#13 - N-Europe: Let's Talk Games (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

[Fused King]

Since the internet is still processing the sheer awesomeness of the last NINTENDO Direct, I thought we might discuss a game which to many is the best in the series.

 

 

 

 

Not to me though.

[Guy]

Spent hundreds of pounds on an import Japanese GameCube to buy this when it came out. Regret nothing.

 

Fantastic update to the N64 original. Great character expansion (yes, even the clones) and gorgeous visuals and soundtrack. I couldn't tell you how many hours I spent playing this back then and it still delivers when I pop it in today. One of the best multiplayer games of all time in my opinion.

[Mandalore]

Not many games I've been more hyped for than this one. I remember spending hours with my brother downloading the latest tiny video clips on my 56k connection! Them textures on Mario's denim dungarees!

[Goron_3]

This game. THIS GAME. Man, I've played this game regularly for the last decade and I love it now as much as I ever did. I guess my experience with the game is split into two parts:

 

2002-2005

 

I played this game religiously back in the day, whether it was after school with a couple of friends or by myself, trying to collect all the trophies. It was the regular 'go to' game at social gatherings, where items were on and we played on every level. Hyrule Temple was my favourite level and Link (who else!) was my favourite character, and despite my nooby skills, I thought I was the best player in the world and I'd literally just played against level 9's non stop, always catching their thrown items hitting them with Link's bombs....it was love.

There was a sense of wonder about this game..it was like a tribute to all the great Nintendo games and characters, many from before I had even played on my first Nintendo console, and that's what made the trophy collection thing so brilliant. I felt like I knew so much more about Nintendo having played this game and I was thankful for it. It was awesome.

 

It wasn't always like that though. Shortly before my GCSE's, I heard word that there was another kid in my year who was bloody good at this game. I remember going into school and talking to my friend Steve and he was like 'Yeah, I heard you're good, but you're not as good as Matt (Aka @Zell). He's the best, he's probably better than you'.

 

Fuck off was he. I remember being royally pissed off about it at the time, because whenever we played Smash with people in my social group, I always won. This was before I even knew and appreciate the sheer depth this game possessed...I was just pissed off someone could be better than me. Anyway, @Zell came over to mine one day and we fought (my Link vs his Pikachu) and well, he destroyed me. Like, really bad. Now, at this point you might think 'it's such a game' but I was never the kid that was good at sports, nor was I the funniest. People knew me as the guy that was awesome at Nintendo games and it actually hurt than someone was better than me. A few weeks later, @Zell announced that he was hosting a tournament called SmashBash and most of the gamers in our year group would be there. I HAD to win this tournament. I had to be better than him and his brothers, as well as everyone else.

 

I should also mention at this point that there wasn't just a rivalry between myself and Zell, but also between our group of friends. You see, we lived in Milton Keynes whereas Matt and his brothers all lived in Buckingham and before the tournament, there was a lot of banter and showboating ('yeah, we gonna fuck you up boys!') so me and my mates would practice loads just to make sure we could take them on. There were also a lot of rumours going around about the skill level of some of matt's friends..I remember hearing that they had a mate who played as Yoshi and was nearly invincible, and that one of them had a Roy which was amazing.

 

Anyways, it was at this point I discovered youtube and smashboards and it's safe to say that my life was never the same. At this point I finally began to realise just how special was and how important it would become to me personally. It wasn't just a party game; it was actually one of the best fighting games ever made. And it all started with this video:

 

 

What.The.Hell.

 

Are those combos? How is that fox doing that? They are playing in lightning mode right? Must be.

 

I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and after realising that these were techniques that were programmed into the game and were quite easy to do, I got practising. I knew how to beat Zell, at last.

 

When the tournament came, I won and fairly easily actually. There were about 30 of us altogether and I beat Zell in the final...it was pretty sweet. But that was just the beginning I actually became close friends with Zell because of Smash; we played after school and occasionally for HOURS on the weekend to simply get better. It was incredibly fun of course, but we both hated losing to each other and our competitive instincts meant that we'd have smash sessions that would almost break my hands off. Eventually we actually got pretty good at the game, relative to the best players, and we could pull of all kinds of amazing combos.

 

Of course, as time went on, Smash became something that took up less and less of my time, especially with how the Wii and Brawl ended up. I still play the game whenever I can though, because I still believe it is the greatest fighting game of all time. It's MIND BLOWING that this game has featured heavily at tournaments like MLG and Apex, and even this year a frickin' Yoshi player came out of nowhere and achieved some incredible things, breaking the boundary of what people thought was possible..

