Super Smash Bros.: Melee
Description official descriptions
The sequel to HAL Laboratory's Super Smash Bros., which pitted Nintendo characters against each other, ups the ante by including more levels, more characters, and more game modes.
The game is a Nintendo fighting game with different rules to it. Instead of knocking your opponent's health down, you knock him or her out of the battle field. You choose from the wealth of Nintendo characters like Mario, Bowser, Yoshi, different Pokémon, and even Link and then either fight through the single-player portion, featuring modes like Classic, Adventure, and Event Mode or battle it out with your friends in a four-player frenzy. More characters and stages are unlocked as hidden objectives are met, and coins rewarded for playing in all modes can be spent on a capsule toy machine. The toys in the machine represent games from Nintendo's entire video game history, and each can be viewed in 3D with a brief description. Also, with the simplified fighting controls, it's pretty easy for even your non-gaming friends to just pick-up and play.
Playable characters come from the following games:
- Game & Watch (Mr. Game & Watch)
- Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong)
- Mario Bros. (Mario, Luigi)
- Super Mario Bros. (Princess Peach, Bowser)
- Metroid (Samus)
- The Legend of Zelda (Link)
- Ice Climber (Ice Climbers)
- Dr. Mario (Dr. Mario)
- Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryū to Hikari no Tsurugi (Marth)
- F-Zero (Captain Falcon)
- Super Mario World (Yoshi)
- Kirby's Dream Land (Kirby)
- Star Fox (Fox, Falco)
- Earthbound (Ness)
- Pokémon Red/Blue (Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Young Link, Princess Zelda/Shiek, Ganondorf)
- Pokémon Gold/Silver (Pichu)
- Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi (Roy)
Spellings
- 大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズDX - Japanese spelling
- 대난투 스매시 브라더스 DX - Korean spelling
Groups +
Screenshots
Promos
Videos
Add Trailer or Gameplay Video +1 point
See any errors or missing info for this game?
You can submit a correction, contribute trivia, add to a game group, add a related site or alternate title.
Credits (GameCube version)
293 People (261 developers, 32 thanks) · View all
Chief Director | |
Assistant Chief Director | |
Programming Director | |
Programming | |
Design Director | |
Design | |
[ full credits ] |
Reviews
Critics
Average score: 87% (based on 43 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.2 out of 5 (based on 179 ratings with 14 reviews)
SMASH your opponents to the moon.
The Good
Want a good beat'em'up this is the one for you. Its got good graphics, gameplay and even better you can literally smash your opponents into space. However if battling in melee's isn't your style. Go on classic mode, adventure mode or, after its been unlocked, take on the challenging all star mode. Plus even if that dosen't appeal to you try camera mode, giant mode, sudden death melee and even invisible mode. Then if you get bored with that have a go at wire frame battles, home run mode or just tune up your skill with practice mode. Even better is that all the time your getting new characters, levels and being awarded trophies.
The Bad
There's that much to choose from the chances are you're head is going to explode.
The Bottom Line
The best beat'em'up known to man. Know a better one then tell me I'd have to buy it.
GameCube · by Da-Flea (30) · 2004
Nintendo's BEST-EVER multi-player fighting game!
The Good
Super Smash Bros. Melee is a game that I MUST add to my list of favorite games! Just about everything from the characters (as well as the secret ones but I don't wish to spoil them to you) to the stages to the 1P Mode to the VS Mode, the trophies, the music, the amazing graphics, the sound effects, to the gameplay.
It's great having loads of moves and attacks, as well as the fact that you can send your foes flying to oblivion. My favorite things about SSBM are some of the levels (including Brinstar, Mushroom Kingdom [from Super Mario Bros. 1], and a lot of the secret stages, but again, I don't want to spoil them to you), and some of my favorite characters to use are Mario, Captain Falcon, Link and Fox. And the
multi-player battles, YOU GOTTA LOVE THEM!!!
The Bad
Very few things about SSBM annoy me. It would have been cool if they added some more levels and characters (which includes but is not limited to, Wario, and a stage from Luigi's Mansion). I also thought unlocking some of the secrets and passing some event matches was obscenely difficult. I love challenges, yes, but some of these were sooooooo frustrating.
The Bottom Line
NO Nintendo fan can say their collection of Nintendo games is complete WITHOUT this game! I was not the least bit disappointed when I bought this and neither will you. GO FOR IT!!!
GameCube · by Dark Cloud (31) · 2003
A great game that I still love to play, even after almost 4 years of use!
