List of regional version differences (SSBM)

There are many differences between the NTSC versions and PAL version of Super Smash Bros. Melee, which are listed here.

Game disc
The text found near the center of the back of the Melee game disc indicates the version of the game.

MD5 hash
The version of a .gcm or .iso file of Melee can be determined by checking its MD5 hash.

Version 1.0

 * All glitches exist, including one that can overwrite Multi-Man Melee scores.
 * If the player plays as one of the clone characters, lower scores can overwrite higher ones, and if the player plays a clone and then a regular character, the score can duplicate itself on other characters.
 * In the Home-Run Contest, the track ends at 1521.0 m (4990.0 ft), and if Sandbag isn’t already on the track when the player strikes it with the final attack and it goes over 1389.0 m (4556.9 ft), it will result in No Distance. In the Japanese version, it will start to say No Distance from about 890.0 m (2920.0 ft).
 * The Screen KOs’ camera is slightly zoomed out and angled as the character’s body is more shown yet upward and hits the screen before visibly falling to the blast zone.

Version 1.01

 * Home Run Contest track was changed to 4990.0 m (16371.0 ft) long, but the bag can’t land anywhere past 3458.5 m (11347.2 ft).
 * The all-floats glitch can no longer be performed.
 * The turnip glitch can no longer be performed.
 * The shadow glitch can no longer be performed.
 * The Screen KOs’ camera is at a precise normal angle and the character hits the screen in the center.

Version 1.02

 * The Multi-Man Melee glitch was fixed, the Superjump Glitch was removed, and many other glitches were corrected.
 * The announcer now says “A New Record” if a new record is achieved in Multi-Man Melee.
 * The crowd now says “Ohhh” when the announcer says “Failure” if the player fails in Multi-Man Melee.
 * The game is now able to record and store negative scores in the single player modes; finishing with a negative score will count as 0 instead of the maximum of 999,999,999.
 * Many methods of freezing the games no longer cause freezing.
 * Attacks that deal less than 1% damage now cause hitlag.

KOR version

 * Identical to 1.02

PAL version

 * Lag and loading times have been reduced.
 * Character stock icons shown at the bottom of the screen during a match, as well as target icons shown in Target Test, are considerably smaller.
 * The progressive scan query shown during the booting of the game if B is held is replaced by a 60 Hz query, which lets the player select between PAL50 (576i50) and PAL60 (480i60).
 * The "Special Movie" was removed, as was the Archives section in the Data menu (But has data replaced by 's Congratulations cinematic). A dedicated menu selection for the video replaces the Archives submenu.
 * Player markers now follow the character's position perfectly, instead of lagging by one frame.
 * Player markers are not shown above Star KO'd characters or elsewhere after getting KO'd.
 * Inert hitboxes no longer disable article hitboxes
 * In Home-Run Contest, when the Sandbag lands on the track it becomes unhittable.
 * In the main menu, when going to the next screen and then switching to a different entry too quickly, the game now shows the correct information at the bottom of the screen.


 * There is a long-standing rumor that Ness can charge his up and down smash attacks further over ledges in one version of the game and not others. This is false; in all versions of Melee, Ness can charge his smash attacks over a ledge to the same degree.

Language

 * PAL
 * The NTSC version allows changing between English and Japanese, while the PAL covers five languages: English, French, Spanish, German and Italian.
 * Also in the Language selection, English is represented by the instead of the American flag.
 * Names can now include uppercase and lowercase letters and with ; Japanese characters, however, are no longer usable.
 * The Motion-Sensor Bomb is called the Proximity Mine.
 * Distances are always measured in metres, as is customary in most European countries.
 * Snag trophies! is called "Grab a Trophy".
 * Rainbow Cruise is changed to "Rainbow Ride".
 * In the NTSC version, the text at the top of the Lottery screen reads "Chance of getting a new trophy"; in the PAL version, it simply reads "New trophy chance".

Trophies

 * 1.0/1.01 NTSC-U to 1.02 NTSC-U
 * Banzai Bill's trophy name corrected from "Bullet Bill".
 * Master Sword's trophy's listed game corrected to "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past" from "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time".
 * Various Pokémon had their categories corrected and various text changes.


 * PAL
 * None of the trophies have release dates.
 * Kirby Super Star is referred to as Kirby's Fun Pak.
 * Star Fox is referred to as Starwing; Star Fox 64 is referred to as Lylatwars.
 * The NES game Yoshi is referred to as Mario & Yoshi.
 * The EarthBound trophies have "Not released in Europe".
 * The GameCube's trophy has May 2002, its release date in Europe. The trophy name is "GCN" instead of "Nintendo GameCube".
 * The Tamagon trophy is completely removed and unobtainable altogether.
 * Roy's trophy is listed with "Future Release", despite Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade never seeing an official release in PAL regions.

Character names
The Italian and Spanish versions' character names and selection announcements are the same as the English version. This is also true for the German and French versions, with some exceptions:

Jigglypuff's German and French selection announcements come from Pokémon Stadium 2, while the other three's are the same as Melee's English version. Jigglypuff's crowd cheer is also different in the German and French versions.

The Japanese version has different romanized names and announcer calls for some characters: Bowser is "Koopa", Jigglypuff is "Purin", Ice Climbers is "Ice Climber", and "DK" is written as "D.KONG". The "Donkey Kong" announcer call is the same in all languages.

Stage names
All stages' names are the same in English and Italian. Stages not mentioned have the same name in all languages.