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Super Smash Bros. Melee (大乱闘 スマッシュ ブラザーズ DX, Dairantō Sumasshu Burazāzu Derakkusu, Great Battle Smash Brothers Deluxe) is a popular fighting game released for the Nintendo GameCube shortly after its launch in 2001 (2002 in the PAL region). It is the sequel to the 1999 Nintendo 64 fighting game Super Smash Bros. It builds on that game's broad appeal and involved multiplayer mode, adding new features. Melee is the GameCube's best-selling title with sales of 6 million games sold worldwide. Due to its large and somewhat unwieldy name, it is usually referred to by its acronym, SSBM, or, more informally, Smash or Melee.
Super Smash Bros. Melee, like Super Smash Bros., doesn't have a direct coherent plot, but continuously gives subtle hints to a deeper, hidden one. A sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, is under development for the Nintendo Wii.
Gameplay
Like its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Melee is different from most traditional fighting games in that simply inflicting damage does not guarantee victory. In normal play, a player must force the opponent off the stage's boundaries, termed as a "KO"; this can be likened to a ring out in standard fighting games. Attacks both inflict damage and can, if enough damage is dealt, knock back the enemy; inflicted damage increases that distance, so sufficient damage must be accumulated before attempting a KO. Each character's strength is measured by a percentage damage counter. The higher the percent value, the weaker the player is, and the easier they are to knock off the stage. However, he or she may be able to jump back to the stage ("recover") using multiple "mid-air" jumps and special moves, and continue to fight. During the game, items fall into the game field . The speed of gameplay can be very fast-paced compared to the original at times, mainly when using aerial attacks.
The controls for Melee are simple: almost every single move in the game can be accessed via one button press and a joystick direction. This control scheme contrasts with that of standard fighting games which often require the player to memorize complicated and sometimes lengthy sequences of button inputs to perform effective attack combos. Different attacks can be accessed depending on which button is pressed or whether the control stick is tilted or "tapped" (quickly tilted). Tapping the control stick in the proper direction and/or along with the appropriate button presses allows the controlled character to run, jump, and perform the game's eponymous "Smash attacks", which are very powerful moves with substantial damage and knockback. In addition, each character has unique special moves, such as Link's boomerang or Mario's fireballs. Characters also have a number of defensive moves, such as the dodge and roll which combine shielding and tapping of the control stick of the GameCube controller. Though the core controls are simple, they have also been praised as equally sophisticated.
Single player
Single player mode provides the player with a variety of fighting and side-scrolling challenges. The three main playing modes are "Classic" (similar to the single player mode in the previous installment, but with all matches except for the last randomized), "Adventure Mode", in which the player character travels from one side-scrolling level to the next while battling foes, and the unlockable "All-Star Mode" -- in which the player character must fight all of the game's playable characters with only one stock life. One can also practice in Training Mode, or use the Stadium to play various minigames: Target Test (known as "Break the Targets" in Super Smash Brothers; the character must destroy 10 strategically-placed targets), Home Run Contest (after damaging Sandbag, the player must launch him as far as possible with a Home Run Bat or any attack in the characters arsenal) and Multi-Man Melee (fights with the Fighting Wire Frames, paced by time or number of foes). The Event Match mode allows the player to attempt to negotiate various scripted challenges (such as fighting a Pokémon themed match, or defeating an enemy in less than seven seconds).
Multiplayer
In multiplayer mode, up to four characters may fight, either in a free-for-all or on teams. All characters may be controlled either by humans or the computer. CPU characters' AI difficulty is ranked from 1 through 9, with 1 indicating that the AI is weak and doesn't attack much, and 9 indicating it attacks faster and more often. The victor is determined in one of four ways, depending on the game type: Stock mode (a solo or team-based last-man-standing), Time mode (in which points are lost for a fall or self destruct and gained for a KO, with whoever has the most points after the chosen time period being designated the winner) Coin mode (in which coins are dropped by players when they take damage, with the winner being the player that has collected the most coins at the end of the time period) and Bonus mode (in which the players are ranked by points awarded for fighting style). A variety of other options are available, such as determining the number and type of items that appear during the battle. There are also special modes that involve changes to the game mechanics (speeding up or slowing down the game, for example).
Characters
All eight original and four secret characters from Super Smash Bros. return along with four new characters available from the start of the game. Two of the secret characters from the original game are now automatically available from the start in Melee (Captain Falcon and Ness). Nine new secret characters have been added in addition to the two remaining secret characters for a total of 25 playable characters.
In addition, there are also 5 non-playable (only playable within Action Replay) characters: Master Hand, Crazy Hand (in some cases both the Master and the Crazy Hand are at the end of Classic mode on higher difficulty levels), and Giga Bowser, a heavily enlarged and mutated version of Bowser. Also, there are male and female wire frame fighters (weakened versions of the Captain Falcon and Zelda characters that lack special abilities), found in both a later stage in Adventure mode and the Multi-Man Melee mode, and an utterly helpless Sandbag character, used as a target in the Home Run Contest mode. Neither the wire frame fighters, Sandbag, The Hand Bros., or Giga Bowser are playable without the use of an Action Replay.
One of Peach's alternate costumes very closely resembles Princess Daisy; she even becomes a brunette. Similarly, one of Mario's costumes resembles Wario and one of Captain Falcon's costumes actually is that of Blood Falcon, which can be seen if the game is paused.
Video game developer Hideo Kojima originally requested Solid Snake, character of the Metal Gear series, to be playable in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but the game was too far in development for him to be included. Snake has been confirmed to appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Tournaments
In 1999, 13-year-old Ricky “Gideon” Tilden started Smash World Forums also known as Smashboards. In 2002 and 2003, the first tournaments began to appear on the website. These community sponsored events slowly grew, with certain tournament series proving to be milestones within the community.
