Super Smash Bros. Melee

Super Smash Bros. Melee, known in Japan as Dairantō Smash Brothers DX (大乱闘（だいらんとう）スマッシュブラザーズＤＸ（デラックス）, Dairantō Sumasshu Burazāzu Derakkusu SSBM or simply Melee, is the second title in the crossover action fighting game series Super Smash Bros. distributed for the Nintendo GameCube in 2001 in Japan and the United States, and the following year in Europe and Australia. It is the successor to Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64 from 1999, and the predecessor to Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii from 2008. It was developed by HAL Laboratory, and directed by by producer Masahiro Sakurai.

The video game focuses on different characters from Nintendo franchises, such as Mario, Kirby, Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda. The settings and modes also reference, or take their designs from, popular series released by Nintendo. The gameplay of Melee offers an unorthodox approach to the fighting game genre, as the Damage taken is measured with percentage counters, rather than the traditional energy bars. Melee builds on the success of its predecessor by introducing new game modes and playable characters. The popularity of the multiplayer mode caused various Melee tournaments to be organized, either exclusively for the game or in conjunction with other video games.

Super Smash Bros. Melee had a generally positive reception from the press, as it has also received multiple awards from various specialized video game publications. It has achieved strong sales since its release, becoming the best-selling game for the Nintendo GameCube, with more than seven million copies sold as of March 10, 2008.

Game system

Like its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Melee differs from traditional fighting games in that dealing damage to your opponent does not guarantee victory. Instead, players must push their opponents out of the bounds of the stage, with platforms suspended in the air in various stages. Most attacks deal damage and can, if notably deal damage, push the player away. opponent. Each character's energy is counted by a meter that represents the damage taken in the form of a percentage. The higher the percentage value, the further the character can be pushed and the easier it is to kick him off the stage. On the contrary from other games in the same genre, most moves can be accessed after pressing a button, in conjunction with a tilt of the control stick.

The official logo of the series.

During battles, various items related to various Nintendo fields drop onto the stage. These items have various functions within battles, ranging from dealing damage to the opponent to restoring energy to the character using them. Additionally, most of the settings are related to a franchise or a specific Nintendo game. Although the settings and characters are shown in three dimensions, players can only move in a two-dimensional plane. Not all scenarios are available from the start; some are unlocked after meeting particular requirements.

Single player

The single player mode provides various challenges and side-scrolling fights. The modes range from the Classic mode, in which you must fight against opponents in different scenarios until you reach the respective boss, to the Home Run Contest , in the one in which the player must try to throw the Sandbag as far as possible with the help of a baseball bat. Some of these modes change depending on the character chosen; for example, the Target Test mode offers a specialized area for each character where the latter must destroy ten targets in the shortest amount of time possible. These areas can include references to both the past and the legacy of the character they belong to. Another of these modes is the so-called Multi-Man Melee, in which you must fight against a barrage of controlled polygonal enemies. by the console. A separate mode is the Event Match mode, in which certain tests must be met, in which the reasons for winning them are changing, along with a training mode to practice and improve skills. The Adventure mode, introduced in Melee, takes the player into various predefined universes of characters from Nintendo franchises. Like the battle arenas, these areas make references to particular series. The All-Star mode is an unlockable mode in Melee, in which you fight against the entire roster of characters; they only have three chances to recover energy in the middle of each battle.

Multiplayer

In multiplayer up to four people or computer controlled characters can fight, either in a free-for-all or in teams. The AI difficulty of the CPU controlled characters ranges from one to nine in ascending order of difficulty. There are five methods by which the victor of a match can be declared, depending on the game mode. There are three modes: the most traditional, which consists of expelling the opponents from the stage as many times as possible, the Stock mode, an individual or team battle in which the last player to losing their lives is the winner, and the Coin mode, which gives victory to the one with the most coins at the end of the battle; combatants must collect coins after hitting their enemies and try not to lose them by falling off the stage. Extra options are available to be modified, such as the ability to determine the number and type of items that will appear during battle. a last special mode, Special Melee, which consists of celebrating a fight with unique rules, such as that all the characters are giant, tiny, slow, fast, among others.

Nintendo GameCube, console for which the game was launched.

