Anyone who says L-canceling is a glitch is actually just wrong entirely, it is a feature that was just a nerfed version of z-canceling from Smash 64. Wavedashing is just an exploit that was left in the game because no one developing the game thought it would be as useful as it actually is. Anyone calling either a glitch are just uninformed about a lot of stuff about gaming or the mechanics of the game.
@@prodMAggs Exploit =/= Glitch. A glitch is an unintended and an unknown hiccup within the game during development, whether it be through UI or the physics of the game.
@@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos no, it's very clear. Glitch is when something goes wrong, e.g. 2+2=5. An exploit is when something works perfectly fine, but has unforseen applications or effects. Wavedashing is just momentum from air dodge being carried into landing, it's not even exclusive to air dodge since ANY burst movement causes it, air dodge is simply universal and efficient.
This game is top 10 of all time. As a kid, playing this one the GameCube it seemed incredibly modern and futuristic. From the model gallery, to the scoring system after story fights… amazing mechanics that blew my mind as a kid
This game was such an important and special part of my childhood. I played it all throughout elementary and high school. There were so many secrets and unlockables that made the game unique and fun. Fighting Giga Bowser, trying to unlock all the characters, trying to unlock all the trophies, all the characters, stages, modes and music. There was never anything to get bored with. I still play to this day. My favourite play session is going to temple and the Fire Emblem theme plays. That was my favourite song from the game. We're lucky this game came out when it did. Nowadays all the characters and unlockables would be spoiled on twitter day one. It was a great time to be a 10+ year old playing melee. Love those days!
For real though. It was kinda magical getting to discover all of this stuff on my own. It lent the game a sense of mystery the later games (4 and Ultimate specifically) didn't have, even if I did enjoy the character speculation that came with the later games.
teared up at the end ngl. melee means everything. from goofing around with friends, to playing high level games at local tournaments, i'll nver stop playing melee. its the best game of all time
I grew up with melee in a world without guides or internet wiki's so everything about melee was an absolute surprise I knew nothing about and my imagination and folk tales from older friends was all I had. So more than just organic, all the charactersm trophies, modes and secrets that I discovered along the way from the secret star fox codec conversations, getting Mew to unlocking sound test, thinking that Sonic and Daisy were legitimatley in the game, getting to fight crazy hand, It didnt feel like I was finding unlockables It felt like i had somehow accessed a nintendo nexus that was activley evloving or creating new content as i went along with it and it made this game feel limitless in every way. This was reinforced when the first thing you see in brawls trailer are the melee models literally evolving, almost like my gamecube disc was going to magically morph into a brawl disc at some point. But when I saw giga bowser im not gonna lie. I thought satan himself had corrupted my gamecube because there was 0% chances that the developers who had set a tone for the entire game were responsible for this contrasting anomaly design which was so brute and demonic I thought it was going to rip right out of my screen. It was just so edgy, ugly, sickly looking and beastly that it almost felt like some sort of glitch in the system had accidentally created it
I only played Melee after Brawl and even with the scaled down graphics and less characters, I found myself really enjoying its quirky and special manner. This game is a treasure.
In terms of artistic choice, melee wins out in the graphics department for me, the characters may have less polygons but I prefer it over brawls dirty realism
@@Alph4Falc0 I think both have their charm. It's kinda like the Wind Waker vs. Twilight Princess thing where one definitely ages better, but there's a certain rustic charm to Brawl's visual design that can't really be replicated because it's entirely a product of its time.
Brawl in some ways just felt sorta borked The phycics were a little off, the random slipping, the colour palette looked a little washed out and leaning too grimdark, they took out MewTwo, and the level editor was so bare bones that it may as well have not been there, for me at least. So yep, I was content to keep playing Melee even when my mom did get a Wii eventually.
Yeah, and that is why Nintendo kept the GameCube controller all the way up to the Switch 2. Melee quirky.... I don't think you know what that word means lil infant.
Great video! Two underrated aspects of the game are the end credits for the modes where you shoot the names that pop up. Absolutely mind blowing as a kid, never had I seen an interactive credits sequence like that. And two being the post victory screen, where it shows the characters clapping and the scores with the winning characters celebration. That was so unique and added such charm to the game. I could honestly talk about this game forever, I’ve been a part of the competitive scene since 2013, but this video brought back so many memories from playing the game during my childhood. When I first got the game I remember being like awe-struck that I finally owned it.
I spend so much time in comp melee that it’s refreshing to hear a review of the game from outside that space. This is how most of us played it in 2004 :)
Yeah I like watching comp Melee from time to time, but I'm definitely more of a casual player. It's been "interesting" to see how the more dedicated sides of the Smash community take these retrospectives. (So far comp Melee fans have been mostly chill with a couple odd angry outsiders, whereas the small group of comp 64 fans were quite unhappy with *any* critique I made of the game, no matter how insignificant. lol)
I would have killed to have comp smash back in the day. My best friend(Link), his little brother(Marth), my little brother(Falco/fox), and I (Ganon/Cpt. Falcon) played melee hardcore for years. Sometimes with poke balls, bunny ears, hammers, and other non bullshit items with infrequent spawns to make it interesting, but no items if it was serious. Final destination, pokemon stadium, or Hyrule Temple. Easily hundreds of hours. All up until mid high school when brawl came out, and it just wasn't the same. Felt super slow and floaty, such a total let down for us personally. Then we all started going our separate ways for work or college. Melee is held very dear in my memories.
