Super Smash Bros Melee for GameCube

Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64 was released in April of 1999 and started a fighting game revolution. Was it because of the premise of beating up cute Nintendo characters, was it because of the easy to learn but hard to master control scheme, or was it because of the insanely fun multiplayer mode? Nintendo fans will surely argue this for quite some time, but people who had gotten through the original began to beg for a sequel. Something that could surpass the original, if that were at all possible.

Fast Forward to E3 (Electronics Entertainment Exposition) 2001 in Los Angles. Among many other stellar games shown by Nintendo for the Nintendo GameCube for the first time sat an instant classic, and an answer to the Nintendo fans? prayers: Super Smash Bros. Melee, the official sequel. Wrapping their fingers around the comfy GameCube controllers, hordes of people gathered around the screens and waited in line for hours just to get ten minutes of playing time. Was that dedication or simply because they wanted to have fun? Judge for yourselves with my following impressions.

This is a fighting game with the ESRB rating of Teen and the comments of Comic Mischief and Mild Violence. Personally I don?t believe the game warrants a T, but that?s not my position to judge. The game is actually very simple to learn, especially if you already know the setup for the original SSB. Each character is unique in the style that they perform their physical attacks and in their completely unique special attacks, but I?m getting ahead of myself. Without troublesome combos to learn, the game is fairly easy to learn, but is hard to master since you must be able to pull of any and all of your abilities at any given moment when appropriate.

Booting up the game for the first time, you?ll watch a lavish Full-Motion Video intro sequence. This can be skipped with the Start/Pause button, but I?d watch it at least once for it?s incredible. Once in the main menu you?re able to access everything that you see. Let?s break it down:

1-P Mode
This is for the single player. In the original SSB you could only play through the mode so many times before you lost your mind from repetition, seeing that you fought through the same, predetermined order of opponents. In SSBM, your choices for a Regular Match are Classic and Adventure. Classic pits you against randomized opponents in a similar style to the original game. There are three bonus games that are reached during your play in Classic Mode. Break the Targets, the first bonus game, has your character aim and destroy targets in a special side-scrolling course designed just for them. Snag the Trophies places you in a small area where ?trophies? rain from the sky, and your goal is to smack them into a holder in the middle of the area so that you can keep them (more on these later). Race to the Finish puts your character in a huge side-scrolling area where you get more coins the further you go before reaching an exit (more on coins later). Although the opponents are random, you always fight them in this order: normal opponent, two normal opponents with an ally, Break the Targets, normal opponent, giant opponent with two allies, Snag the Trophies, normal opponent, team of ten weak opponents, Race to the Finish, metal opponent, final boss(es?). After completing each stage, you are awarded with a time bonus for each second left (you have four minutes in each battle), a damage bonus for how much damage you gave your opponent(s), and special bonuses. These range from the craziest things like grabbing but never attacking or throwing to common little things like not dying on a stage, and there are hundreds! Can you get every one (it might be worth your while?)?

Adventure Mode puts you in interesting side-scrolling areas based on classic Nintendo locales. You?ll go through the Mushroom Kingdom, Donkey Kong?s place, an Underground Maze, Brinstar, Green Greens, Corneria, Pokemon Stadium, and more. The concentration is still on the fights, though, so don?t expect to get out of them that easily!

The 1-P Mode also offers Event Matches, specially designed fights meant to challenge you. Starting out easy, they quickly get insanely hard, but who knows what you?ll unlock when you start completing them? They range from defeating Mario?s old nemesis to perhaps something out of your wildest dreams. How many are there really? It seems there are thirty, but there?s a good chance that there are many more than that to unlock?

