Minecraft (universe)

Minecraft (universe)
Developer(s)	Mojang Studios 4J Studios SkyBox Labs Other Ocean Interactive Telltale Games Double Eleven Blackbird Interactive
Publisher(s)	Mojang Studios Xbox Game Studios Sony Interactive Entertainment NetEase Games
Designer(s)	Markus Persson (formerly) Jens Bergensten
Genre(s)	Sandbox Survival
Console/platform of origin	Microsoft Windows Apple Mac OS X Linux
First installment	Minecraft (2009, first public alpha; 2011, official release)
Latest installment	Minecraft Legends (2023)
Article on Wikipedia	Minecraft (universe)

The Minecraft universe (マインクラフト, Minecraft) refers to the Smash Bros. series' collection of characters, stages, and properties that hail from the video game franchise created by the Sweden-based developer Mojang Studios. Since its development versions in 2009 and official release in 2011, Minecraft has become a worldwide cultural phenomenon and is the single best-selling video game of all time, spawning a litany of spinoffs, merchandising, and media and becoming a staple of popular culture in the subsequent years. Originally an independent property, the franchise and its developer have remained under the ownership of Microsoft since their acquisition on November 6th, 2014.

Franchise description

Minecraft began development around May 10, 2009, when independent game developer Markus "Notch" Persson started expanding on one of his personal projects, a base-building demo named RubyDung. He took heavy inspiration from Infiniminer, an open-world, block-themed mining game released earlier that year, lifting its blocky aesthetics, mining gameplay, and first-person perspective, and developed a tech demo named Cave Game, of which he uploaded a short gameplay video to YouTube. He soon renamed it Minecraft: Order of the Stone (a reference to the webcomic The Order of the Stick), then simply Minecraft.

Coded in the Java programming language, a pre-alpha version of Minecraft was publicly released on May 17, 2009. The game's great popularity allowed Notch to work on it full-time, updating it based on feedback. To facilitate this, he founded a video game company, Mojang Specifications (eventually renamed to "Mojang AB" and later "Mojang Studios"). After different phases of development cycles, Minecraft entered alpha testing on June 30, 2010, then beta testing on December 20, 2010, and was officially released on November 18, 2011. Later, on December 1, Notch stepped down from his position as lead designer, leaving programmer and designer Jens Bergensten to take his place. In 2014, Microsoft purchased Mojang for US$2.5 billion, thus acquiring the Minecraft intellectual property; Notch soon left Mojang, and the company eventually cut all ties from him due to becoming a controversial figure in recent years. As of March 2021, gameplay developer Agnes Larsson is the game's director and she occasionally appears with Jens for videos related to the franchise, such as Minecraft Live. Minecraft Live, formerly Minecon, is a yearly event that gives news to an upcoming major update for the base game, new titles or updates for the spin-off branch, and miscellaneous information, in which Masahiro Sakurai appeared briefly in one of them through a video for announcing Minecraft crossing over with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Minecraft is an open-world sandbox game about survival and creativity, with a block-based world and blocky characters. Worlds are generated pseudo-randomly based on seeds (integer sequences), allowing players to have a different experience for each playthrough, while specific worlds can be recreated and revisited by saving their seeds. Worlds may come with different biomes, affecting the types of scenery and mobs the player may see, and also come with different dimensions to explore (three by default: the Overworld, the Nether, and the End). The player takes on the default appearance of a generic character named Steve or Alex, but can be customized to the player's liking using custom-made textures, known as "skins." During Minecraft Live 2022, seven more characters were added to the game alongside Steve and Alex; Zuri, Sunny, Noor, Makena, Kai, Efe, and Ari. As the name implies, the primary gameplay mechanics of Minecraft are mining (digging up blocks to obtain materials) and crafting (using said materials to create new objects, such as weapons or armor). The game also allows players to play online with other people through custom servers, or on Minecraft Realms (a subscription-based private server service). Online play is a notable and popular part of Minecraft, and because of this, the game is continually updated and re-released with new features.

There have been numerous editions of Minecraft, available on various platforms. The Java Edition, the original edition of Minecraft, is available on home computer platforms such as Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X (now macOS) and Linux; the Bedrock Edition, rewritten in the C++ programming language, was originally available on iOS and Android and has since been ported to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Windows 10; the discontinued Legacy Console Edition is the only available edition on older consoles such as the Wii U, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita and Xbox 360; and special editions of Minecraft have been made available on platforms like the New Nintendo 3DS and the Raspberry Pi, but have since been discontinued.

