Today marks the release date of Flash of the Past- a documentary by Bowler, a well known member of our community. To mark the occassion we had the opportunity to sit down with Bowler and ask him a couple of questions about this amazing project! You can find the link to the documentary below.
So Bowler, today marks the release of your documentary about the competitive community of Super Smash Flash 2. What gave you the idea to start the documentary?
The SSF2 Community is filled with a vast variety of talent from all over the world, with so much rich history and great moments that have gone down throughout the years. I’ve always been fascinated with the competitive storylines that have developed over time, and felt that the community really needed something to help show off how deep it really goes. SSF2 is truly a one of a kind hidden gem, that is way beyond deserving of a documentary, competitively focused or not. The idea to do a documentary was massively inspired by both Samox’s Super Smash Brothers Melee Documentary “The Smash Brothers”, as well as the announcement of the Rivals of Aether competitive documentary “Grassroots” by Adam Carra. I’ve been in development of this project for about half a year, and while it’s not perfect, I’m really happy with the end result and am so glad something like this was made possible.
The documentary must have been quite an undertaking, can you talk to us about some of the challenges and achievements you faced along the way?
It was a huge undertaking to try and condense well over 8 years of competitive history into a complete story, and while it was a struggle, it was an absolute blast to work on and i’m satisfied with how I’ve gone about structuring it. One of the biggest struggles was trying to make it both simultaneously understandable and interesting for newcomers while keeping it rich with community lore and more niche moments. I managed to try and strike a balance between welcoming new players who’ve never heard of the scene, while also creating a really nostalgic trip down memory lane for old veterans. Also unfortunately, back in 2014-2015, as a community, we didn’t do the best job at archiving our history as a community, which made it a little tricky to fully cover certain aspects without missing a few details. Luckily, I had the help of tons of community members to help me along the way, such as Doq, one of the most insightful community members and a long time friend of mine.
Outside of this community you’ve also made a name for yourself as one of the foremost content creators for Super Smash Flash 2. What drew you to the game originally, and what made you want to make videos about the game?
My interest in SSF2 was actually caused by “The Smash Brothers” Documentary focused on competitive melee, which got me into competitive smash in general. I stumbled upon SSF2 and found this grassroots community of players who loved the game and wanted to see how far they could push it. The community was extremely passionate and I genuinely loved it, even if we have our share of flaws, it was a group of lifelong friends. As for content creation, what got me into it originally was to help spread interest in competitive SSF2, originally starting out by making guides and combo videos to help build interest throughout the smash community.The community was extremely supportive of my content, even if it admittedly not very good at first, so if it wasn’t for them I would never of made it to where I am today.
Where do you think competitive Super Smash Flash 2 is gonna head in the coming years? Any words of advice you want to share to people looking to get into competitive SSF2?
Competitive SSF2 has never had a better time for new players to join the community. 1.3 is by far my personal favorite patch of SSF2, and with the thriving scene we have today, the game is in a great spot. I think the future is a little uncertain, but with community members who are dedicated and with new tournament circuits popping up with larger and larger prize pools, the scene is likely to succeed. There’s a reason that even though newer, more popular smash games are releasing, this group of players stick with SSF2, there is nothing quite like it, and the community is here to stay.
With the documentary released today, what is next in store for you and your channel? Can you give us a hint on what comes next for you?
This Documentary was my goal for so long, and to finally have it out there in the world brings me a ton of joy, and also a good amount of relief. I’ll certainly continue playing and making content for Super Smash Flash, but I won’t deny, Fraymakers has been catching my interest more and more. It’s essentially looking to be the spiritual successor to SSF2, which I guess makes it the successor to a successor? Either way, Fraymakers looks amazing, and I love the team behind it, so if it’s anything like what keeps me playing SSF2, I will most certainly be making content, and being a part of the competitive community for Fraymakers as well.
That wraps up all we have you all today. Allow us to take this opportunity to thank both Bowler and all of our other members in the community who continue to help spread word of us and our projects. We’re so glad to have you all in our community!
