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Super Smash Bros. Melee

March 26, 2023

Super Smash Bros. Melee[a] is a 2001 crossover fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube. It is the second installment in the Super Smash Bros. series. It features characters from Nintendo video game franchises such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox and Pokémon, and Donkey Kong among others. The stages and gameplay modes reference or take designs from these franchises as well.

Super Smash Bros. Melee
North American box art
Developer(s)HAL Laboratory
Publisher(s)Nintendo
Director(s)Masahiro Sakurai
Producer(s)
Designer(s)
  • Masahiro Sakurai
  • Hitoshi Kobayashi
Programmer(s)Yoshiki Suzuki
Artist(s)Hitoshi Kobayashi[1]
Composer(s)
  • Hirokazu Ando
  • Shogo Sakai
  • Tadashi Ikegami
  • Takuto Kitsuta
SeriesSuper Smash Bros.
Platform(s)GameCube
Release
  • JP: November 21, 2001
  • NA: December 3, 2001
  • EU: May 24, 2002
  • AU: May 31, 2002
Genre(s)Fighting
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Melee includes all playable characters from the first game and also adds characters from additional franchises such as Fire Emblem, of which no games had been released outside Japan at the time, in addition to new stages and gameplay modes. Like other games in the Smash Bros. series, Melee's gameplay system offers an unorthodox approach to the fighting game genre, with a counter that measures damage with increasing percentages, representing the knockback the character will experience, rather than a depleting health bar seen in most fighting games.

Melee was first released in Japan in November 2001, in the Americas in December 2001, and in Europe and Australia in May 2002. The game received widespread acclaim from critics, earning praise for its visuals, simple controls, gameplay, and orchestrated soundtrack, as well as several awards and acknowledgments from various publications; it is now considered one of the greatest video games ever made. It achieved strong sales upon its release, becoming the GameCube's best-selling title, with over seven million copies sold by 2008. Considered one of the most competitively viable Smash Bros. games due to its fast-paced and aggressive gameplay, Melee has been featured in many competitive gaming tournaments, boasting a dedicated grassroots fan community which has kept its competitive scene alive well beyond the game's original lifespan. It was followed by Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii in 2008.

Gameplay

See also: Gameplay of the Super Smash Bros. series

Like its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Melee differs from traditional fighting games as the objective is to force their opponents beyond the boundaries of the stage.[2] Most attacks inflict damage and can, if enough damage is dealt, knock back the enemy. Each character's health is measured by a meter that represents damage as a percentage.[3] The higher the percentage value, the farther the player gets knocked back, and the easier they are to knock off the stage, which will result in the character's death and the loss of a stock, or life.[4] Unlike other games of the same genre, in which moves are entered by button-input combinations, most moves in Super Smash Bros. Melee can be accessed via one-button presses and a joystick direction.[5] For example, by tilting the joystick to the side and pressing the "B" button, the character will use their "side special" attack. Tilting the joystick up, down, or not tilting it at all while pressing B will use the up, down, or neutral special, respectively.

During battles, items related to Nintendo games or merchandise fall onto the game field.[6] These items have purposes ranging from inflicting damage on the opponent to restoring health to the player.[6] Some items are throwable (ranged items), some do melee damage (battering items), and some have an instant effect on the player (transforming items).

Most stages have a theme relating to a Nintendo franchise or a specific Nintendo game and are interactive to the player.[7] For example, the Mushroom Kingdom stage is from Super Mario Bros, and the Temple stage is from The Legend of Zelda. Although the stages are rendered in three dimensions, players can only move on a two-dimensional plane. Not all stages are available immediately; some stages must be "unlocked" by achieving particular requirements.[7] Some stages feature moving elements and platforms and hazards that harm players, while others lack these elements.

Single-player

Single-player mode provides the player with a variety of side-scrolling fighting challenges. The applicable modes range from "Classic Mode", which involves the player battling multiple opponents and a boss character,[8] to the "Home Run Contest", a minigame involving the player trying to launch a sandbag as far as possible with a Home Run Bat for ten seconds.[9] Some of these modes are personalized for the character; for example, the "Target Test" sets out a specialized area for a character in which they aim to destroy ten targets in the least amount of time they can. These areas may include references to that particular character's past and legacy.[10] The "Board the Platforms" minigame from the first game was not included in Melee. Melee introduced "Adventure Mode", which takes the player to several predefined universes of characters in the Nintendo franchise. "All-Star Mode" is an unlockable feature that requires the player to defeat every character in the game while having only one stock and three health supplements between battles.

Multiplayer

 
Bowser, Ness, Kirby, and Yoshi fight in a "Sudden Death" match on the Corneria stage, based on Star Fox.