Five game modes are available in Minecraft: Survival, Creative, Adventure, Hardcore, and Spectator. The modes that form the majority of the gameplay are Survival and Creative.

• In Survival mode, the focus is to gather resources and become stronger while building a home base. By day, the player normally encounters passive mobs, such as animals that can be tamed and farmed for materials. At night, the player may encounter more dangerous mobs such as Zombies, Creepers, Spiders, Endermen, and so on. While never explicitly stated during gameplay, the goal is to kill the Ender Dragon, who lives in the End dimension; doing so rolls the game's "credits", a surreal dialogue between two higher beings that explicitly breaks the fourth wall. However, there are no limitations on accomplishing this goal, and upon doing so, the player simply returns to their spawn point.
• Hardcore mode is a more difficult variant of Survival mode. Functioning similarly to a permadeath game, seen in roguelike games for example, this mode locks the world to the most difficult settings and prevents players from respawning after dying once, forcing the map to be deleted if they are killed, or being kicked from the world for a day if played from a server.
• Creative mode focuses on building creations with a wide array of different blocks and materials. In this mode, survival is no issue, as the player is invincible to all standard forms of damage, and has the ability to freely fly. Furthermore, all mobs become passive and all blocks can be mined instantly. In the Bedrock Edition, starting a Creative world permanently disables achievements, trophies, and leaderboard updates for that world, but has no other effects on gameplay.
• Adventure mode is intended for player-created maps, and limits certain gameplay features for visiting players, such as directly destroying any blocks with any tools or placing blocks. This allows creators to produce narrative worlds, in the vein of a traditional adventure game, without interference from other players.
• Spectator mode allows players to fly around and observe the world without interacting with it in any way. The player is also free to see another player's or mobs' perspective in the game by clicking towards them while in this mode, including a few mobs who have a screen filter in their point of view.

Minecraft has grown to be the single best selling video game of all time, with over 238 million copies sold as of 2021. This beats the previous best selling single video game, Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto V, and all paid versions of Tetris, both at roughly 200 million copies. Minecraft is also a juggernaut in terms of merchandise, with popular items being apparel, toys, plush figures, and other novelty items.

The game is recognized for its artistic choice, featuring simplistic block models and pixel art. Until the Village & Pillage update, the texture were designed by multiple employees of Mojang. Since this update, a overhaul was made by Dutch artist Jasper Boerstra, also known as JAPPA, and is now used by default in the game, compared to the now called "Programmer Art" pack. In August 2022, Steve and Alex had their model updated to fit with the modern design of Minecraft made by JAPPA. Along with this design, paintings were introduced throughout multiple updates, with the majority of them being pixelated edits of real life classical paintings made by Swedish artist Kristoffer Zetterstrand, who was also Persson's brother-in-law.

The game is also recognized for its calming music and deriving from the chiptune theme commonly used for indie games, which was originally composed by German musician Daniel Rosenfeld, also known as C418. The game's soundtrack was released into two albums; Minecraft – Volume Alpha in 2011, and Minecraft – Volume Beta in 2013. Moreover, a third album is considered done by his author, but the album's release is to be determined. Until the Nether Update in 2020, he was the sole composer for both the Java Edition and the Bedrock Edition. Later updates have included music by Lena Raine (Celeste), Kumi Tanioka (Final Fantasy, Super Smash Bros.), and Aaron Cherof. Other iconic composers include Gareth Coker (Ori and the Blind Forest) for the Legacy Console Edition of Minecraft and Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie, GoldenEye) for the spin-off game Minecraft Dungeons.