When I was a 7 my dad got diagnosed with cancer and he battled it for about 3 years and those were some of the years of my life where I’ve felt the most alone. Getting to invite some of my school friends over to play Melee was key to helping me not feel alone and get out of my depression. So thank you Smash Bros. Melee. ❤
My favorite part about the roster was that it had question marks to make you think there was only a few characters to unlock but then hidden ones started appearing and it made me feel like I never knew who might come next. Discovering the roster was my favorite part about this game and its just not possible to go in that blind with modern games anymore.
This is the first video of yours I've seen, and it's very well-made. I just have a few nitpicks: While it's true that clone characters share the same animations, they do NOT simply feel slightly different to play. Most of them feel significantly different from each other, and actually I think the strongest example is the one you mentioned in the video: Ganondorf plays like, nothing like Captain Falcon. Other people have already commented this, but L-Cancelling and Wavedashing are not glitches - the former is 100% an intended mechanic and the latter is more of an engine exploit than a glitch. The main reason us Melee fans are so adamant about that correction is because a lot of anti-Melee people like to shit-talk it on the grounds that everything we like about it comes from glitches, which is a little true but not completely. I also lowkey disagree that 64's SFX were better, but that's such a small subjective thing lol. Anyway, nice video!
I know it's been a year, but IMO Ganondorf feels exactly like captain falcon. Slowed down, bit heavier, sure, but the basic cadence feels identical. (Maybe how driving a uhaul doesn't feel meaningfully different from driving a sedan, whereas a bike, helicopter, skateboard, and four-wheeler all feel completely distinct.)
I'm glad I watched the video to the very end because I haven't heard that little jingle at 34:14 in I don't know how many years and it brought me right back to my childhood. Made me teary-eyed 🥲
Pretty good overview of the game. Melee is such a masterpiece - from the visual design, to the sound design, to the gameplay... every bit of it is wonderful. And I feel you captured that, so thank you. Especially the wonder of wanting to explore everything Melee had to offer. The best casual and competitive Smash experience you can get. ♥ My critiques of your video: wavedashing is not a glitch. It's a physics exploit, and was known by the developers prior to release, Sakurai even claiming it was a utility that could be used "as a kind of backdash."
Not to mention in smash 64 L cancelling is officially titled “smooth landing” on the website and the move got carried over into melee without documentation on melees webpage
I get the clone argument, but as a kid I was SO FREAKING EXCITED hearing that Young Link was in the game. I always connected with him more as I was like 4 when Ocarina of Time came out. So glad they brought him back in Ultimate 😁
(8:43) Marth's design in Super Smash Bros. Melee is based on his design in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (Fire Emblem 3). Melee decided to go with Marth's most modern design at the time which was from that game meaning we were "spared" for Fire Emblem 1's pantless Marth
Trust me, I'm glad. His old design was... Odd. Whereas his design from 3 (which from my awareness is pretty much his design from the remakes as well) looks much more distinct. That's my opinion at least.
I first played Melee when I was very young and didn't really understand how video games worked. I would always look at the backgrounds of stages in the game and wondered what else was out there and if there was some way I could explore around outside the stage.
31:36 will never understand how Nintendo could legally stop a tournament, That would be the equivalent of buying Wilson brand basketball and then Wilson would try to stop people having a basketball tournament.
Well, Wilson doesn't own the concept of basketball. It's not an intellectual property that can be copyrighted. Nintendo owns the copyright to the Super Smash Bros series, and all its characters (at least in Melee). They can decide legally how people are allowed to represent their creation. It sucks and I think it's extremely stupid, but it DOES make sense.
Thank you for the video! The ending made me tear up a little bit remembering all the good times playing this game growing up. Definitely one of my top games ever, still to this day!
the "clone characters" in melee, in all cases, feel and play completely different from their "clones" (yes even mario and dr mario). their speed, weight, hitboxes, power, combo strings, etc etc, are totally different. visually their kits look basically the same but the properties of each move are entirely different.
@@anothenblue2630 old smash completely trumps new smash when it comes to characters based on each other for sure. The fact that jigglypuff and ganondorf were clones to Kirby and captain falcon but still aren’t disappointing as daisy almost 17 years later is crazy.
@@gokufromfortnite867 modern Ganon is still very disappointing because he's nothing like Ganon and awful in general. Puff never was a real clone either even with reused assets, all of her specials were entirely different from day 1.
this is true for competitive players, but the average casual player absolutely does not notice when hitboxes, combo routes, and character weights are different. dramatic differences in knockback will be noticed, and character speed will be, but yeah overall these characters seem very similar to casual audiences.
@@esthersmith3056 you don't need to be a competitive player to notice that Ganondorf is way slower, Falco's lasers and Up B are different, Dr Mario hits harder and Young Link has different size. There's an actual difference if you were to choose which one to main.
Thanks for bringing me back to being a kid. As a melee player to this day, I had to watch this on a faster speed, but was not expecting it to unlock so many memories of it's beginning years. Cheers!
Last smash game with actual movement? Not really. Smash 64 was kind of slow as well. Melee was the only one with fast movement. You must've only played melee
@@lapplandkun9273 first of all no good movement is not all about speed. 64 has pivots, z canceling low input lag. if you play smash 4 or ultimate you will quickly realise what not free movement means. no dash dancing, huge input lag, no shield drop (in ultimates case), sluggish movement from ledge in few words everything is a commitment and on top of that is is also slow
The soundtrack of that game is a very special case in that they all actually feel like they're from their respective games while still being full on remix. The Poké Float is a great example: It sounds and feels just like Pokémon Stadium 64, yet you can clearly hear the instruments being played
i had the privelage of having enough local friends to play this game insanely multiplayer during its era, so we took it to fighting game leagues and tournaments all over town, I can't even count how many hours of joy this game gave. Definitely era-defining.