 

 

Melee is Nintendo's greatest achievement. Not only is it an amazing party game and an outstanding fighting game, it's a game that has created an incredible community, forging friendships and rivalries across the world. It gave me some incredible memories and perhaps more importantly, it allowed me to make and develop some incredible friendships. Smash is more than just a game for me; it's a part of who I am and I'm thankful that I was able to spend my teenage years playing this game. In fact, I'm seeing Zell on Friday to play it again

 

If you haven't already, I'd highly recommend watching the Melee documentary. It's a beautiful insight into the world of Melee, and the people still playing the game today.

 

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

Yeah, I also bought the Japanese version, even when my crappy pal tv only showed black and white!

 

What I loved about the ending of the Smash Direct was they used a Smash theme that was very reminiscent of Melee. Though 64 has a very special place in my heart - Melee has to be the definitive version out.

 

I eventually opposed the darker hues and colours used in Brawl and prefer the more colourful variant.

 

What I loved about Melee:

Mewtwo - very unique character.

Sheik (in the original OOT bodysuit)

The opening trailer.

Young Link - and his milk drinking animation.

Great Bay stage.

Adventure Mode.

Giga Bowser was epic.

[Dog-amoto]

I remember all the hype for this, was fairly excited to get it and then...I honestly felt like Grandpa Simpson. "I got down on the floor for this...?"

 

 

I had absolutely no idea what was going on - felt like I'd aged about 30 years. All I could see was a mess of flashing colours and lights, next thing I knew I was flying off the screen and I don't even know how. I felt like what I imagine my mum did when I badgered her into watching me play the next awesome game on the Master System. I really did try to like this game, I gave it a good shot, but the final straw was when I spent all day trying to master all the special moves and then the girl I was seeing at the time came round that night and whipped my pathetic hide by just button mashing. Grrr!

[Zell]

What can I say? This game is simply the gold standard for local multiplayer. I could go on all day extolling the virtues of this game.

 

The Smash Bros games are among the greatest party games ever made. The core premise of the gameplay - knocking players off the stage - is such a clever and unique idea and it really puts the series in a genre of its own. The games are also packed to the rim with content. There so many game modes, so many characters, so many stages, so many items, so many different ways to customise the multiplay/er. The amount of unlockables in Melee in particular were unparalleled for the time. Add on cutting edge 60fps graphics and an extensive soundtrack and you've got the total package.

 

Yet at the same time, by fluke or by design, SSBM is one of the best competitive fighting games ever made. It has an amazing amount of depth, if you're willing to find it. And it's because of this hidden depth that I kept playing this game for years and years after it's release.

 

I do perhaps look upon Melee with rose-tinted glasses at times. The game was part of my childhood, as melodramatic as that sounds. It is one of my favourite games of all time and there is no other game I have sunk more hours into.

 

Is it the best in the series? Without question. Is it the best multiplayer game of all time? Could well be.

 

This game. THIS GAME. Man, I've played this game regularly for the last decade and I love it now as much as I ever did. I guess my experience with the game is split into two parts:

 

2002-2005

 

I played this game religiously back in the day, whether it was after school with a couple of friends or by myself, trying to collect all the trophies. It was the regular 'go to' game at social gatherings, where items were on and we played on every level. Hyrule Temple was my favourite level and Link (who else!) was my favourite character, and despite my nooby skills, I thought I was the best player in the world and I'd literally just played against level 9's non stop, always catching their thrown items hitting them with Link's bombs....it was love.

There was a sense of wonder about this game..it was like a tribute to all the great Nintendo games and characters, many from before I had even played on my first Nintendo console, and that's what made the trophy collection thing so brilliant. I felt like I knew so much more about Nintendo having played this game and I was thankful for it. It was awesome.

 

It wasn't always like that though. Shortly before my GCSE's, I heard word that there was another kid in my year who was bloody good at this game. I remember going into school and talking to my friend Steve and he was like 'Yeah, I heard you're good, but you're not as good as Matt (Aka @Zell). He's the best, he's probably better than you'.

 

Fuck off was he. I remember being royally pissed off about it at the time, because whenever we played Smash with people in my social group, I always won. This was before I even knew and appreciate the sheer depth this game possessed...I was just pissed off someone could be better than me. Anyway, @Zell came over to mine one day and we fought (my Link vs his Pikachu) and well, he destroyed me. Like, really bad. Now, at this point you might think 'it's such a game' but I was never the kid that was good at sports, nor was I the funniest. People knew me as the guy that was awesome at Nintendo games and it actually hurt than someone was better than me. A few weeks later, @Zell announced that he was hosting a tournament called SmashBash and most of the gamers in our year group would be there. I HAD to win this tournament. I had to be better than him and his brothers, as well as everyone else.

 

I should also mention at this point that there wasn't just a rivalry between myself and Zell, but also between our group of friends. You see, we lived in Milton Keynes whereas Matt and his brothers all lived in Buckingham and before the tournament, there was a lot of banter and showboating ('yeah, we gonna fuck you up boys!') so me and my mates would practice loads just to make sure we could take them on. There were also a lot of rumours going around about the skill level of some of matt's friends..I remember hearing that they had a mate who played as Yoshi and was nearly invincible, and that one of them had a Roy which was amazing.

