Super Smash Bros. Melee
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 "MELEE!"
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Super Smash Bros. Melee is a fighting game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo in 2001 for the Nintendo GameCube. It is the second installment in the Super Smash Bros. series.
Why It's a Wombo Combo
- The graphics are fantastic for 2001 standards, with each model and design having a great colour choice. The game also looks more advanced in terms of graphics than many Xbox and PS2 games, which can be surprising for a late launch title for the GameCube.
- Just like its prequel, you can play with four players for lots of fun as your main, no matter if the character is underpowered or not. Each stage can also serve fun, especially the basic ones like Battlefield and Final Destination.
- The soundtrack is absolutely amazing and has a great variety that fits the stages easily. The F-Zero stages, Big Blue and Mute City, for example, go for a rock soundtrack, while some go for jazz music, such as Jungle Japes. Flat Zone goes especially for a different theme; it uses beep and boop sounds from the Game & Watch series, which actually fits Mr. Game & Watch, who debuted in the game.
- This is the first game in the series to introduce Fire Emblem content, which is surprising considering that the Fire Emblem games were released only in Japan when Melee was released. Two playable characters from the former franchise, Marth and Roy, became so popular, the Fire Emblem games started to be released internationally, starting with The Blazing Blade in 2003.
- The game introduced Adventure and All-Star modes, which Adventure mode is like a platformer with fighting stages, while All-Star mode is a mode where you must defeat all playable characters while having only one stock, and the latter mode also has a rest area where you can heal, but there are only three healing items there.
- Trophies, a collectable feature in the game, are a nice touch, which explains from which game the thing as a trophy comes from and features a description. For playable characters, completing Adventure and All-Star modes show two of their special attacks that are performed with the B button, and describes how the character plays.
- The game introduced event matches, which are special matches where you must do a specific task, either K.O. an opponent, defeat all opponents, land a finishing hit on an opponent to win the match, or survive the match. Some can act like an actual match in the VS. mode, or be a reprise of something.
- The 50th even match, Final Destination Match, is like a reprise of the final stage in Classic mode played on Normal difficulty, though both Master Hand and Crazy Hand (which the latter was introduced as a chaotic version of Master Hand) appear at once with 300 HP, with the player having only one stock to defeat them.
- The game introduced the Special Melee option, where you can have a match with different things, such as invisible characters, attack with only the A button, make the match run slow or fast, or even take pictures. There's also a stamina mode, where the characters have 150 HP each, which works like in a real fighting game, even if it still has standard elements from Melee.
- A new type of Special move has been introduced - Side Specials. These are performed by going forward and pressing the B button, and each functions differently, some of which can be useful. Mario's Side Special sees him using a cape which turns opponents and reflects projectiles, which is useful to ruin recovery in order to get an easy K.O., Link throws a boomerang, Luigi fires himself like a missile, with having a chance to fire himself futher (though it can put himself at a risk of self-destructing due to going forward more), and Donkey Kong performing a headbutt to bury the opponents. They would later re-appear in future installments.
- Melee has a lot of new stages, with there being 29 stages in the game, with there of them from the prequel returning. Since EarthBound and F-Zero did not have a stage in the prequel, they now have two of them, since Ness and Captain Falcon appeared in the prequel.
- The gameplay is solid, with responsive controls, and it's easy to move and attack. Unlike in most fighting games, there are more moves to attack, and you can move and attack faster than most fighting games.
- The game has an amazing and beautiful intro, with the beginning showing a Mario trophy being thrown up, before eventually summoning Mario, while being about to fight Link, Kirby and Pikachu, as well as some great moments in it, such as when Samus fights Ridley, Bowser being shown in a fire background, or the Sheik part where a reflection of Zelda can be seen.
- Over 26 characters to choose from, in which 14 of them are newcomers. You can play as two of the antagonists for the first time in the Smash series, with those two being Bowser and Ganondorf. Zelda can even transform into Sheik, either during the fight or just simply holding the A button before the match begins.
