I came here expecting to see a Melee mod...

[Miryafa]

And was surprised. So is the name of the game taken from the Melee community? Where did it come from?

[Epicwindow+-]

play megaman or google its plot

[Sairek Ceareste]

The name of the 20XX mode came a few months after the name of this game, but this game wasn't exactky well-known as much as the mod.

It's a story of what came first: the chicken or the egg.

Still, the name of this game is a throw-back to Megaman, which thematically is more appropriate.

[Cirom]

Yeah, the original Mega Man games took place in the undefined future-year of 20XX. This game is based on Mega Man, and such the name was fitting. Although amusingly, Mega Man X (which this game is based more on) took place in 21XX. But 20XX was the more iconic number which everyone remembers, anyway.

The Smash Bros. meme pretty much was that in an undefined future year (also called 20XX), competitive Smash is basically just Fox matches played at a TAS level of perfection. Eventually a Melee hack came out which used the same name as the meme, known as the 20XX Hack Pack. (.. I think.)

.. Basically, what I'm saying is they both have the same name and it's entirely a coincidence :V

(Though there is a reference to Melee within 20XX - one of the available Skulls - difficulty modifiers - for the game is called "Final Destination", which disables all items. Although currently it's locked and inaccessible.)

[Zero]

I came here expecting another "Not Melee/Where's Fox" joke post, but I'm pleasantly surprised that it's a legitimate question.

The Discord server gets a lot of Smash Players. (It turns out we're the top Google result for "20XX Discord Server". Surprisingly enough "20XX Discord" includes a link to an actual Melee server.) So much so that we setup a custom bot command to explain for us, and even more recently; a disclaimer in the welcome message.

So awhile back I looked into it and concluded that the hack pack used the name a few months before this game so it came first. But this time I increased my scope and also researched the exact dates to answer "Who did it first?" and found the opposite is true.

Timeline answer:

• December 6, 1991 - MegaMan 4 was the first game in the series to refer to the time period as 20XX. The previous three referred to it as 200X. The X series occured in 21XX, Zero/ZX in 22XX/23XX. The chronology gets really confusing at this point.
  
  
• October 16, 2013 - An announcer for a SSB Melee tournament uses the first ever instance of 20XX in relation to Smash. It becomes a meme.
  
  
• March 29, 2014 - Achilles1515 releases his mod for Melee; the 20XX Hack Pack in reference to the meme.
  
  
• April 11, 2014 - Chris King, this game's lead developer, quits his job to make his dream game and submits it to Kickstarter and Steam Greenlight under the name Echoes of Eridu. It is well received and funded. Development begins.
  
  
• November 26, 2014 - Echoes of Eridu is released on Steam in Early Access; now under the name 20XX in reference to the iconic MegaMan date.

From a cursory glance, it would seem that Smash did it first, but there's one very important key detail. The announcer that created the meme acknowledges that he got the year from MegaMan.

So there you have it. Smash has no relation to "20XX" aside from a meme that caught on like wildfire.

I have way too much time on my hands

tl;dr Smash did it second.

[AgentFlea]

To be fair, my brother is huge into smash and had a "Oh, this isn't Smash" moment too lol

Pretty minor, but it's a thing. I like the name 20XX more than the previous

[A Dummy]

Could always call the game 20X6 and confuse long time internet veterans even more. :P

[Darkness]

Originally posted by A Dummy:

Could always call the game 20X6 and confuse long time internet veterans even more. :P

..or rename to 2XXX and replace characters with nude anime girls, or at least in indecent clothing, who knows. There're tons of "games" like this on Steam nowadays, lol.

[QuaestComm]

Originally posted by Cirom:

(Though there is a reference to Melee within 20XX - one of the available Skulls - difficulty modifiers - for the game is called "Final Destination", which disables all items. Although currently it's locked and inaccessible.)

Good news - the July 5 patch made the Final Destination skull usable.

Enabling the skull stops nuts and augments (including core augments and prototype augments) from appearing within levels and boss rooms. In exchange, all post-boss rooms contain the boss power, a Heart Container, and a Potato Battery - the power can be taken for free (?), but taking one of the augments makes the other one disappear. (The skull does not stack with Purist or Bankrupt if you were looking to get large quantities of Soul Chips; also, Final Destination cannot be chosen as a skull for the hardcore daily or weekly challenges.)

[Cirom]

Originally posted by QuaestComm:

Good news - the July 5 patch made the Final Destination skull usable.

Yeah, I'm a Superfriends beta tester so I already knew about that :V It's the whole reason I remembered the skull existed and mentioned it, actually. ;o