In the multiplayer mode, up to four players or computer-controlled characters may fight in a free-for-all or on separate teams. The central processing unit (CPU) characters' artificial intelligence (AI) difficulty is ranked from one to nine in ascending order of difficulty. Individual players can also be handicapped; the higher the handicap, the stronger the player. Victory is determined in five ways, depending on the game type. The two most common multiplayer modes are “Time mode”, where the player or team with the most KOs and least falls wins after a predetermined amount of time, and "Stock mode",[11] a battle in which the last player or team with lives remaining wins. This can be changed to less conventional modes like "Coin mode", which rewards the richest player as the victor. Players must collect coins created by hitting enemies and try not to lose them by falling off the stage; harder hits release higher quantities of coins.[12] Other options are available, updating from Super Smash Bros., such as determining the number and type of items that appear during the battle.[13]

Trophies

Trophies (known as "Figures" in the Japanese version) of various Nintendo characters and objects can be collected throughout the game. These trophies include figures of playable characters, accessories, and items associated with them as well as series and characters not otherwise playable in the game. The trophies range from the well-known to the obscure, and even characters or elements only released in Japan.[14] Super Smash Bros. had a similar system of plush dolls; however, it only included the 12 playable characters. One trophy is exclusive to the Japanese version of the game.[15]

Playable characters

See also: Characters in the Super Smash Bros. series

Super Smash Bros. Melee features 25 (26 if Zelda and Sheik are considered separate) characters,[16] 13 (14 with Zelda and Sheik separate) more than its predecessor. Fourteen are available initially, while the other 11 characters require completing specific tasks to become available. Every character featured in the game is derived from a popular Nintendo franchise.[17] All characters have a symbol that appears behind their damage meter which represents their series, such as a Triforce symbol behind Link's damage meter and a Poké Ball behind a Pokémon species. Some characters represent popular franchises, while others were less-known at the time of the release; Marth and Roy represent the Fire Emblem series, which was not released outside Japan at the time.[18] The characters' appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee led to a rise in the popularity of the series, including releasing it outside of Japan.[19] References are made throughout the game to the relationship between characters of the same universe; in one of the events from "Event mode", Mario must defeat his enemy Bowser to rescue Princess Peach.[20] Furthermore, each character has recognizable moves from their original series, such as Samus's firearms from the Metroid series and Link's arsenal of weapons.[21]

Development and release

Super Smash Bros. Melee was developed by HAL Laboratory, with Masahiro Sakurai as the head of production. Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto served as co-producer. The game was one of the first games released on the GameCube and highlighted the advancement in graphics over the Nintendo 64. The project proposal/initial design document for the game was completed on July 5, 1999. Sakurai wanted to make an opening FMV sequence to pay homage to the debut of the GameCube.[22] HAL and Sakurai worked with three separate graphic houses in Tokyo to make the opening sequence. On their official website, the developers posted screenshots and information highlighting and explaining the attention to physics and detail in the game, with references to changes from its predecessor.[23] The game was in development for 13 months, beginning around autumn 2000, and Sakurai called his lifestyle during this period "destructive" with no holidays and short weekends.[24] Unlike the experimental first Super Smash Bros., he felt great pressure to deliver a quality sequel, claiming it was the "biggest project I had ever led up to that point". Despite the stressful development cycle, in a 2010 interview, Sakurai proudly called Melee "the sharpest game in the series... it just felt really good to play", even compared to its successor, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.[24]

On the game's official Japanese website, Sakurai and the developers explained reasons for making particular characters playable and why some characters were not added. Initially, the development team wanted to replace Ness with Lucas, the main character of Mother 3, but retained Ness in consideration of delays. Video game developer Hideo Kojima originally requested the inclusion of Solid Snake to Sakurai, and according to Yuji Naka of Sonic Team, Miyamoto requested the inclusion of Sonic the Hedgehog to Sakurai, but neither characters were added as the game was too far in development. Additional development time later enabled all three characters to be included in Brawl.[25][26][27][28] Marth and Roy were initially intended to be playable exclusively in the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Melee. However, they received favorable attention during the game's North American localization, leading to the decision for the developers to include them in the Western version.[29][30]

Sakurai stated that the development team had suggested characters from four other games to represent the Famicom/NES era, until the developers eventually chose the Ice Climbers to fulfill this role.[31] Additionally, Ayumi Tachibana from Famicom Detective Club was considered as a playable character, but was ultimately relegated to a cameo role as a trophy.[32][33] The developers have noted characters that have very similar moves to each other on the website;[34] such characters have been referred to as "clones" in the media.[35]

Nintendo presented the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2001 as a playable demonstration.[36] The next major exposition of the game came in August 2001 at Space World, when Nintendo displayed a playable demo that updated from the previous demo displayed at E3. Nintendo offered a playable tournament of the games for fans in which a GameCube and Super Smash Bros. Melee were prizes for the winner.[37] Before the game's release, the Japanese official website included weekly updates, including screenshots and character profiles.[38][39] Nintendo followed this trend with Super Smash Bros. Brawl, in which there were daily updates by the game's developer, Masahiro Sakurai.[40] Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu reported that Nintendo advertised the game in between showings of Pokémon 4Ever across movie theaters in Japan.[41] In January 2003, Melee was re-released as part of the Player's Choice program, a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games that have sold more than a million copies.[42] In August 2005, Nintendo bundled the game with the GameCube for $99.99.[43]

Music

Smashing...Live!
Soundtrack album by
New Japan Philharmonic
ReleasedOctober 21, 2002
RecordedAugust 27, 2002
GenreVideo game soundtrack
Length61:52
LabelEnterbrain