- The Adventure and All-Star congratulations screens are more neat than the Classic mode ones, with some even being references or parodies to other media. Examples, but not limited to include:
- Donkey Kong's All-Star congratulations screen is a reference to a famous scene in the 1999 movie The Matrix where Neo enters bullet time and dodges the bullets by bending over backwards.
- Similarly, his Adventure congratulations screen is a parody of March of Progress that scientifically showcases human evolution. Samus is even present in this screen, likely to be accurate to said parody.
- Link's Adventure congratulations screen shows him being ready to shoot an apple off Kirby, which is a reference the Swiss folktale of an archer named William Tell, who was forced to shoot an apple off his son's head.
- Mewtwo's Adventure congratulations screen is a reference to a scene in Mewtwo Strikes Back, where the results of Mewtwo's awakening and subsequent attack have left a laboratory engulfed in flames.
- Donkey Kong's All-Star congratulations screen is a reference to a famous scene in the 1999 movie The Matrix where Neo enters bullet time and dodges the bullets by bending over backwards.
Bad Qualities
- Some characters have plenty of flaws, similar to the game's prequel. These flaws mainly involve about some flaws in balance, although there are some more that don't focus on balance.
- Some newcomers, especially Bowser, Pichu, Zelda and Mewtwo are bad to play as.
- Bowser suffers from large weight and size that makes him very easy to combo, sluggish attacks, poorly framed projectile, and poor jumping ability. He's also the worst character in the game.
- Pichu damages itself with its electric attacks and suffers from very light weight that makes it very easy to K.O..
- Zelda suffers from poor mobility as well as poorly-placed hitboxes or unreliable finishers on almost all of her moves, including Din's Fire leaving her vulnerable and causes freefall if used midair.
- Mewtwo suffers from being a combination of a large target and light weight, having weak attacks and K.Oing options that have little reach.
- Kirby has been nerfed too much in the game to the point he became a bottom-tier character.
- Fox is too overpowered. Nonetheless, he was considered a top favorite among players.
- What doesn't help is that his blaster is incredibly nerfed from the previous installment as it no longer causes any knockback and only deals very minimal damage to his opponents. Not to mention that every game in the series is like this since then.
- Ness is much worse than he was in the previous game. His new special, PK Flash, takes too long to fully charge, making him vulnerable, and PK Thunder is a terrible recovery option for him.
- Mr. Game & Watch suffers from a very small shield that fails to cover his entire body, even after slight damage due to a coding error, making him easy to shield stab. Additionally, he is the only character in Melee that cannot perform the L-cancelling technique with his neutral, back and up aerials due to them being erroneously coded as specials, and he suffers from too much hitstun for a lightweight, making him easy combo food, though not as much as the heavies like Bowser.
- Roy suffers from having plenty of laggy attacks, a dash attack that doesn't correctly work as the hitboxes are unchanged despite the move being slower, his sourspots doing almost nothing, not having many KO moves (only his forward smash is a reliable finisher) and being a fast-faller that makes him easy to combo for a lightweight. He also has one of the worst recoveries in the game and his aerial game is one of the worst in the game, with him having the worst meteor smash in the game as not only it is difficult to sweetspot, but it has so much endlag that gives Roy no hope of recovering.
- Some newcomers, especially Bowser, Pichu, Zelda and Mewtwo are bad to play as.
- Some event matches can be rather tedious or frustrating, including:
- Trophy Tussle 3
- Space Travelers
- Trouble King 2
- Puffballs Unite!
- The Showdown
- Time for a Checkup
- Pikachu & Pichu
- The A.I. is known for being very flawed, especially with recoveries (such as Luigi using only Green Missile and never using Super Jump Punch to recover), never picking up most items intentionally, or doing very strange things.
- You can even easily cause the A.I. to constantly self-destruct in some stages such as Jungle Japes or Yoshi's Island N64. For example, if you stand on the right side in Jungle Japes and have Fox as a level 9 CPU opponent, if the latter respawns, Fox will use Fire Fox under the center platform of the stage, go to the left, and self-destruct. He can repeat it many times, though there's a 5-10% chance Fox will break out of it.
- In Young Link congratulations screen in Classic Mode, Zelda is looking loving with him, which is considering pedophilia.