The Stadium selection in 1-P Mode gives you three more choices. You can practice the Break the Target levels (and get better time trials) in Target Test, smash around a sandbag and use the Home-Run Bat to smack it as far as you can in Home-Run Contest, and compete in Multi-Man Melee, where you battle countless faceless beings with very little attack or defense power. One of the semi-modes of Multi-Man Melee forces you to battle for an agonizing fifteen minutes without break or the possibility of restoring health, leading to very frustrating battles, especially when you?ve played for ten minutes and your character gets KO?d by those annoying Fighting Wire Frames. Don?t say I didn?t warn you, because you might need to complete it to unlock something?

Finally, 1-P Mode offers Training Mode, where you can practice against anyone under your own rules and conditions. You have the option to set game speed (1/4x to 2x), camera (normal, free, or zoom), CPU damage, Number of CPUs, CPU action, and any items that you want to try out.

Controls:
The game is fairly simple to learn. The object is to knock your opponent(s) off the screen in any direction. Attacking them raises a damage percentage meter, but unlike typical fighting games you cannot defeat them simply by giving them damage. Instead, the higher their damage, the farther they?ll fly when they are given a strong blow.

Use A button alone to perform straightforward physical attacks. Use A in conjunction with a Control Stick direction to perform a Strong Attack in that direction. Use A in conjunction with tilting the Control Stick very quickly (known as ?smashing? the Control Stick) for Smash Attacks in those directions. The attacks mentioned range from weak to strongest in terms of damage given and the force of the blow. Every character performs these attacks in somewhat different manners. You can also use these attacks in the air, albeit with one level of strength. These were all from the original SSB, except now you have the ability to charge up your smash attacks and let them out later for more power.

X and Y buttons perform jumping. When in the air they can be pressed again to use a double jump. Use the B button to perform a special attack. These are completely unique to the character that you?re using. Use the Control stick in other directions for other special attacks. Your special attack used with up and B always pushes you upward (except for Yoshi and one hidden character, but Ness can be pushed up but it?s tough to do), so use it when your trying to get back to the platform after going flying and you?ll avoid being KO?d. The side-B attacks are new to Melee. Since you jumped with the C Buttons in SSB, jumping with X and Y is very easy to get used to.

Use Z when next to an opponent to grab them. While holding them, press A repeatedly to smack them, then press a direction to toss them. Shield yourself from physical and most energy attacks by using L or R (the farther it?s pressed in, the stronger it is but less time it lasts). If you keep your shield on too long, it?ll break and paralyze you for a few seconds, leaving you open to attack from your opponents. Smash down and R to dodge, making you invulnerable for a split second, or use R in the air to mid-air dodge! Finally, grab items with A and use them with A. If you were used to pressing Z to shield and R to grab in the first game, you?ll easily get used to L to shield and Z to grab, virtually in the same places! The dodging is new to Melee.

Gameplay information:
The available characters at the beginning of the game are: Mario, Pikachu, Bowser, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Captain Falcon, Fox McCloud, Ness, Ice Climbers, Kirby, Samus Aran, Princess Zelda, and Link, more than the TOTAL characters in SSB!

The available courses at the beginning of the game are: Peach?s Castle, Rainbow Cruise, Kongo Jungle, Jungle Japes, Great Bay, Hyrule Temple, Yoshi?s Story, Yoshi?s Island, Fountain of Dreams, Green Greens, Corneria, Venom, Icicle Mountain, Brinstar, Onett, Mute City, Pokemon Stadium, and Mushroom Kingdom, doubling the TOTAL stages from the first game! The stages are also much more interactive than the relatively lifeless areas in SSB, but how you?ll have to find out for yourself!

The items are: Food, Maxim Tomato, Heart Container, Warp Star, Ray Gun, Super Scope, Fire Flower, Lip?s Stick, Star Rod, Beam Sword, Home-Run Bat, Fan, Hammer, Green Shell, Red Shell, Flipper, Freezie, Mr. Saturn, Poke Ball, Bob-omb, Motion-Sensor Bomb, Super Mushroom, Poison Mushroom, Starman, Parasol, Screw Attack, Metal Box, Bunny Hood, Cloaking Device, Barrel Cannon, Box, Crate, Capsule, Egg, and Party Ball, more than doubling the items from SSB! You can also catch items before they actually land right-side up this time. Also, catch items in mid-air by pressing Z!