Super Smash Bros. Melee features both new and re-arranged music from many of Nintendo's popular gaming franchises. In 2002, Enterbrain released a soundtrack in Japan titled Dairantou Smash Brothers DX Orchestra Concert. The same soundtrack was released in 2003 as Smashing... Live! as a bonus for subscribing to Nintendo Power magazine in North America, and also as a free gift in an issue of the British Official Nintendo Magazine. The soundtrack does not include music taken directly from the game, but features many live orchestral arrangements performed by the New Japan Philharmonic.[44] The game contains a number of unlockable tracks that can be obtained after making certain in-game accomplishments.[45] On the same website, the developers have posted discussions about the game's music and voice acting between Masahiro Sakurai and the game's composers.[46]

Shogo Sakai took over as the game's composer in place of Hirokazu Ando on February 14, 2001.[47]

Dean Harrington is the game's in-game narrator, and also voices Master Hand and Crazy Hand.

Reception

Super Smash Bros. Melee received critical acclaim from reviewers, most of whom credited Melee's expansion of gameplay features from Super Smash Bros. Focusing on the additional features, GameSpy commented that "Melee really scores big in the 'we've added tons of great extra stuff' department".[55] Reviewers compared the game favorably to Super Smash Bros. IGN's Fran Mirabella III stated that it was "in an entirely different league than the N64 version";[13] GameSpot's Miguel Lopez praised the game for offering a more advanced "classic-mode" compared to its predecessor, while detailing the Adventure Mode as "really a hit-or-miss experience".[54] Despite a mixed response to the single-player modes, many reviewers expressed the game's multiplayer mode as a strong component of the game.[51][54][55] In their review of the game, GameSpy stated that "you'll have a pretty hard time finding a more enjoyable multiplayer experience on any other console".[55]

Melee's visuals garnered a positive reaction. GameSpot lauded the game's character and background models, stating that "the character models are pleasantly full-bodied, and the quality of their textures is amazing".[54] IGN's Fran Mirabella III praised the game's use of physics, animation and graphics, although his colleague Matt Casamassina thought that "some of the backgrounds lack the visual polish endowed upon the characters" when giving a second opinion about the game.[13]

Critics praised the game's orchestrated soundtrack;[13][54] while GameSpot's Greg Kasavin commented that "it all sounds brilliant".[54] GameSpy praised the music for its nostalgic effect, with soundtracks ranging from multiple Nintendo series.[55]

Reviewers have welcomed the simplistic controls,[51][13][55] but its "hyper-responsiveness", with the characters easily dashing and precise movements being difficult to perform, was expressed as a serious flaw of the game by GameSpot.[54] With a milder criticism of controls, Bryn Williams of GameSpy commented that "movement and navigation seems slightly too sensitive".[55] The basis of Melee's gameplay system is the battles between Nintendo characters, which has been suggested as being overly hectic; N-Europe questioned whether the gameplay is "too Frantic?", even though they enjoyed the variety of modes on offer.[57] Similarly, Nintendo Spin's Clark Nielsen stated that "Melee was too fast for its own good", and "skill was more about just being able to wrap your head around what was happening as opposed to really getting into the combat".[58] In regards to the pace of the game, Edge commented that it even made gameplay features such as "blocking" redundant, as the player is not given enough time to react to an attack.[50]

Despite the new features added to the game, some reviews criticized Melee for a lack of originality and for being too similar to its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Caleb Hale from GameCritics.com noted that while it was "every bit as good as its Nintendo 64 predecessor" he also felt "the game doesn't expand much past that point".[59] On a similar note, Edge stated that "it's not evolution; it's reproduction", in reference to a perceived lack of innovation.[50] The nostalgic nature of the game received a positive reaction,[51] as well as the accompanying stages and items that allude to past Nintendo games.[57] Gaming journalists have welcomed the roster of 26 Nintendo characters,[51][55] as well as the trophy system, which Nintendo Spin labeled as "a great addition to this game".[55][60]

Sales

When released in Japan, it became the fastest selling GameCube game with 358,525 units sold in the week ending November 25, 2001.[61] This success continued as the game sold more than a million units only two months after its release, making it the first GameCube title to reach a million copies.[62] The game also sold well in North America, where it sold 250,000-copies in nine days.[63] In the United States, Super Smash Bros. Melee was the 19th best-selling video game in 2001 according to the NPD Group.[64][65] By July 2006, it had sold 3.2 million copies and earned $125 million in the United States alone. Next Generation ranked it as the fifth highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country.[66] Approximately 4.06 million units have been sold in the country as of December 27, 2007.[67] With a software-to-hardware ratio of 3:4 at one time,[61] some have attributed the increasing sales of the GameCube near the launch date to Melee.[62] As of March 10, 2008, Super Smash Bros. Melee is the best-selling GameCube game, with more than seven million copies sold worldwide.[68] It has been estimated that at one point in time 70% of all GameCube owners also owned Melee.[69]

