament around, Voyce gravitated toward Super Smash Bros. because “I knew that was a game that would be easy to fit into a tournament.” He played the first iteration, which came out in 1999, when he was a kid. Since then, the game has remained popular, with some gamers playing at a truly competitive level for thousands and occasionally hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money. For more casual gamers, its “over-the-top” levels of action — as much Looney Tunes as martial arts — make it fun to watch regardless of how well one does. As Voyce said when he sits down to play, “give me something ridiculous to work with.”
“This is either going to be really weird or really cool,” Voyce recalled thinking.
The first Super Smash Bros. tournament, in June 2022, was cool. “They nailed the video game kind of sound,” Voyce said. The monthly event has since drawn players and spectators, with some people sitting near the bar and cheering, “like they’re at a sports event,” Voyce said. Voyce also noted that the players come to have fun, and enjoy themselves whether they win or lose. “It’s just people coming together and having a hang,” he said — even when it occasionally has drawn a competitive player who “just wiped the floor with everyone,” he said. “There’s usually one to three people who are on it.”
The rainy Wednesday night still drew a small crowd of players — eight of whom signed up for the tournament — and spectators. Voyce explained that the tournament would follow the “classic single elimination” format; the first-place winner would take home $40, the second-place winner $20.
In a Super Smash Bros. match, two players square off against each other and the victor of two out of three rounds wins the match. The first pair to go head to head were Matt and Natasha. As P(x3) drove out a pulsing improvisation, Matt beat Natasha easily in the first round. Natasha switched fighters for the second round, but Matt proved to be the stronger player. Similarly, in the second match, S.B. was able to best Timmy Batts after a long but steady battle.
The third match featured Dallas versus Deano. “Good luck, brother — you’re going to need it,” Dallas joked. It turned out Dallas needed the luck, but he lost with grace and humor, laughing as Deano bested him.
Esmer and Walker smiled at each other at the end of their first round. “Come on, Walker!” someone yelled from the audience. Theirs was the most even fight, the first one to go three rounds. P(x3) ratcheted up the tension in the music in the final round, which Esmer won.
“That was the best match we’ve seen so far,” someone said.
The first match of the second round of the tournament say Matt and S.B. go toe to toe. Matt had picked a large, burly character — King K. Rool, from Donkey Kong — while S.B. played as Dr. Mario. The matchup first appeared incongruous, but it turned out Dr. Mario was a powerful fighter in S.B.‘s hands. The players smiled and laughed at the end of the first round. For the second round, both assumed the classic gamer’s stance, leaning forward on the couch, elbows propped on knees. S.B. had the upper hand, but Matt hung in there, until he didn’t. There were smiles and handshakes when it was over.
“With that, S.B. advances to the finals,” Voyce announced.
Deano and Esmer turned out to be tougher fighters, having their characters engage in serious combat. Their match drew howls of delight in their acrobatics, and Esmer emerged victorious.
For the final round, P(x3) started a throbbing EDM-flavored instrumental, and with everyone smiling, S.B. and Esmer chose their favorite characters and went for it. Esmer put up a strong fight, but in both matches, S.B. proved to have an edge, finishing Esmer in mid-air with a spectacular (and spectacularly cartoony) kill of a sort that made an audience member jump out of his seat and indicated decisive victory.
“There you have it,” Voyce said. “S.B. takes home the crown.” He invited people to keep playing, and for P(x3) to keep improvising. Everyone took him up on his offer.
Voyce has ideas of continuing the series by changing up bands and games, such as Mario Kart, a racing game that lends itself naturally to in-person competition with the same sense of chaotic fun. “We’re going to keep growing it, and once we have it in a really comfortable position we want to try branching out.” Elm Underground might switch up the game, but in a broader sense, the song will remain the same.
