Super Smash Bros. Melee

Anybody who's played the original Super Smash Bros. should know how fun it is to smash your friends as popular Nintendo characters. Not only are the controls so simple even a 5 year old could play, but it's also fast, furious, and most of all, fun.

A little bit after two years after its release, Nintendo announced a sequel to the best-selling fighting game. Shown at E3, it passed Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2 as the most anticipated Gamecube game. Over the next 6 months, Nintendo tortured their fans by revealing saliva-inducing options such as 292 trophies, 25 characters, 28 stages, an much, much more. Finally, the wait is over, and fans are treated to the greatest fighting game of the year.

The graphics are magificent. People claim the backgrounds are terrible, but they look fine to me. The character design is so detailed you can see the furs on Fox and the curves of the cloth for Mario. And most importantly of all, it goes at a blistering 60 frames per second. That's an amazing feat considering most of the things documented in this site goes at just 24 fps.

If anybody's a fan of Nintendo music, then this is the game for you. It remixes many popular tunes from Zelda's Overworld Theme to Pokemon's Battle Theme. The sound effects are wonderful, and best of all, there is none of the sound editing that plagued the first version.

Super Smash Bros. Melee is not a rehash of the N64 version, as it has been often called. It has brand new moves. Now, if you grab somebody, you have a choice of attacking the victim, or throwing them up, down, forward, or back. There are 4 Special Attacks instead of the usual 3, and you can dodge projectile attacks and mid-air attacks.

In the original Super Smash Bros., the one-player mode was going through a fixed set of 13 stages. In Melee, there is Classical Mode, which is a lot like the original, only the stages are mixed. There Adventure Mode, where the player goes through scrolling world with hazards before fighting your enemy. There is Stadium Mode, where you can play your character's target practice level, beat up a beanbag before seeing how far you can hit it with a bat, and fight against up to 100 computer characters. There is an event mode with 51 events where you fight in special pre-set circumstances. And then there are the 292 trophies which include people like Misty from Pokemon or the go-kart from the Mario Kart games.

But the truly amazing part of this game is the multiplayer mode, which is what makes Super Smash Bros. one of the classics for the N64. You can play the usual stock (lives) or time mode, but you can also play coin mode, where you knock coins out of your opponents and collect there. Then there are the special melee modes, with special battles like Giant Melee (where everybody is big), or Special Sudden Death Melee, where everybody starts off with 300% damage. This game WILL last you over 500 hours if you are a fan of the original.

This game is a perfect example of why Nintendo is so successful today. Like what has been mentioned earlier in this review, this game is fast, furious, and most of all, fun. If you are a fan of fighting games or Nintendo, then this game is a must.

When it comes to multiplayer "party" games, fighting sims have usually been relegated to the older audiences for games such as Mortal Combat or other more graphic experiences. With "Super Smash Bros. Melee" for the Nintendo Gamecube, however, the contestants are none other than the colorful characters from Nintendo's cannon of crazy caricatures participating in some cartoonish smash-and-dash.

Besides the tight controls and great visuals/locals, the true hallmark of this game is the attributes of each individual character, which provides "something for everyone". If you just like mashing people? Go for Donkey Kong. Love to shoot a bow & wield a sword? Then Link is your character. The list could go on and on, as each character has abilities that make them unique to the game and allow for almost endless combinations.

Overall, "Melee" is perhaps the most engaging multiplayer GCN game ever created (with the possible exception of Double Dash). Literally hours of fun can be had pummeling your friends with Nintendo's characters and earning the bragging rights to go along with it.

Mario and the gang have returned for another bout. Only this time, they have new moves, items, places to battle... and of course, several new Nintendo stars to battle with.

The characters have never looked better. There's a lot of nice texture work here--you can see even very minor details like the stitching on Mario's overalls or the scales on Bowser's skin. The game constantly runs at 60 FPS, or frames per second (really, really smoothly), and load time is anywhere from one-and-a-half seconds to almost none at all.

Thankfully, Nintendo has not decided to edit the sound effects for the English version, unlike what they did for the first title. (Grr...) The music is very nicely done. Most of the tunes are orchestrated, and they even included the DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64!

Controls are also very similar to the first game. Players jump with the Y Button, use regular attacks with the A button, use special attacks with the B button, shield with the L or R buttons, and grab other players with the awkwardly placed Z Button. I recommend practicing to get the hang of it all.

The arenas are a lot more unique this time around, too. For instance, in the F-Zero Mute City stage, the arena constantly moves, and you can even get hit by the F-Zero cars zooming by. (This has to be seen to be believed.) Or in the Pokémon Stadium level, the landscape changes at random. All of the stages have little obstacles and traps like these.

The game is LOADED with all sorts of modes, even in single-player. Adventure mode, for instance, takes you through all sorts of cool stages based on Nintendo games. Players have several battle options, and players can also fight in tournaments with up to 64 players.

What about secrets? Well, I won't disclose much, but there are many characters to be unlocked, like Pichu, Ganondorf, and Prince Marth (from the Japanese RPG Fire Emblem). The only one I would change is Jigglypuff, who doesn't do much of anything. You can even earn many new arenas.

With all these options, modes, and secrets, this game is sure to keep players busy for a long, long time.

My score: 10 out of 10

SSBM is a fighter game of different proportions. It features four player action and some great 1 player modes as well. Adventure mode allows you to fight enemies in their preferred stages and explore stages not available in versus mode. Event Matches, Collecting Trophies, and so much more add to the games brilliance. This game has great symphony music as well, all accurate to some of our favorite tunes from Mario to The Legend of Zelda. That reminds me of one of the games biggest features, the characters! Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Yoshi, Samus, Link, Zelda/Shiek, and at least 10 others, all with unique attacks and specialties are available. The stages to choose from are also limitless. In simplest terms, there's about 1 or more stages for every character. All different. There is just so much to do in the game and its so easy to get into. SSBM goes down as the greatest fighter game of all time. It may even THE greatest game of all time.

The absolute first thing you'll notice about this game is how it surpasses all PlayStation 2 gaming graphics (yes, all of them!). The backgrounds are real, three dimensional places, rather then being several different backgrounds that shift to give it a three dimensional feeling.

The second thing you'll notice is that this game is HUGE. It has nearly four times more than its N64 counterpart, especially when it comes to characters.

The third thing you'll find is that all the characters generally have the same moves. Almost nothing has changed, although some characters have new moves that are more powerful than their old ones.

The music is excellent! You will not believe how good the orchestrated musical remixes are of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario 64, Star Fox, Star Fox 64, and Kirby's All-Star. Nor will you believe how well the guitar remixes sound of Metroid, F-Zero, and more! If there is a soundtrack, it is a must have.

The only disappointing thing about this game is the frustration factor. Near-impossible enemies at level nine seem to "cheese" more than fight. Their attacks overpower your "smash" attacks, which we know should not happen.

Besides that, this is one of Nintendo's BEST EVER and a game for all to enjoy! It's violent to a point. Instead of knocking out your opponent or even killing him, you must only knock them off the battlefield.

So it's obvious. Get the game if you loved the original Super Smash Bros.! You'll hardly be disappointed.