Minecraft has also spawned spin-off titles: adventure game Minecraft: Story Mode in 2015 (co-developed by the now-defunct Telltale Games), augmented-reality mobile game Minecraft Earth in 2019 (which ended its services on June 30th, 2021 due to restrictions on outdoor activities as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic), action RPG/dungeon crawler Minecraft Dungeons (co-developed by Double Eleven) in 2020, and action-strategy game Minecraft Legends in 2023. Minecraft has also found success as a learning tool through Minecraft: Education Edition, a specialized branch of the main game. A movie adaptation is also in production at Warner Bros. Pictures, which will feature popular actors like Jack Black, who has also participated in another video game movie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

The popularity of Minecraft has led to many third-party companies basing their own games upon it, or crossing over with the Minecraft franchise in some way. For example, Square Enix's Dragon Quest Builders series is a mix between Minecraft's blocky design and survival genre and Dragon Quest's characters and role-playing genre. The Nintendo console versions of Minecraft include the Super Mario Mash-Up Pack, which comes with custom graphics and worlds based upon the Mario series; other IPs represented both in Super Smash Bros. and Minecraft include Sonic the Hedgehog, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Street Fighter, Final Fantasy, and Banjo-Kazooie.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

While no Minecraft content appears in Super Smash Bros. 4, according to Daniel Kaplan, former Production Director for Minecraft, talks regarding the game being represented in Smash began as early as 2015, either during the development of Smash 4's DLC or Ultimate's planning stages. It is unclear whether these negotiations were started with the intention of having Minecraft content appear in that game, or if said content was being negotiated for later usage.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

The Minecraft universe was introduced in Ultimate as DLC for Challenger Pack 7 which was released on October 13th, 2020, with one fighter, a stage, music tracks, and several Spirits. Three Mii Fighter costumes released separately alongside the new update.

Fighter

• 77.
  
  Steve (DLC): The default skin makes his debut as a downloadable newcomer, with Alex, Zombie, and Enderman as alternate costumes. Visually, his appearance and animations are nearly indistinguishable from those of Minecraft. In battle, he uses a sword, axe, shovel and pickaxe to fight or mine from the stage for materials. Materials can be used to place Blocks, which can block attacks, serve as an unusual means of recovery, and allow for setups and extended combos. They can also upgrade or replace his tools and sword, altering the damage output, durability, and speed of his tool-based attacks. Materials are also consumed directly in his down aerial and down throw (which use anvils), and his down and side specials (TNT and Minecart, respectively). His Final Smash traps a single opponent in a "House of Boom" filled with TNT and Creepers, resulting in a large explosion. He was released alongside Minecraft World, seven music tracks and the Minecraft series spirits on October 13th, 2020 as part of Challenger Pack 7.

Stage

• 
  Minecraft World (DLC): The stage has multiple possible layouts, with various possible biomes and structures. Fighters are able to destroy elements of the stage on top of the main level. The stage’s background is styled after the "Java Edition" of Minecraft, as indicated by various aspects of world generation that distinguish it from other versions.

Mii Costumes

The following Mii costumes are available as downloadable content, as part of version 9.0.0, within the seventh wave of Mii Fighter outfits along with Challenger Pack 7 and Steve. They were released on October 13th, 2020.

Outfits

• Creeper Outfit (DLC): An outfit of the Creeper's body, sourced from Minecraft.
• Pig Outfit (DLC): An outfit of the Pig's body, sourced from Minecraft.
• Diamond Armor (DLC): The chestplate, leggings, and boots of a diamond armor, sourced from Minecraft. The Mii will also hold a diamond sword if it is worn.

Headgear

• Creeper Mask (DLC): The Creeper's head, sourced from Minecraft.
• Pig Mask (DLC): The Pig's head, sourced from Minecraft.
• Diamond Helmet (DLC): The diamond helmet, sourced from Minecraft.

Music

Minecraft received 7 music tracks in Ultimate, 6 of which are new arrangements. Music from the original game was unable to be used due to "various circumstances", including their style being deemed too relaxing; it is possible that licensing issues with C418, the game's original composer, may have also been a factor, as he retains the rights to the songs he composed. The songs are instead taken from spinoff titles such as Minecraft Earth and Minecraft Dungeons, as well as minigame themes from the "Legacy Console" version of Minecraft.

Original Tracks

• Halland / Dalarna (DLC): A new remix of the two camp themes from Minecraft Dungeons, which was featured in Steve's reveal trailer.
• Earth (DLC): A new remix of the main theme from Minecraft Earth.
• Toys on a Tear (DLC): A new remix of one of the "shrunk" Battle Mini Game themes from the Legacy Console Edition of Minecraft.
• Dance of the Blocks (DLC): A new remix of one of the "shrunk" Battle Mini Game themes from the Legacy Console Edition of Minecraft.
• Glide (DLC): A new remix of one of the Glide Mini Game themes from the Legacy Console Edition of Minecraft.
• The Arch-Illager (DLC): A new remix of the theme of the final boss from Minecraft Dungeons, the Arch-Illager.

