Super Smash Bros. Melee
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{{Infobox CVG
|title = Super Smash Bros. Melee
|image = Image:Super Smash Bros Melee Players Ch.jpg
|developer = HAL Laboratory
|publisher = Nintendo
|designer = Masahiro Sakurai
|engine =
|released = Image:Flag of Japan.svg November 21, 2001
Image:Flag of the United States.svg December 3, 2001
Image:European flag.svg May 24, 2002
|genre = Fighting
|modes = Single player, multiplayer
|ratings = ESRB: T (Teen)
ELSPA: 11+
PEGI: Ages 3+,
OFLC: G8+
|platforms = Nintendo GameCube
|media = 1.5 gigabyte optical disc and 128-Megabit disc
|requirements = 11 blocks of memory
|input =
|preceded by = Super Smash Bros.
|followed by = Super Smash Bros. Revolution
}}
Super Smash Bros. Melee (Japanese: 大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズDX, Dairantō Smash Brothers Deluxe) is a colorful fighting game released for the Nintendo GameCube shortly after its launch in 2001. It is the sequel to the 1999 Nintendo 64 fighting game Super Smash Bros. and builds on that game's broad appeal and involved multiplayer mode, while improving overall quality and adding new features. A very popular title, it is considered the definitive killer game for the GameCube and is the GameCube's best-selling title. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is usually referred to by its acronym, SSBM, or, more informally, Smash or Melee.
As was the case in the original Super Smash Bros., Super Smash Bros. Melee does not have a true story behind it and merely features a scenario in which many of the most famous characters from the different universes of Nintendo converge in one dimension to do battle with each other for unexplained reasons. As was the case in the original, the game's story is never made clear.
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Gameplay
Super Smash Bros. Melee, like its predecessor, 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 knock back the enemy; inflicted damage increases that distance, so sufficient damage must be accumulated before one attempts to KO an opponent. If the opponent is insufficiently damaged, he or she can "recover" (through mid-air jumps or certain attacks) from off-stage and resume normal combat. During the game, items fall in the game field, like Super Mushrooms (the character grows), Poké Balls (release Pokémon), Koopa shells (to be kicked at foes) and Heart Containers (replenish health).
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 to 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. Each character has unique special moves, such as Link's arrows or Mario's fireballs.
Single player mode provides the player with a variety of fighting and side-scrolling challenges. One can also practice in Training mode, or use the Stadium to play various minigames: Target Test, Home Run Contest, and Multi Man Melee. The Event Match mode allows the player to attempt to negotiate various scripted challenges (fighting a Pokémon-themed match, for instance, or defeating an enemy in less than seven seconds).
Versus
In versus 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 AIs of varying difficulty. The victor may be determined in any of four ways, the most popular of which are "stock" mode, in which the last player (or team) still alive is declared the winner, and "time" mode, in which the winner is the player with the most KOs and fewest falls at the end of a certain time limit. A variety of other options are available, such as determining the number and kind of items that appear during the battle.
Versus mode remains by far the most popular part of the game, and has created a devoted fanbase Template:Citation needed. There have been many tournaments throughout the years, most following the format of four or five-stock, eight to ten-minute time limit, no items battle on one of a limited selection of fair stages. Major League Gaming added Super Smash Bros. Melee to its roster of tournament games in 2004.
Trophies
Trophies of various Nintendo characters and objects can be collected in the game. These trophies include statuettes of various characters, accessories and items associated with them, as well as secondary characters not otherwise included in the game. The trophies range from the well-known to the obscure. Super Smash Bros. had a similar system of plush dolls.
There are 290 trophies in non-Japanese versions of Super Smash Bros. Melee. The Japanese version has three more: the character Tamagon from Devil World released only in Japan, and two trophies that were awarded at a promotional event in Japan: Samus without her helmet, and Mario riding Yoshi.
Characters
Template:Main Image:SSBM-SelectScreen.png 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. 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 3 non-playable boss characters: Master Hand, Crazy Hand and Giga Bowser.
