Super Smash Bros. Melee
review
Super
Smash Bros. Melee. What can I say about this game that hasn’t already been
said? It has such a huge following that has been ever so loyal to it for over 13
years now. People are still playing it at tournaments and with their friends.
It is truly a timeless classic. Today I am continuing my Smash a thon by
reviewing Melee, the second and definitely most popular game in the series.
Many people including Sakurai himself consider this the best Smash Bros. Do I
agree? You will see as I smash apart this gargantuan behemoth of a game.
(Graphics)Melee has aged a good bit
since launch, but one thing that certainly still looks remarkable to this day
is the godly intro. The intro was made to show off the power of the Gamecube as
this was a launch title, and the intro more than delivered. The intro gets you
so hyped and so pumped up. All your favorite Nintendo characters ready to smack
the pixels out of each other! All of them available at launch! To this day
there hasn’t been a launch of a Nintendo or even gaming platform that showcases
its characters in the new technology of the system better than this game. The
models are nice and colorful and the game runs at an amazing lightning speed.
Even though it’s really fast, it’s slow enough for you to know what you’re
doing. This game is definitely the fastest Smash Bros. game to date, no doubt
about it. Many people like Melee so much because of the speed. (Gameplay part 1) This game has a ton
of different modes. In multiplayer mode, which is in my opinion one of the best
multiplayer modes in gaming history, you can fight your friends in up to 4
player matches. There are team battles where you can team up with someone against
other characters. If you don’t have friends to play with like me, you can fight
CPU-controlled characters. I do this all the time to hone my skills. You can
choose between stock, coin, bonus, and timed matches. Stock matches are where
you have a certain amount of lives (the limit is 99) and the character that is
the last one standing wins. The game also calls these matches survival. Coin matches are where you collect coins from
dealing damage to your opponent(s). You loose coins when you are hit. The one
with the most coins when time is called wins. Timed matches are where you set a
time limit and you fight until time is called. Whoever has the least amount of
deaths wins. If it’s a tie, then you go to sudden death where all of the
characters that tied for least deaths are set to having 300% damage. Whoever
ends up winning sudden death winds the match. You can set a time limit for
stock matches as well. There are also special Melees, where you can do stuff
like have everyone be big or invisible or even have health instead of
percentages. There’s a Tournament mode where you create a bracket, select the
participating characters, and see it out to the end. You don’t have to watch
all of the matches but if you participate then you have to fight. Also, there
are a ton of different special battles you can do such as Tiny Melee where all
of the fighters are tiny or Giant Melee where everyone is big. The single
player mode from the previous game is back and it has ever since been called
Classic Mode. Not much has changed here, there are just some extra things
smuggled in there like a trophy collecting mini-game and you no longer have a
set path of characters to fight every time you play. What fighters will appear
at what point will always be different. The rest of the single player mode
includes Adventure, All-Star, and Stadium mode. Adventure Mode is basically a
more drawn-out Classic mode. You have some side-scrolling level parts with
enemies taken from the games that fighters hail from. You reach the end of each
level to fight a character. It’s rather fun but it can sometimes feel too long.
Stadium mode includes Target Test, Home Run Contest, and Multi-Man Melee.
Target Test is exactly the way it was in Smash 64 only with more levels because
there are more playable characters in this game. Home Run contest where you
have 10 seconds to hit Sandbag, the cutest punching bag I’ve ever seen, out of
a small barrier with a Home Run bat. You can use some attacks to increase its
percentage to it’ll go farther, but I can almost never find a compromise of
time to damage it and hit it with the bat. Multi-Man Melee includes several
different challenges where you fight off against a bunch wireframed fighters.
The challenges include 10-man or 100-man melee where you have to defeat a
certain amount of them, or 10 or 15 minute Melee where you fight off as many of
them as you can without dying in the give amount of time. There’s also Endless
Melee where you just fight as many of them as you can for as long as you can.
Cruel Melee is where you fight a small but insanely strong amount of wireframe
fighters. All-Star Mode is unlockable by getting all of the characters. It’s
basically just a boss endurance mode with all of the fighters in the game,
except you can choose to continue. Like Kirby and Kid Icarus Uprising’s boss
rushes, you have a rest area between each fight where you can choose to restore
your health. There’s also a new thing introduced in this game called trophies.