Trophies

Trophies—known as "figures" in the Japanese version—of various Nintendo characters and items can be collected. These trophies include playable character figures, accessories, and items associated with them, as well as supporting characters not otherwise included. There are a total of 290 trophies of famous characters and/or objects, as well as unknown ones, including elements from games released only in Japan. Some of the trophies include a particular description of the subject they represent, which detail the year and the game in which they first appeared. Super Smash Bros. had a similar system of dolls (biographies); however, this mode only featured the twelve playable characters. An additional trophy exists in the Japanese version of Melee, along with two that could only be obtained in a contest that took place in Japan.

Playable characters

Super Smash Bros. Melee contains twenty-six playable characters, fourteen more than its predecessor. Fifteen of these characters are available from the start, while the other characters require completing specific tasks in order to be unlocked. Each character present comes from a Nintendo franchise. All characters have a symbol that appears behind their damage meter during a battle; these symbols represent the saga from which the character comes, such as the Triforce symbol behind Link's damage meter, character from The Legend of Zelda, and a Poké Ball behind characters from Pokémon. Some characters represent popular franchises, while others were lesser known at the time of SSBM's release. Marth and Roy are a good example of this, as they represent the Fire Emblem saga, which had never been released in the West at the time. The appearance of these characters led to a rise in the saga's popularity. throughout the game there are references to the relationship between characters from the same universe; in one of the events of Event mode, Mario must defeat his enemy Bowser to rescue Peach. Additionally, each character possesses recognizable moves from their original sagas, such as Samus's firearms from the Metroid Saga and Link's arsenal of weapons.

Development and release

HAL Laboratory developed Super Smash Bros. Melee, with Masahiro Sakurai directing production. The game was one of the first released for the Nintendo GameCube and drew critical attention for its graphical improvements compared to the Nintendo 64 version. The developers wanted to pay homage to the GameCube's debut by making a sequence in FMV in the opening to draw players' attention graphically. HAL worked with three different studios in Tokyo to make the opening sequence. On their official website, the developers posted photos and information, highlighting and detailing the attention paid to physics and detail, referring to the changes from its predecessor.

On the official Japanese website, the developers explained their reasons for making certain characters playable and why some characters were not included after release. Initially, the development team wanted to replace Ness with Lucas, the main character of Mother 3, but kept Ness due to the game's delays. However, the developers included Lucas in their sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl., but development was too far along to include it. As with Lucas, additional development time allowed for their inclusion in Brawl. Roy and Marth were initially intended to be playable only in the Japanese version of Melee. However, they received favorable attention during the game's North American localization, which led to the developers' decision to include them in the Western version. Additionally, Sakurai stated that the team had suggested four characters to represent the Famicom era. or Nintendo Entertainment System and finally decided that the Ice Climbers would be such a representation. The developers, within their website, made comparisons between the characters that have very similar movements. These characters have been cataloged as "clones" in the media.

Nintendo introduced SSBM at E3 2001 as a demo version. The game's next major exposure was in August 2001 at Spaceworld, where the company unveiled another demo version. more updated with respect to the one shown at E3. Nintendo organized a tournament for fans where the prize for the winner was a GameCube with Super Smash Bros. Melee included. weekly, including photos and character profiles. The company followed this trend with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which received daily updates from the developers. The popular Japanese magazine Famitsu reported that Nintendo made commercials, which were shown during a Pokémon movie in theaters in Japan. In January 2003, Super Smash Bros. Melee became part of the Player's Choice games, a marketing ploy used to promote video games that have sold over a million copies. In August 2005, Nintendo sold a bundle with the GameCube for the price from $99.99 USD.

Music

Super Smash Bros. Melee features music from some of Nintendo's most popular game franchises. The company released a soundtrack in 2003 called Smashing...Live!, which it gave away as a bonus for subscribing to Nintendo Power magazine in North America, and as a gift in an issue of the Official Nintendo Magazine in Great Britain. The disc does not contain directly ripped music like most video game soundtracks, but rather a live orchestrated performance by the New Japan Philharmonic. Melee contains "secret" tracks that require a particular requirement to play. unlocked. On the same website, the developers have posted discussions between Masahiro Sakurai and the composers about music and character voices.

