Retroview - Super Smash Bros. Melee

Title: Super Smash Bros. Melee (SSBM)
Developer: HAL Laboratory
Publisher: Nintendo
Director: Masahiro Sakurai
Platform: Nintendo Gamecube
Release Date: December 2, 2001
Genre: Fighting
(Source: Wikipedia)

Source: Youtube Channel fredfredfred

Possibly one of the greatest gift I received for Christmas as a child was a brand new Gamecube, an extra controller, with Super Smash Bros. Melee and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3.  (Christmas is still special, I got Eternal Sonata and Call of Duty: Black Ops from friends this Christmas).  Just a short while ago, there was an article I read that interviewed Masahiro Sakurai (I can't find the source, I don't remember where I read it from) and how he struggled through the project on Super Smash Bros. Melee and how difficult it was to keep the rest of the team motivated.  I then read through the comments and saw that many of the readers did not like the sequel "Brawl" compared to "Melee" because of how casual it became.  I, with certain others, enjoy both because of the unique experiences each delivers.  There are so many aspects to Melee that made it fresh and exciting.  Even now, I still go back to my Gamecube to play Super Smash Bros. Melee (if not Phantasy Star Online Ep. 1 & 2).

Computer AI
The first difference I experienced immediately was the difficulty of the computer AI compared to its predecessor.  The computers were faster, smarter, and responded to situations lightning fast.  They were able to dodge/block attacks, tech at any speed they were flying off in, and recover most of the smashes that had them hurdling out of the screen.  My friends and I weren't very competitive in Melee, so having the CPU as our worthy adversary was a good stand-in if there weren't enough players.

Adventure Mode
The addition of a side-scrolling adventure was so cool because it reflected the designs and themes of the games the characters were based out of and takes the player out of the limitation of a fighting game.  Secrets were scattered around the levels, cameos were made, and a lot of references were made which helped a lot of 3rd party companies with their own games, especially the introduction of Fire Emblem into the English speaking community.

Additional Modes
These were more of a time waster and a distraction from the main game.  Hit the targets, events, 100-man melee and others had a lot to offer, but weren't the most entertaining parts of the game.  Practice mode was probably the most entertaining.  It allowed players to experiment, cause glitches, create wacky scenarios, and indulge in all sorts of shenanigans.  I spent a lot of time on practice mode when I first learned about competitive play on Melee with all the secret techniques such as SHFFL-ing, wave dashes, and gimping.

Competitive Worthy
This is probably the biggest highlight in Melee that everyone hated in Brawl.  The gameplay was fast, fluid, had glitches such as wave dashing, L-Cancel, and such that made the gameplay faster for those who could control it, and had a very strong community among Tournament players around the whole world.  This brought a lot of people together.  I've participated in local tournaments before and I cannot keep up at all.  I've tried to practice the way tourney players do, but didn't improve to how they played.  On the other hand, my techniques were much smarter and practical than before.  Level 9 computers aren't so bad anymore.

Plethora of Characters
Melee has 14 more characters than Super Smash Bros. did.  There were some delegations on whether it was all that great with copy characters such as Dr. Mario, Pichu, Roy, and Ganondorf in the roster since they used near identical animations and move sets.  That's debatable since fighting games have had more than one instance of similar characters.  Despite that, the two most played characters, Fox and Falco, being the same type of fighter had very different play styles in tournaments.  If I remember correctly, Brawl has 35 characters, 9 more than before.  The roster on Brawl has been noted as incredibly balanced and fair while Melee characters had some debate on the impracticalities of Pichu and Mewtwo.  Nonetheless, that leap between 12 characters to 26 was a significant one and players to this day continue to play Melee over Brawl despite having less characters than Brawl.

I'm probably missing a dozen notable features that made the game great, but it all comes down to the fact that Melee truly was a well designed game that offers infinite replay value.  Again, I like Brawl, but I also acknowledge and sympathize with many others when they say they prefer Melee over Brawl.  It really makes me wonder what Nintendo has in store for the next iteration.  It'll be very difficult to live up to Brawl, let along Melee.