Trophies are collectable trophies of characters, stages, items, and other
things. You get trophies of the playable characters every time you finish
Classic, All-Star, or Adventure mode. Trophies are a great way to learn some
more about the world the characters in Smash as well as Nintendo as a whole
come from. There are Event Matches where you play through 51 different battles
with special settings to them such as and event where you have to separate the
Ice Climbers or one where you can’t let Sheik transform into Zelda. Event 50
will kick your ass. You have to fight Master Hand and Crazy hand at the same
time and defeat both of them individually with only 1 stock. Event 51 has you
fighting Mewtwo, Giga Bowser, and Ganondorf all ganged up against you, sure,
but at least you get 3 stocks for that one. I felt so satisfied when I finally
beat all of these events and unlocked the infamous Final Destination. This game
has an amazing variety of content and modes that’ll keep you coming back to
this game for years. The crazy thing is that future Smash Bros. games have even
more content stuffed into them!
Now
on to the playable characters!
(Gameplay part 2)
So
first off I’ll get the veterans out of the way. Most of them received major
upgrades, especially thanks to the addition of the side special, but I’ve
already talked about these characters in my previous review and don’t want to
be too repetitive.
Mario’s biggest change from Smash
64 is that he now has a reflector cape for his side B. It can also be good for
horizontal recovery.
Link is a considerably good
character in this game. They changed up his moveset a bit, giving him his
famous bow-and-arrow for a neutral special while converting his boomerang into
a side special. Link might be pretty good in this game, but I find him annoying
to fight on Lv. 9 CPUs.
Samus is MUCH better in this game
than in the original. The only major change in her moveset was that she was
given missiles for her side B, but the overall feel of Samus is way better than
before.
Donkey Kong is a pretty fun character to
use. His Side B is headbutt that, if
landed, can leave your opponent buried into the ground, which opens them up for
another attack. Other than that, DK is relatively the same. His biggest flaw,
however, is that since he’s so big, he is open for attack and is combo food for
a lot of characters.
Fox is considered to be the
overall best character in the game. Fox is very fast, has some solid KO power,
and very good recovery. He is popular among the competitive scene especially,
and Melee is mostly to thank for this. Go to a Melee tournament and you are
pretty much guaranteed to see somebody playing Fox there. His Side B is a
little dash attack in which he flashes across the stage at a high speed,
piercing anybody in his path.
Kirby is pretty much the exact
opposite of Fox in that he’s considered to be the absolute worst character in
the game. I’d say that he’s definitely one of them, but not the worst. It’s so
sad to see what happened to Kirby as I love using him in 64 and Brawl. He was
given a hammer for his side B and his dash attack was changed to the dash
attack Fire Kirby can use, but they did something to him and he feels kind of
like garbage in this game. Trust me, it REALLY hurts to say that. He’s still
rather fun to use though.
Yoshi, once again, is a character I
do not use very often nor care for very much. His Side B, which is an egg roll,
was a good addition to him however. It makes up for his lack of a 3rd
jump option.
Jigglypuff is considered one of the
best characters in the game with its many jumps, great air game, and most
importantly, its rest move that if you hit it at just the right moment, it’ll
send your opponents flying. Jigglypuff’s neutral B has been replaced with
rollout, a move that works a lot like Yoshi’s Egg Roll except with less
traction. Pound is Jigglypuff’s side B now. I don’t use Jigglypuff that much
but can definitely see why other people do.
Captain Falcon rocks in this game. Like in
the last game, he’s fast, hits hard, and has good combos. In this game, they’ve
made him even better. His side B is the Raptor Boost, which is a diving punch
of sorts that has a slightly different effect in the air than o the ground. It
can spike in the air while on the ground it’s a pretty basic move with good
maneuverability, making it a viable move for combos. Everything else that made
the captain awesome is still in tact.