Source Track

• Clockwork Crafter (DLC): One of the "steampunk" Battle Mini Game themes, taken directly from the Legacy Console Edition of Minecraft.

Victory Theme

• Victory! Minecraft Series (DLC): The theme that plays when completing a challenge advancement, ripped directly from Minecraft: Java Edition.

Games with elements appearing in the Super Smash Bros. series

The Minecraft universe has games represented throughout the Super Smash Bros. series with a total of 3 games. The latest game represented in this universe is Minecraft Dungeons, released on May 26, 2020.

Minecraft

All content from Minecraft pulls from both the Java Edition and Bedrock Edition up to the Nether Update in addition to the Legacy Console Edition. Content from future updates starting with the Caves & Cliffs update is not reflected in Ultimate.

• Playable characters:
  • Steve, the game's protagonist and default skin, appears as a playable character with alternate costumes for Alex, Zombie, and Enderman.
  • Steve's moveset contains elements that first appeared in this game, like blocks, items, and weapons.
  • Tennis Steve, Tennis Alex, Scottish Steve, and Swedish Alex from the Legacy Console Edition's Default Skin pack appear as alternate costumes.
  • Creeper and Pig appear as costumes for the Mii Brawler.
  • The Diamond Armor appears as a costume for the Mii Swordfighter.
• Stage:
  • Minecraft World: Based on how worlds generated in Minecraft look with six different variations derived from different biomes.
• Stage elements:
  • Various mobs from the original game appear, including sheep, cows, chickens, and spiders, in addition to mobs featured in other ways in Ultimate like villagers, zombies, and Endermen.
• Spirits:
  • Steve, Alex, Zombie, Creeper, Skeleton, Slime, Enderman, Villager & Iron Golem, Ghast, Piglin and Ender Dragon appear as spirits.
  • The artwork used for Villager & Iron Golem, Ghast, and Piglin are sourced from the Java Edition of the game.
  • The artwork used for the Steve, Alex, Zombie, Creeper and Skeleton spirits is sourced from the Legacy Console Edition of the game.
    • Alex and Skeleton are specifically sourced from the Wii U version.
  • The artwork used for the Enderman and Ender Dragon spirits is sourced from the Bedrock Edition of the game.
    • Enderman and Ender Dragon are specifically sourced from Pocket Edition.
    • Steve, Zombie, and Creeper are specifically sourced from the Xbox One version.
• Music:
  • "Clockwork Crafter": One of the "steampunk" Battle Mini Game themes, sourced from the Legacy Console Edition.
  • "Toys on a Tear": An arrangement of one of the "shrunk" Battle Mini Game themes from the Legacy Console Edition.
  • "Dance of the Blocks": An arrangement of one of the "shrunk" Battle Mini Game themes from the Legacy Console Edition.
  • "Glide": An arrangement of one of the Glide Mini Game themes from the Legacy Console Edition.
  • "Victory! Minecraft": The sound that plays when completing a challenge advancement, sourced from the Java Edition.
• Misc:
  • Minecraft's series symbol is an isometric view of a stray cube, which first appeared in this game as its software and launcher's icon, both using a grass block texture.

Minecraft Earth

• Music:
  • "Earth": An arrangement of the defunct game's main theme.

Minecraft Dungeons

• Music:
  • "Halland / Dalarna": An arrangement of the two camp themes, which was featured in Steve's reveal trailer.
  • "The Arch-Illager": An arrangement of the game's final boss theme, the Arch-Illager.

Trivia

• By official release, Minecraft is the first third-party universe to debut in the 2010s.
  • It is also the second to debut in the 21st century following the Bayonetta universe and preceding the Kingdom Hearts universe.
• In Super Smash Bros., Minecraft is:
  • The third third-party universe to have a female playable character, after Banjo-Kazooie and Bayonetta.
  • The first third-party primary universe to be of indie origin, although being a property of Microsoft when joining Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • The second primary universe to originate from a non-Japanese developer, the first being Banjo-Kazooie. Both franchises are owned by Microsoft.
  • The first primary universe whose platform of origin were Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X (now macOS), and Linux. Coincidentally, all three of them are also operating systems for computers.

External links

• Article on the Minecraft Wiki.