Dr. Wright

File:Wright.jpg

Dr. Wright from the SNES version of SimCity.

Dr. Wright (Japanese:ドクターライト) is a character that appeared in the SNES version of the PC game SimCity. As one of Nintendo's most obscure characters, Dr. Wright was brought more public attention with his appearance as a trophy in Melee and as a helper which can be released from an Assist Trophy in Brawl.

Character description

The original SimCity was designed for and released on the Commodore 64 device in 1989 by game designer Will Wright, and it was one of the first two games of the then-tiny company Maxis. It was one of the earliest games that operated under the concept that it could neither be "won" nor "lost"; the objective of the simulation-based game in general is for the player to build and design a city however he or she likes, paying heed to all the various needs of the city, such as tax rates, power grid layout, zoning land for specific categories of buildings, dealing with disasters, and so on. As a single-player-oriented game, it was also the game to essentially start the tradition of including timed goal-based scenarios, which would feature prominently in many PC games in the years to come; games like RollerCoaster Tycoon and all sorts of other simulation-based games owe their origins to SimCity, which had created a very wide-ranging "Software Toy" genre.

The game was a critical and commercial success, and it and its sequels would create a Sim-centered PC game empire that would propel Maxis into its status as a major PC software company. But even the influential success of the SimCity series would pale in comparison to Maxis' other series: The Sims, household-life simulation software designed by Wright and Maxis and released in 2000, is the best-selling PC game in history, having sold 16 million copies, received no less than seven expansion packs, and earned all sorts of PC game awards, as well as two sequels in succession. The Sim PC software empire has caused Will Wright to be one of the most admired software designers.

At first glance, this would seem to have nothing at all to do with Nintendo, which is primarily focused on console and handheld games. The original SimCity, however, was later ported to the Super Nintendo by Nintendo EAD in 1991, modifying the game in various aspects to be better suited for play on a console with a controller. The SNES version was given a more whimsical aesthetic, and the player was cast as a character named Dr. Wright to be the assistant to the mayor of SimCity. Dr. Wright, of course, was named after Will Wright, and he has an extremely flamboyant green hairstyle and holds a white baton. As Dr.Wright, it is the player's job to give the mayor timely advice to cause the budding city to flourish and prosper, as well as prevent it from being destroyed by various disasters, natural and otherwise (such as a Godzilla-type attack from none other than Bowser from the Mario series).

As a character appearing in an old SNES port of the first entry of a primarily PC-based series not owned by Nintendo, Dr. Wright becomes one of the most obscure characters in Nintendo. A lot of contemporary gamers were unaware of his existence until 2001, where Super Smash Bros. Melee depicted Dr. Wright as a collectible trophy alongside all manner of other Nintendo characters both as obscure as him and far more famous. More recently, Dr. Wright is given a more interactive role in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, as a character that can briefly appear in a battle from the Assist Trophy item.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Dr. Wright was more-or-less reintroduced to gamers in his appearance as a collectible trophy in this game. It is unlockable as one of the 100+ trophies that can be collected randomly during normal play, such as in the Trophy Lottery and throughout the various Single-player Regular Matches. It reads as follows:

Dr. Wright

The assistant to the mayor of SimCity, Dr. Wright was actually named after the creator of the game. As a player, you'd have to use your wisdom and experience to give timely advice to the mayor; if you did a good job, the city prospered. Dr. Wright is one of the leaders in the all-time, bizarre Nintendo-game-hairstyle contest.

(SimCity, 8/91)

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Dr. Wright summons what seems to be a small city to launch opponents high into the air.

Dr. Wright is a helper character which can be released from an Assist Trophy in Brawl. He launches buildings from the ground to throw the other players in the air. It is unknown whether this does damage or if the buildings go after every player.

Interestingly, Dr. Wright is accompanied by the Super Smash Bros. symbol, not something pertaining to SimCity. This is most likely because game franchises seen in Smash Bros. games are only given Universe symbols and thus recognized as official universes if they feature characters that have been included in a Smash Bros. game as a playable fighter. It is evident by the Smash Bros. universe symbol that there will be no SimCity character that is actually playable in Brawl; the symbol may also be construed to refer to the item he can be summoned by (the Assist Trophy), which itself is a Smash Bros. property. When Samurai Goro was shown to be an Assist character, he had the F-Zero symbol shown on him in his update, however; this is most likely because F-Zero was already established as a universe in Smash Bros. with a playable character of its own ([[Captain Falcon), unlike SimCity.