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
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 42 ratings)
Players
Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 167 ratings with 14 reviews)
Best Multiplayer game I have ever played. Playability through simplicity.
The Good
The sheer playability of the game and using so few buttons. You cannot have more fun with four mates on one screen all at the same time. An original slant on the beat-em-up genre, that leaves conventional fighters such as Tekken and Soul Calibur wanting in terms of fun and epic battles. The variety of the levels and the impact they can have on the battle make it a joy to choose between them. The ingenious array of about 30 pick up's and the awesome Poke-balls all of which are customizable create a multiplayer game unrivalled by anything else.
The single player challenges offer a massive challenge which if you can complete really make you a master of the game.
The Bad
Slightly weak single player story mode.
The Bottom Line
Best multiplayer fighter ever made.
GameCube · by Gareth Day (7) · 2004
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
One of the greatest games. Ever.
The Good
In my honest opinion, this may be one of the games that I have spent more hours playing than any other two games combined. It has almost limitless replay value, as long as you can one to three friends together. With classic characters like Mario, Luigi, Mr. Game & Watch and Samus, and new characters like Sheik, Ganondorf, and Doc Mario, it is just endless hours of competitive fun. While the single player isn't bad, I've only used it to gain trophies, or when unlocking other characters. Other than that, this game is completely about multi-player.
It's multi-player facets is one of best designed four-player fighting games ever. The stages are well done, with exciting and notable differences, rather than just generic scene changes.
The Bad
The only three flaws in this game are:
1) The repetitiveness of the single-player mode. There is only so often you can go through it, with every character. Even with the three modes, and the 'extra' target and homerun modes, it can only provided limited entertainment if you are by yourself.
2) Lack of some classic characters. It is unfortunate that classic characters like Kid Icarius and other famous notables didn't make it into the game, even though Marth and Roy did. And, rather than having young Link and Link, and Doc Mario, and Mario, I would have liked to see more variety. Having younger/alternate versions seems like a cop-out to me.
3) Some of the stages are really hard to fight on. Some stages are more hazardous than the other players, causing more SDs than anything else. I appreciate the novelty of some of them, like PokeFloats and Big Blue, but I would have rather seen them be less deadly against the players. After all, the players are there to fight each other, not run from a scroll screen in order to just stay alive.
The Bottom Line
One of the best games in the market - Don't walk, run to buy this game.
GameCube · by kawaii (18) · 2003
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
Colon (or, rather, lack thereof) in title | Michael Cassidy (21204) | Dec 13th, 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
Related Sites +
-
Super Smash Bros.
Nintendo's Official Site.
Identifiers +
- MobyGames ID: 5575
Contribute
Know about this game? Add your expertise to help preserve this entry in video game history!
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 11th, 2002. Last modified July 1st, 2023.