Awards and accolades

Several publications have acknowledged Super Smash Bros. Melee in competitions and awards. In their "Best of 2001" awards, GameSpy chose it as Best Fighting GameCube Game,[70] IGN's reader choice chose it as Game of the Year,[71] Electronic Gaming Monthly chose it as Best Multiplayer and Best GameCube Game,[72] and GameSpot chose it as the Best GameCube Game and tenth best game of the year.[73][74] The game received a nomination for "Console Fighting Game of the Year" and "Outstanding Achievement in Animation" by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences, which went to Dead or Alive 3 and Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee.[75] It also received a nomination in GameSpot's "Best Music" and "Best Fighting Game" categories.[76]

GameFAQs placed it sixth in a poll of the 100 best games ever and was in the final four of the "Best. Game. Ever." contest.[77][78] In the 200th issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, the editors selected Melee as the 92nd most influential game in their "Top 200 Games of Their Time" list, defining Melee as "Billions of things to unlock, plus Yoshi pummeling Pikachu with a bat".[79] In a similar competition, Nintendo Power named Super Smash Bros. Melee the 16th best game ever to appear on a Nintendo console,[80] and selected it as the 2001 "Game of the Year". IGN named it the third best GameCube game of all-time in 2007 as a part of a feature reflecting on the GameCube's long lifespan, citing it as "the grand stage of fighters, much like Mario Kart is for racing fans".[81] GameSpy chose it as fourth in a similar list, citing that it had "better graphics, better music, more characters, more gameplay modes, more secrets to discover" in comparison to its predecessor.[82] The game was ranked 58th in Official Nintendo Magazine's "100 Greatest Nintendo Games Ever" feature.[83] In 2019, Game Informer ranked it as the 2nd best fighting game of all time.[84] Edge magazine ranked the game 91st on their 100 best Video Games in 2007.[85]

Professional competition, metagame and legacy

Competitive history

 
Main article: Super Smash Bros. in esports

Super Smash Bros. Melee is a widely played competitive video game and has been featured in several high-profile tournaments.[69] Many consider it to be the most competitively viable game in the series.[86] Melee version NTSC was first released on the GameCube in 2001 in Japan and later North America, Nintendo ran the first ever Melee tournament named Premium Fight most likely from August 25 to August 27, 2001.[87] That circuit launched tournaments and competitive Melee on the local level. For competitive "smashers," as they were soon to be called, tournaments at houses, video game stores and internet cafes would become the norm.

The tournaments increased in popularity, and an echelon of competitively successful top players emerged in each region of the United States and Japan. Professional gaming organizations began to take more notice of Melee and started sponsoring players professionally. Several professional Melee players including Christopher "KillaOR" McKenzie, Isai Alvarado, and Ken were seen in the 2005 "I'm a Professional Gamer" episode of the MTV reality series True Life. Tournaments became larger, more televised and more professional. Increases in audience and competitor counts, as well as prize pools, were also seen. From 2004 to 2007, Major League Gaming sponsored Melee on its Pro Circuit. Ken Hoang, also known as "The King of Smash" was considered to be the game's best player from 2003 to 2006, and has won over $50,000 from Smash tournaments.[88][89][90][91][92][93] Although dropping Melee from its 2007 Pro Circuit, MLG still sponsored a number of tournaments as part of the Underground Smash Series.

Melee was also included in the Evolution Championship Series (Evo) in 2007, a fighting game tournament held in Las Vegas. Melee was hosted at Evo 2013 after a charity vote to decide the final game to be featured in its tournament lineup.[94][95] Due to the large turnout and popularity that year, Evo again included Melee at their 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 events. In 2014 Melee was played at MLG Anaheim. Evo 2016 is the largest Melee tournament to date with 2,350 entrants.

The competitive Smash community was featured in a 2013 crowd-funded documentary called The Smash Brothers. The film detailed the history of the professional scene and profiled seven prominent Melee players including Hoang, Azen, Jason "Mew2King" Zimmerman, Isai, PC Chris, KoreanDJ, and Evo 2013 and Evo 2014 champion, Joseph "Mang0" Marquez.[96][97] Commentary footage from a Melee tournament is the origin of the Wombo combo internet meme.[98]

In 2020, Project Slippi, a fork of the Dolphin emulator for Melee designed to introduce quality-of-life features such as replays and online play, was updated to support rollback netcode and integrated matchmaking, allowing netplay across large distances with little latency.[99][100] In the same year, an e-sports competition known as "The Big House" was sent a cease and desist by Nintendo, due to the usage of Slippi.[101]

Notes

  1. ^ Known in Japan as Super Smash Bros. DX (Japanese: 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), Hepburn: Dai Rantō Sumasshu Burazāzu Derakkusu)

