Super Smash Bros. Melee
Reviewed by Dogg
Super Smash Brothers well what can you say about this
series. I know memories of sticking rods up Pikachu's
butt are never forgotten and hopefully I hope this
series is never forgotten. Super Smash Brothers made
from HAL Laboratory ( a company who works for
Nintendo, they have also done Kirby 64) was
definitely a good game. It was first planned for the
Super Nintendo, but was moved to the more irrelevant
Nintendo 64 console. When it arrived it found instant
success with many people. With this game a brand new
prank was pulled on Nintendo's franchises and one
prank that should never be forgotten. In Super Smash
Brothers the greatest of Nintendo's history,
characters like Donkey Kong and Mario squared it off
in a brawl. Here they fought till their opponent was
eliminated from the arena. Kind of a winner takes all
sort of approach.
Super Smash Brothers was a good game by any chance,
but its worst feature was its Single Player Mode.
This just didn't provide a challenge and it soon
became quite timid. So then why was Super Smash
Brothers so good- because of its 2-player
mode...that's why. Now up to 4 people could've
enjoyed beating up Nintendo's franchises together.
And that pretty much summed up Super Smash Brothers.
Now that Nintendo has released a new console, HAL
Laboratory has released a new game. This game will be
the sequel to the Nintendo 64's popular Super Smash
Brothers game and it will be called Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Nintendo Gamecube
brings back everything that was good about Super
Smash Brothers and it puts it in a package that will
be never forgotten. But to say the truth is Super
Smash Bros. Melee really a sequel? Well actually no
it is more of an enhancement. It also plays the same
as its Nintendo 64 cousin.
Once again the main premise of the game is to
eliminate the person's opponent out of the
battlefield. This is actually easier said then done.
HAL Laboratory has improved the AI of all of the
characters making matches even harder at times.
Talking about battlefields, well let me just say that
this game has plenty of. The backgrounds this time
include things like fighting in back of Pokemon
stadium while a huge TV screen is monitoring your
every move and to things like you actually being in
an F'Zero stadium while at times the crafts will come
and if you do not watch out then they will knock you
silly and at times eliminate you from the arena.
Super Smash Brothers for the N64 was obviously not a
perfect game. As I mentioned its worst function was
its single player mode. Well with Super Smash
Brothers Melee most of that crud can be forgotten,
even though single player won't be the game's
strongest suit. In Single Player you will pick one of
the many characters in the game and then you will
begin your quest, sort of speak. Then you will fight
your opponents and beat them by annihilating them and
means to throw them out of the arena or ring.
You will go through many battles in Single Player
mode and if you can notice, then you will notice that
each battle keeps on getting harder and harder. And
with its difficulty settings then you can bet that
Single Player will Ò advance Ò you to the action even
better than the first game. Once you beat all your
opponents, then you will fight against a boss.
Obviously it is the same boss from the first game. It
is a hand wearing a glove and this hand can perform
many types of magical powers. In this game he got
even more magical powers and it makes him much more
of a challenge to beat, making Single Player mode
actually harder to beat. Also to break matches up at
times player will have to endure minigames. These
minigames are not really that addictive, but they are
still fun at times. These games range from collecting
targets to running to the end of the stage before the
time runs out.
Just like the first game, Super Smash Brothers Melee
still has that percentage health thing in it. This
isn't a health meter by any chance, but this is
actually a meter that tells you easier it can be to
knock yourself out of the arena or to knock your
opponent or opponents out of the arena. So the more
you hit an opponent, then the more easier it will be
to knock them out of the arena and perhaps finish
them off once and for all.
Also like the first game Super Smash Brothers has
many different types of weapons. These weapons
include stuff like a light saber, a gun, a flame-pod,
a hammer, poke'-balls, bombs, and many more. Many of
these are obviously taken from the first game. In
Melee however, more strategy will be interspersed
with using these weapons. Also weapons like the
hammer can literally be used to help you win or lose
the match. Let's say for example a beginner fought
against a pro. If the beginner picks up the hammer
then undoubtedly he will win the match. Also stuff
like the poke'-balls are always fun to pick up
because you never know what monster will come out of
the ball and what kind of damage they can do.
Control is uncomplicated. It consists of an attack
button, special attack button, block, and jump.
Combining analog stick motions with the attacks will
produce different results. The key to doing well is
learning what each character's moves do, and in what
situations to use them. "Super Smash Bros. Melee"
is an easy game to learn, but a very difficult one to
master. For those who like to perfect their own play
style, this title has a lot to offer.
The deceptively simple control scheme hides a
surprisingly solid fighting engine. You will not find
canned 19-hit chain combos in "Super Smash Bros.
Melee," but you will find markedly skill-based
gameplay. Survival and success in the game depend on
how well a player uses a character's move set, the
environment of the stage a match takes place in, and
the items that appear during the fight. Positioning
yourself just right to tag your friend with that
short-fused Bob-omb is a tricky proposition that can
easily lead to self-destruction if you don't plan
your moves. Underneath the chaos, at least in
multiplayer games between humans, the players are
always in control of their own victories and defeats.