Super Smash Bros melee was a master piece. Top 5 game of all time for sure. The amount of passion the designers put into this game was incredible. You will NOT, and I repeat WILL NOT, have a game in modern time with so much passion and effort put into a game.
Hmmm... I'm actually not sure about that. Passion isn't really quantifiable. There are tons of games with passion pouring out of them, and Melee is one of them.
Dude, have you ever played as Captain Falcon or Ganondorf in Super Smash Bros? They might look alike in their stance, but trust me, they're totally different when you actually start playing. Ganon hits like a freaking truck, but he's slower than a tortoise. Meanwhile, Falcon is as quick as lightning, but he's not as strong as Ganon. And it's the same deal with Young Link and regular Link. Young Link is like a little ninja - super fast, but his moves don't pack as much of a punch as older Link's.
I never got the chance to play Melee growing up. I had Brawl. But, getting melee a few years ago, I can see why it's so special to everyone. It's a very fun game, and deserves its crown jewel status. Mad respect beyond belief to the dev team and everyone who worked on this game.
Kinda interesting to see that you still can appreciate it despite starting with a later one. I personally have a lot of trouble doing that myself sometimes. lol
@23:28 Super Smash Bros for 3DS almost perfected what would make an amazing Adventure Mode with Smash Run. Beating up enemy monsters each with their own gimmicks was fun, all they had to do was give us actual Nintendo levels to explore and an easy to follow story. I'm disappointed that they didn't expand on such an easy concept fro Wii U or Ultimate
Brinstar depths always fascinated tf out of me bc i didnt know metroid at the time and kraid made me think the stage was just a box in space floating around with this monster inside it
I have very fond memories of playing this with a friend in her house on summer days so many years ago. Years later I bought her NGC for this very same reason and still enjoyed melee a couple of years. Still keeping that NGC and of course the game.
I have every single noise, music, and sound effect burned into my heart, brain and soul this game means a lot to me and reminds me of old good times with my cousins in my old house and all those days of fun, making up stories with the characters like they were toys... I used to main Peach and Kirby (I was little girl so I went for the cute ones) I didn't have internet so I never knew It was a such beloved game. Thanks to my dad the one that bought me the GameCube
It’s also noted that some of the trophies in melee have wrong dates in the description box, wrong info on characters etc, because of the short time they had to develop it.
Melee is such a special game to me. When I was a little kid I had a best friend named Nathan. We would always hang out and have sleepovers, and we’d play Melee CONSTANTLY. So much so that it’s the reason I got a Gamecube and developed a love for Smash and many other Nintendo franchises. I can’t tell you how many hours I played this game, and played all the modes, and read every description for every trophy. I still have my original disc and memory card with save data. Also Marth’s taunt does actually keep me up at night so that part killed me
Your editing is beautiful. Great aesthetic and tasteful transitions. And the upload is clean af, don't know how you manage that. No visible artifacts but still loads quickly.
I was 20 when GameCube came out and could have easily gotten out of video games after finally getting burned out on MvC2 in the arcade. But when I played Melee 4P with the Marvel crew on day 1, it's like video games had reached an all new pinnacle. Not only was it an amazing competitive fighter with a style all it's own, Melee was a Nintendo archive to slowly peel away after years of varied gameplay modes. I ended up rebuying all Nintendo consoles and buying every one since. Melee sparked an obsession that went far beyond Smash Bros, fighting games, and just playing games as a whole. It really was a revolutionary event in my early adulthood.
I watched the Pokémon anime as a kid and I remember misty throwing out goldeen and saying that she’s only good in water. And I tried so hard as a kid to get goldeen in the water too
My childhood was melee . My brother and I played this game endlessly . Single player and vs mode was amazing. Also discovering that there was a tournament scene made it even more cooler as a child . Melee, and smash as a whole is a legendary franchise. Brawl story is amazing .. I hope the next smash they make an amazing story, modes, a new mechanic .
Break the Targets getting the best track in Melee is like the pause menu getting the best track in Goldeneye. Neither one had any business going that hard.
I always despised the hate against "clone" characters in a game. why the hell not have slightly different versions of a character to play? I'll play Miharu over Xiaoyu in Tekken all day just because I can!!
I literally spent hours on this game as a kid! Even when I got to high school I still played this just cause I couldn’t get enough of it and i graduated in 2017 😂 definitely my all time favorite game
BRRRREAK THE TARGETS! Mele was one of my favorite video games ever as a kid, mostly because it had pikachu, but my friends and I spent hours messing around back in the day. The hyrule temple stage in adventure mode used to scare me so I'd have to get my sister to beat it for me
Ice Climbers were included because Sakurai wanted to respect the progression of Nintendo history. It’s the same reason we got characters like Rob later.
My friends and I put in literally thousands of hours into this game. We even made up a drinking game in college we called “super smashed bros” where we’d set a timed match for an hour and take a swig at every minute. By the end, no one really cared who was winning
I was never competitive, very rarely fought human players but I still put hundreds of hours into this game. Thanks for this video, it gave me an amazing blast to the past!
Melee is sick, sick vid, I love seeing these kind of videos about my favorite video game, I love hearing ur opinions about single player mode. I mainly had to play that mode for years until slippi, so I love seeing this! Thank you.
I couldn’t tell you how many hours I put into this game. One of the best games ever. Now I play Smash Ultimate with my son it’s like my life has come full circle.