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External links

March 26, 2023
super, smash, bros, melee, 2001, crossover, fighting, video, game, developed, laboratory, published, nintendo, gamecube, second, installment, super, smash, bros, series, features, characters, from, nintendo, video, game, franchises, such, mario, legend, zelda,. Super Smash Bros Melee a is a 2001 crossover fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube It is the second installment in the Super Smash Bros series It features characters from Nintendo video game franchises such as Mario The Legend of Zelda Star Fox and Pokemon and Donkey Kong among others The stages and gameplay modes reference or take designs from these franchises as well Super Smash Bros MeleeNorth American box artDeveloper s HAL LaboratoryPublisher s NintendoDirector s Masahiro SakuraiProducer s Masayoshi Tanimura Hiroaki Suga Shigeru Miyamoto Kenji MikiDesigner s Masahiro Sakurai Hitoshi KobayashiProgrammer s Yoshiki SuzukiArtist s Hitoshi Kobayashi 1 Composer s Hirokazu Ando Shogo Sakai Tadashi Ikegami Takuto KitsutaSeriesSuper Smash Bros Platform s GameCubeReleaseJP November 21 2001NA December 3 2001EU May 24 2002AU May 31 2002Genre s FightingMode s Single player multiplayerMelee includes all playable characters from the first game and also adds characters from additional franchises such as Fire Emblem of which no games had been released outside Japan at the time in addition to new stages and gameplay modes Like other games in the Smash Bros series Melee s gameplay system offers an unorthodox approach to the fighting game genre with a counter that measures damage with increasing percentages representing the knockback the character will experience rather than a depleting health bar seen in most fighting games Melee was first released in Japan in November 2001 in the Americas in December 2001 and in Europe and Australia in May 2002 The game received widespread acclaim from critics earning praise for its visuals simple controls gameplay and orchestrated soundtrack as well as several awards and acknowledgments from various publications it is now considered one of the greatest video games ever made It achieved strong sales upon its release becoming the GameCube s best selling title with over seven million copies sold by 2008 Considered one of the most competitively viable Smash Bros games due to its fast paced and aggressive gameplay Melee has been featured in many competitive gaming tournaments boasting a dedicated grassroots fan community which has kept its competitive scene alive well beyond the game s original lifespan It was followed by Super Smash Bros Brawl for the Wii in 2008 Contents 1 Gameplay 1 1 Single player 1 2 Multiplayer 1 3 Trophies 2 Playable characters 3 Development and release 3 1 Music 4 Reception 4 1 Sales 4 2 Awards and accolades 5 Professional competition metagame and legacy 5 1 Competitive history 6 Notes 7 References 8 External linksGameplay EditSee also Gameplay of the Super Smash Bros series Like its predecessor Super Smash Bros Melee differs from traditional fighting games as the objective is to force their opponents beyond the boundaries of the stage 2 Most attacks inflict damage and can if enough damage is dealt knock back the enemy Each character s health is measured by a meter that represents damage as a percentage 3 The higher the percentage value the farther the player gets knocked back and the easier they are to knock off the stage which will result in the character s death and the loss of a stock or life 4 Unlike other games of the same genre in which moves are entered by button input combinations most moves in Super Smash Bros Melee can be accessed via one button presses and a joystick direction 5 For example by tilting the joystick to the side and pressing the B button the character will use their side special attack Tilting the joystick up down or not tilting it at all while pressing B will use the up down or neutral special respectively During battles items related to Nintendo games or merchandise fall onto the game field 6 These items have purposes ranging from inflicting damage on the opponent to restoring health to the player 6 Some items are throwable ranged items some do melee damage battering items and some have an instant effect on the player transforming items Most stages have a theme relating to a Nintendo franchise or a specific Nintendo game and are interactive to the player 7 For example the Mushroom Kingdom stage is from Super Mario Bros and the Temple stage is from The Legend of Zelda Although the stages are rendered in three dimensions players can only move on a two dimensional plane Not all stages are available immediately some stages must be unlocked by achieving particular requirements 7 Some stages feature moving elements and platforms and hazards that harm players while others lack these elements Single player Edit Single player mode provides the player with a variety of side scrolling fighting challenges The applicable modes range from Classic Mode which involves the player battling multiple opponents and a boss character 8 to the Home Run Contest a minigame involving the player trying to launch a sandbag as far as possible with a Home Run Bat for ten seconds 9 Some of these modes are personalized for the character for example the Target Test sets out a specialized area for a character in which they aim to destroy ten targets in the least amount of time they can These areas may include references to that particular character s past and legacy 10 The Board the Platforms minigame from the first game was not included in Melee Melee introduced Adventure Mode which takes the player to several predefined universes of characters in the Nintendo franchise All Star Mode is an unlockable feature that requires the player to defeat every character in the game while having only one stock and three health supplements between battles Multiplayer Edit Bowser Ness Kirby and Yoshi fight in a Sudden Death match on the Corneria stage based on Star Fox In the multiplayer mode up to four players or computer controlled characters may fight in a free for all or on separate teams The central processing unit CPU characters artificial intelligence AI difficulty is ranked from one to nine in ascending order of difficulty Individual players can also be