The worst part about the control is that at times it
can really mess you up. Times when you want to pick
up an item your character will instead just do a
dash. This doesn't really do anything to affect your
game, but at times it can result to you falling off
the arena, which is deadly. Speaking of falling off
the arena, when you are falling you can still go back
up. How? Easy with the game's uptight control it will
be easier to get back up on a platform. But at times
this also can be hard. One example of this coming
into effect is with the character Kirby and with the
character Link. With Kirby you can easily always go
back on the platform, but with Link you will have to
master his Sword-Dash maneuver to give him a boost.
This makes mastering any of the characters moves even
more important.
Talking about characters, well this got plenty of, in
fact it has even more then its predecessor. You first
start off with 14 characters. They are Mario, Fox,
Ness, Bowser, the Ice Climbers from an old Nintendo
game, Princess Peach, Kirby, Yoshi, Samus Aran from
Metroid, Donkey Kong, Princess Zelda, Captain Falcon,
Link, and Pikachu. You can by now already tell that
this is one hell of a list. But wait, there's more.
You can unlock now over 11 characters. These 11
characters are Dr. Mario, Falco from Star Fox, Luigi,
Pichu, Mewtwo, Jigglypuff, Mr. Game and Watch,
Ganondorf, Young Link, and Marth and Roy who are part
of a Nintendo Japan only RPG called Fire Emblem. Now
this is what you can call one hell of a cast.
Now that I mentioned the Single Player mode, I will
now talk about some of the other modes. The one mode
I should definitely start with will probably be
Adventure Mode. In Adventure Mode you will be
transported to a characters world, sort of speak.
Have you ever been stranded in the middle of the
F-Zero track? Probably not. Also in this mode you
will experience this along with the cars burning
rubber every time they hit your scrawny ass.
Adventure Mode can even transport you to where it all
began. For Mario, at least. In this part you will see
all of the Goombas and you will even be listening to
the old and probably never forgotten tune that
started off Mario. Adventure Mode will also throw in
a fight at times. This and more all help making the
experience even more worthwhile.
The next mode I am going to talk about will be Event
Mode. Event Mode plays out a lot like the Quest Mode
in the Dreamcast game Soul Calibur, except this time
you won't have a map. In Event mode you will have to
perform specific and unique tasks so you can be able
to advance to the next level. Boy let me just tell
you that this mode is hella' fun and hella' hard.
There are 51 Event stages in all and every single one
plays out differently. Examples can be like this.
Protect Princess Peach from being annihilated from
Bowser in under a minute or do much more Ò crazier Ò
tasks. Also as an added bonus, you will have to beat
this mode. Why? Because it unlocks you many of the
hidden characters as well as trophies which I will
explain later.
Last, but not least there is Stadium Mode. Stadium
Mode actually plays out a lot like a Practice mode.
In this you take on a variety of minigames. There are
at least 3 minigames. The first game is Target Test,
where you punch targets around character-specific
stages. Then the next one is Home-Run Derby. The last
minigame to play are the 5 types of Multi-Man Melee
competitions. So even if you do not have any friends
then there will still be some fun left in this game.
There are also more modes like Coin Mode and some
more, but the most important one is Versus Mode.
Versus Mode can obviously be called the greatest
factor in this game. Versus Mode pits your character
against your friends character. Just like in Super
Smash Brothers, SSB:M is even better because of this.
Also by doing tons and tons of rounds in Versus Mode
you can probably then get new characters. The only
problem is that you will need 1 or more friend and 2
or more controllers. The friends will already cost
you $100 and the controllers $120. Man, friends are
expensive! But if you can dish out the cash you will
be on your way to fully playing this game from
beginning to end.
Speaking of beginning to end just one thing will
probably never end. This is Trophy Mode. In Trophy
Mode you will be able to see all of the trophies you
collected. In the game there are over 300 trophies,
so you can tell it will take a long time to get them
all. Each trophy can be collected in different and
unique ways. In each trophy you will see a picture of
the character and at the bottom of the screen it will
explain a little bit about that character. The
characters on the trophy consist of known or unknown
characters of Nintendo's past.
Well it looks like the gameplay went unhindered
between this game and its predecessor, but how do its
graphics match out? Let's just say that the graphics
are pretty good, but nothing outstanding. While they
are definitely an improvement over any Nintendo 64
title and most importantly many Gamecube titles, well
in my opinion I guess they could have been better
especially against its main competitor which is Rogue Leader.
The sound isn't all that bad either. It features old
themes from the characters specific past and it
features many uprising beats, which are also good.
The sound effects however, are even better. So make
sure to put the volume high and kick it down with this game.
As I mentioned Versus Mode being the game's strongest
suit, well there is also something else that comes
along with it. This my friends is for all the stuff
that can be yours to unlock. Stuff like hidden
characters, more trophies, secret arenas, N64 arenas,
and even a Secret mode- All Star Mode where you pick
a character and you must now fight every single Ò
other Ò character in this game, including the hidden
ones. While there is many stuff that can be yours to
unlock actually getting most of them will be the
problem. I mean that it will probably take months for
you to get them and that is already saying a lot.
Plus the computer at times can be pretty cheap, by it
always throwing or using weapons against you.
Purchase or Rental, Purchase or Rental? Definitely a
purchase. This game has got so many stuff to do and
so many stuff to unlock that you will probably never
finish it in a week's rental.
All in all, Super Smash Brothers Melee is the
definite reason to own a Gamecube yet despite what
anyone says. Melee is also a great fighter that's got
more than a Nintendo fan could ever want.
Overall: 9 out of 10