Ness’s side B is now PK fire, his
neutral special in Smash 64. His new neutral special is PK Cross, which is a
flashing ball-like shape of light that slowly rises above Ness. It explodes
when the B button is released. I find Ness to be a pretty fun character to play
as every now and then.
Now
onto the characters that were introduced in this game.
Peach is a really good character
and it was a very sensible pick to add to the game. Peach has a float
maneuverability that lets her glide when jumping, giving her great air game and
recovery. For extra height, she can use her up B, an umbrella that she floats
down with after using. Her neutral B involves her taking Toad out of her dress.
This attack only does something if Toad comes into direct contact with another
move, spraying a small toxic wave of sorts. Her Side B involves her doing a
forward butt pushing attack that’s slow but powerful. Her Down B involves her
pulling out an item, usually a turnip that can be thrown at opponents. She
sometimes will pull out Mr. Saturn from Earthbound or on very rare occasion a
bob-omb. One of her smash attacks involves Peach swinging a tennis racket, a
golf club, or a frying pan. Which one she uses is up to chance. The frying pan
is the strongest. Peach is one of the most commonly used characters at Melee
tournaments as well as one of the highest-ranking characters in the game’s
tiers list. This is most likely because she has some of the best air game in
Melee as well as recovery like I stated earlier along with some strong moves
and good combo potential. She is light though, which lowers her defenses, and
runs slowly. It takes a lot of skill to master Peach, but it’s definitely worth
it from videos I’ve seen of her on the Internet.
Bowser is another character that
was an obvious pick to add to the game. He’s a heavyweight power character,
much like Donkey Kong. His Neutral B involves him spitting some fire. It’s very
similar to how a Pokémon uses Flamethrower. His Side B is the Koopa Klaw, a
move that in a way doubles as a special and a grab. Bowser grabs and bites his
teeth into his opponents with this move and then lets them go. It doesn’t serve
much purpose. His Down B is a ground pound that works just like Yoshi’s, except
it covers more area because Bowser is bigger than Yoshi. Bowser’s Up B makes
his shell spin, giving him some extra height, but is a mostly horizontal moving
move. It’s his recovery move but it doesn’t help him much. Bowser is considered
one of the worst characters in Melee and I have to agree. His attacks are slow
and his large size makes him an easy character to execute combos onto. While his
moves are powerful and he can take a lot of hits, they don’t do much to
compensate for his shortcomings. Bowser also lacks range in his attacks, with
the only real ranged move being his fire breath, which doesn’t even cover much
range to begin with. Bowser’s heavy weight also makes it hard to recover with a
recovery that’s not that good to begin with. However, when I say that he’s one
of the worst characters in the game, I mean that by in 1v1 matches. Bowser is a
much better character in 4 player matches because of his size combined with his
powerful attacks. Despite that, this is still Bowser’s worst Smash Bros.
incarnation.
Dr. Mario is one of a few “clone”
characters in this game. His moves and animations are all taken from Mario and
modified. He’s slower, heavier, but harder hitting than his plumber equivalent.
Besides that, the main differences are that his Super Jump Punch covers less
height than Mario’s does and instead of fireballs he throws pills. He’s pretty
good in my opinion. He has a deadly side smash among other things.
Zelda is a character that utilizes
a lot of magic, as she does in her own game. Most of the magic she uses is
spells that can be casted by Link in Ocarina of Time. Her neutral B is Nayru’s
Love, which is a spinning attack that covers her body and can also reflect
projectiles. Her Side B is Din’s Fire, which is a projectile flame that
explodes either when the button input for it is released or when it hits a
wall. Zelda is pretty weak in my opinion, with moves that don’t hit very hard,
poor defenses, and average speed. It could be my lack of understanding how to
use her, though, so doesn’t jump on me for my opinion. However, her Down B
transforms her into…
Sheik! Sheik is also one of the
game’s top tier characters and is used frequently at tournaments. Sheik is very
fast, both in running and attack speed. Her combo ability is arguably the best
in the entire game. Sheik’s neutral B is a shot of needles that can be charged
up to do more damage. Even when fully charged, the move doesn’t do much damage
though. It’s best use is for gimping, which is a term used by fans to describe
impeding a character’s recovery. Sheik’s side B is a dangly whip move that I
don’t really see the purpose in. Shiek’s up B has her fading out, then coming
back with the power of deku nuts. It’s a good recovery move as well as a
damaging move. While Sheik’s specials are a bit lacking, her meat and potatoes
lay in all of her other moves. Combining grabs with aerials and tilts/dash
attacks with smash attacks is what makes her such a viable fighter. I believe
Zelda is meant to be used with Sheik and you’re supposed to transform between
the two depending on the situation, which is probably why I have a hard time
understanding how to use Zelda in this game.