handicapped the higher the handicap the stronger the player Victory is determined in five ways depending on the game type The two most common multiplayer modes are Time mode where the player or team with the most KOs and least falls wins after a predetermined amount of time and Stock mode 11 a battle in which the last player or team with lives remaining wins This can be changed to less conventional modes like Coin mode which rewards the richest player as the victor Players must collect coins created by hitting enemies and try not to lose them by falling off the stage harder hits release higher quantities of coins 12 Other options are available updating from Super Smash Bros such as determining the number and type of items that appear during the battle 13 Trophies Edit Trophies known as Figures in the Japanese version of various Nintendo characters and objects can be collected throughout the game These trophies include figures of playable characters accessories and items associated with them as well as series and characters not otherwise playable in the game The trophies range from the well known to the obscure and even characters or elements only released in Japan 14 Super Smash Bros had a similar system of plush dolls however it only included the 12 playable characters One trophy is exclusive to the Japanese version of the game 15 Playable characters EditSee also Characters in the Super Smash Bros series Super Smash Bros Melee features 25 26 if Zelda and Sheik are considered separate characters 16 13 14 with Zelda and Sheik separate more than its predecessor Fourteen are available initially while the other 11 characters require completing specific tasks to become available Every character featured in the game is derived from a popular Nintendo franchise 17 All characters have a symbol that appears behind their damage meter which represents their series such as a Triforce symbol behind Link s damage meter and a Poke Ball behind a Pokemon species Some characters represent popular franchises while others were less known at the time of the release Marth and Roy represent the Fire Emblem series which was not released outside Japan at the time 18 The characters appearance in Super Smash Bros Melee led to a rise in the popularity of the series including releasing it outside of Japan 19 References are made throughout the game to the relationship between characters of the same universe in one of the events from Event mode Mario must defeat his enemy Bowser to rescue Princess Peach 20 Furthermore each character has recognizable moves from their original series such as Samus s firearms from the Metroid series and Link s arsenal of weapons 21 Development and release EditSuper Smash Bros Melee was developed by HAL Laboratory with Masahiro Sakurai as the head of production Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto served as co producer The game was one of the first games released on the GameCube and highlighted the advancement in graphics over the Nintendo 64 The project proposal initial design document for the game was completed on July 5 1999 Sakurai wanted to make an opening FMV sequence to pay homage to the debut of the GameCube 22 HAL and Sakurai worked with three separate graphic houses in Tokyo to make the opening sequence On their official website the developers posted screenshots and information highlighting and explaining the attention to physics and detail in the game with references to changes from its predecessor 23 The game was in development for 13 months beginning around autumn 2000 and Sakurai called his lifestyle during this period destructive with no holidays and short weekends 24 Unlike the experimental first Super Smash Bros he felt great pressure to deliver a quality sequel claiming it was the biggest project I had ever led up to that point Despite the stressful development cycle in a 2010 interview Sakurai proudly called Melee the sharpest game in the series it just felt really good to play even compared to its successor Super Smash Bros Brawl 24 On the game s official Japanese website Sakurai and the developers explained reasons for making particular characters playable and why some characters were not added Initially the development team wanted to replace Ness with Lucas the main character of Mother 3 but retained Ness in consideration of delays Video game developer Hideo Kojima originally requested the inclusion of Solid Snake to Sakurai and according to Yuji Naka of Sonic Team Miyamoto requested the inclusion of Sonic the Hedgehog to Sakurai but neither characters were added as the game was too far in development Additional development time later enabled all three characters to be included in Brawl 25 26 27 28 Marth and Roy were initially intended to be playable exclusively in the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros Melee However they received favorable attention during the game s North American localization leading to the decision for the developers to include them in the Western version 29 30 Sakurai stated that the development team had suggested characters from four other games to represent the Famicom NES era until the developers eventually chose the Ice Climbers to fulfill this role 31 Additionally Ayumi Tachibana from Famicom Detective Club was considered as a playable character but was ultimately relegated to a cameo role as a trophy 32 33 The developers have noted characters that have very similar moves to each other on the website 34 such characters have been referred to as clones in the media 35 Nintendo presented the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2001 as a playable demonstration 36 The next major exposition of the game came in August 2001 at Space World when Nintendo displayed a playable demo that updated from the previous demo displayed at E3 Nintendo offered a playable tournament of the games for fans in which a GameCube and Super Smash Bros Melee were prizes for the winner 37 Before the game s release the Japanese official website included weekly updates including screenshots and character profiles 38 39 Nintendo followed this trend with Super Smash Bros Brawl in which there were daily updates by the game s developer Masahiro Sakurai 40 Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu reported that Nintendo advertised the game in between showings of