Smash Reflections: Super Smash Bros. Melee

(Part 1 can be found here.)

With a surprise hit in the form of Super Smash Bros., Nintendo knew they’d have to follow it up for their next console. The 6th generation was well-underway by the year 2000, and Nintendo was incredibly self-conscious about their now 4 year-old N64 hardware. They needed a dazzler, and come Space World 2000 they had something ready to demo. Amongst the offerings for the then-Dolphin were a tech-demo of Link and Ganondorf duking it out, a prototype for Pikmin dubbed Super Mario 128, and an almost-completed Kirby’s Air Ride, which was originally an N64 hopeful.

But it was the announcement of a sequel to Super Smash Bros. that really got fans excited. Slated for a Christmas window the following year, the game, Super Smash Bros. Melee, was to be everything the original was, but better. Masahiro Sakurai and his team were given an enhanced budget, but only 13 months to develop. Despite the impossible, the game released mere weeks after the Dolphin, now known as the Gamecube, launched in North America in 2001. To say that it was the biggest hit of that season is an understatement, as Super Smash Bros. Melee helped keep the Gamecube alive in its troubled, 5 year run.

I first saw the game at a carpool buddy’s house in late-2001. I’d recently switched schools because of my learning disability, and with that came a new set of expectations, teachers and carpool schedules. While most of the week was typical, Friday afternoons, because of my Sabbath, were the wildcard, and I usually ended up waiting at someone’s house after school. It was there that I was introduced to new friends, the Gamecube and, of course, Super Smash Bros. Melee. It looked similar to its predecessor, but better, and I immediately became a fan.

It sounds hipster to say this, but I was a fan of Super Smash Bros. Melee in my immediate circles before everyone else. Even my cousin didn’t get the game until months later, which gave me bragging rights. I kept boasting about how good I was at the game, only to be let-down when he eventually won a single match. I put up a pretty good fight as Kirby, but I learned a valuable lesson that day.

One of the more-interesting moments was trying to convince my brothers of the game’s pronunciation. “Melee” is a French word for “battle”, but its correct pronunciation is “Mah-lay”. Or was it “May-lay”? We kept bickering until the game’s commercial set everything straight: it was “Mee-lee”, which made absolutely no sense. Regardless, I rolled with it.

Another interesting feature that I took note of was its opening cinematic. The original game had one as well, but it felt more like a stage play introduction. It was a montage of the game’s 8 initial characters, set to limited-yet-impressive music, and it felt like that. Super Smash Bros. Melee, however, was a completely different beast, with an opening that, to-date, remains my favourite:

They’re not hiding anything, are they? (Courtesy of fredfredfred.)

The best part about the opening, aside from being really well-made, is it introducing me to two characters I wasn’t already familiar with: there’s an Inuit couple? Or are they siblings? What’s the deal with them? Popo and Nana, as I came to find out, were from the NES classic Ice Climber, long-forgotten about for almost 20 years. They weren’t the only new additions, Marth and Roy helped pave way for the Fire Emblem series in North America, but they were the ones that piqued my interest the most.

Super Smash Bros. Melee expanded on everything the original had to offer: it doubled the fighting roster, had more unlockables and introduced new modes that were integral to 100% completion. Event Matches were skill-based, forcing you to complete objectives that progressively got harder, while Home Run Contest gave you something to vent your frustrations with. Then there were modes like Multi-Man Melee, which was an endurance test, All-Star Mode, where you faced-off against every fighter on three recovery hearts, and Trophy Mode, which was a machine that won you trophies. But the biggest addition to single-player was Adventure Mode, serving as a tour of the fighters’ worlds with occasional platforming segments. It’s not as advanced as future games’ story modes, and it’s a tad repetitive, but it was still lots of fun. It also compensated for the slightly-diminished Classic Mode, a returning feature from the first game.

Yet the bread-and-butter was its multiplayer component. Not only were the roster and options expanded, but there was a Tournament Mode that’s become a favourite for competitive gamers. The latter has even helped to extend the half-life of the game’s popularity post-Gamecube!

Looking back on the game, however, it’s easy to see cracks in its armour. Super Smash Bros. Melee, while fun, isn’t perfect, with numerous in-game glitches that make it easily exploitable and not as fun for a casual gamer. Wave Dashing and L-Cancelling, while neat, feel like the parkour tricks in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: great if you can figure them out, but unnecessary for a full-experience and frustrating when exploited. As someone who likes the Smash Bros. games and hated the unfair combos in the Mortal Kombat franchise, these glitches also felt like the game was mocking me.

Also, I really hate Event Match 51. It’s necessary to unlock Final Destination as a playable arena, but it feels like the game is purposely trolling me for being unable to beat Giga Bowser and his goons. I’ve used every character, even Jigglypuff and her Rest move, but I’ve given up trying, as have my brothers. I’ve so given up, in fact, that when the next game in the series was released, it tweaked the fight so much that I was disappointed when I beat it so quickly.

Super Smash Bros. Melee also has instances where it feels like it could’ve been better. Adventure Mode retreads the same formula with slight modifications for unlockable characters, and it feels like Sakurai wanted more time to expand on its potential. Classic Mode returns, but feels slightly less-special. The game also has “clones” of starting characters, and Mr. Game-and-Watch feels incomplete (his Shield, for example, doesn’t cover him fully.) And the game also has looser controls than I’d have hoped, with characters moving too fast for an inexperienced gamer to compete with a pro.

Also, side-note, the game lacks an online feature. But that’s hindsight talking.

Super Smash Bros. Melee feels the most “hardcore” of all the entries in the franchise. That’s not to say that it’s bad, quite the opposite, but it feels like it was made under a time-crunch. A lot of little features feel incomplete or wonky, and while that makes it unpredictable, it’s also aged less gracefully than its direct predecessor. Then again, part of me is saying that because the hardcore gaming scene drives me crazy, and I can’t pass up an opportunity to roast them.

In the end, a fine entry that expanded on the previous game. It’s too bad the next entry was so divisive, but that’s for next time…