Ganondorf completes the triforce trio
in Smash Bros. However, strangely enough, he is a clone of Captain Falcon of
all characters in this game, despite the potential of an original Zelda
series-oriented moveset for him. He’s basically slower and more powerful than
Captain Falcon. I will say though, his moveset still complements him well since
the moves are very powerful and look like moves Ganondorf would use in the
Zelda games. Heck, I didn’t even know he was a clone until I found out about it
on the Internet. Ganondorfs specials are basically the same as Captain
Falcon’s, just with different speed and power, while his aerials and tilts are
a bit different. He doesn’t have the knee like the captain; instead he has a
forward slamming punch. His down air has an added electric effect that I think
has more hitstun on it than that of Captain Falcon. His up tilt is a charge up
leg slam rather than a simple leg slam. His neutral tilt has an electrical
effect if hit at the right moment as well. Ganondorf is a pretty fun character
to play as and can seriously ruin his opponents’ day while keeping a smug
facial expression, which is something that is very like him to do. So while he
might not exactly have moves pulled from his source material, the personality
is.
Falco is a clone of Fox and is one
of the most popular characters in the whole series. His main differences are
that he’s slower and more powerful than Fox and can jump higher. He’s a great
character to jump with, his jumps allow you to use a move in the air at the
exact spot you want to use is with ease. His lasers actually cause opponents to
flinch, unlike Fox’s. Falco, despite his
differences, seems to always be right next to Fox on the tier list for Melee.
He’s a great character; I even cleared Event 50 with him. Not my favorite but
still a great fighter.
Marth is a very skill-based
character. In order to master him, you need to keep his tipper sweetspot in
mind. What that means is that his moves are stronger when they hit his
opponents with the tip of his sword. This means you have to know to keep your
distance with Marth in order to use him most effectively. His neutral B has him
charging up his sword and then releasing it. I feel that its Brawl and Smash 4
versions are better as they compliment the tipper mechanic better. In this game
it’s an overhead slash while in the subsequent Smash Bros. games it’s a forward
thrust of the sword. His Side B is a dancing attack of sorts where you keep
inputting the move while changing the direction at the right moment to use
another attack right after that. This is another thing that gives Marth a
higher learning curve compared to most of the other characters in Melee as well
as Smash Bros. as a whole. Marth’s up B is a simple sword swipe, and his down B
is a simple counter. Marth is another top tier character in Melee, so mastering
him must feel very satisfying. I personally prefer Marth’s Brawl counterpart to
this one, but I still get a kick out of using Marth every now and then. I don’t
like Marth as much as his clone, though.
Roy is my boy. There, I said it.
But yes, Roy is my favorite character to use in Melee. He’s my main. Something
about the way he plays just really spoke to me when I first unlocked him and
tried him out. With Smash Bros. mains, I just sort of know when I have a main,
I don’t exactly have a clearly cut preferred playstyle, but I do tend to like
projectile characters, which Roy is definitely not, but even still I love him.
