Super Smash Bros. Melee

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

Super Smash Bros Melee is the best fun you will have on a Gamecube. It features the best of Nintendo as playable fighters or even items and trophies. You start with characters such as Super Mario, Link, Pikachu, and of course, Ness. As I said, there are lots of items like Mr Saturn, Bob-Ombs and even the iconic hammer. You can unlock more content (like characters, trophies and stages) and is easily one of the best multiplayer experiences of ALL TIME. Even the music is memorable, and, with a fun event match mode (exclusive to Melee), what can go wrong?! You will marvel at the characters and even be shocked at what characters you can unlock! This game is easily in my top 50 of best games ever and is essential for any Nintendo fan of any age.

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.

All I can say is that SSB Melee is the best game I have ever played in my life. There are new characters, stages, and much stuff to do, like the Multi Man Melee. The characters in the game include Roy from Fire Emblem, Falco from Star Fox, Ice Climbers, Bowser, and many new ones. Get this game. You will have a great time! =) Rating: 20 out of 10. P.S.: Falco kicks ass in the game!! ^__^

Wow. This game is so perfect. The animation is crystal-clear, the stages are fun, the events are good, single-player mode is entertaining, and the characters and the scenery is completely accurate. This was my first game for Gamecube. Then I got LoZ:OoT and oh my God, the characters were even better in Melee than in the original Zelda game! I mean, Zelda's hair and her dress were exactly right, Link's sword was on the correct side, Young Link had a Deku Shield (He's not supposed to shoot Fire Arrows, though), Ganondorf was exact replica and Sheik was a clone. Then I got Majora's Mask and oh my God, Great Bay was and exact copy! Melee had the pirates cove, the columns in the water, the canoes on the beach, the Ocean Spider House, the umbrellas, the cave to Zora Cove, EVERYTHING! I'm sure if the cameras could turn all the way around, they would have included Pinnacle Rock and the Dragon Cloud too. Aside from the accuracy, the game itself is wonderful. The characters are so well animated, their moves are perfect, their taunts are cute, and they look so...upgraded. Every bit of it is fun. There are different modes to play with, trophies, training, event matches, melees against wire frames, Classic, Adventure, and All-Star single-player mode, it's all perfect! So, to sum everything up, perfect animation, perfect precision, perfect characters, perfect stages, perfect fights, perfect fun. Your all-around perfect game! 11/10!