Southern California’s Tournament Go (TG) series revolutionized the scene. By its sixth incarnation in the summer of 2004, Matt Deezie’s small local tournaments had exploded into a hundred person national affair. That year, Super Smash Bros. Melee was added to Major League Gaming’s (MLG) tournament roster.
In the summer of 2005, a crew in Mishawaka, Indiana hosted Melee-FC3, a tournament with nearly 200 participants from 30 states, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands . In two separate issues, Nintendo Power covered the independent and corporate Smash scenes, including Smashboards, MLG, and FC3. Shortly thereafter, MTV ran a special “True Life: I'm a Professional Gamer” featuring MLG Pro Smasher KillaOR.
MLG Anaheim, Chicago, and Orlando each broke over 150 participants. Zero Challenge 2 became the largest tournament on the West Coast and featured players from Europe and Japan in attendance. Melee FC6 finally broke 200 participants becoming arguably the largest Smash tournament to date.
Ken Hoang, the winner of MLG's 2004 and 2005 National Smash Championships, is generally hailed to be the best player in the world, having traveled internationally to play and defeat the best opponents. MLG has began its tournament circuit on the cable network USA Network.
Critical reception
Super Smash Bros. Melee received very positive reviews from most critics, including a 9.6/10 from IGNCite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page)., 90% at Game Rankings and 95% from the British Official Nintendo Magazine
Many reviewers felt that the game was vastly improved over its predecessor with more customization and characters as well as more polished graphics and improved gameplay. Fran Mirabella III of IGN, in particular noted the additions of the Event and Adventure modes, which he said added hours and hours of single player gameplay. However, Miguel Lopez of GameSpot described the controls as "hyper-responsive," but only noticeably so when making precise movements. Controversy has arisen about the games T rating for mild violence and comic mischief, as opposed to E or E10+. The first game was rated E. The ESRB defended themselves by saying the game's violence was slightly more realistic than the first one's.
Soundtrack
Nintendo released a special musical album in 2003 called Smashing...Live! which it gave away as a bonus for subscribing to Nintendo Power magazine in North America, and also as a free gift in an issue of the British Nintendo Official Magazine. It was released for sale only in Japan. It is not music taken directly from the game like most video game soundtracks but, rather, a live, orchestrated performance by the New Japan Philharmonic of many of the songs from the game.
Voice changes:
- In the PAL version of the game, the language setting can be changed to various European languages. In German and French, the names for Jigglypuff and Mewtwo are changed (along with the names of all Pokémon trophies). The character voices are also changed to make the Pokémon say their localized name instead, as is the same in the English version.
- In the English version, Mewtwo's voice consists of growls, screams and laughs. In the Japanese version, Mewtwo is given a actual voice actor, heard only in his victory screens.
- In addition to Jigglypuff/Purin's voice change, in the Japanese version, Falco has two different taunts. In both, he shouts two different sentences in Japanese, changing randomly. In the English version, he will only make a "Heh!" sound. Similarly, in the Japanese version, Fox's taunt alternates between him saying, "Come on!" in English and Japanese. His Japanese taunt is "kakatte koi!" meaning "come and get me!"
- In the English version, matches ends with "Game!" or "Time!", while the Japanese version has the traditional "Game Set" or "Time Up", as it was in the original Super Smash Bros.
- If the player goes to Collection in the Japanese version or setting the game language in Japanese on trophies section, some of the game systems are replaced with Japan-only systems. For example, the original NES and SNES are replaced with their Japanese counterparts (Famicom and the Super Famicom). Strangely enough, the Virtual Boy is only seen in the Japanese version, despite the fact it was also released in North America. Worth taking note is also the fact that when beating the game in Single Player mode, the player gets to see a screen which is nearly identical to that of the Collection but an array of differently colored Game Boy portable systems can be seen that is missing from the actual Collection.
- Some of the trophies, when the language is set in English, say Japan Only. If the user were to put the language in Japanese and translate it, it will say the year it was released.
- There seems to have been a mix up between the languages. As said above, Bowser in the Japanese version is 'Koopa'. On the voice test, if you listen to the announcer's voice tests, he says 'Giga Koopa' in the English version, and 'Giga Bowser' in the Japanese version.
The American version of the game includes two language options: English and Japanese. The majority of the above differences can be heard in the American version of the game if this setting is altered.
References
- Mirabella, Fran. IGN: Super Smash Bros. Melee Review. IGN. December 3, 2001. Retreieved April 19, 2006.
- http://wii.ign.com/articles/707/707504p1.html
- ^ Andy Myers (October 2005), Smash Takes Over, Nintendo Power
{{citation}}: Text "Nintendo Power, Issue 196, Page 106" ignored (help); Unknown parameter|access date=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - Andy Myers. (September 2005), Smash Planet, Nintendo Power
{{citation}}: Text "Nintendo Power, Issue 195, Page 76-79" ignored (help); Unknown parameter|access date=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - KillaOR in "True Life: I'm a Professional Gamer"
- http://dpad.gotfrag.com/portal/story/32773/?spage=2
- Dyslexia (April 16 2006). "MLG To Bring Pro Gaming To the Masses". Major League Gaming. Retrieved 2006-04-17.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|year=(help)CS1 maint: year (link) - Game Rankings - Super Smash Bros. Melee (Retrieved April 3, 2006)
See also
- Super Smash Bros.
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- Super Smash Bros. (series)
- List of GameCube games
- List of best-selling computer and video games
- List of computer and video fighting games
External links
- Super Smash Bros. official site
- Smash World Forums
- Template:Nintendo.com
- Super Smash Bros. Melee at MobyGames
- Template:GameFAQs
- Description of the Debug Menu
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