Super Smash Bros. Melee

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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. A very popular title, it is the GameCube's best-selling title with sales of 6 million units sold worldwide. 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 coherent plot and simply pits famous Nintendo characters against each other in battle. A sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, is under development for Nintendo's forthcoming console Wii.

Gameplay

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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, or he or she may be able to jump back to the stage ("recover") using mulitple "mid-air" jumps and specials moves, and would be able to fight on. During the game, items fall in the game field, like Super Mushrooms (the character grows), Poké Balls (release Pokémon) and Koopa shells (to be kicked or thrown at foes). 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 arrows 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 shoulder buttons of the GameCube controller. Though the core controls are simple, there are a number of complex moves that only the most dedicated players can master.

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. Their difficulty is ranked from 1 through 9, with 1 indicating that the AI is weak and doesn't attack much, and 9 indicating they attack faster and more often. The victor may be determined in any of four ways: "stock" mode, a solo- or team-based last man standing, "time" mode, in which the winner is the player with the most KOs and fewest falls at the end of the chosen time limit, "Coin" mode in which the winner is the person with the most coins, which are dropped by players when they take damage and "Bonus" mode in which the winner is the person who has accumilated the most points by doing certain things, e.g., not using any items, only performing certain attacks, etc. A variety of other options are available, such as determining the number and kind of items that appear during the battle.

As with other fighting games, the game's versus mode is used for competitive gaming. 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 simple stages. [link]. Major League Gaming added Super Smash Bros. Melee to its roster of tournament games in 2004. ZDNet: [Major League Gaming goes big league]

Trophies

Trophies ("Figures" in the Japanese version) of various Nintendo characters and objects can be collected in the game. These trophies include statuettes of various playable 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, however it only included the 12 playable characters.

There are 293 trophies in the Japanese and North American version of Super Smash Bros. Melee, but only 290 in the PAL version. The three extra trophies are 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 (Nintendo Power later incorrectly claimed these two to be fake). Tamagon was removed from the PAL version, presumably because the game Devil World would be considered devil-like and against God. These three trophies are only obtainable through Action Replay outside of Japan. With the exception of Tamagon on the PAL version, these trophies were not removed from the game, just locked away. If they were removed completely, the ability to unlock them via Action Replay would not be possible.

Two trophies were altered in the English version of the game:

• The Topi statue was originally a small seal, just as it appears in the Japanese version of Ice Climber. Like the original NTSC/US Ice Climber release, the seal was replaced with the snow-bird like creature to prevent accusations of promoting animal cruelty.

• The Motion-Sensor-Bomb was originally the Proximity Mine (Goldeneye). The reason for this change is unknown.

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. 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 (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 nor Sandbag are playable without the use of an Action Replay.

Hoaxes

Due to the popularity of this game, a number of hoaxes have appeared and have become extremely popular.

Sonic and Tails

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 Fools joke, reminiscent of EGM's similarly executed Sheng Long for Street Fighter II.

Toad

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 Hoang, generally acknowledged as the 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. The second FC, hosted in July 2005, was the largest 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. Even with Ken (winner of FC's singles tournament) on the West Coast team, the East Coast managed to squeek by their rivals in the crew battles, beating the West Coast by 5 stock and winning the first Regional Crew Battle.

MLG continues to run corporately sponsored Smash tournaments, with USA Network carrying their events this coming season. It was confirmed at MLG NY 2006, that SSBM will be aired. The independent scene also thrives, with many regions hosting monthly tournaments, and the next incarnation of MELEE-FC on the horizon.

Critical reception

Super Smash Bros. Melee received very positive reviews from most critics, including a 9.6/10 from IGN and a 9.5/10 from Electronic Gaming Monthly. It currently has an aggregate score of 93% at GameStats[link] (Retrieved July 13, 2006) and 89% at GameRankings [GameRankings - Super Smash Bros. Melee] (Retrieved April 3, 2006). 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 of IGN, in particular noted the additions of the Event and Adventure modes, which he said added hours and hours of single player gameplay.Mirabella, Fran. [IGN: Super Smash Bros. Melee Review]. IGN. December 3, 2001. Retreieved April 19, 2006. However, Miguel Lopez of GameSpot described the controls as "hyper-responsive", but only noticeably so when making precise movements.Lopez, Miguel. [Smash Bros. Melee for Gamecube Review]. GameSpot. November 17, 2001. Retrieved April 17, 2006.

Awards

• Super Smash Bros. Melee was placed sixth in two GameFAQs events: the "Best Game Ever" contest,[Best. Game. Ever. Bracket]. GameFAQs. Spring 2004. and a poll about the 100 best games ever.[10-Year Anniversary Contest - The 10 Best Games Ever + 90 Games: The Users' Picks]. GameFAQs. 2005.
• 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.Semrad, Steve. [The Greatest 200 Video Games of Their Time]. 1UP.com. February 2, 2006. Retrieved May 27, 2006.
• Nintendo Power named it the 16th best game ever to appear on a Nintendo console,Nintendo Power #200 though a poll based on player opinions held by Nintendo Power had SSBM placing in fourth.
• Filter named it the second best fighting game of all time.

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.

