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Super Smash Bros. Melee

See some new trophy awards in Super Smash Bros. Melee in this revealing movie download.

September 5, 2001

Owners of the Nintendo 64 know all too well that the fighting genre was underrepresented during the console's entire life span, except for one fighter which rose to the top of the sales charts and spread like wildfire through college dorms across the country -- Super Smash Bros. Nintendo created a unique, compelling fighter that brought a whole new meaning to the word mayhem. In fact, Super Smash Bros.' whole appeal is the pure pandemonium that ensues from a four-player battle with your friends (or enemies). Fans couldn't get enough of the game, and were soon clamoring for a sequel. Thankfully, Nintendo realized the hit franchise it had created and began work on Super Smash Bros. Melee for its next-generation console, GameCube. At E³ 2001 Nintendo highlighted the unveiling of GameCube with a three-and-a-half minute reel of SSB Melee -- it was the first real glimpse of GameCube the press had barring Star Wars Rogue Leader. For the most part the game looked the same, but fans of the series didn't care. Super Smash Bros. was back with a larger character lineup, heaps of new items, a revamped single-player mode, beautifully rendered characters, and much, much more.

Features

A whole new set of playable characters (plus five hidden ones)
Totally new multiplayer levels for each character
Experience true single-player levels with platform jumping elements
Characters are beautifully rendered featuring smooth, stimulating animation
Stunning audio includes orchestra-style tracks of your favorite Nintendo classics and other high-quality beats
New tournament mode lets you custom create your own SSB playoffs with friends
Buy trophies of classic Nintendo characters such as Pit, Mach Rider, and more
Other new gameplay modes such as coin mode where you see who can collect the most coins
One to four players

Gameplay
At first glance, fans of the original Super Smash Bros. will only see a visual upgrade with Super Smash Bros. Melee on GameCube. However, once you delve past the surface you'll be pleasantly surprised that Nintendo/HAL has pulled all the stops to improve on the strong points of the franchise. The most noticeable upgrade is SSB Melee's single-player mode. It has received a substantial upgrade in the gameplay department. In the original version, you were placed into a limited arena with a theme that matched your opponent. In the case of SSB Melee, Nintendo/HAL have decided to throw in platform elements, bringing the experience to a whole new level. This time around players will have to brave their way through entire levels, which feature properly themed enemies and tons of old-school platform jumping throughout them. For example, when you faced Link in the original Super Smash Bros. you did so on the roof of Hyrule Castle. In Super Smash Bros. Melee the fight against Link takes place in the bowels of an Underground Maze where the "Redead" zombies haunt every passage. Your fight through the maze takes place via classic side-scrolling action -- of course, everything is modeled in 3D. Eventually, after slashing your way through the Redead and Octorocks and successfully jumping on all the cleverly placed platforms, you will face Link. As you enter a new area he will suddenly jump out from above, attacking you immediately. At this point SSB Melee returns to the classic "arena" mode where you and your opponent -- in this case Link -- engage in a fight for dominance. This takes place several times over the course of the stage, only Link is a different color. Depending on the level these arenas appear at different times and in different manners. Needless to say the new single-player gameplay style is awesome. It gives you a chance to relive your favorite franchises in a memorable 2D style as well as perfect your fighting skills.

Most importantly, of course, is the multiplayer mode. For the most part it hasn't changed, and fans of SSB-style gameplay will agree that's for the better. However, there have been a number of upgrades and additions. Firstly, the versus mode now features a whole new set of options. Players can choose from Melee, TournamenT, and Custom Rules modes to vary their gameplay experiences. Melee mode is your classic four-player free-for-all with standard settings including Stock, Time Melee, and Team Melee. In addition to that Coin Mode and Decision mode are now available as battle settings. Coin Mode is all about beating your foes out of the way to collect the most cash raining down from the sky. Decision Mode is harder as it focuses on points. What this means is that players like Matt Casamassina can't use Mario's fireball attack over and over&and over again. Instead you'll have to hone in on your technique using special attacks and performing unique combos. The person with the highest score walks away with first place.

If you're a tournament fanatic, who's staged competitions for prize money across college campuses or neighborhoods, you'll be please to know that HAL has created a tournament mode. Now more than four players can get in on the action. The max number of participants hasn't been disclosed yet, but we're sure few people will be disappointed. HAL is working to create the ultimate party mode. You can even fill empty slots with CPU players if you wish. Along with this you can even preset the stages you want to play or set them to random! College dorms, offices, and weekends will never be the same. And, don't worry, with the use of the DigiCard memory cards you can enter your name to keep track of records and champions.

