Review by Link165

"One of the best games out for the gamecube right now!"

A game called Super Smash Brothers was released in the later part of the N64's life. You could pick from one of several(12) Nintendo characters and fight on one of a couple stages. In the early years of the Nintendo Gamecube however, a sequel called Super Smash Brothers Melee was released. This let you pick from many more characters and gave you way more stages to choose from. It is still considered one of the best Gamecube games out right now.


In single player, there are four different modes to play: Classic, Adventure, All-Star, or Event match . In classic and Adventure, pick a Nintendo Character(Ness and Captain Falcon are now select-able from the start) and fight your way through the stages(there are a lot more), using new items and older ones returning from Super Smash Brothers. New ones include the flipper(Balloon Fight), Barrel Cannon( Donkey Kong series), Super and Poison Mushroom, Metal Box, and much more. Also, in classic mode, you fight different opponents each time you play. So for a team battle, you may be fighting a team of Kirbys one time, but could be fighting a team of Donkey Kong's the next round. Not like in SSB, where you would fight the same people every time. In Event, sometimes the characters are pre-picked, but you can be your favorite sometimes. Event matches are normal Melee matches but have some different twists that effect how you play. For example, there is one where you can't kill Pikachu by yourself, you need to use the several Pokeballs that fall on the stage to duel with him/her/it. Another is when you fight Fox and Falco, but they are both invisible for the duration of the fight. In some events, you can't even pick which character to fight with. Beating certain events can unlock new characters, who you can fight with later. All-star mode is unlockable, and it involves going through several consecutive fights while having your damage carry over. Dying can end your mission.

Doing fights earns coins, which in turn you can put into the lottery(gamble from one to twenty coins) to get trophies. Trophies are Nintendo Figures put on a gold base with the SSBM logo on it, that you can view whenever you want to. Other trophies are won by beating Classic, Adventure, or All-Star with a character(you get their trophy, each character has three different ones for those three SP modes), or doing certain things(beating match in certain time, play game long enough, have certain number of coins). There are special Event matches called Trophy Tussles, where for one, you fight on a big Goomba, the winner gets his trophy(you can try again if you don't win). Each trophy has a small description on it, which gives you a good history lesson on Nintendo's past. I say this because there are a LOT of trophies in the game. The back of the game box says there are "nearly 300" trophies. I have 280. So instead of just Link, Mario, Peach, and all the well known characters, you have guys like Mr. Eggplant, items from Japan only releases, and characters from Animal crossing(which was not yet available at the time of SSBM's release), and a whole lot more.

There are MANY new characters, such as Bowser, Marth, Roy, Ice Climbers, Zelda, more Pokemon, and several more who are playable. Others(all the characters from the first Super Smash Brothers), such as Link return with some new moves (Link has a bow, Mario has a cape etc). The only gripe I (and many others) have with the characters is that some of them are "clones" of another; they have the same moveset. Two examples of this are Falco and Fox, and Ganondorf and Captain Falcon. They have slightly different characteristics(ie Ganondorf is slower but more powerful then Captain Falcon) but it would have been nice for Nintendo to put more thought into designing the movesets for all of the characters.

There are also new things put in, such as evasive moves like the air dodge and the roll. You can also attack people while you have a hold of them.

But wait, the fun doesn't end yet! Invite a few friends over and play Tournament, special, or regular melee. There are several different modes now, such as stock, time stock, coin, time, and more. Item switch is already open for use at the start, so choose from the several new and old items from which ones you want or don't want. Melee is a single fight, where you duel to the end. In tournament however, you can pick to have up 64 battlers try to reach the top. Due to the T shape of the brackets, you position will always change, so different controllers will be used. So if you can fit 63 friends in one room, you can play with 63 other humans. Also, there is special melee. Some include camera mode(you can take pictures and save to your memory card), slow motion, super-fast, single button(use only the A button for attacks, great for beginners), and stamina(so anyone that wanted a health bar in SSB gets one). All of the Multiplayer modes can be used in SP mode too. So if you want to practice, go into Normal melee, Tournament, or special and pick your character, computers characters, items, game type etc, then pick a stage.



Despite the fact that it's more then six years old, Melee is still one of the best looking Gamecube games out there. Every character model looks great, especially Bowser and Mario. All playable NES/SNES characters and items(such as the Ice Climbers) along with a few other trophies that aren't playable(Balloon Fighter) may have made their most recent appearances in 8-bit worlds, but they all look great. Instead of just being a bunch of colored pixels, they were upgraded and translate into 3d quite well. The stages also look great. For example, Great Bay looks almost exactly like it did in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, except the platform you fight on is turned, allowing for a bigger playing area. When you view trophies individually, you can change the background style, from a black space-like background to a underwater background. The only problem I have with the graphics is that the frame rate severely drops when you eliminate someone in stamina mode. This game really demonstrates the Gamecube's graphic power, even so early in it's life.



It certainly does not fail here. First, the music. There are so many old and new Nintendo songs here, and they all sound so much better. Most are remixes. Some of the more enjoyable ones are the Legend of Zelda tune(played in Hyrule Temple and Great Bay), a Fire Emblem tune(Hyrule Temple, Fountain of Dreams), a Metroid tune(Brinstar) and Mario theme(Mushroom Kingdom). Also, you can change the music in a stage by holding down a button while the map loads. All are great though. The characters also sound great. From Mario's voice to Ganondorf's laugh, it is really great.



There is SO much replay here, it's unbelievable. First, you can unlock all the characters and there stages. Second, get the 280+ trophies. As said above, the awesome thing about the trophies is they teach a lot about Nintendo's history if you don't know too much. Also, you can unlock new stages, as well as some old ones from SSB. Third, the bonuses. If you win a fight in SP, you may notice some things that give you points, such as "No R 4 U"(don't use the R button in a fight), "Pokemon KO"(Defeat someone with a Pokemon), or another like that. Try to get all of these in Melee fights and SP fights. Fourth, the multiplayer! It is endless with your friends coming over, all the modes, stages, and characters to choose from allow a depth of customization that few GC games can match.


SSBM is rated T for Comic Mischief and Mild Violence. There are things like swinging hammers around and bombs being thrown at each other. The characters can scream with pain when knocked out, and some things (coughRedeadhumpcough) look strange. Some of the music sounds scary (Hyrule Temple). It's ok for a little kid to play.


-unbelievable amount of customization
-great graphics and sound
-large amount of characters and stages
-trophies are cool
-not online
-some characters are clones of others

If you have a Gamecube, Super Smash Brothers Melee is one of the first games you should buy. Excellent gameplay and endless replay makes this one of Gamecubes better games. What's even better is that Super Smash Brothers Brawl will probably be online. Plus Solid Snake and Pit playable. Now let me kick your butt with Link. Thank you Nintendo for this excellent entry into the series.

Final: 10/10


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