Super Smash Bros. Melee Review

Trophies

Super Smash Bros. Melee offers the gamer an excellent way to fully complete the game. This method is expressed through something called trophy collecting. Trophies can be found in many places through out the main gameplay modes. They are also earner for having completed certain tasks, some more bizarre then the last. The trophies are usually characters, items, stages and other things from classic Nintendo software and hardware. There are enough trophies for you to collect to keep you satisfied for a long time. Each trophy comes with a description detailing the origin of the thing it is portraying. You can also zoom in and out, rotate and move the focal point of a trophy to get a better look at something. You can view your trophy collection easily and cycle through your personal collection so far. Some trophies are easer to acquire than others so you may have 5 or 6 of a certain trophy and only one of another 1. You can also view your collection as a whole with all the trophies you have standing on a table in front of a bunch of classic Nintendo consoles. The lottery may come in handy for collecting trophies also. You use the coins you collect to use it and the more coins you put in the higher the chance of you getting a trophy you don’t yet have. The trophies are a great addition to this game and really give you something to aim for when trying to complete the game. The trophies themselves are great rewards and great to read up on some Nintendo history.

Graphics

When you first start the game you will get to view a beautiful short movie of the characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee. This is FMV though so it isn’t really part of the in game graphics. The title screen is a bit gland but the menus are neat and very well organized leading to know complications. The characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee are very well detailed and don’t have any unnecessary sharp edges. The characters movements are almost perfect and don’t distort the graphics in any way at all. Sometimes a character and an item or part of the stage may intertwine such as an arm going into a barrel or kick going into the wall. This is very minimal though and hardly noticeable at all. The items that appear are designed well and are all in proportion as compared to the rest of the screen. Most of the platforms on the maps look good and work well with your character. Some of the stages may have poor graphics but this is intended as they are supposed to look like they’re from Super Mario Bros or Kirby 64. The only real problem in Super Smash Bros. Melee is that some of the backgrounds in the stages are a bit fuzzy and disorganized or a mixture of good and bad graphics. The backgrounds in most stages are fine but some of them need some work. Excellent graphics on the characters, items and stages but the backgrounds may require some work.

Sound

As soon as the game starts you’re treated to some excellent music and sound in the FMV video and it doesn’t worsen as you keep playing the game. The many attacks the characters send at each other and in rare cases themselves sound crisp and uninterrupted. The explosions, blocks, deaths and stage alterations all give off the right sounds preventing you from hearing something odd that shouldn’t be there. When your character performs and attack or gets hit you may hear things such as “Hiya!” and “Ahh!” which add to the overall affect of the sound. These things don’t become annoying though; so don’t worry as the sounds are made at exactly the right time. If a sword attack is blocked you may hear a “Clank!” sound or if someone hits a mine the explosion sound effect is triggered at exactly the right time and sounds like it should. When your character is doing especially well you may hear the crowd shouting the characters name in approval. One problem is that the crowd won’t shout the enemies name if he/she is winning but then again some people wouldn’t like encouragement for the enemy. Then you have the classic announcer who adds more depth in to the game saying things like SUPER SMASH BROTHERS MELEEEEEEEEEE at the beginning of the game or yelling out the character’s name when you select him/her. The announcer doesn’t have an annoying voice; actually the voice is perfect for this game. The music in Super Smash Bros. Melee is essentially music from other classic titles and plays in the right stages. You don’t have to worry about things like Zelda music in Pokemon Stadium. A great soundtrack overall combining Nintendo’s best in music. Super Smash Bros. Melee has some of the best sound and music ever in videogames.

Control

Super Smash Bros. Melee has a very high learning curb discouraging some people when they first start playing it. Some may call it a button masher but it’s far from ever becoming a button masher. I guarantee that if you button mash a skilled player will be able to take you out in a couple of seconds. You have to have patience at the beginning in order to succeed in the future. I’ll start off simply by stating that navigating your way through the menus and setting up the match of your choice is a walk in the park and a 5 year old would have little trouble figuring it out. In the actual melee, the A button is used for standard attacks while the B button is used for special attacks. You may say that’s simply but it’s really not as the A and B buttons both are used to perform a whole series of standard and special attacks. Such as a character may use just the B button as just a gun while pressing B and pressing the control stick up and B at the same time may cause the character to attack as a ball of flame. Once you get familiar with the game you should be able to recognize which A or B move to use at what time. If you use the same attack all the time your opponent will destroy you so you have to time your different attacks well. You can also perform a charged variation of an A attack by smashing the control stick a direction while pressing the A button. This takes a while to learn though and most people won’t bother as you can just use the C stick for a quick smash attack in VS Mode. You can push up on the control stick, press Y or press X to initiate a jump with your character. Using the control stick to jump doesn’t work well and it’s a lot more trouble than just simply tapping Y or X. The L and R buttons incite a shield to protect your character from incoming attacks but the shield does die down and you really don’t want it to burst while using it, trust me. You can also press L/R and the A button at the same time to grab an enemy and attack him/her but the Z button is much more efficient for this. If playing in One Player Mode you can use the C to control the camera not that you’ll need to, as this game’s camera is perfect. Lastly pushing the control pad incites a taunt from your character, these are great after KO’ing someone. The control in Super Smash Bros. Melee is great once you learn it well but the high learning curb may turn some people away.

Lasting Appeal

The lasting appeal in Super Smash Bros. Melee just keeps on going and going and going… In other words, you’ll be playing this game for a very long time. With so many trophies to collect, tasks to finish, things to discover and more you’ll be playing for months or even years to come. If you use no strategy guide I’ll take you a very long time to figure out what to even do to get some of the trophies and how to unlock certain things. Besides anytime you have nothing to do you can just pop in the Super Smash Bros. Melee disk and play a quick match against the AI or play through Adventure mode. The real fun comes from playing this when your friends are over as it is the perfect party game considering the awesome gameplay and great multiplayer options. You and your friends will fight each other for a long time at first and then later one you’ll still have matches from time to time or when you have lots of people over. After playing for a long time, you’ll become a great Super Smash Bros. Melee player. This game will last you forever or until a sequel with even more options and gameplay modes is released.

Final Say

Super Smash Bros. Melee improved on the original in almost every way possible and added almost every new feature possible. It truly is a masterpiece and should be enjoyed and purchased by every single person with a GameCube. With many characters, stages, items and trophies you’ll have loads of fun for a long time. You and your friends will play constantly at first and still play often later. After collecting everything you’ll still play with your friends over who’s better and just for fun. There are many things to experiment with and the unique and excellent fighting style makes it all worth your while. Buy it, as you won’t be disappointed.