Track List

Reception and sales

Super Smash Bros. Melee was generally met with a positive reception from critics, who gave greater credit to the increased number of game modes compared to its predecessor. GameSpy focused on these unique features of Melee, commenting that "Melee scores very well in the 'we've included lots of cool new stuff' area." compared Melee favorably to its predecessor, with IGN reviewer Fran Mirabella III stating that the game was "in a completely different league than the N64 version", while Miguel López of GameSpot commented positively, offering a more advanced Classic mode over its predecessor, detailing the Adventure mode as "a welcoming experience". Opinions regarding the single player modes, most critics said that the multiplayer mode was the strongest part. GameSpy stated that "you'd be hard pressed to find a better multiplayer experience on any other console".

The graphics caused a positive reaction. GameSpot stated that "the character's body models are very well designed, and the quality of their textures is impressive". Mirabella III also noted the use of physics, animation, and graphics, although her partner, Matt Casamassina Giving a second opinion, he thought that "some of the backgrounds lack that visual beauty that the characters have".

Critics gave the orchestrated soundtrack positive feedback, with Planet GameCube's Mike Sklens calling it "one of the best soundtracks ever", while GameSpot's Greg Kasavin commented that "everything sounds brilliant". GameSpy praised the music for its nostalgic effect, as it contains soundtracks from multiple Nintendo series.

The controls received acceptance, though GameSpot noted that they were "hyper-sensitive" when playing the game, as it made characters run around the screen very easily, and they found it difficult to execute movements accurate, they decided to call it a "serious gameplay bug". In a review regarding the controls, GameSpy's Bryn Williams commented that "movement and control are slightly responsive". >Melee is the battles between Nintendo characters, which has been called a bit "hectic"; N-Europe questioned the game for being "too hectic", although they enjoyed the wide variety of modes offered. Similarly, Nintendo Spin's Clark Nielsen stated that "Melee is too fast a game", and that "skill is it relies more on being able to figure out what's going on rather than actually engaging in combat". Regarding the speed of his characters' movement, Edge commented that even some mechanical qualities, such as "blocking [ to enemies]", became redundant, since the player is not given enough time to react.

Despite its new features, Melee has been criticized for its lack of originality and for being too similar to its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Caleb Hale's GameCritics.com rated it "as good as its Nintendo 64 predecessor. [But] The game doesn't go much further than that". Similarly, Edge stated that "it's not evolution, it's reproduction", in reference to the conspicuous lack of innovation. The nostalgic nature received a positive reaction, as did the settings and objects that reference past Nintendo series. Journalists gave a positive approval to the list of twenty-six characters that Melee features. , as well as the "trophy system", which was called by Nintendo Spin as "a great addition to the game".

Spain

The website Meristation rated it 9 out of 10 (excellent). They praised the single-player mode and said that for this installment they had solved the problems in such a way that its predecessor had, according to them, "weak". because of its lack of variety. The site called the adventure mode "juicy" and also noted that for the Events mode, the minigames "were well done". They also mentioned the multiplayer mode as the most important, being mentioned that it is "addictive to unsuspected limits". They also praised the graphic section, the details with which the characters are modeled, the consistency of the images per second on the screen and the settings. as "great, simply", he added that "if Nintendo has been characterized by something in its history, it is by knowing how to compose excellent acoustic sections for most of its games." Meristation stated that all the melodies bring the characters to life and accompany the game system very well. In conclusion, they described Super Smash Bros. Melee as "one of the best in the GameCube catalogue".

The Vandal portal gave it a score of 9.2 out of 10,. He began to talk about the control mode, which according to them is "difficult to grasp", but that "after a couple of games and you have gotten used to the control [...] you will realize that this is one of the aspects for which Super Smash Bros. Melee has triumphed around the world". Regarding the graphics, the website qualified them saying that they give "simplicity in a spectacular way" and praised the modeling of the characters, the cameras and the objects that fall on the stage. Regarding the scenarios, it was added that "they greatly increase the visual quality of the game"; In conclusion, they mentioned that the graphic section "lets you feel its spectacularity in a special, very special way." In relation to the sound, they classified it as "a luxury sound section." Another thing that Vandal highlighted was the great compendium of sound effects that the characters can emit. Finally, in the review he talked about the duration and commented that "to obtain all the trophies it will take more than 100 hours of play... one amount that looks impressive, but when you're playing you'll realize it's not much."