Multiplayer:
The multiplayer, however, is where this game truly shines. You can immediately start a two-minute melee against your friends or computer characters with adjustable skill levels from 1 to 9. A time mode gives you a point for KOing a character, minuses one point for being KOed (getting a TKO), and another point if you TKOed yourself! If this wasn?t fun enough, how about customizing it? Set up any team combination (using red, blue, and green teams)! Give super players handicaps so bad players can enjoy themselves! Set up a tournament for up to (gasp!) 64 players, so everyone can play, four at a time! Play a game where you have to eliminate lives (Stock), gather coins that appear when beating them up (Coin), or rely on those 1-P Mode special bonuses (Bonus)! Change the time limit or lives everyone will have in Stock battles! Change the damage ratio to make characters fly easier or require more effort to change your game! Select your stages, or have them selected in a predetermined order, selected by the computer, selected alternately by person, or selected by the loser of the previous match! Change the items that will appear and how often and in what quantity they will appear! Put a time limit in Stock matches! Choose whether team members can hurt each other or not! Choose whether people can pause the game or not! Change how much self-destructs (accidentally killing yourself) will penalize your score! The possibilities are endless! For the insane in all of us, you can also select Special Melee and battle in ways that you could never do in a normal Melee! There?s Camera Mode to battle using any camera angle you like and the opportunity to take pictures and save them to your Memory Card! How about Stamina Mode, where you deplete health like an ordinary fighting game? Super Sudden Death gives everyone 300% damage, making almost every attack push you really far (the same happens in any melee when two or more people?s final scores result in a tie, but they only have one stock)! Invisible Melee makes everyone almost impossible to see, making the match suspenseful and challenging. Single-Button Melee locks all buttons but the Control Stick and A, only letting you use physical attacks! Giant Melee and Tiny Melee makes everyone larger or smaller respectively, changing their voices and the strength of their attacks appropriately! Fixed-Camera Mode leaves the camera zoomed out where it never moves, so there are no close-ups or pan-outs! Lightning Melee and Slo-Mo Melee speed up or slow down the action for more variety and fun!

? Fun ?n Extras
The game is extremely fun all the way through. From the thrill of beating up cute mascots to the fact that the game is different every time you play it to the amount of dedication required to learn all the characters and get your skills good enough to fight in Very Hard, the game has everything that makes up pure fun. But that?s not all! You?ll have more fun as you start unlocking the insane number of secrets. There are eleven characters waiting to be unlocked, starting with the leftover ones from SSB. After that, six of the characters are ?clones?, or somewhat similar to older characters. They have different aspects such as speed and how they perform their attacks, though, so the differences aren?t only cosmetic. There are also eleven more courses to unlock, some of them completely new, some originally found only in the 1-P Mode, and maybe even some classic stages from SSB! There are event matches to unlock, but you?ll only get up to number thirty without trying other modes! There?s even a completely new and different mode to unlock for 1-P Mode, but how to find that is my secret! You can even unlock new options for versus modes! How about a sound test? Yup, there?s one of those to unlock as well!

Trophies are the innovative mystery of this game, though. Using the coins you?ve accumulated in 1-P Mode and Versus Mode you can put any amount from 1 to 20 into a large gumball machine and get them. The more trophies you?ve already gotten from the 1-P Mode and the gumball machine already, though, the less likely you are to get new trophies. Put in more coins for the odds of getting a new trophy to be better. There are many other ways to get trophies, including playing many vs. matches, completing 1-P modes with every character, winning in Multi-Man Melee, performing many combos in Training Mode, unlocking hidden characters, and even from having a Pikmin save file! What are they good for, you may ask. Well, each trophy is a completely three-dimensional (sometimes flat for nostalgia purposes) rendered model that can be viewed at from any angle, complete with some text describing its history and/or significance to Nintendo. There are 290 in all, so work hard! [Update: There may be more?]