Pokemon 4Ever across movie theaters in Japan 41 In January 2003 Melee was re released as part of the Player s Choice program a marketing label used by Nintendo to promote video games that have sold more than a million copies 42 In August 2005 Nintendo bundled the game with the GameCube for 99 99 43 Music Edit Smashing Live Soundtrack album by New Japan PhilharmonicReleasedOctober 21 2002RecordedAugust 27 2002GenreVideo game soundtrackLength61 52LabelEnterbrainSuper Smash Bros Melee features both new and re arranged music from many of Nintendo s popular gaming franchises In 2002 Enterbrain released a soundtrack in Japan titled Dairantou Smash Brothers DX Orchestra Concert The same soundtrack was released in 2003 as Smashing Live as a bonus for subscribing to Nintendo Power magazine in North America and also as a free gift in an issue of the British Official Nintendo Magazine The soundtrack does not include music taken directly from the game but features many live orchestral arrangements performed by the New Japan Philharmonic 44 The game contains a number of unlockable tracks that can be obtained after making certain in game accomplishments 45 On the same website the developers have posted discussions about the game s music and voice acting between Masahiro Sakurai and the game s composers 46 Shogo Sakai took over as the game s composer in place of Hirokazu Ando on February 14 2001 47 Dean Harrington is the game s in game narrator and also voices Master Hand and Crazy Hand Reception EditReceptionAggregate scoreAggregatorScoreMetacritic92 100 48 Review scoresPublicationScoreAllGame 49 Edge6 10 50 Eurogamer10 10 51 Famitsu37 40 52 53 GameSpot8 9 10 54 GameSpy 55 IGN9 6 10 13 Official Nintendo Magazine95 56 Super Smash Bros Melee received critical acclaim from reviewers most of whom credited Melee s expansion of gameplay features from Super Smash Bros Focusing on the additional features GameSpy commented that Melee really scores big in the we ve added tons of great extra stuff department 55 Reviewers compared the game favorably to Super Smash Bros IGN s Fran Mirabella III stated that it was in an entirely different league than the N64 version 13 GameSpot s Miguel Lopez praised the game for offering a more advanced classic mode compared to its predecessor while detailing the Adventure Mode as really a hit or miss experience 54 Despite a mixed response to the single player modes many reviewers expressed the game s multiplayer mode as a strong component of the game 51 54 55 In their review of the game GameSpy stated that you ll have a pretty hard time finding a more enjoyable multiplayer experience on any other console 55 Melee s visuals garnered a positive reaction GameSpot lauded the game s character and background models stating that the character models are pleasantly full bodied and the quality of their textures is amazing 54 IGN s Fran Mirabella III praised the game s use of physics animation and graphics although his colleague Matt Casamassina thought that some of the backgrounds lack the visual polish endowed upon the characters when giving a second opinion about the game 13 Critics praised the game s orchestrated soundtrack 13 54 while GameSpot s Greg Kasavin commented that it all sounds brilliant 54 GameSpy praised the music for its nostalgic effect with soundtracks ranging from multiple Nintendo series 55 Reviewers have welcomed the simplistic controls 51 13 55 but its hyper responsiveness with the characters easily dashing and precise movements being difficult to perform was expressed as a serious flaw of the game by GameSpot 54 With a milder criticism of controls Bryn Williams of GameSpy commented that movement and navigation seems slightly too sensitive 55 The basis of Melee s gameplay system is the battles between Nintendo characters which has been suggested as being overly hectic N Europe questioned whether the gameplay is too Frantic even though they enjoyed the variety of modes on offer 57 Similarly Nintendo Spin s Clark Nielsen stated that Melee was too fast for its own good and skill was more about just being able to wrap your head around what was happening as opposed to really getting into the combat 58 In regards to the pace of the game Edge commented that it even made gameplay features such as blocking redundant as the player is not given enough time to react to an attack 50 Despite the new features added to the game some reviews criticized Melee for a lack of originality and for being too similar to its predecessor Super Smash Bros Caleb Hale from GameCritics com noted that while it was every bit as good as its Nintendo 64 predecessor he also felt the game doesn t expand much past that point 59 On a similar note Edge stated that it s not evolution it s reproduction in reference to a perceived lack of innovation 50 The nostalgic nature of the game received a positive reaction 51 as well as the accompanying stages and items that allude to past Nintendo games 57 Gaming journalists have welcomed the roster of 26 Nintendo characters 51 55 as well as the trophy system which Nintendo Spin labeled as a great addition to this game 55 60 Sales Edit When released in Japan it became the fastest selling GameCube game with 358 525 units sold in the week ending November 25 2001 61 This success continued as the game sold more than a million units only two months after its release making it the first GameCube title to reach a million copies 62 The game also sold well in North America where it sold 250 000 copies in nine days 63 In the United States Super Smash Bros Melee was the 19th best selling video game in 2001 according to the NPD Group 64 65 By July 2006 it had sold 3 2 million copies and earned 125 million in the United States alone Next Generation ranked it as the fifth highest selling game launched for the PlayStation 2 Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country 66 Approximately 4 06 million units have been sold in the country as of December 27 2007 67 With a software to hardware ratio of 3 4 at one time 61 some have attributed the increasing sales of the GameCube near the launch date to Melee 62 As of March 10 2008 Super Smash Bros Melee is the best selling GameCube game with more than seven million copies sold worldwide 68 It has been estimated that at one point in time 70 of all GameCube owners also owned Melee 69 