Wow. That giga-bowser thing. For me it was almost exactly as you mentioned. I did not have internet at the time and I thought I knew the game inside out. It scared the hell out of me 😂 great video
I remember going to a summer camp that had video games and one of them was a GameCube with Smash Melee. I loved it and I remember when they had a Melee tournament and I spammed Kirby's down special winning several matches until one guy destroyed me by up smashing whenever I would down special. Loved that game.
It's really funny how Kirby and Pikachu are "OP" when you're a kid, primarily because of their down B. Well, at least until people learn how to actually play the game. lol
Never got into competitive, but we played the CRAP out of this game and loved it so much. There was so much to do and you could just feel the love and attention to detail that went into all of it.
It's funny that Sakurai made this game with the intention of letting advanced players experiment with mechanics like l-canceling, wavedashing, and phantom hits, only to later regret it and remove most of it for future games.
I don't remember getting or my first time playing. It's like Spider-Man 2, I just always had the game. That Giga Bowser reveal is still soo hype to this day
Melee was such a fun game as a kid, i loved playing against my friends trying to figure out new ways to win, coming back as an adult its still super fun, even moreso now that more of the technical stuff is out there, solid game whether you play coin mode with items on or competitively on battlefield
Been a fan of the series since I first saw the commercial for the original Smash 64 series and made my dad get it for my birthday, but none have left an impression on me quite like Melee.
Nintendo sees people playing their old games as competition to their new ones, I think that's why they are bothered by it. Although I'm pretty sure most of those people going to smash tournaments have a Switch now and probably bought Smash Ultimate, maybe even the 3ds or wii u games too. So instead of taking advantage of it, by have merchandise or special versions of the games being reprinted with like Sakurai's signature on the disk or something neat along those lines, they come not bring to bring joy and merriment but with a sword in hand (much like Smash Ultimate's character roster).
Yeah it's so weird. There are probably tons of people who've gotten into Smash (and more Nintendo properties by proxy) purely because of their excitement surrounding Melee. You'd think they'd take advantage of that: make a big deal of the community. But nah, they just do petty stuff to get in its way all the time.
That and Nintendo isn't big on their games being considered hardcore competitive games. Specifically Smash. Nintendo sees Smash as a fun 4 player party game that shouldn't try to be put in the same vein as Street Fighter or Tekken
@@DuoStuffhonestly I think the ideal way to do it would be to make a Melee DX edition. A handful of the characters Sakurai wanted but couldn't add, a buffed lower tier roster with the top tiers intact, and an online mode, and Bada bing Bada boom you have a free $60 game to sell. I think it would be a lot more justified to oppose the old game in that scenario since they are reselling it in this hypothetical situation. They'd just have to take care to leave the completive exploits intact
Yes Nintendo does have a monetary incentive to stop people from playing old games, but I think Nintendo wanting to not lose their ips is the real reason. A very long time ago, Nintendo was in a lawsuit with Universal Studios over Donkey Kong, since It was similar to King Kong. Universal not only lost the case, but the rights to King Kong in general, meaning anyone can make a King Kong as long as it wasn't Universal's version of King Kong. Nintendo is basically scared to lose their ip like that and it's almost happened before, due to people calling every console that's not even Nintendo's, a "Nintendo" and lawyers trying to make Nintendo lose their rights to a "Nintendo" console. They are not scared of fan games and emulation, they are scared that lawyers will try to loophole their way to make Nintendo lose their ips. That's why games like coromon and tunic still exist because they brand themselves as something other than a "Nintendo" game while still being almost a clone of Pokemon and Zelda.
I cannot count the number of times I have heard that intro. I was 5 when my older brother and I got the game for Christmas. We poured so many hours into Melee and got quite good at it. We would set silly character restrictions in order to switch things up. A big one we would do was clone vs. clone with some of the pairs. Ganondorf vs. Captain Falcon was a big one we'd do. I grew to enjoy fighting with Ganondorf 😂I still have the same copy of the game, same memory card, and the same console even 23 years later and they all still work like a charm. Love me some Melee. Never enjoyed any other SSB nearly as much as this one. Also, glad to know my brother and I weren't the only ones that would go to the bottom of the Temple for some epic showdowns lol
Correction: Wave-dashing and L-canceling aren't glitches.
Anyways- Hope you enjoy the video and have a good day.
Anyone who says L-canceling is a glitch is actually just wrong entirely, it is a feature that was just a nerfed version of z-canceling from Smash 64. Wavedashing is just an exploit that was left in the game because no one developing the game thought it would be as useful as it actually is. Anyone calling either a glitch are just uninformed about a lot of stuff about gaming or the mechanics of the game.
@@Quackra exploit = glitch 🤣 you didn't choose your words correctly
@@prodMAggs Exploit =/= Glitch. A glitch is an unintended and an unknown hiccup within the game during development, whether it be through UI or the physics of the game.
the line between glitch and exploit tends to reside in the eye of the beholder
@@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos no, it's very clear. Glitch is when something goes wrong, e.g. 2+2=5. An exploit is when something works perfectly fine, but has unforseen applications or effects. Wavedashing is just momentum from air dodge being carried into landing, it's not even exclusive to air dodge since ANY burst movement causes it, air dodge is simply universal and efficient.
This game is top 10 of all time. As a kid, playing this one the GameCube it seemed incredibly modern and futuristic. From the model gallery, to the scoring system after story fights… amazing mechanics that blew my mind as a kid
Actually yeah, that is a good way to describe the vibe of the game. Like even to this day, the UI design is just so... "Futuristic."
Top 2
It's definitely a solid game, and I enjoyed many hours of playing it, and it has replay value, but it isn't top ten or even close.