Outside of these modes there will also be a Custom Rules option that lets you play with the settings and save them to your memory card. Things such as handicaps, damage ratios, stage selection, and even items can be saved. Once you get past setting up the mode of your prefernce, the real game awaits. And it comes with some new moves for the characters featured in the original game. Each character retains his or her (or its) lineup of moves from the original, but HAL has changed some of the punch and kick animations to be more dramatic as well as added some new maneuvers. For one, each character now has a new special move. These moves range from Samus' homing missile to Kirby's hammer hit. You can also damage opponents in new ways with the grab moves. For example, Yoshi can now swallow a character and inflict damage by chewing.

But the biggest upgrade is in the defense department. The original Smash Bros. was offense-heavy, but the sequel adds new deflect, block and evade functions that add depth to the fighting mechanics. For example, in addition to using the standard shield, Mario can now use his cape to deflect a projectile and send it back at his adversary. You can also sidestep a punch and make your opponent miss and even block an attack through punches, kicks or special moves.

All this comes with a huge lineup of items to use. The items found in the N64 version of Smash Bros. are still there, but new items have been added as well -- slide a block of ice across the stage, bat opponents with a parasol, or pummel them with the Super Scope. Which, by the way, is one of the coolest new items. The Super Scope is so annoying it would inspire Mother Theresa to rage. It shoots a fast steady stream of ammunition into opponents, which pretty much renders them immobile. It doesn't do a lot of damage, but you can annoy friends by shooting them for long periods of time with no letup. Very cool.

When all is said and done, Super Smash Bros. Melee offers everything fans of the series could want. And that's not even considering all the hidden secrets, as the options screens are filled with questions marks. What other unique modes of play, items, and secret characters will be available is not known yet.

Control
SSB Melee controls almost identically to its predecessor. It still relies on smash moves where you swing the analog stick toward your opponents and hit the attack button as if you were playing baseball. In the version we played at E³ the A and B buttons were still used for your primary attacks. So there's not really much new to the control setup. Those familiar with the N64 control scheme can hop right into Super Smash Bros. Melee with no trouble at all. The only thing that doesnt seem to have been tweaked is the analog walking and running. It's still difficult to walk towards an item without dashing past it.

Graphics
As you probably know, GameCube is an extremely powerful 3D machine. That being said, though, Super Smash Bros. Melee only scratches the surface of it. It runs at a dazzling 60 frames per second with no slowdown from what we've seen so far. The main difference is the polygons and texture quality used for the characters. Finally the characters really come to life with exquisite animation and a crisp, clean look.

On top of this HAL has added in real-time lighting, reflections, and shadows to spice up the visuals. The actual world the characters exist in isn't particularly detailed and has relatively low polygon counts, but it does its job well. In the F-Zero multiplayer level, a large group of cars will race towards the screen smashing into any characters in the way. You can even see them racing around loops in the background.

Sound
Imagine hearing all your favorite retro tunes remixed in high-quality. Now you'll get a sense of what you'll hear from Super Smash Bros. Melee. In a word, the soundtrack for the high-action fighter rules. The overworld theme for Zelda has been completely orchestrated, Samus' Brinstar level is now overlaid with crisp guitar solos, and Princess Peach's Castle features the punchy drums and staccato horns made famous on the NES, only now they sound crystal clear. Sound effects and voices were also quite good, but they seem to be using many of the former samples used for the N64 except they're of higher quality. Let's hope they mix things up with some new voice effects and sounds by the time the game is complete.

Outlook
Super Smash Bros. Melee is shaping up to be everything -- and we mean everything -- a Smash Bros. fanatic could want. Playable characters currently include the following:

Mario
Bowser (King Koopa)
Peach (Princess Toadstool)
Yoshi
Donkey Kong
Ness
Ice Climbers
Kirby
Samus
Link
Pikachu
Fox McCloud
Captain Falcon
Shiek

That list alone is more than enough, but HAL has included a handful of new characters, which may even include Pit from Kid Icarus (a chalice item is featured in the game). The sheer number of options, modes, and extras is what will make SSB Melee great. The new GameCube fighter stands to embellish upon so many aspects of the original, that fans of the predecessor cannot help but be pleased. Suffice it to say that we are very excited about Super Smash Bros. Melee, and have even been drawn back to play the original to suppress our want for the new title. SSB Melee is expected to be playable at Space World 2001 in a mere two and a half months. Look for more detailed impressions then.

The SS Melee Box art

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