Super Smash Bros. Melee

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Super Smash Bros. Melee|大乱闘 スマッシュ ブラザーズ |Dairantō Sumasshu Burazāzu Derakkusu|Great Battle Smash Brothers Deluxe is a popular fighting game released for the Nintendo GameCube shortly after its launch in 2001 (2002 in the PAL region). It is the sequel to the 1999 Nintendo 64 fighting game Super Smash Bros. It builds on that game's broad appeal and involved multiplayer mode, adding new features. Melee is the GameCube's best-selling title with sales of 6 million units sold worldwide.It is usually referred to by its acronym, SSBM, or, more informally, Smash or Melee.

Super Smash Bros. Melee, like Super Smash Bros., doesn't have a direct coherent plot and simply puts famous Nintendo characters against each other in battle. A sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, is under development for Nintendo's forthcoming console Wii.

Gameplay

Like its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Melee is different from most traditional fighting games in that simply inflicting damage does not guarantee victory. In normal play, a player must force the opponent off the stage's boundaries, termed as a "KO"; this can be likened to a ring out in standard fighting games. Attacks both inflict damage and can, if enough damage is dealt, knock back the enemy; inflicted damage increases that distance, so sufficient damage must be accumulated before attempting a KO. Each character's strength is measured by a percentage damage counter. The higher the percent value, the weaker the player is, and the easier they are to knock off the stage. However, he or she may be able to jump back to the stage ("recover") using multiple "mid-air" jumps and specials moves, and would be able to fight on. During the game, items fall in the game field, like Super Mushrooms (the character grows), Poké Balls (release Pokémon) and Koopa shells (to be kicked or thrown at foes). The speed of gameplay can be very fast paced compared to the original at times mainly when using aerial attacks.

The controls for Melee are simple: almost every single move in the game can be accessed via one button press and a joystick direction. This control scheme contrasts with that of standard fighting games which often require the player to memorize complicated and sometimes lengthy sequences of button inputs to perform effective attack combos. Different attacks can be accessed depending on which button is pressed or whether the control stick is tilted or "tapped" (quickly tilted). Tapping the control stick in the proper direction and/or along with the appropriate button presses allows the controlled character to run, jump, and perform the game's eponymous "Smash attacks", which are very powerful moves with substantial damage and knockback. In addition, each character has unique special moves, such as Link's arrows or Mario's fireballs. Characters also have a number of defensive moves, such as the dodge and roll which combine shielding and tapping of the control stick of the GameCube controller. Though the core controls are simple, there are a number of complex moves that only the most dedicated players can master.

Single player

Single player mode provides the player with a variety of fighting and side-scrolling challenges. The three main playing modes are classic (similar to the single player mode in SSB for N64), adventure mode in which ones character goes around different adventure stages and the unlockable All-Star mode, where a character uses one life and must fight every playable character. One can also practice in Training mode, or use the Stadium to play various minigames: Target Test (called "Break the Targets" in SSB: the character must destroy 10 targets), Home Run Contest (after damaging Sandbag, the player hits it with a home run swing to see how far it goes) and Multi-Man Melee (fights with the Fighting Wire Frames, paced by time or number of foes). Multiman melee involves 5 different types of melee fighting... 10 man melee (Kill 10 wireframes as fast as possible), 100 man melee (Kill 100 wireframes as fast as possible), 3 minute melee (Kill as many wireframes as possible in 3 minutes), 15 minute melee (Kill as many wireframes as possible in 15 minutes) and cruel melee (Kill as many possible wireframes as you can when they are super strong (Actually you are very weak)) The Event Match mode allows the player to attempt to negotiate various scripted challenges (such as fighting a Pokémon themed match, or defeating an enemy in less than seven seconds).

Versus

In versus mode, up to four characters may fight, either in a free-for-all or on teams. All characters may be controlled either by humans or AIs of varying difficulty. Their difficulty is ranked from 1 through 9, with 1 indicating that the AI is weak and doesn't attack much, and 9 indicating they attack faster and more often. The victor may be determined in any of four ways: "stock" mode, a solo- or team-based last man standing, "time" mode, in which the winner is the player with the most KOs and fewest falls at the end of the chosen time limit, "Coin" mode in which the winner is the person with the most coins, which are dropped by players when they take damage and "Bonus" mode in which the winner is the person who has accumulated the most points by doing certain things, e.g., not using any items, only performing certain attacks, etc. A variety of other options are available, such as determining the number and kind of items that appear during the battle.

Trophies

File:Tamagon.jpg
Screenshot of Tamagon in the North American version.