Roy’s first appearance was in this very game, actually. He was put into the
game to promote the release of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, for the GameBoy
Advance in Japan, which sadly has yet to see a US release. Fire Emblem as a
series wasn’t well known at all before Marth and Roy were in Melee, heck they
were originally gonna be Japan exclusive fighters, but thanks to their
inclusion in Melee, they put Fire Emblem on the map for good. Enough rambling,
now onto his moveset, which is generally the same as Marth’s, but his neutral B
is a one-hit kill if charged up fully, and his up B reaches less height but is
a stronger move and the direction it goes in can be changed if done at the
right moment. There’s also another key difference with Roy; his sweetspot is at
the center of his blade, so getting up close to opponents is more beneficial
than keeping a distance from them. This makes Roy feel different enough to the
point of me not caring that most of his moves are taken from Marth. That could
be a person bias though since Roy is my favorite fighter in the game. He later
became DLC for Smash 4 after being cut from Brawl and not being in Smash 4’s
initial release. It feels very satisfying to play as Roy. Striking foes with
his powerful moves and killing them at low damage percentages feels really
good, especially because you need to be careful when playing as Roy due to his
poor recovery. Most of his strong attacks are pretty easy to avoid too, so
while Roy certainly isn’t the best character in Melee, he’s still my favorite.
Mewtwo is actually my second
favorite character in Melee. Mewtwo was probably one of the first Pokémon that
came to Sakurai’s mind when thinking about Pokémon to add to Smash Bros. and
for good reason. Mewtwo is one of the most popular Pokémon in the series and
has a fighting feel to him. Mewtwo’s design is taken mostly from how it appears
in the original generation of Pokémon games rather than the anime or later
games. Mewtwo isn’t a terribly good character despite my liking for it. Mewtwo
is floaty, and while that’s good for recovery, it makes Mewtwo easy to knock
off the stage. Mewtwo is also a pretty big victim of juggling or using up
smashes/tilts/aerials on a character constantly to keep them up in the air. I
find Mewtwo to be a very rewarding character to use should I win with it, with
some pretty cool moves, great smash attacks, good aerials and useful grabs.
Mewtwo’s neutral B is Shadow Ball, which can charge up to do more damage. If an
opponent gets caught up in Mewtwo charging the move up, it can lock them and
inflict a good amount of damage up until it fully charges. Mewtwo’s side B is
confusion, a move that hurls opponents into the air and can reflect
projectiles. Confusion doesn’t have much range though, so it doesn’t feel very
effective. Mewtwo’s down B is disable, which stuns opponents hit by it. Again,
like Confusion, it has range that I consider too low to be useful, so I often
avoid using those moves with Mewtwo. Mewtwo’s up B is Teleport in which Mewtwo
teleports from one point to another. This move has pretty good reach and can be
changed to go in quite a good number of directions. Sadly, Mewtwo was removed
from the roster in Brawl. While it made a lot of sense for characters like
Pichu and Young Link to get the boot, it didn’t make too much sense for Mewtwo
to be cut. Most people say it’s because of Lucario’s inclusion, effectively
replacing Mewtwo. I could see where people are coming from with that since
Mewtwo wasn’t given much focus from Game Freak around the time of Brawl’s
development in comparison to both how much more Mewtwo was featured in Pokémon
around the time of Melee’s release and how popular Lucario was. However, Mewtwo
has his own standalone moveset, with only 1 or 2 of Lucario’s moves being
related to Mewtwo’s. Also, Mewtwo has always been popular, so it would’ve made
sense to keep Mewtwo around. I guess Mewtwo just didn’t have a very high
priority compared to some of Brawl’s other characters and when it came time to
decide whether or not it would return, Sakurai made the decision that it just wasn’t
worth the development time compared to some other characters. Mewtwo was at
first cut again in Smash 4, but has since become DLC, most likely because of
the fan demand coupled with Mewtwo’s resurgence in relevancy to the Pokémon
series.
Pichu is by far the absolute
worst character in not only Melee but the entire Smash Bros. series in my
opinion. Pichu has all of the same moves as Pikachu, but is lighter and faster,
and all of Pichu’s electric moves hurt it. That’s right; Pichu’s OWN MOVES damage
itself. Pichu also has the defenses of a small feather. To make it even worse,
Pichu’s moves don’t hit very hard at all. Pichu was probably the first
character to get cut in Brawl , and I don’t wanna see it come back. I do
understand, however, that Pichu was likely meant to be bad. I say likely
because people have said that on the Internet, but there’s no primary source
that I can find anywhere that says that. Regardless, Pichu is a terrible
character who’s only saving grace is that it’s pretty cute.
