Super Smash Bros. Melee
By Snifit

Fighting games traditionally have a set up with fierce looking characters and complex move combos. For its Nintendo 64 Nintendo took a radical change pitting its most popular franchise characters against each other with simple stick and button combos that could be used in effective strategies to take on opponents. With the popularity of that game and the power of the Gamecube it was inevitable to release a sequal game, and that game is Melee.

The twelve original characters from the 64 version (plus thirteen more) are here to duke it out. You start out with a choice of classics like Mario, Link, Kirby, and Fox and choose a one player path from the Classic Arcade style mode, a brand new Adventure mode, or a series of Event Matches that must be cleared. Versus mode is one of the best features of any fighting game, and this game does not disappoint. Custom rules can be set up including life stock, a time limit, and starting damage. Besides those a brand new set of styles has been added including modes to make all players super-fast, invisible, or gigantic.

Gameplay comes quick to learn but long to master. Standard attacks are performed with the A button and tilting or smashing the control stick. Just like the last game each character has special moves in accordance with the B button and a direction on the control stick, up, down, or neutral. You can shield yourself and grab onto enemies to throw them. Added on are a new B move, directional throws up or down, and a dodge move. All these combined offer players a chance to combine attacks and block from counters. As before the fight style builds up a percent damage rather than have a life meter to gradually chip away. Items return, with some new ones like size altering mushrooms, a live saving parasol, and a damage inducing flower.

Melee shows off what the Gamecube is really capable of doing. Each character has their own unique look that stays consistent with each character’s long history. Mario looks like he stepped out from Super Mario 64, Link and Zelda seem straight out of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Kirby may very well have fallen down from Dreamland. Characters who should appear realistic (Captain Falcon, Samus, etc.) look extraordinary while more cartoony characters (Ness, the Ice Climbers, Yoshi etc.) appear as cartoons in 3D. The stages are breathtaking. From Hyrule’s seemingly forever flowing Temple, to a moving set of Pokémon floats in the sky, to a dead on recreation of an 8-bit Super Mario 2’s waterfalls the stages are amazingly done. However not everything is so beautiful. Some character shots show a few chops here and there and a few stages have blind spots. Overall the game looks fantastic.

Sound and music are superb. From Link’s cries, to Mario’s coins, to the dead on sound of the Ice Climber’s original NES jump sound each sound is audibly beautiful. Music showcases some of the best Nintendo has to offer. Several classic songs play behind the stages and some stages have a choice of music. Each song fits comfortably with the stage. The F-Zero tracks blare with harsh rock, Hyrule echoes in faint orchestrations, and Yoshi’s Island comes complete with the banjos from Super Mario World. A bonus feature of a sound test helps players pick out their favorites and hear them in spare time.

Every fighting game has one big issue to overcome: replay value. Can stringing combo after combo still be fun? With Melee’s numbers of modes it gets hard to lose interest. Adventure mode showcases brand new stages and objectives for each of the main characters such as escaping an exploding Planet Zebes after fighting Samus and scaling a mountain to face the Ice Climbers. With thirteen unlockable characters, ten unlockable stagers, an extra one-player mode, and over two hundred trophies from Nintendo’s long history, it’s hard not to find something new.

For a multiplayer game Melee has a fun and challenging single-player game. Besides the Classic, Adventure, and Event modes there’s also a target test, a home run contest, and endurance tests against blank characters. The versus matches are fun, the trophies enjoyable, and the characters unique and different. Characters come in a wide variety with several new ones thrown in. Although some are simple reworks of existing characters (do we really need to play as Pichu) they still show a wide range. Characters innovate and surprise from double teaming Ice Climbers, to Fire Emblem’s swordsmen Marth and Roy (appearing in the U.S. for the first time), timeless 8-bit Mr. Game & Watch who is STILL in 2D, and Zelda’s ability to change into a totally different Sheik complete with a brand new set of strengths and weaknesses.

Overall Super Smash Bros. Melee is a great multiplayer game with lots of addictive single-player action

The Good: Tons of unlockables, hours of gameplay possibilities
The Bad: Some repeat characters, sparse chopped graphics
Personal Favorite Characters: Zelda/Sheik, Dr. Mario, Donkey Kong

Smackdown time for DK!

Scores-
Presentation: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Story: 3/10
Graphics: 8/10
Sound/Music: 9/10
Replayability: 9/10

Overall: 7.8

Author's Note- the score is only so low because the story is practically nonexistant
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