 

Anyways, it was at this point I discovered youtube and smashboards and it's safe to say that my life was never the same. At this point I finally began to realise just how special was and how important it would become to me personally. It wasn't just a party game; it was actually one of the best fighting games ever made. And it all started with this video:

 

 

What.The.Hell.

 

Are those combos? How is that fox doing that? They are playing in lightning mode right? Must be.

 

I couldn't believe what I was seeing, and after realising that these were techniques that were programmed into the game and were quite easy to do, I got practising. I knew how to beat Zell, at last.

 

When the tournament came, I won and fairly easily actually. There were about 30 of us altogether and I beat Zell in the final...it was pretty sweet. But that was just the beginning I actually became close friends with Zell because of Smash; we played after school and occasionally for HOURS on the weekend to simply get better. It was incredibly fun of course, but we both hated losing to each other and our competitive instincts meant that we'd have smash sessions that would almost break my hands off. Eventually we actually got pretty good at the game, relative to the best players, and we could pull of all kinds of amazing combos.

 

Of course, as time went on, Smash became something that took up less and less of my time, especially with how the Wii and Brawl ended up. I still play the game whenever I can though, because I still believe it is the greatest fighting game of all time. It's MIND BLOWING that this game has featured heavily at tournaments like MLG and Apex, and even this year a frickin' Yoshi player came out of nowhere and achieved some incredible things, breaking the boundary of what people thought was possible..

 

 

Melee is Nintendo's greatest achievement. Not only is it an amazing party game and an outstanding fighting game, it's a game that has created an incredible community, forging friendships and rivalries across the world. It gave me some incredible memories and perhaps more importantly, it allowed me to make and develop some incredible friendships. Smash is more than just a game for me; it's a part of who I am and I'm thankful that I was able to spend my teenage years playing this game. In fact, I'm seeing Zell on Friday to play it again

 

If you haven't already, I'd highly recommend watching the Melee documentary. It's a beautiful insight into the world of Melee, and the people still playing the game today.

 

 

Those were the days.

 

After beating you for the first time, I went round calling myself the best in the school.

 

There was a point in time where me and you were pulling off some mental moves. I think if you go on Youtube there might still be some old videos of us playing Smash when we were 16.

 

Man, after watching that Smash Direct, I have gotten super hyped up about the new Smash. I hope they sort the online out so I can start schooling people with my Pikachu just like old times!

[Jonnas]

	Audio

 

This is the game that made me get a Gamecube. My first game for the console, my favourite and by far my most played.

 

I remember being so excited to play as Sheik and the Ice Climbers, being so curious to find out who "Fox" and "Ness" were... And when I started playing, I was so enamoured by how simple and accessible everything was ("I don't have to explain to other people how to pull off special moves!") and got immediately good with spamming Donkey Kong's Headbutt+Ground Slap

 

I loved the whole concept of percentages. Felt like more of a real fight, where you don't lose if someone pokes your foot, you lose when someone hits the right punch in the right spot at the right time. Simple mechanics, yet brilliant and effective.

 

The game gave me so many hours of play. Adventure mode was amazing (especially in higher difficulties), the Events were so fun and creative (the Ness vs Space one was the hardest, since I suck with him ), and I tackled the Giga Bowser event with several characters, and it was fun each time.

 

The characters are all so brilliant, I paused so many times to check them from every angle, and examine their incredibly detailed animations. Sheik's moves were so cool, Mewtwo moved like a DBZ character, Bowser's contortions were fascinating, Mr.Game and Watch was genius all-around and... as much as I hate to admit it, I had a few giggles at the expense of the Princesses' skirts That was so long ago.

 

And the trophies, the Home-Run contest, the Stadium (w/ Cruel Melee), Jesus Christ, so much content, so much to do.

 

Multiplayer wasn't as accessible as I thought. Soul Calibur and Tekken allow you to button-mash and still do something, but Melee? Nuh-huh. You gotta know where you are and what to do (I had perhaps one too many guests who kept killing themselves with Fox's Side-B). I never understood that criticism, that Smash Bros. rewards button-mashers. Either those people never played any fighting game before, and/or they don't know what button mashing actually is (you can't even kill anybody if you can't smash attack).

 

Unfortunately, I never had the chance to test my skills against better players. I know my Ganondorf was more than itching for decent competition. It still is.

 

Anyway, I classify SSBM as one of the best games of all time. It's amazing in pretty much every way (and when its biggest flaw is "How to unlock Mewtwo", it speaks volumes of how perfect it is). It's the best game of a console with Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4 and Wind Waker. It's that good.

 

And dat intro...