Awards and accolades Edit Several publications have acknowledged Super Smash Bros Melee in competitions and awards In their Best of 2001 awards GameSpy chose it as Best Fighting GameCube Game 70 IGN s reader choice chose it as Game of the Year 71 Electronic Gaming Monthly chose it as Best Multiplayer and Best GameCube Game 72 and GameSpot chose it as the Best GameCube Game and tenth best game of the year 73 74 The game received a nomination for Console Fighting Game of the Year and Outstanding Achievement in Animation by the Academy of Interactive Arts amp Sciences which went to Dead or Alive 3 and Oddworld Munch s Oddysee 75 It also received a nomination in GameSpot s Best Music and Best Fighting Game categories 76 GameFAQs placed it sixth in a poll of the 100 best games ever and was in the final four of the Best Game Ever contest 77 78 In the 200th issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly the editors selected Melee as the 92nd most influential game in their Top 200 Games of Their Time list defining Melee as Billions of things to unlock plus Yoshi pummeling Pikachu with a bat 79 In a similar competition Nintendo Power named Super Smash Bros Melee the 16th best game ever to appear on a Nintendo console 80 and selected it as the 2001 Game of the Year IGN named it the third best GameCube game of all time in 2007 as a part of a feature reflecting on the GameCube s long lifespan citing it as the grand stage of fighters much like Mario Kart is for racing fans 81 GameSpy chose it as fourth in a similar list citing that it had better graphics better music more characters more gameplay modes more secrets to discover in comparison to its predecessor 82 The game was ranked 58th in Official Nintendo Magazine s 100 Greatest Nintendo Games Ever feature 83 In 2019 Game Informer ranked it as the 2nd best fighting game of all time 84 Edge magazine ranked the game 91st on their 100 best Video Games in 2007 85 Professional competition metagame and legacy EditCompetitive history Edit Main article Super Smash Bros in esports Super Smash Bros Melee is a widely played competitive video game and has been featured in several high profile tournaments 69 Many consider it to be the most competitively viable game in the series 86 Melee version NTSC was first released on the GameCube in 2001 in Japan and later North America Nintendo ran the first ever Melee tournament named Premium Fight most likely from August 25 to August 27 2001 87 That circuit launched tournaments and competitive Melee on the local level For competitive smashers as they were soon to be called tournaments at houses video game stores and internet cafes would become the norm The tournaments increased in popularity and an echelon of competitively successful top players emerged in each region of the United States and Japan Professional gaming organizations began to take more notice of Melee and started sponsoring players professionally Several professional Melee players including Christopher KillaOR McKenzie Isai Alvarado and Ken were seen in the 2005 I m a Professional Gamer episode of the MTV reality series True Life Tournaments became larger more televised and more professional Increases in audience and competitor counts as well as prize pools were also seen From 2004 to 2007 Major League Gaming sponsored Melee on its Pro Circuit Ken Hoang also known as The King of Smash was considered to be the game s best player from 2003 to 2006 and has won over 50 000 from Smash tournaments 88 89 90 91 92 93 Although dropping Melee from its 2007 Pro Circuit MLG still sponsored a number of tournaments as part of the Underground Smash Series Melee was also included in the Evolution Championship Series Evo in 2007 a fighting game tournament held in Las Vegas Melee was hosted at Evo 2013 after a charity vote to decide the final game to be featured in its tournament lineup 94 95 Due to the large turnout and popularity that year Evo again included Melee at their 2014 2015 2016 2017 and 2018 events In 2014 Melee was played at MLG Anaheim Evo 2016 is the largest Melee tournament to date with 2 350 entrants The competitive Smash community was featured in a 2013 crowd funded documentary called The Smash Brothers The film detailed the history of the professional scene and profiled seven prominent Melee players including Hoang Azen Jason Mew2King Zimmerman Isai PC Chris KoreanDJ and Evo 2013 and Evo 2014 champion Joseph Mang0 Marquez 96 97 Commentary footage from a Melee tournament is the origin of the Wombo combo internet meme 98 In 2020 Project Slippi a fork of the Dolphin emulator for Melee designed to introduce quality of life features such as replays and online play was updated to support rollback netcode and integrated matchmaking allowing netplay across large distances with little latency 99 100 In the same year an e sports competition known as The Big House was sent a cease and desist by Nintendo due to the usage of Slippi 101 Notes Edit Known in Japan as Super Smash Bros DX Japanese 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 Hepburn Dai Rantō Sumasshu Burazazu Derakkusu References Edit Full Game Credits N Sider Archived from the original on November 7 2007 Retrieved April 29 2021 Mirabella III Fran Peer Schenider Craig Harris Guides Super Smash Bros Melee IGN Archived from the original on June 29 2012 Retrieved December 22 2007 Super Smash Bros Melee Game Freaks 365 Game Freaks 365 December 3 2001 Archived from the original on May 6 2008 Retrieved December 22 2007 Mirabella III Fran Peer Schenider Craig Harris Guides Super Smash Bros Melee Introduction IGN Archived from the original on June 29 2012 Retrieved December 29 2007 Mirabella III Fran Peer Schenider Craig Harris Guides Super Smash Bros Melee Basics IGN Archived from the original on December 11 2007 Retrieved December 22 2007 a b Mirabella III Fran Peer Schenider Craig Harris Guides Super Smash Bros Melee Items IGN Archived from the original on December 11 2007 Retrieved December 22 2007 a b Mirabella III Fran Peer Schenider Craig Harris Guides Super Smash Bros Melee Stages IGN Archived from the original on March 8 2012 Retrieved December 22 2007 Mirabella III Fran Peer Schenider Craig Harris Guides Super Smash Bros Melee Classic Mode IGN Archived from the original on December 9 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