@@MC-bd5ub what’s your top 10 video games of all time then
I would say top 3 of all time.
When he said "I'm a Poke Floats....kinda guy," my heart smiled. This guy gets it.
I love poke floats as well, it is my favorite casual stage
@@Quackra all smash is casual wdym?
Yes
I've watched countless videos about why melee is so unique and cool, but I was delighted to see one come in my inbox and loved the video. Bravo man
Well I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I hope you continue to enjoy my future content as well.
This game was such an important and special part of my childhood. I played it all throughout elementary and high school. There were so many secrets and unlockables that made the game unique and fun. Fighting Giga Bowser, trying to unlock all the characters, trying to unlock all the trophies, all the characters, stages, modes and music. There was never anything to get bored with. I still play to this day. My favourite play session is going to temple and the Fire Emblem theme plays. That was my favourite song from the game. We're lucky this game came out when it did. Nowadays all the characters and unlockables would be spoiled on twitter day one. It was a great time to be a 10+ year old playing melee. Love those days!
For real though. It was kinda magical getting to discover all of this stuff on my own. It lent the game a sense of mystery the later games (4 and Ultimate specifically) didn't have, even if I did enjoy the character speculation that came with the later games.
teared up at the end ngl. melee means everything. from goofing around with friends, to playing high level games at local tournaments, i'll nver stop playing melee. its the best game of all time
I grew up with melee in a world without guides or internet wiki's so everything about melee was an absolute surprise I knew nothing about and my imagination and folk tales from older friends was all I had. So more than just organic, all the charactersm trophies, modes and secrets that I discovered along the way from the secret star fox codec conversations, getting Mew to unlocking sound test, thinking that Sonic and Daisy were legitimatley in the game, getting to fight crazy hand, It didnt feel like I was finding unlockables It felt like i had somehow accessed a nintendo nexus that was activley evloving or creating new content as i went along with it and it made this game feel limitless in every way. This was reinforced when the first thing you see in brawls trailer are the melee models literally evolving, almost like my gamecube disc was going to magically morph into a brawl disc at some point.
But when I saw giga bowser im not gonna lie. I thought satan himself had corrupted my gamecube because there was 0% chances that the developers who had set a tone for the entire game were responsible for this contrasting anomaly design which was so brute and demonic I thought it was going to rip right out of my screen. It was just so edgy, ugly, sickly looking and beastly that it almost felt like some sort of glitch in the system had accidentally created it
I just about pissed myself on first seeing Giga Bowser. I don't know how I beat him first try but I felt like "...What the hell was THAT all about?!"
*THIS* OH YES MY FRIEND, MANY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND...BUT I DO.
Uhh there were MANY guides and internet walkthroughs. Did you live in a barn?
@@HistoryandReviews I did have a desktop. I just didnt know those things were available on the internet
@Gabbycat I said GUIDES as well. At stores
I only played Melee after Brawl and even with the scaled down graphics and less characters, I found myself really enjoying its quirky and special manner. This game is a treasure.
It definitely has a style that's uniquely its own, and I mean that in a good way.
In terms of artistic choice, melee wins out in the graphics department for me, the characters may have less polygons but I prefer it over brawls dirty realism
@@Alph4Falc0 I think both have their charm. It's kinda like the Wind Waker vs. Twilight Princess thing where one definitely ages better, but there's a certain rustic charm to Brawl's visual design that can't really be replicated because it's entirely a product of its time.
Brawl in some ways just felt sorta borked The phycics were a little off, the random slipping, the colour palette looked a little washed out and leaning too grimdark, they took out MewTwo, and the level editor was so bare bones that it may as well have not been there, for me at least. So yep, I was content to keep playing Melee even when my mom did get a Wii eventually.
Yeah, and that is why Nintendo kept the GameCube controller all the way up to the Switch 2. Melee quirky.... I don't think you know what that word means lil infant.
Great video! Two underrated aspects of the game are the end credits for the modes where you shoot the names that pop up. Absolutely mind blowing as a kid, never had I seen an interactive credits sequence like that. And two being the post victory screen, where it shows the characters clapping and the scores with the winning characters celebration. That was so unique and added such charm to the game.
I could honestly talk about this game forever, I’ve been a part of the competitive scene since 2013, but this video brought back so many memories from playing the game during my childhood. When I first got the game I remember being like awe-struck that I finally owned it.
young link is a clone but he feels immensely different to Link. They did a solid job at making the clones not feel the same at all to paly.
They really did. Even doctor Mario plays different from Mario
Agreed and I got this game on release
They up the speeds and down the damage and it feels right
From what I see is that each clone has a high-speed low damage version and a low speed tank ( sync Captain falcon versus gandalf or fox versus falco)
Ganon and falcon are also vastly different. Up air so good on both tho hahah.
Melee, CTR, Golden Eye, smackdown, nba 2k. Greatest “playing the same game on the same tv in the same room” games of all time
14:46 😂😂
Legit my favorite part of the video right there.
The intro and art style of the cutscenes is a good reflection of the time.
My childhood feels so validated by this video
I spend so much time in comp melee that it’s refreshing to hear a review of the game from outside that space. This is how most of us played it in 2004 :)
Yeah I like watching comp Melee from time to time, but I'm definitely more of a casual player. It's been "interesting" to see how the more dedicated sides of the Smash community take these retrospectives. (So far comp Melee fans have been mostly chill with a couple odd angry outsiders, whereas the small group of comp 64 fans were quite unhappy with *any* critique I made of the game, no matter how insignificant. lol)
@@DuoStuff You should go check out the competitive homerun contest and break the targets (and all the other modes).