 

 

10/10

[Fierce_LiNk]

I knew very little about this game before it came out. All I really knew was that Link was in it (and Pikachu) and being a massive Zelda fanboy at the time, I took the plunge.

 

Not gonna lie, brahs, this terrified the shit out of me the first time I tried this. I've never taken cocaine, but I imagine taking it is very, veeeeery similar to the first time I ever tried this on multiplayer. Shit. It was so quick. I had no idea what I was doing, couldn't keep up. Dat bunnyhood.

 

I grew to love this very quickly and spent a STUPID amount of time on this. We're talking hundreds of hours. At that time, for me to do that with a single game was insane. True, I probably spent that much time on certain games over their lifespan, Super Mario All Stars, for example. But, we're talking weeks here. In a few weeks, I played this for every waking hour that I wasn't in school. Beautiful game.

 

The amount of content in this is insane. I wanted to collect all of the trophies. I made a huge mistake and put the GameCube memory card in my Wave Race: Blue Storm box and gave it to a friend. The game came back...the memory card didn't. All of my trophies after months of collecting; gone. Close to tears, brah.

 

God tier game, seriously. 10/10. I love it 5EVA.

 

(dat mean moar dan 4eva)

[Wii]

Love this game. A 10/10 easily. Everything about it was brilliant. Great graphics, some of the most memorable music, crammed to the rafters with tonnes and tonnes of content. But more important than all of that is it was a terrific fighter. A masterpiece.

[Jimbob]

This is the gem of gems when it comes to Smash Brothers (considering there are only 3, Nintendo did something right with this one). The stages were great, the music was great. I think i spent too many hours playing this, getting all the trophies, characters etc. Still got the memory card with my save on, don't have the Gamecube though.

 

As Goron said, this was the game for social gatherings. I managed to get mates whom poo poo'd Nintendo as being childish to play this, of which their views were changed. Each party i was invited to, i was asked to bring over the Gamecube with Smash Brothers (and later, Mario Kart) because it was something that people just loved playing.

 

Guess it was something that appealed to everyone really.

[tapedeck]

With Smash bros, Nintendo took ballet, Jean Claude Van damme, Conan, Robocop, Robin Hood and many more of your favourite 1980's avatars and created some kind of cosplay anti-grav fighter involving a heroine dose of bat shit insane items from both Mario Kart, Star Wars, Pokemon and the staff canteen. The results were (in the words of Conker) f***ing marvellous!

 

I never thought they'd better the N64 game until I saw the first screenshots of Melee.

They wiped the Vaseline off the N64 polygons, stripped Koji Kondo of his 1987 Midi devices, giving him a whole orchestra, and proceeded to throw the entire kitchen sink of their history onto a disk the size of a 'roided up Rich Tea biscuit. Just to show it was possible probably....Men.Tal. We talk about longevity in games. Killer Instinct on the XBone is an embarrassment when held up to the content on this disk. Actually, most people's lives don't have this much content.

 

It was orgasmic. Joyous. NINSANE. And playing it with the GC controller was like holding onto the passionate thrusts of a wild woman for the first time. Comforting yet concerning and at risk of blowing your load way too early. But damn, when you mastered it, it was orgasmic.

 

GOD DAMN was it worth it. Deeper than a Bankers wallet. Slicker than Brylcream on ice. As varied as my horrific puns. Smash Bros. has saved Nintendo to the hardcore crowd and Melee remains an influential slice of that reason.

 

Notable mentions:

Wavedashing

Mewto

Bringing Ness back

Forcing the word melee on the uneducated

Edited April 15, 2014 by tapedeck

[ReZourceman]

This is the best multiplayer game ever made.

 

 

ReZourceman VS The Peeps (with two other dudes)

 

NSFW, contains major swear wording.

 

[Glen-i]

I've got... mixed opinions about the game.

 

Now, don't get me wrong. The game is sublime. The best multiplayer game on the Gamecube.

But, I prefer Brawl.

 

I realise that as far as minorities go, that's up there with people who like Other M (Fun game, even if it's completely dumb), but hear me out.

 

I'm the kind of guy who plays Smash Bros with items on and stages on random. Sure, the best players out there would crucify me for that. But the whole hardcore style of Smash makes me want to fall into a coma.

 

I like infinite air dodges.

I like the floatiness of jumps.

I like tripping! No, I'm not defending it, I'm OK with it being gone, but some hilarious moments have come out of that.

I like Subspace Emissary.

I like the chaotic randomness!

 

Melee just feels like it's aged to me. (Also, the rabid fanbase it has doesn't help...) It's a fine game, but whenever I'm asked to play Melee, all I want to say is "Can't we just play Brawl?"

 

Yeah, Melee is fantastic. But Brawl is more fantastic.

 

(Also, Mewtwo, while cool, was rubbish in the game)