Trophies ("Figures" in the Japanese version) of various Nintendo characters and objects can be collected in the game. These trophies include statuettes of various playable characters, accessories, and items associated with them, as well as secondary characters not otherwise included in the game. The trophies range from the well-known to the obscure, and even characters or elements that are or were only released in Japan. Super Smash Bros. had a similar system of plush dolls (Biographies), however it only included the 12 playable characters.

There are 293 trophies in the Japanese and North American version of Super Smash Bros. Melee, but only 292 in the PAL version. There are three extra trophies which are obtained through use of cheat device such as an Action Replay. These included the character Tamagon from Devil World released only in Japan, and two trophies that were awarded at a promotional event in Japan: Samus without her helmet, and Mario riding Yoshi. Tamagon was removed from the PAL version. Officially, none of the trophies appear in the North American version but can be obtained through Action Replay. With the exception of Tamagon on the PAL version, these trophies were technically not removed from the game, just locked away.

Two trophies were altered for the international release:

  • The Topi trophy was originally a small seal, just as it appears in the original Japanese version of Ice Climber. Like the original NTSC/US Ice Climber release (and Famicom Disk System pseudo-sequel), the seal was replaced with a Yeti-like creature. The English descriptive text in the Japanese and US versions is identical. The in-game Topis were also changed.
  • In the Japanese version, the Proximity Mine was designed after the same weapon in Perfect Dark. However, in the US and European versions, the item's appearance and name were changed to the weapon from Goldeneye 007 (also used in the original Super Smash Bros.). The reason for this change is unknown.

Characters

File:SSBM-SelectScreen.png
Character selection screen with all characters unlocked.

All eight original and four secret characters from Super Smash Bros. return along with four new characters available from the start of the game. Two of the secret characters from the original game are now automatically available from the start in Melee (Captain Falcon and Ness). Nine new secret characters have been added in addition to the two remaining secret characters for a total of 25 playable characters. Bowser and Peach were originally planned to be playable in the original Super Smash Bros. game, but they were cut from the game due to the limitations of the Nintendo 64 cartridge.

In addition, there are also 3 non-playable (only playable within Action Replay) boss characters: Master Hand, Crazy Hand (in some cases both the Master and the Crazy Hand are at the end of Classic mode on higher difficulty levels) and Giga Bowser, a heavily enlarged and mutated version of Bowser. Also, there are male and female wire frame fighters (weakened versions of the Captain Falcon and Zelda characters that lack special abilities), found in both a later stage in Adventure mode and the Multi-Man Melee mode, and an utterly helpless Sandbag character, used as a target in the Home Run Contest mode. Neither the wire frame fighters, Sandbag, The Hands, or Giga Bowser are playable without the use of an Action Replay.

One of Peach's alternate costumes very closely resembles Princess Daisy; she even becomes a brunette. Similarly, one of Mario's costumes resembles Wario and one of Captain Falcon's costumes actually is that of Blood Falcon, which can be seen if the game is paused.

Video game developer Hideo Kojima originally requested Solid Snake to be playable in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but the game was too far in development for him to be included. Snake has been confirmed to appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. [1]

Hoaxes

Due to the popularity of this game, a number of hoaxes have appeared and have become extremely popular.

Sonic and Tails

In 2002, the April edition of the video game magazine Electronic Gaming Monthly listed a "cheat" for the game that would baffle many players. The issue claimed that the Sega characters Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles "Tails" Prower were unlockable characters in the game. In order to be able to unlock them, the player was required to eliminate 20 of the wire-frame characters in the Cruel Melee mode. Then, both Sonic and Tails would supposedly fight the player simultaneously. If defeated, they would then become playable. EGM also stated that if a player completed Classic mode with either character, they would be given "a special surprise". To convince readers, EGM included some "screenshots" of Sonic and Tails in play. Once players started fulfilling the supposed requirements, however, the "rumor" was revealed to be an April Fools joke, reminiscent of EGM's similarly executed Sheng Long for Street Fighter II.

Toad

Toad is a small servant or advisor of Princess Peach found throughout the Super Mario Bros. series. Toad appears briefly in Super Smash Bros. Melee as one of Princess Peach's attacks and in the Mushroom Kingdom stage in Adventure Mode. The Toad Hoax described a method to unlock Toad — complete Adventure mode and shoot all the ending credits. However, this has been disproven: Toad cannot be reached using this method, the Debug menu finds no evidence of Toad being a playable character, and the supposed screenshots of Toad in action were edited.