Trivia

• Solid Snake was requested to be 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 http://wii.ign.com/articles/707/707504p1.html.
• In the Japanese version or setting the game language in Japanese, Bowser and Jigglypuff are called "Koopa" and "Purin." On the menu, the Ice Climbers appear as simply "Ice Climber." Also, DK is shown as D. Kong, but it is still pronounced the same as "Donkey Kong." Also, the matches end in different ways - the English version ends with "Game!" or "Time!", while the Japanese version keeps the traditional "Game Set" or "Time Up."
• 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, Pikachu, Pichu and Mewtwo are changed (along with the names of all Pokémon trophies). The character voices are also changed to make the Pokémon say their "new" name instead.
• In the English version, Mewtwo's voice consists of growls, screams and laughs. In the Japanese version, Mewtwo is given a real voice, which is only heard in his victory screens.
• If players repeatedly alternate pressing left and right on the control pad as Fox or Falco on the Corneria or Venom stages, they will activate their "secret taunt", which causes the other members of Star Fox to converse.
• Mario's voice is recycled voice samples from Super Mario 64. Luigi's voice is actually Mario's voice played much faster.
• One of the event matches is called "Pikachu and Pichu", which was the name of a short that came on before . Both Melee and Pokémon 3 were released in 2001.
• In the Japanese version, Jigglypuff has a different voice (and name) and in the credits, Rachel Lillis' name is omitted and replaced with Mika Kanai. Pokémon voice actors are also listed.
• In addition to Jigglypuff/Purin's voice change, the Japanese version of Smash Bros DX (as well as Melee, when set to Japanese in the Language mode) has two different taunts for Falco. In both, he shouts two difference sentences in Japanese, changing randomly. In the English mode, he will only make a "Heh!" sound. Similarly, in the Japanese version, Fox's taunt alternates between him saying, "Come on!" and the same thing, but in Japanese.
• This was the first appearance of various Japan-only characters (such as characters from Fire Emblem, Custom Robo, Doshin the Giant, and Animal Forest).
• In the Sound Test, if the player slects Narration sound #50, the announcer will say "Giga Koopa." Giga Bowser is known as Giga Koopa in Japan (and, inversely, switching the language to Japanese results in the narrator saying "Giga Bowser"). Also notable is the announcer saying "Master Hand" on Narration sound #64 when the sound is impossible to hear elsewhere in the game.
• When all human players hold down L or R while a stage is loading, alternate music will play (for instance, on the Hyrule Temple, some of the soundtrack from Fire Emblem will play, Saria's Song will play on Termina: Great Bay, music from Dr. Mario and Balloon Fight will play on Infinite Glacier: Icicle Mountain and Mushroom Kingdom and Mushroom Kingdom 2, and "Pollyanna's Song" from Mother will play on the Onett stage). These songs sometimes play regardless. However, the chance of the alternative songs being played without L and R are 12.5%.
• Some of the Pokémon from the first Super Smash Bros. were removed; these Pokémon include Hitmonlee (replaced with a Steel/Bug-type, Scizor), Beedrill, Onix (both replaced with Unown), Meowth (completely removed), Starmie (replaced with Staryu), Porygon (replaced with Porygon2), and Koffing (replaced with its evolved form Weezing).
• 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.
• One of Peach's alternate costumes very closely resembles Princess Daisy.
• The Master Hand was supposed to be a playable charecter in SSBM (Hence the Narration saying his name under Narration #64 in the sound test). The Crazy Hand was meant to be unplayable, Hence why he didn't appear like that under the narration. The idea of playing as the Master Hand was scrapped from the final cut as it was unfair to other people and the master hand couldn't be beaten when controlled by human players. Due to the Master Hand only having Stamina, he would be impossible to defeat in normal Melees so the idea of him being a playable charecter had to go, however, they left the sound record in the game.
• If an Electrode is released from a poke ball it can be picked up and thrown but only when it is about to explode

Voices

• Dean Harrington: Narrator, Master Hand, Crazy Hand
• Charles Martinet: Mario, Luigi, Dr. Mario
• Jen Taylor: Peach
• Kazumi Totaka: Yoshi
• Ryo Horikawa: Captain Falcon
• Takashi Nagasako: Ganondorf
• Hisao Egawa: Falco
• Shinobu Satouchi: Fox
• Makiko Ohmoto: Ness, Kirby
• Sanae Kobayashi: Popo, Nana
• Jun Mizusawa: Zelda, Sheik
• Nobuyuki Hiyama: Link
• Fujiko Takimoto: Young Link
• Satomi Kohrogi: Pichu
• Ikue Ohtani: Pikachu
• Rachel Lillis: Jigglypuff
• *Mika Kanai: Purin, Chikorita
• Masachika Ichimura: Mewtwo
• Hikaru Midorikawa: Marth
• Jun Fukuyama: Roy
• Chris Seavor: Peppy, Slippy
• Steve Malpass: Fox (In his ship)
• Ben Cullum: Falco (In his ship)
• James W. Norwood Jr.: DK Rap vocal
• Not Credited: Pokémon Voices

References

See also

• List of best-selling computer and video games
• List of unplayable Super Smash Bros. series characters
• List of computer and video fighting games

External links

1. redirect

• [Super Smash Bros. official site]
• [Smabura-Ken], the official Japanese site
• [Super Smash Bros. Melee] at Nintendo.com
• [Super Smash Bros. Melee] at MobyGames
• [Description of the Debug Menu]
• [Detstar - Super Smash Bros. Melee]
• [Smash Video Archive (Under Construction)]
• [MELEE-FC Tournament Homepage]
• [Smashboards The Official Tournament Community]
• [Smash Arena]
• [Smash Domain]
• [Super Smash Bros. Melee at Wikiknowledge.net]

 

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From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
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