Review by Fiend Kraken III
Super Smash Bros. Melee – just the name of such a monumental triumph in multiplayer gaming, the seemingly perfect blend of an arcade style fighting game and traditional Nintendo platforming elements are enough to bring a tear of nostalgia to the eyes of a Nintendo gamer. But all the happiness, the memories, the hours and hours spent playing to unlock Nintendo classics such as Mewtwo and Ganondorf – is all that just those rose tinted glasses working their magic? Now that we've seen a whole new generation of games and a stunning sequel take us by storm, does Smash Bros. Melee still remain a great game in it's own right?
For many, Melee was the first Smash Bros. game they played, and although it was not the first in the series it is safe to say that it was the definitive game of the definitive crossover series when it was released. Containing a plethora of new stages, more than doubling the amount of characters and boasting a fully orchestrated soundtrack, Melee took the Japanese sales charts by storm, becoming the fastest selling Gamecube game and selling more than a million units only two months after its release, making it the first GameCube title to reach a million copies. Indeed, as far as commercial success goes Melee can hold it's head high – it's the best-selling Gamecube game with over 7 million copies sold.
Going back and playing the game now, the Gamecube controller is still the pinnacle of game controllers and not until now with the 360 controller has another company been able to replicate such a stunning fusion of form and function in a game controller. Melee uses this controller to it's utmost potential to create a control scheme that is simple and allows for quick arcade-style fun while incorporating deeper elements in the gameplay. It is nothing more than a testament to the perfect symbiosis of the game's physics engine and control scheme that even the unintentional glitches found in the game were not game-breaking or unbalanced but rather added to the depth of the gameplay in the form of more advanced techniques.
The tally of characters in Melee – impressive for a fighting game even by the standards of the current generation of consoles – adds replayability and variety even to the relatively lacklustre singleplayer modes. However, looking back at the selection of characters, one cannot help wishing that certain characters – Young Link and Ganondorf for a start – had their own unique movesets rather than simply being different skins of other characters. Sadly this trend has continued into Smash Bros. Brawl despite some of the 'clones' from Melee being removed – many fans of the series will forever hate new characters such as Lucario for replacing old favourites such as Mewtwo.
The music in Melee can be summed up as sublime. Containing fully orchestrated renditions of the best tunes from countless Nintendo games, it's no wonder many fans still listen to the soundtrack – released as a subscriber gift with Nintendo Power and released free with an issue of the British Official Nintendo Magazine.
The graphics may not stand up to more recent games in terms of polygon count or texture resolution, and at first glance the artwork is nothing special. However, all the characters are full of life and do their original games proud on the '2.5D' stage that is Super Smash Bros. Claiming that the graphics are technically brilliant or artistically superior to games like Okami and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker would be a lie – even later Gamecube games greatly exceeded Melee in the graphics department. Despite this, Melee contains some of the most faithful 3D versions of classic Nintendo characters and it's sequel, Brawl, draws heavily from Melee's artistic style, even using the same models for several characters, albeit with new improvements and better textures.
It's possible to go on all day about minor drawbacks and flaws but ultimately there is one aspect of Melee that truly speaks for itself, and discards all doubts of nostalgia being held above quality – the multiplayer. For Melee, the game is the multiplayer. The countless days and nights spent playing Smash Bros. with friends will be familiar to all Nintendo fans and, as a multiplayer game, Melee truly is flawless, offering accessibility but at the same time true depth to a game that could have sold millions simply by featuring Mario and Link. Whether you play at a casual level or in the surprisingly large tournament community, Melee has something for everyone and in this at least it succeeds as a fighting game in it's own right.