I would have killed to have comp smash back in the day. My best friend(Link), his little brother(Marth), my little brother(Falco/fox), and I
(Ganon/Cpt. Falcon) played melee hardcore for years. Sometimes with poke balls, bunny ears, hammers, and other non bullshit items with infrequent spawns to make it interesting, but no items if it was serious. Final destination, pokemon stadium, or Hyrule Temple. Easily hundreds of hours. All up until mid high school when brawl came out, and it just wasn't the same. Felt super slow and floaty, such a total let down for us personally. Then we all started going our separate ways for work or college. Melee is held very dear in my memories.
20:38 Trophy's were an underrated aspect of SSBM and should have carried over to every future iteration
For real. Even if they didn't, at least a description would've been nice. *glares at spirits*
I like that it didn't carry over, as now it is a unique thing that gives melee some of its charm.
@@lloydirving6209 How is it unique when literally every Smash game has them, except for 64/Ultimate?
When I was a 7 my dad got diagnosed with cancer and he battled it for about 3 years and those were some of the years of my life where I’ve felt the most alone. Getting to invite some of my school friends over to play Melee was key to helping me not feel alone and get out of my depression. So thank you Smash Bros. Melee. ❤
My favorite part about the roster was that it had question marks to make you think there was only a few characters to unlock but then hidden ones started appearing and it made me feel like I never knew who might come next. Discovering the roster was my favorite part about this game and its just not possible to go in that blind with modern games anymore.
23:47 this description was so vivid I got pretty emotional from it, being one of my favorite gaming memories
Wow, that's nice to hear actually.
That home run hit was *chef kiss* glorious.
Glad you liked it.
This is the first video of yours I've seen, and it's very well-made. I just have a few nitpicks:
While it's true that clone characters share the same animations, they do NOT simply feel slightly different to play. Most of them feel significantly different from each other, and actually I think the strongest example is the one you mentioned in the video: Ganondorf plays like, nothing like Captain Falcon.
Other people have already commented this, but L-Cancelling and Wavedashing are not glitches - the former is 100% an intended mechanic and the latter is more of an engine exploit than a glitch. The main reason us Melee fans are so adamant about that correction is because a lot of anti-Melee people like to shit-talk it on the grounds that everything we like about it comes from glitches, which is a little true but not completely.
I also lowkey disagree that 64's SFX were better, but that's such a small subjective thing lol.
Anyway, nice video!
I know it's been a year, but IMO Ganondorf feels exactly like captain falcon. Slowed down, bit heavier, sure, but the basic cadence feels identical. (Maybe how driving a uhaul doesn't feel meaningfully different from driving a sedan, whereas a bike, helicopter, skateboard, and four-wheeler all feel completely distinct.)
"Characters that play the same as each other" - Shows Fox and Falco. TRIGGERED
I'm glad I watched the video to the very end because I haven't heard that little jingle at 34:14 in I don't know how many years and it brought me right back to my childhood. Made me teary-eyed 🥲
Honestly I'm amazed by the quality of this video. You deserve way more subscribers
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!
Pretty good overview of the game. Melee is such a masterpiece - from the visual design, to the sound design, to the gameplay... every bit of it is wonderful. And I feel you captured that, so thank you. Especially the wonder of wanting to explore everything Melee had to offer. The best casual and competitive Smash experience you can get. ♥
My critiques of your video: wavedashing is not a glitch. It's a physics exploit, and was known by the developers prior to release, Sakurai even claiming it was a utility that could be used "as a kind of backdash."
What did he mean by “a kind of backdash”? I mean you could use it that way, but you’re better of just das dancing instead
@@aurora_x86 hard to say. He didn't expound on that from what I've seen.
oh hi david >:)
@@Michael_Dominic Hey!
Not to mention in smash 64 L cancelling is officially titled “smooth landing” on the website and the move got carried over into melee without documentation on melees webpage
So many good memories playing this game. You might have called it… a SMASH!
I get the clone argument, but as a kid I was SO FREAKING EXCITED hearing that Young Link was in the game. I always connected with him more as I was like 4 when Ocarina of Time came out.
So glad they brought him back in Ultimate 😁
Melee is a Top 5 Fighting Game
Great video! As a child of this era, this game was (is) SO special to me
(8:43) Marth's design in Super Smash Bros. Melee is based on his design in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (Fire Emblem 3). Melee decided to go with Marth's most modern design at the time which was from that game meaning we were "spared" for Fire Emblem 1's pantless Marth
Trust me, I'm glad. His old design was... Odd. Whereas his design from 3 (which from my awareness is pretty much his design from the remakes as well) looks much more distinct. That's my opinion at least.
sounds like we were robbed
This video was put together so good
Loved this. Amazing work. So nice to see a fond perspective of melee from a non competitive lense for once
I first played Melee when I was very young and didn't really understand how video games worked. I would always look at the backgrounds of stages in the game and wondered what else was out there and if there was some way I could explore around outside the stage.
Got teary eyed a bit there at the end bud
31:36 will never understand how Nintendo could legally stop a tournament, That would be the equivalent of buying Wilson brand basketball and then Wilson would try to stop people having a basketball tournament.
Well, Wilson doesn't own the concept of basketball. It's not an intellectual property that can be copyrighted. Nintendo owns the copyright to the Super Smash Bros series, and all its characters (at least in Melee). They can decide legally how people are allowed to represent their creation. It sucks and I think it's extremely stupid, but it DOES make sense.
