GameCube
Super Smash Bros. Melee
| Graphics: Sound: Gameplay: Overall: |
8.42 8.70 8.82 8.69 |
| Votes: | 101 |
| Reviews: | 2 |
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| Reviewer: Genext, with thirty party touch-up. | Date: Aug 1, 2025 |
| Around since 2001, Super Smash Bros. Melee is still being played worldwide - especially as a competitive platform fighter. Many have considered this to be the magnum opus of Masahiro Sakurai; to have outlived many later-released games within its niche lends evidence to this.
Graphics: 8 For a GameCube game, graphics are decent. The game’s palette leans fully into its identity as a Nintendo game, with warm and bright colors providing a fun, vibrant environment for competition. Compared to the later Smash title, Brawl, there is much less grey and no post-processing. Modern Melee players can make use of Dolphin emulation to further push the game’s graphical capabilities. With texture dumps and upscaling, you can make this game look quite graphically impressive. Sound: 10 The game’s soundtrack and sound effects are amazing. In this era of gaming, Nintendo knew well the importance of music in building atmosphere. Smash soundtracks frequently carry over between titles for a reason. Gameplay: 9 Labelled by some as controversial, the gameplay in Melee is the most complex and execution-based Smash game ever created, thanks to exploits such as Wavedashing, Wavelanding, L-Canceling, and more. This game allows you to move extremely fast and chain combos, due to how much hitstun is allowed in this game. Everything happens very quickly, so one has to be on their toes. This, unfortunately, leads to a wide skill gap from novice to pro, and newer players may struggle to keep up with the breakneck pace maintained by seasoned gamers. Later Smash games have a deliberately slower pace relative to Melee; this game was never intended to be as competitive as it has become. Players familiar with the gameplay of Brawl will be the most out of their element, while those familiar with Ultimate will find at least some familiarity. That being said, the modern Melee community attracts those seeking to rise to the top specifically because of the harsh competitive landscape; with Melee, it is true that the more competitive a game can be the more longevity it has. Overall: 9 Melee is an old, reliable game that has maintained a healthy online competitive scene in the modern day. That being said, it is a Smash game. Variety is in its nature, and it was originally created for casual fun. Loosening up to have some casual fun with your friends is always available, and Melee is a great avenue for it. Melee hosts many community-made mods, such as Silly Melee which overhauls graphics, or Akeneia Melee and Beyond Melee which add new fighters. The availability of mods adds to the game experience, refreshing this 2001 title for those who want to see something new in their longtime favorite. If you enjoyed this review, please also read the original review by Genext, uploaded May 27, 2022. |
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| Reviewer: Genext | Date: May 27, 2022 |
| Super Smash Bros. Melee has been around since 2001 and is still being played worldwide especially as competitive platform fighter. Many have considered this as the Magnum Opus of Masahiro Sakurai. To even outlive many competitive fighting game maybe skeptics are right. It is also the last smash title to include exclusively characters from Nintendo IPs.
Graphics: 8 For a GameCube game this game has decent graphics, with the help of emulation from dolphin this game looks amazing. With texture dumps and upscaling you can really make this game look graphically impressive. The colors in-game really fit the tone of a Nintendo game unironically there isn't post processing going on like with Brawl so there isn't much grey at all. Sound: 10 The games soundtrack and sound effects are amazing Nintendo knows how much music is important for their games in this era. There is a reason most of smash games soundtracks get carried over from game to game because it really amazing. Gameplay: 9 This games gameplay is controversial as it is literally the most complex and execution based smash game ever created. With the addition of exploits such as wavedashing/Wavelanding, L-Canceling and much more. This game allows you to move extremely fast and chain combos due to how much hitstun is allowed in this game. Everything happens very quickly so you have to be on you toes when playing. This unfortunately leads to a big skill gap from a novice to a pro level player. There is a reason why later smash games have a slower pace, this game was never meant to be as competitive as it is. Even with that being said it attracts people who want be good in said game. The more competitive a game can be the more longevity the game has. That's why when brawl came out it was very slow and it added tripping effect to negate the competitive nature of melee. I feel like Ultimate is best smash game to come out because it caters to everyone by having a middle ground. not being too slow and it rewards you for good play (most of the time lol) Overall: 9 Melee is game that seeming is never going to die in terms of a competitive nature. That being said it is a smash game and yes you don't have to play melee with 4 stock 8 min timers and the competitive stage list. Like me for example I play melee semi-competitively online. When my younger brother comes we relax play with items and mess around mods especially Akaneia melee'e volleyball. You can enjoy melee even if your not a competitive player just like every other smash game. Melee has a lot of cool mods just for fun like Silly Melee with all of its graphical changes, or added characters from Akeneia melee or Beyond melee. Mods are really fun on melee's engine if you are used to using exploits from vanilla. |
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