Debug menu

This is a menu that the developers used to test various functions in the game. It's possible to reach it with an Action Replay device. In this menu, players can play as every character in the game, including Master Hand and/or Crazy Hand, the Fighting Wire Frames, Giga Bowser, Sandbag, Popo (the blue Ice Climber) or Nana (the pink Ice Climber). Players have a larger choice of battle arenas; like the Adventure Mode stages, Target Tests, and even a non-textured "Test" level with a coffee shop as a background. This menu can open up a sound test that includes a few songs that aren't found in the game; added the ability to change statistics and characters' records of gameplay.

Tournaments

In 1999, 13 year old Ricky “Gideon” Tilden started Smash World Forums also known as Smashboards. Today, with over 45,000 registered users, Smashboards stands alone as the single largest Smash community on the planet. While at first Smashboards stood simply as a discussion board for fans of the popular game, in 2002 and 2003 the first tournaments began to appear on the website. These community sponsored events slowly grew, with certain tournament series proving to be milestones within the community.

Southern California’s Tournament Go (TG) series revolutionized the scene, by its sixth incarnation in the summer of 2004; Matt Deezie’s small local tournaments had exploded into a hundred person national affair. Not by coincidence, it was this same summer that the case was made for Smash to be added to Major League Gaming’s (MLG) tournament roster.

Next summer, a crew in South Bend, Indiana held one of the largest national tournaments ever—Melee-FC3—with almost 200 participants from 30 states, the UK, and the Netherlands separate issues Nintendo Power covered the independent and corporate Smash scenes, including Smashboards, MLG, and FC3. Shortly after, MTV ran a special “True Life: I'm a Professional Gamer” featuring MLG Pro Smasher KillaOR.

These events, coupled with the announcement of Super Smash Brothers: Brawl, set up what has been the most popular summer for Smash so far. MLG Anaheim, Chicago, and Orlando each broke over 150 participants. Zero Challenge 2 became the largest tournament on the West coast and first truly international one with players from Europe and Japan in attendance and Melee FC6 finally broke 200 participants becoming the largest Smash tournament to date.

The number of users on Smashboards has more than doubled in the last year and so too has the number of participants at an average MLG event. Ken Hoang, the winner of MLG's 2004 and 2005 National Smash Championships, is considered by both MLG and the Smashboards community to be the best player in the world, having traveled internationally to play and defeat the best opponents.[2] The popularity of Smash as a competitive fighter will surely continue to swell once MLG runs its tournament circuit on the cable network USA and with the influx of new members on Smashboards the local tournament scene will continue to prosper.

Critical reception

Super Smash Bros. Melee received very positive reviews from most critics, including a 9.6/10 from IGN[3] and a 9.5/10 from Electronic Gaming Monthly. It currently has an aggregate score of 93% at GameStats[4], 90% at GameRankings [5] and an amazing 95% from the British Official Nintendo Magazine Many reviewers felt that the game was vastly improved over its predecessor with more customization and characters as well as more polished graphics and improved gameplay. Fran Mirabella III of IGN, in particular noted the additions of the Event and Adventure modes, which he said added hours and hours of single player gameplay. However, Miguel Lopez of GameSpot described the controls as "hyper-responsive", but only noticeably so when making precise movements.

Awards

  • Super Smash Bros. Melee was placed sixth in two GameFAQs events: the "Best Game Ever" contest,[6] and a poll about the 100 best games ever.[7]
  • In the 200th issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, the editors published a list of the "Top 200 Games of Their Time", which compared games based on their influence and popularity at release. Super Smash Bros. Melee was the 92nd most influential game of its time.[8]
  • Nintendo Power named it the 16th best game ever to appear on a Nintendo console,[9] though a poll based on player opinions held by Nintendo Power had SSBM placing in fourth.
  • Filter named it the second best fighting game of all time, and best party game of all time.
  • X-Play gave it the title of 5th best Gamecube game in their Best Of Gamecube episode.
  • It has been rereleased as a Player's Choice title.
  • Super Smash Bros. Melee is the GameCube's top-seller.

Soundtrack

Nintendo released a special musical album in 2003 called Smashing...Live! which it gave away as a bonus for subscribing to Nintendo Power magazine in North America, and also as a free gift in an issue of the British Nintendo Official Magazine. It was released for sale only in Japan. It is not music taken directly from the game like most video game soundtracks but, rather, a live, orchestrated performance by the New Japan Philharmonic of many of the songs from the game.

Version differences

Naming differences:

  • Bowser and Jigglypuff are called "Koopa" and "Purin" (which can be seen by switching to the Japanese language on settings).
  • Ice Climbers appear as simply "Ice Climber" because many Japanese words are both singular and plural.
  • DK is shown as D. Kong, but it is still pronounced the same as "Donkey Kong."