I always thought ice Climbers was a meme character but I found out 20 years later that theyre loved
Thank you for the video! The ending made me tear up a little bit remembering all the good times playing this game growing up. Definitely one of my top games ever, still to this day!
the "clone characters" in melee, in all cases, feel and play completely different from their "clones" (yes even mario and dr mario). their speed, weight, hitboxes, power, combo strings, etc etc, are totally different. visually their kits look basically the same but the properties of each move are entirely different.
Meanwhile, most "echoes"
@@anothenblue2630 old smash completely trumps new smash when it comes to characters based on each other for sure. The fact that jigglypuff and ganondorf were clones to Kirby and captain falcon but still aren’t disappointing as daisy almost 17 years later is crazy.
@@gokufromfortnite867 modern Ganon is still very disappointing because he's nothing like Ganon and awful in general. Puff never was a real clone either even with reused assets, all of her specials were entirely different from day 1.
this is true for competitive players, but the average casual player absolutely does not notice when hitboxes, combo routes, and character weights are different. dramatic differences in knockback will be noticed, and character speed will be, but yeah overall these characters seem very similar to casual audiences.
@@esthersmith3056 you don't need to be a competitive player to notice that Ganondorf is way slower, Falco's lasers and Up B are different, Dr Mario hits harder and Young Link has different size. There's an actual difference if you were to choose which one to main.
Great video! Watching this was so nostalgic for me!
Damn. Pichu catching strays 10 seconds in...
I expected copper but found gold. Absolutely excellent video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I keep having to pause the vid to stop laughing, 10/10
Glad to hear it! Glad you enjoyed it.
You truly captured the essence of this game and brought me deep into my childhood, bless you smash bro
Thanks for bringing me back to being a kid. As a melee player to this day, I had to watch this on a faster speed, but was not expecting it to unlock so many memories of it's beginning years. Cheers!
best smash game by far
last smash game with actual movement
Last smash game with actual movement? Not really. Smash 64 was kind of slow as well. Melee was the only one with fast movement. You must've only played melee
@@lapplandkun9273 first of all no
good movement is not all about speed. 64 has pivots, z canceling low input lag. if you play smash 4 or ultimate you will quickly realise what not free movement means. no dash dancing, huge input lag, no shield drop (in ultimates case), sluggish movement from ledge in few words everything is a commitment and on top of that is is also slow
The soundtrack of that game is a very special case in that they all actually feel like they're from their respective games while still being full on remix. The Poké Float is a great example: It sounds and feels just like Pokémon Stadium 64, yet you can clearly hear the instruments being played
i had the privelage of having enough local friends to play this game insanely multiplayer during its era, so we took it to fighting game leagues and tournaments all over town, I can't even count how many hours of joy this game gave. Definitely era-defining.
The sonic rumor was the most well crafted, seemingly simple, deceivingly difficult video game rumor ever
Super Smash Bros melee was a master piece. Top 5 game of all time for sure. The amount of passion the designers put into this game was incredible. You will NOT, and I repeat WILL NOT, have a game in modern time with so much passion and effort put into a game.
Hmmm... I'm actually not sure about that. Passion isn't really quantifiable. There are tons of games with passion pouring out of them, and Melee is one of them.
melee (and brawl, sue me) are such childhood gems. i’ll always love them both
The day Brawl was released, my friend who was an expert at Melee said Brawl was too slow. I’ll never forget that…
Dude, have you ever played as Captain Falcon or Ganondorf in Super Smash Bros? They might look alike in their stance, but trust me, they're totally different when you actually start playing. Ganon hits like a freaking truck, but he's slower than a tortoise. Meanwhile, Falcon is as quick as lightning, but he's not as strong as Ganon. And it's the same deal with Young Link and regular Link. Young Link is like a little ninja - super fast, but his moves don't pack as much of a punch as older Link's.
Yeah falcon is s tier
I never got the chance to play Melee growing up. I had Brawl. But, getting melee a few years ago, I can see why it's so special to everyone. It's a very fun game, and deserves its crown jewel status. Mad respect beyond belief to the dev team and everyone who worked on this game.
Kinda interesting to see that you still can appreciate it despite starting with a later one. I personally have a lot of trouble doing that myself sometimes. lol
@23:28
Super Smash Bros for 3DS almost perfected what would make an amazing Adventure Mode with Smash Run. Beating up enemy monsters each with their own gimmicks was fun, all they had to do was give us actual Nintendo levels to explore and an easy to follow story.
I'm disappointed that they didn't expand on such an easy concept fro Wii U or Ultimate
Brinstar depths always fascinated tf out of me bc i didnt know metroid at the time and kraid made me think the stage was just a box in space floating around with this monster inside it
I have very fond memories of playing this with a friend in her house on summer days so many years ago. Years later I bought her NGC for this very same reason and still enjoyed melee a couple of years. Still keeping that NGC and of course the game.
I have every single noise, music, and sound effect burned into my heart, brain and soul
this game means a lot to me and reminds me of old good times with my cousins in my old house and all those days of fun, making up stories with the characters like they were toys... I used to main Peach and Kirby (I was little girl so I went for the cute ones)
I didn't have internet so I never knew It was a such beloved game. Thanks to my dad the one that bought me the GameCube
Heart burn? Take medication. The heart remembers nothing
It’s also noted that some of the trophies in melee have wrong dates in the description box, wrong info on characters etc, because of the short time they had to develop it.
Melee is such a special game to me. When I was a little kid I had a best friend named Nathan. We would always hang out and have sleepovers, and we’d play Melee CONSTANTLY. So much so that it’s the reason I got a Gamecube and developed a love for Smash and many other Nintendo franchises. I can’t tell you how many hours I played this game, and played all the modes, and read every description for every trophy. I still have my original disc and memory card with save data.