Hoaxes
Due to the popularity of this game, a number of hoaxes have appeared and have become extremely popular.
Sonic and Tails
Image:Sonic001.jpg Image:Tails001.jpg In 2002, the April edition of the video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly listed a "cheat" for the game that would baffle many players. The issue claimed that the Sega characters Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower were hidden characters in the game. In order to be able to unlock them, the player was required to eliminate 20 of the wire-frame characters in the Cruel Melee mode. Then, both Sonic and Tails would supposedly fight the player simultaneously. If defeated, they would then become playable. EGM also stated that if a player completed Classic mode with either character, they would be given "a special surprise". To convince readers, EGM included some "screenshots" of Sonic and Tails in play.
Once players started fulfilling the supposed requirements, however, the rumor was revealed to be an April Fool's joke, reminiscent of EGM's similarly executed Sheng Long joke for Street Fighter II. Several other factors also indicated the false nature of the rumor, such as Nintendo's lack of collaboration with Sega during the game's production, a screen that tells the player that he or she has unlocked all the characters (without having unlocked Sonic and Tails), the fact that Sonic's life icons look different in the two screenshots with him in it, and the lack of any acknowledgement of the two characters in any strategy guide.
Nintendo Power recently released the results of a poll for the character subscribers most wanted in the next Super Smash Bros. It is interesting to note that two of the most popular choices were Sonic and Tails. They were followed closely by Tekken's Jin Kazama, Crash Bandicoot, Alexandra Roivas, Spyro the Dragon, Street Fighter hero Ryu, Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII, and Mortal Kombat's hero Liu Kang and the four armed enforcer, Goro, Nightmare, Pac-Man, and Viewtiful Joe, Dante, and Vergil.
Because all of the in-game characters are licensed by Nintendo, and none of the above listed characters, (other than Alexandra Roivas), are, this makes it almost impossible that they will be included in future games.
Toad
Image:Toadsmall.jpg Toad is a small servant or advisor of Princess Peach found throughout the Super Mario Bros. series. Toad appears briefly in Super Smash Bros. Melee as one of Princess Peach's attacks and in the Mushroom Kingdom stage in Adventure Mode. The Toad Hoax described a method to "unlock" Toad — complete Adventure mode and shoot all the ending credits. However, this has been disproven: Toad cannot be reached using this method, the Debug menu finds no evidence of Toad being a playable character, and the supposed screenshots of Toad in action were edited. It is also noted that there is a Toad trophy that is obtained via normal means, unlike any of the actual playable characters (this was commonly used as a method to disprove many other, lesser known hoax characters, such as Wario, Waluigi, Koopa, Paper Mario, and Balloon Fighter).
Tournaments
The depth of this game has led to the development of a large, devoted tournament community. Smash World Forums, or Smashboards, slowly grew into the home for these competitive players. In 2002 and 2003, the first tournaments began appearing on Smashboards. Many of these tournaments were held in a member's basement, and open invitations were placed on the website. Early on, some people would drive 5-6 hours to get to a location where there might only be 10 players.
The scene began to transform with the arrival of the Tournament Go (TG) series of tournaments, hosted by a moderator with the handle of "MattDeezie". At the time, MattDeezie had been placing very high in California tournaments, and also placed in the Top 3 at the IGVF Seattle Smash national tournament. He invited anyone who would attend to come out to California, and he both rented out the building for the tournament out of his own pocket and allowed everyone who came to stay at his personal residence. The series quickly grew, and soon, one of the top 2 smashers in the Midwest, Eddie, traveled from Chicago to California for it, setting the precedent for the TG series as the unofficial national championships of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
The TG series had six incarnations, the last being in the summer of 2004. In addition to Midwest players such as Eddie, TG tournaments attracted players from the East Coast such as members of H2yl and DA. The TG series has contributed much to the development of the nationwide community. The community has grown from perhaps 100 traveling members to over 1500. The end of this tournament series was not the end of competitive Smash by far, though.