Voice changes:

  • In the PAL version of the game, the language setting can be changed to various European languages. In German and French, the names for Jigglypuff, Pikachu, Pichu and Mewtwo are changed (along with the names of all Pokémon trophies). The character voices are also changed to make the Pokémon say their "new" name instead.
  • In the English version, Mewtwo's voice consists of growls, screams and laughs. In the Japanese version, Mewtwo is given a real voice, heard only in his victory screens.
  • In addition to Jigglypuff/Purin's voice change, in the Japanese version, Falco has two different taunts. In both, he shouts two different sentences in Japanese, changing randomly. In the English version, he will only make a "Heh!" sound. Similarly, in the Japanese version, Fox's taunt alternates between him saying, "Come on!" in English and Japanese.
  • In the English version, matches ends with "Game!" or "Time!", while the Japanese version has the traditional "Game Set" or "Time Up."
  • If the player goes to Collection in the Japanese version or setting the game language in Japanese on trophies section, some of the game systems are replaced with Japan-only systems. For example, the original NES and SNES are replaced with their Japanese counterparts (Famicom and the Super Famicom). Strangely enough, the Virtual Boy is only seen in the Japanese version, despite the fact it was also released in North America.

Trivia

  • This is Mario's first appearance in a game rated higher than E for Everyone by the ESRB.
  • Mario's voice is recycled voice samples from Super Mario 64. Luigi's voice is actually a faster version Mario's voice.
  • One of the event matches is called "Pikachu and Pichu", which was the name of a short that came on before Pokémon 3: The Movie. Both Melee and Pokémon 3 were released in 2001.
  • In the Sound Test, if the player selects Narration sound #50, the announcer will say "Giga Koopa." Giga Bowser is known as Giga Koopa in Japan (and, inversely, switching the language to Japanese results in the narrator saying "Giga Bowser"). Also notable is the announcer saying "Master Hand" on Narration sound #64 when the sound is impossible to hear elsewhere in the game. However, they can be accessed in a special debug mode using Action Replay.
  • When all human players hold down L or R while a stage is loading, alternate music will play (for instance, on the Hyrule Temple, some of the soundtrack from Fire Emblem will play, Saria's Song will play on Termina: Great Bay, music from Dr. Mario and Balloon Fight will play on Infinite Glacier: Icicle Mountain and Mushroom Kingdom and Mushroom Kingdom 2, and "Pollyanna's Song" from Mother will play on the Onett stage). There is a 12.5% chance of the alternative songs being played without L and R.
  • Some of the Pokémon from the first Super Smash Bros. were removed; these Pokémon include Hitmonlee (replaced with a Steel/Bug-type, Scizor), Beedrill, Onix (both replaced with Unown), Meowth (replaced by Weezing), Starmie (replaced with Staryu), Porygon (replaced with its evolved form Porygon2), and Koffing (replaced with its evolved form Weezing). Venusaur is also available from Pokéballs, and now uses Earthquake, while in the previous game, it used Razor Leaf (it is now Chikorita that uses Razor Leaf). Ditto was also planned, and was supposed to turn into your character and fight alongside you. However, because of problems programming it, it was removed. Ditto can still be found within the Debug Menu's items. All that Ditto does though, is hit your opponent up into the air; adding 13% damage. An interesting fact is that in the Nintendo Power version of the strategy guide, Ditto is still listed as a possible Pokémon.
  • Meowth's trophy was to promote the upcoming Meowth's Party, which wound up being cancelled.
  • The music for All-Star Mode, which is played in the rest area, was originally composed for the save areas of Kirby Super Star's The Great Cave Offensive.

This suggests that Mario was the first character the creators made.

  • Mewtwo is the only character in the game who has a third jump that doesn't hurt foes.

Voices

References

  1. ^ http://wii.ign.com/articles/707/707504p1.html
  2. ^ http://dpad.gotfrag.com/portal/story/32773/?spage=2
  3. ^ Mirabella, Fran. IGN: Super Smash Bros. Melee Review. IGN. December 3, 2001. Retreieved April 19, 2006.
  4. ^ [1] (Retrieved July 13, 2006)
  5. ^ GameRankings - Super Smash Bros. Melee (Retrieved April 3, 2006)
  6. ^ Best. Game. Ever. Bracket. GameFAQs. Spring 2004.
  7. ^ 10-Year Anniversary Contest - The 10 Best Games Ever + 90 Games: The Users' Picks. GameFAQs. 2005.
  8. ^ Semrad, Steve. The Greatest 200 Video Games of Their Time. 1UP.com. February 2, 2006. Retrieved May 27, 2006.
  9. ^ Nintendo Power #200

See also

External links

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