Super Smash Bros. Melee

Nintendo’s all-stars are ready to do battle! Let the melee begin!

NA release: 21st November 2001
JP release: 3rd December 2001
EU release: 24th May 2002
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
NGC Magazine Score: 95%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

While the N64 Super Smash Bros was a wonderful novelty, Nintendo realised what potential the game had and decided to go all out with Smash Bros Melee, bringing more characters into the fold and adding in a load of extras to make it a love letter to Nintendo’s history. Melee solidified Super Smash Bros as an important franchise for Nintendo, with each game getting bigger and bigger.

Singleplayer has gained a few new features, including Adventure mode, where you play through a mixture of different kinds of stages. Some are platforming levels created specially for this mode, while others are fights on regular stages. The platforming levels do feel a bit odd using the control style of Smash Bros, but they’re still immensely enjoyable and set the stage for more to follow in the next game. There’s also the more traditional fighting mode, event fights and some minigames, like Home Run Contest, which are initially simple but are made quite deep due to the mechanics of the game. There’s plenty to do here when friends aren’t over.

There’s also a ton of options for multiplayer as well, there are stock or points based matches, add special features like making the game slower or faster, making all the characters invisible and you can adjust how frequently items appear and turn specific items on or off. All this means you can come up with your own ideas for matches. A personal favourite of mine was setting items to high, Pokéballs only and everyone had to be a Pokémon character. It’s pure chaos and an absolute blast.

Melee also introduced a compulsive form of collectable: the trophies. Some are earned by completing specific tasks in the game, while others spawn as items during other game modes. I would always dart towards one whenever I saw one. once collected, you can view it as a 3D model and read a little bit about the character, offering some background on characters that many had never heard of, including some characters who had never left Japan.

What made the trophies extra special in Melee was the amount of trophies that were new depictions of characters. There are a few Custom Robo trophies that bring the art style of the N64 games into more detail, we also got out first 3D version of Pit from Kid Icarus, whose description interestingly ends with “Will pit ever fight again?” and just a ton to discover. It gave weight and meaning to the collectables, which made them so compulsive.

Melee just had a ton of lovely touches all around. The music is wonderful (you can’t go wrong with the DK Rap) and the game scores you at the end of matches in many different ways, with some amusing ones thrown in for being cheap or comedic. Even the menus get some love as you can use the C-stick to tilt them around, just because. It’s a wonderful package.

Fave

Even if Super Smash Bros for the N64 didn’t really do it for you, that’s no reason to dismiss Super Smash Bros Melee as just a bigger, nicer-looking update. You’d be missing out on an experience that matches many of Nintendo’s best moments of the last few years, because SSBM’s reworking of the Smash Bros theme is so comprehensive, you might as well consider the N64 versions as a mere trial run.
Martin Kitts, NCG Magazine #68

Remake or remaster?

A “complete edition” Smash Bros game with the gameplay styles of each previous one would be wonderful.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to play Super Smash Bros. Melee.