This game isn?t through with you yet! Don?t you hate how in SSB they just showed statistics for characters, and none of it was particularly useful? In Melee you can register and use up to 24 initials in any mode, so the statistics screen will show what that person did. SSBM saves so many records that it makes your head spin, and the fact that the game is keeping track of the very specific information while you?re playing, not to mention showing the great graphics, controlling the computer characters, and determining the special bonuses you?re using, and it?s obvious how much of a programming feat went into this solid gold game disc. Just for fun, try setting the game to Japanese and hear the Pokemon voices in their native tongue, or the other names for characters, such as ?Koopa? for Bowser. Finally, you?ll want to check out the bonus video clips in the Data menu, where you can watch a how-to-play movie and a humorous, informative clip showcasing the characters called the Special Movie, which lasts about fourteen minutes.

Graphics:
Truly those showing off the Nintendo GameCube?s power. Characters look incredibly detailed, to the silk lining of Peach?s dress to the denim stitching on Mario?s overalls. Though you have the ability to zoom in and rotate around the characters in a paused game, you will be hard pressed to find any obvious signs of polygon misusage. Special effects from dust kicked up to battle sparks to powers from items are flawless for what they try to visually capture. Textures are immaculate, and backgrounds are beautifully three-dimensional and imaginative. The worlds are colorful, full of little details that make you squeal for joy. Some levels even capture surreal lighting effects. Animations are nothing short of wonderful, and they fit in perfectly with the nature of this game. Playstation 2 could never run this game, and I?m doubtful that Xbox could either.

Music and Sound:
Although the music is mostly comprised of old theme music from the games that the stars of this game starred in earlier, it has been composed to near perfection this time around. Extraordinary usage of instruments have rendered these catchy, beloved tunes in a way that sometimes defies explanation, especially if you?re familiar with the tunes that have been taken from the original Nintendo! All I can say is that the tunes will bring tears to any Nintendo fan?s eyes, they are seriously that good! Sound effects are great, too. There are no sound effects that repeat themselves for different tasks, and they perfectly match everything on the screen. Character voices are perfect, as well. Some voiceovers are identical to SSB, but some have been completely redone. The speech from the announcer is great, too, giving you that adrenaline needed to kick everyone?s butt. There are some other instances of actual dialog, but I?ll leave you to discover them. They?re not the greatest, but they do the job quite well, still.

Good job for those of you who have read all the way over here. Here?s the breakdown:

?The Idea
A sequel to the greatest Nintendo fighter ever? I hope it?s not a rehash! 9 of 10

?The Execution
Not a rehash, but an exponentially larger game with many more options and moves to perfect! Box says ?Nintendo?s Best in 4-Player Action!?, and I?d have to agree! Easy menus, easier control? how could it be better? 10 of 10

?The Aesthetics
Superior graphics and sound. A treat for all, only for Nintendo GameCube! 10 of 10

?The Experience
Endless 1-P to do, limitless multiplayer. Oozes with fun and quality. 10 of 10

?The Extras
Almost too many to count. Can you unlock everything? 10 of 10

?The Griping
Why is 15-minute Melee so darn hard? Why are higher level computer characters so darn cheap? They use the same attacks and almost always use shields just in time!

?Final Score: 10 of 10

?You?ll like this game if: you?re at all a Nintendo fan, you like quality, and you love to play 100+ hours unlocking hundreds of secrets.
?You?ll hate this game if: you?re an anti-violence nun who thinks video games rot your brain.
?Also try: Super Smash Bros. (N64) and any other game that a playable character in this game stars in.
?Memory Card requirements: 11 blocks for main save, more for savable screenshots (the more complex the shot, the more blocks it will take)