Ice Climbers are certainly unique
characters that not only represent one of Nintendo’s less popular games but
also have a very unique playstyle. The dynamic duo and Nana and Popo always
fight together. Rather than controlling one character, you get two for the
price of one! It adds some very interesting set-ups and it has shown in
competitive play. The Ice Climbers are actually a little notorious for their
infinite grab combo where once you get a character locked into a certain chain
grab with these characters, you can keep grabbing and pummeling them until they
get knocked out. Also, if Nana is taken out, then Popo can still fight on his
own, but if Popo is KO’d, then it’s considered a KO for both of them. Their
neutral B is a little toss of a few small iceberg-like objects across the
stage. Their side B is a little hammer spin. Their up B is a string leap of
sorts in which you need both of them to use. If you’re stranded as just Popo,
then your recovery options are limited, so it’s best to have both of them there
to fight. Their down B is an icy breath move that has a little bit of range. I
honestly have never been a huge fan of the Ice Climbers. While they certainly
bring a fresh playstyle to the table, I just never really liked them that much.
It’s a similar case to Yoshi. However, they’re still good characters.
And
last but certainly not least is your friendly 2-dimensional friend himself, Mr. Game & Watch! Mr. Game &
Watch is an interesting specimen indeed. He probably wasn’t expected by anyone
to be in this game. Heck, I’m sure most people didn’t know who this guy was
before Smash Bros.! Mr. Game & Watch has a lot of LED game-like sound
effects to emulate the feel of Nintendo’s old Game & Watch machines, which
were both games and watches. His neutral B is him tossing breakfast meat such
as sausage and bacon. His side B is probably his most iconic move, which is the
Judgment Hammer. It will end up as any
number between 1 and 9, and the higher the number, the stronger the move. Should
you be lucky enough to land a 9, it’ll send your opponent flying and will
almost definitely KO them. His up B is a trampoline jump, and his down B
involves him breaking out an oil bucket that can be filled out with projectile
attacks. Once it’s full, the bucket will spill, causing some damage. Mr. Game
& Watch is certainly a fun and interesting character to play as. I quite
like him! However, I think his Melee incarnation is his worst in the series.
I’ll go over why I like him better in Brawl and Smash 4 in my Brawl review. But
for now, we have a great oddball character!
This
game’s roster is a great mix of Nintendo stars of the past and present (at
least for the time) and while it does skew a lot more towards older characters
than new and have quite a few characters that have movesets taken from
pre-existing ones, it’s a well balanced roster that really dives deep into
Nintendo’s history and seems to leave no stone unturned.
(Music)
Ok,
that was a lot to take in. Now that’s all there’s left to assess is the game’s
music, and there isn’t much that needs to be said here. This game’s music is
wonderful. It takes a lot of Nintendo’s best tracks and beautifully remixes
them. That alone is awesome. The game’s original tracks are also great. They’ve
gone on to become some of the franchise’s most iconic tunes, such as Final
Destination’s theme and the menu theme for the game. Just plain awesome.
(Overall)
Overall,
Super Smash Bros. Melee is an incredible game. It took what made the original
game so good and added so much more to it. It’s staggering to see the huge leap
from Smash 64 to Melee. It makes Smash 64 feel like a demo for the rest of the
series, quite honestly. It has several hours of fun, a lot of collectibles, a
huge variety of modes to play, a great roster spanning several years of
Nintendo history with trophies to explain more about where the characters come
from, fast and frantic gameplay, an awesome soundtrack, and it’s a game that
will keep you coming back for years. This game really does feel like the whole
package. The crazy thing is though that Brawl and Smash 4 have even more to
them! Even still, Melee was the game that truly layed the ground for future
Smash games to tread. Smash 64 was the foundation, but Melee was what truly
paved the way. Melee is a game I would recommend to anyone out there, casual or
hardcore, kid or adult, Nintendo fan or not. This should be the first game you
get for the Gamecube should you decide to pick one up in this day and age. I
still like Wind Waker better, but this game comes in at a VERY close second as
my favorite Gamecube game. See you next time for my review of Brawl!
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