Retro Review: Super Smash Brothers Melee

Note: A few years back when I ran a personal Web site, I also did reviews for games back then, mainly Gamecube. So, when I find myself having a dry patch with no new content, I post these to make sure that new content is being posted on my blog. I also don’t rate these games under my InvaderGamer rating system.

I didn’t review this game right off the bat because I tend to review games that I have either beaten, or have gotten to the point that I don’t feel like I’ll be playing it anymore. Fortunately, I can state that I am about two trophies off of having every single trophy in the game. With me almost having this game completely finished, I figured it was time to put up a review about this game. So, here we go.

My personal take on this game can pretty much speak for it self when I say: The last fighting game I bought was Mortal Kombat 2 nearly ten years ago. The fact that I bought this game – a fighting game – is saying something. And the fact that I’m still playing this game on a semi-daily basis is also saying something because I got this game with my Gamecube – nearly six months ago.

One thing that still impresses me to this day is the crisp graphics. There’s really nothing in this game that gives a polygonal feel – all the characters are rounded, and things are very deatiled. Me being the Link fan that I am noticed that when you go to do Links Smash attack, they animate him swinging his shield to his back, and animate him grabbing it again when you’re done with the smash attack. The fact that they animate something that normal people probably wouldn’t pick up just astounded me. In the graphics department, I really dont’ have any complaints.

In the event you haven’t picked it up yet – I really don’t have any complaints about this game at all. This game is that damn good, in my opinion. But let’s get on the topic of music. The music, in my opinion, is a combination of synthesized music, and orchestrated music. I should know – because not only do I have the Melee Soundtrack, I also have the Melee Orchestra soundtrack. The music is real nice, and they have a lot of remixes of older tunes … such as Super Mario 1, Mario 64, Link’s Temple Theme, Pokemon Stadium, etc. A lot of older tunes that older fans would enjoy.

And that gets us on topic of the key factor that I think makes me fall in love with this game: The Nostalgia factor. This game is chock full of things that newbie video gamers wouldn’t really acknowledge – but for older gamers, when you get the Kid Icarus trophy, you remember the game and how difficult it was (at least for me). Not only do you have nostalgic music, nostalgic trophies, nostalgic characters (i.e. Ice Climbers) but you also have Nostalgic Stages. If you didn’t get goosebumbs when you loaded Mushroom Kingdom that had the old blocks from Mario 1, and the Mario 1 original music, you are not a true gamer. This game is so chock full of nostalgia that, in itself, that gives it a lot of replay value.

I’ve went on about this game and I haven’t even gotten into the mechanics of the game. The game controsl itself are very straight-forward. All your special move commands are the same for every character … no quarter-circle-towards bull, just up and B, left/right and B, etc. In all reality, it a very simplistic control style – however, this does not make the game have a simplistic fighting engine. Moves over-ride other moves, but those moves might leave you vulnerable for a minute – while other moves that don’t do much damage temporarily stuns your enemy, leaving them vulnerable for a decent Smash attack. Really get into the game, and you contemplate which move you do because of the enemy dodges it successfully, you might leave yourself vulnerable. In addition to the fighting mechanics, you have items – you have pokeballs, you have a hammer (which is of the nostalgic Donkey Kong … which has the music and all), the stars, etc. These add to the game and the fighting engine. Normally, when you have the hammer – you are invulnerable to normal attacks, but you can still have Link or Samus use their grappling weapons to hold them down for a few seconds. Various circumstances in the game can make it so even the most experienced player can end up having a hard time – and the very simple controls of the game make it a easy game to pick up and learn.

The concept of trophies give the game the “pokemon” feel that people are starting to complain about – but I really like the “pokemon” concept – it gives the game a lot of replay value … especially for this game. In terms of replay value this game absolutely kicks ass. In addition to 300 trophies you can collect, you have numerous hidden characters, hidden stages, hidden options, hidden music, and hidden “special messages” that will keep you playing. Infact, I have heard rumors that there is a special message that comes up after playing 1,000,000 melee games. That has yet to be confirmed, but that just shows that even though it’s just a mere message – there is a lot of stuff you can get.

I really try to think of somethings that are bad about this game – but outside of the somewhat difficult AI on level 9, there’s really no problem that I can find about this game. It’s highly addicting, and fun as hell when you have four other people playing. On top of that, it records your informtaion (either player, Link; or personal user, Dem). The game even calculates the total number of miles you’ve walked, fallen, and been in the air. The reason I can’t think of anything bad to say about this game is because I am finding too many things that are good about this game. Sure, you don’t die … you don’t kill your opponent … but who cares? I’d pick this stuff over being able to perform fatalities and whatnot. To summarize, there is nothing seriously bad about this game that I can think of. If you own a Cube and don’t have Smash Brothers – buy it. This game is proof that while the Cube lacks a lot of games – some of the ones they have are real gems … and Melee is one of them.