The Good
I loved that fact that you can be your favorite video game hero/heroine. cough link cough This game gave a whole new style to the fighting genre. I love the fact that you dont have to worry about loosing health. The fact that if you can get back to the stage, you're still in the game! I also like to go into versus and create little "stories" of my own to go through and fight people to complete the next "level" or whatever! Its great fun.
The Bad
I dont like the fact that this game........ Wait, there isn't anything I dont like about this game! I guess if I were to change the game to what I wanted, I'd put in the option for versus mode, to play against random characters that would respawn after the first one got KO'd, or something like that. But as far as things wrong with it...... I guess the games statistics could be a little clearer, if you know what I mean.... If you dont, well, then you need to play the game and find out!
The Bottom Line
The best game ever. Everyone needs to try it atleast once in their lifetime.
GameCube · by Phillip Leffel (2) · 2005
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Colon (or, rather, lack thereof) in title | Michael Cassidy (21289) | Dec 13, 2015 |
Trivia
1001 Video Games
Super Smash Bros. Melee appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
Fire Emblem
Prior to this game's release, no game in Nintendo's Fire Emblem series had ever received an official North American release, which caused some confusion among western gamers who were introduced to Marth and Roy (two Fire Emblem characters) via Super Smash Bros. Melee. Initially they were going to be exclusive to the Japanese version of the game. However, when the developers were working on the North American version, they received favorable attention, so they were kept in the Western version.
Mr. Game and Watch
Even though the secret character Mr. Game and Watch is stylized as a 2D character, he is actually a 3D model of his 2D form. The Mr. Game and Watch model is flattened and his shading is different. This can be especially noticed when he's thrown or picking up an item box.
Ness
The character Ness was going to be replaced by Lucas, the main protagonist of Mother 3. However, due to the delay of Mother 3, the developers kept Ness.
Ratings
This was Mario's very first appearance in a game with an ESRB rating higher than E (Everyone).
Snake
Apparently, Hideo Kojima, director of the Metal Gear Solid series, "begged" Nintendo to include Solid Snake as playable character in Melee. However, the game was too into development for this to happen, but Snake appears in Brawl.
Soundtrack
- There exists a re-recorded soundtrack for this game, released solely as a bonus for Nintendo Power readers. It features all of the "arranged" tracks as played in a concert. Unfortunately, the orchestra is poor, and virtually none of the renditions are as good as the ones within the game.
- The Final Destination's sound track, if you listen closely enough, has some arrangements from the original Smash Bros. theme near the end.
Trophies
A trophy from the Japanese version of the game was removed for the US release: The trophy of Tamagon, a character from the Japanese-only Famicom (NES) title, Devil World was taken out due to the use of the word "Devil" in the game's title. His description read:
Tamagon
This is the main character of a Japanese NES game never released in North America. In this quirky maze game, your goal was to work your way through a series of scrolling mazes while battling the cyclopean henchmen of a large, winged demon. Tamagon not only had to worry about the evil creatures, but also the walls, which were extremely harmful.
Demon World
Japan Only
Some of the trophies have a few oddities when examined up close. The Barrel Cannon trophy reads "2L84ME" on the bottom. The Daisy trophy also has a third eye if you zoom in and rotate until you clip through her hair on the back of her head.
In addition, two trophies were changed for the US release. Topi was changed from a Seal (as he appears in the Japanese version of Ice Climber) to the Yeti-like creature in the Amercian version. The Proximity Mine was also changed from the Perfect Dark version in the Japanese release to the Goldeneye version (which was also used in the original Super Smash Bros.) for the US release with the game title mysteriously labeled "TOP SECRET."
Awards
- 4Players
- 2002 – #8 Best GameCube Game of the Year (Readers' Vote)
- EGM
- February 2006 (Issue 200) - #92 on the "Greatest Games of Their Time" list
- GameSpy
- 2001 – GameCube Fighting Game of the Year
Information also contributed by Big John WV, Bob the Stickman, colm52, Mark Ennis, Nelson340, Tiago Jaques and WizardX
Analytics
Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!
Related Sites +
-
Super Smash Bros.
Nintendo's Official Site.
Identifiers +
Contribute
Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.
Contributors to this Entry
Game added by JPaterson.
Additional contributors: Terok Nor, Warlock, BigJKO, Guy Chapman, Exodia85, FloodSpectre, LordRM, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, FatherJack.
Game added January 11, 2002. Last modified March 27, 2024.