Sales

When it was released in Japan, Melee became the fastest-selling GameCube game, with 358,525 units sold for the week of November 25, 2001. This success continued, as it managed to sell over a million units just two months after its release, making it the first to reach one million copies sold. It was also successful in North America, where it managed to sell 250,000 copies in just nine days. United, Super Smash Bros. Melee was the 19th best-selling video game of 2001 according to the NPD Group, and approximately 4.06 million units have been sold worldwide. that country until December 27, 2007. With a software to hardware ratio of 3:4 for a time, some critics have attributed the increase in sales of the Nintendo GameCube upon the release of Melee. As of March 10, 2008, Super Smash Bros. Melee is the best-selling GameCube game, with more than seven million copies sold around the world.

Awards and lists

Various publications have recognized Super Smash Bros. Melee in their competitions, awards and rankings. In their "Best of 2001" awards, GameSpy named it "Best GameCube Fighting Game". In addition, IGN named it "Game of the Year". ", Electronic Gaming Monthly chose it as the game with the "best multiplayer mode" and as the "best GameCube game", and GameSpot chose it as the " Best GameCube Game" and 10th Best Game of the Year.

Melee was ranked sixth in a GameFAQs poll of the top 100 games ever, and was among the final four in the "Best Game of All Time" contest. History". In the 200th edition of Electronic Gaming Monthly, the editors selected Melee as the 92nd most influential on their list of the "200 games of its time", defining it as "billions of things to unlock, as well as including Yoshi hitting Pikachu with a bat". In a similar competition, Nintendo Power named Super Smash Bros. Melee as the 16th best game to appear on a Nintendo system, and selected it as "Game of the Year" in 2001. IGN named it the third best game of all time GameCube in 2007 as part of a presentation to reflect the long life of the GameCube, describing it as "the grand arena for fighters, just like Mario Kart is for racing fans". >GameSpy put it fourth in a similar list, citing that it has "better graphics, better music, more characters, more game modes, and more secrets to discover" compared to the original Super Smash Bros. It also ranked 58th in an Official Nintendo Magazine list of the "Top 100 Nintendo Games".

Legacy

Tournaments

Super Smash Bros. Melee has been featured in many high-profile tournaments. In March 2003, the IVGF NorthWest Regional Gaming Festival and Tournament was held, the first tournament sponsored by a corporation. During this time, IVGF gave $12,500 USD to the three finalists of Super Smash Bros. Melee. In 2004, Major League Gaming added Melee i> to their list of tournaments. In the summer of 2005, a club in Mishawaka, Indiana held Melee-FC3, a tournament with nearly 200 entrants from 30 states, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. In two separate editions, Nintendo Power covered the independent and corporate Smash scenes, alongside SmashBoards, Major League Gaming and FC3. A decade after its original release, Melee still maintains a significant legion of fans, who still organize tournaments. Melee was also included in the Evolution Championship Series in 2007, a fighting game tournament held in Las Vegas. Ken Hoang, a notable competitor, has won over $50,000 USD in Smash tournaments and thanked Smash for helping him pay for his studies.

Sequel

Melee is the second title in the Super Smash Bros. series, following the release of Super Smash Bros. two years earlier. During the 2005 pre-E3 press conference, Nintendo announced the sequel to Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl (SSBB). Nintendo President Satoru Iwata asked Masahiro Sakurai to be the director after the conference. a more substantial player and the ability to play online via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Unlike Melee, its successor has four methods of control, including use of the Wii Remote, the Nunchuk, the Nintendo GameCube Controller, and the Classic Controller. Like Melee, SSBB refers to games and franchises, including those that made their debut after release from Melee; for example, Link's design was taken from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and a puppy from Nintendogs makes an appearance as one of the Helpers (a new type of item that summons characters from various franchises to briefly participate in battle). Some of the scenarios from Melee are included in Brawl.