- Some bad stages, especially Icicle Mountain, which is infamous for being a vertical autoscroller with varying speed that can cause cheap self-destructs.
- The controls and movement can occasionally be slippery at times, since characters move extremely fast and can result in some cheap deaths at times.
- Melee is the only game that lacks unique on-screen apperances, and instead, the characters come from their trophies, which is disappointing. Fortunately, they would return in Brawl.
- Cruel Melee is an unfair mode. While it is understandable since it was apparently intended for tougher players, the enemies are very aggressive and there's no way to heal yourself, and you get absolutely no items. Due to the enemies' A.I., it makes weaker fighters punching bags and completely useless.
- Several bugs and glitches can be found in the game easily since the game didn't have a long development time, though some were fixed in later versions.
- Some Specials have a few noticeable flaws.
- Mario's Neutral Special, while not really bad, barely makes opponents flinch.
- DK's Neutral Special, while strong, leaves him wide open. His Up Special also grants him very little vertical height, which can be a problem for him to recover.
- Samus' Missile (her Side Special) moves too slow and is easy to evade.
- Luigi and Yoshi's Up Specials are useless for recovery, due to Luigi's going straight up and Yoshi's involving him simply throwing an egg that doesn't even give him any vertical height.
- Falco's Side and Up Specials both give him poor distance.
- Kirby, while having multiple midair jumps, his Up B gives him little distance.
Reception
Super Smash Bros. Melee received universal acclaim, with many critics praising the game's expansion and refinement from its prequel, as well as its visuals, tight controls, multiplayer mode, and orchestrated soundtrack. The game, however, did receive criticism for its single-player modes, lack of originality, and similarity to its predecessor. In terms of raw gameplay and the competitive scene, Melee is widely regarded as the best Smash game by fans, conflicting with Ultimate.
On Metacritic, the game received a 92/100 score from critics, while the game's rating from its users 9.1/10.[1]
This is the best-selling game on the GameCube, selling over 7 million units as of March 10, 2008.
Videos
Trivia
- The game was developed in 13 months due to it being a late launch title for the GameCube. Sakurai called his lifestyle during the development "destructive", with no holidays and short weekends. At one point, he even worked on the game for 40 hours and went back home to sleep for only 4 hours.
- You can play as Master Hand if you use a glitch, and since he takes no knockback, he cannot be knocked out except in the stamina mode. However, in 1P modes, some strange effects can occur.
- There exists a data for a character called "NONE". Trying to play as it will crash the game.
- Marth and Roy are the only characters to not have a stage from their franchise, though one was indeed planned, which was going to be called "Kingdom of Archanea". It would have featured catapults slinging boulders at a castle, while dragons and mages would also appear. Due to problems regarding its production, it was scrapped, with the only remains of it being a non-functional stage called "AKANEIA", and trying to start a match on it crashes the game.
- As a result, the Fire Emblem theme is an alternative theme to play on the Temple stage. In All-Star mode and his unlocking battle, Marth appears on Fountain of Dreams, and on Great Bay in classic mode, while Roy is fought on Final Destination in All-Star Mode, and on Temple in his unlocking battle. Additionally, in All-Star matches in event mode, both Marth and Roy are fought on Temple.
- This is the last Smash game to not have third-party characters, as well as to be developed by HAL Laboratory, as Sakurai would leave in 2005 to find Sora Ltd..
- Similar to how some characters were considered to appear in the previous game, some characters were considered to appear in Super Smash Bros. Melee before being scrapped, mainly due to time constraints.[2]
- Ice Climbers are the only starter characters in the game to only have one stage from their franchise, although another one was planned. Hidden in the game's files is a stage internally named as "ICETOP", which crashes the game when trying to load it due to it lacking a background music, although there are codes that force the stage to load without background music, which reveals that ICETOP is actually a clone of Icicle Mountain without music, suggesting that Icicle Mountain was apparently a placeholder for ICETOP. Additionally, another unused stage named as "10-2", apparently a second part of stage 10 from the Adventure mode, would be similar to ICETOP, and loading it has the same results - the game normally crashes, and using codes to load it throws in Icicle Mountain without music.
References
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