In the same summer as TG6, the Ship of Fools, a crew located in Mishawaka, Indiana, hosted MELEE-FC—Misunderstood Enthusiasts Living an Extraordinary Existence, For Cash. Though the name was humorous in nature, the tournament was promoted heavily due to the fact that TG5 was supposed to be the last of the series. Even the late announcement of TG6 did not prevent this tournament from being the largest to date. Its central location and hospitable environment attracted players from all over the country. Around the same time, Major League Gaming (MLG) added Smash to its tournament line-up, offering thousands of dollars in prize money.
The first and second MLG seasons have concluded successfully, with Ken Huong, the generally acknowledged best player in the world, winning both titles, over notable players such as Isai, Chu Dat, PC Chris, Azen, and even over Captain Jack from Japan. MELEE-FC had another incarnation in July 2005, and is the largest independent tournament to date, at 186 entrants for singles. It also was the site for the first Regional Crew Battle, when the East Coast, West Coast, South, and Midwest brought some of their top players and competed.10 Players from each region revceive 10 stock. Even with Ken (winner of FC's singles tournament) on the West Coast team, the East Coast managed to barely defeat their rivals in crew battles, winning by 2 stock out of all 40.
MLG continues to run corporately sponsored Smash tournaments, with a good chance that USA will be carrying their events this coming season.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is clear that MLG will be on the USA Network in the fall. However it is not clear that SSBM will be necessarily appearing on it, seeing as how Halo II competes with and bests it with tournament popularity and turnout. That being said, this is still a tremendous step for the Smash tournament scene and mainstream competitive video game appeal. The independent scene also thrives, with many tournaments appearing consistently.
Reaction
Super Smash Bros. Melee currently has an aggregate score of 89% at GameRankings. <ref>GameRankings - Super Smash Bros. Melee (Retrieved April 3, 2006)</ref>. 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 in particular noted the additions of the Event and Adventure modes, which he said added hours and hours of single-player gameplay. <ref>Mirabella, Fran. IGN: Super Smash Bros. Melee Review. IGN. December 3, 2001. Retreieved April 19, 2006.</ref> However, Miguel Lopez of GameSpot described the controls as "hyper-responsive", but only noticably so when making precise movements <ref>Lopez, Miguel. Smash Bros. Melee for Gamecube Review. GameSpot. November 17, 2001. Retrieved April 17, 2006.</ref>
This game has been consistenly hailed as one of the best games of all time. Super Smash Bros. Melee placed sixth in two GameFAQs events: the "Best Game Ever" contest <ref>Best. Game. Ever. Bracket. GameFAQs. Spring 2004.</ref>, and a poll about the 100 best games ever <ref>10-Year Anniversary Contest - The 10 Best Games Ever + 90 Games: The Users' Picks. GameFAQs. 2005.</ref>. In the 200th issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, the editors published a list of the "Top 200 Games Of Their Time," which compared games based on their influence and popularity at release. Super Smash Bros. Melee was the 92nd most influential game of its time. Template:Citation needed
Future
At E3 2005, the President of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, announced a third game in the Super Smash Bros. series that is currently in development for the Nintendo Revolution. The game was confirmed to be playable online by taking advantage of the system's Wi-Fi capabilities. This title could be seen as early as the second half of 2006 as a launch title for the Revolution, but the release date is currently unannounced.
On November 16, 2005, Nintendo announced that Masahiro Sakurai, the director of previous Smash Bros outings, will once again be at the helm as director and game designer. The move came as somewhat of a surprise as Sakurai left HAL Laboratory to head his own independent company, Sora.
Soundtrack
Nintendo released a special musical album in 2004 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 of many of the songs from the game.
References
<references />
External links
- Template:Nintendo.com
- Template:Moby game
- Description of the Debug Menu
- Detstar - Super Smash Bros. Melee
- Smash Domain
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