Also Marth’s taunt does actually keep me up at night so that part killed me
Your editing is beautiful. Great aesthetic and tasteful transitions. And the upload is clean af, don't know how you manage that. No visible artifacts but still loads quickly.
I was 20 when GameCube came out and could have easily gotten out of video games after finally getting burned out on MvC2 in the arcade. But when I played Melee 4P with the Marvel crew on day 1, it's like video games had reached an all new pinnacle.
Not only was it an amazing competitive fighter with a style all it's own, Melee was a Nintendo archive to slowly peel away after years of varied gameplay modes. I ended up rebuying all Nintendo consoles and buying every one since. Melee sparked an obsession that went far beyond Smash Bros, fighting games, and just playing games as a whole. It really was a revolutionary event in my early adulthood.
I watched the Pokémon anime as a kid and I remember misty throwing out goldeen and saying that she’s only good in water. And I tried so hard as a kid to get goldeen in the water too
My childhood was melee . My brother and I played this game endlessly . Single player and vs mode was amazing. Also discovering that there was a tournament scene made it even more cooler as a child . Melee, and smash as a whole is a legendary franchise. Brawl story is amazing ..
I hope the next smash they make an amazing story, modes, a new mechanic .
some of my best memories are playing melee with my little brother and friends when we were little.. i miss those days so much
Melee will always have a special place in my heart
Loved the hilarious overview of the roster 😂 literally same thoughts regarding the characters !
Break the Targets getting the best track in Melee is like the pause menu getting the best track in Goldeneye. Neither one had any business going that hard.
I always despised the hate against "clone" characters in a game. why the hell not have slightly different versions of a character to play? I'll play Miharu over Xiaoyu in Tekken all day just because I can!!
I literally spent hours on this game as a kid! Even when I got to high school I still played this just cause I couldn’t get enough of it and i graduated in 2017 😂 definitely my all time favorite game
BRRRREAK THE TARGETS!
Mele was one of my favorite video games ever as a kid, mostly because it had pikachu, but my friends and I spent hours messing around back in the day.
The hyrule temple stage in adventure mode used to scare me so I'd have to get my sister to beat it for me
Ice Climbers were included because Sakurai wanted to respect the progression of Nintendo history. It’s the same reason we got characters like Rob later.
My friends and I put in literally thousands of hours into this game. We even made up a drinking game in college we called “super smashed bros” where we’d set a timed match for an hour and take a swig at every minute. By the end, no one really cared who was winning
I love the aesthetic of this game so much, it really is a special piece of work
It has a very particular "Gamecube era" feel, which I love.
I was never competitive, very rarely fought human players but I still put hundreds of hours into this game. Thanks for this video, it gave me an amazing blast to the past!
No shit. It's way too time consuming and committal.
@@lapplandkun9273 a child's perspective
Excellent video!
Game & Watch slander will not be tolerated
You are very good at this. Thanks for the entertainment.
Super Smash Bros. Melee and great video man :]
little known fact , wave dashing is not a glitch , it is an intended designed mechanic of the game that sakurai made a post about in a smash forum
Fire Emblem is the bane of every Smash fan's existence and the thing that keeps good boys and girls up at night? Guess I'm not a good boy then
Outstanding. Great editing. U got a sub from me
So many shared emotions. You just described me as a kid playing this game. Great content.
Melee is sick, sick vid, I love seeing these kind of videos about my favorite video game, I love hearing ur opinions about single player mode. I mainly had to play that mode for years until slippi, so I love seeing this! Thank you.
Glad someone appreciated the singleplayer discussion.
I couldn’t tell you how many hours I put into this game. One of the best games ever. Now I play Smash Ultimate with my son it’s like my life has come full circle.
Wow. That giga-bowser thing. For me it was almost exactly as you mentioned. I did not have internet at the time and I thought I knew the game inside out. It scared the hell out of me 😂 great video
I remember going to a summer camp that had video games and one of them was a GameCube with Smash Melee. I loved it and I remember when they had a Melee tournament and I spammed Kirby's down special winning several matches until one guy destroyed me by up smashing whenever I would down special. Loved that game.
It's really funny how Kirby and Pikachu are "OP" when you're a kid, primarily because of their down B. Well, at least until people learn how to actually play the game. lol
Never got into competitive, but we played the CRAP out of this game and loved it so much. There was so much to do and you could just feel the love and attention to detail that went into all of it.
It's funny that Sakurai made this game with the intention of letting advanced players experiment with mechanics like l-canceling, wavedashing, and phantom hits, only to later regret it and remove most of it for future games.
I don't remember getting or my first time playing. It's like Spider-Man 2, I just always had the game. That Giga Bowser reveal is still soo hype to this day
I agree with almost everything you said. Such a good video. Hope you get more views on it some day soon
I mean honestly, I think it did really well personally. Still, glad you enjoyed it!
The target stage will always be one of my favorite songs!
Melee was such a fun game as a kid, i loved playing against my friends trying to figure out new ways to win, coming back as an adult its still super fun, even moreso now that more of the technical stuff is out there, solid game whether you play coin mode with items on or competitively on battlefield
Pushing your luck with the Pichu slander
This game has become the gold standard by which all games of this genre are judged.
Welyn's lil brother is making retrospectives lets go
Been a fan of the series since I first saw the commercial for the original Smash 64 series and made my dad get it for my birthday, but none have left an impression on me quite like Melee.
Event 52 was where I went from a boy to a Man
Nintendo sees people playing their old games as competition to their new ones, I think that's why they are bothered by it. Although I'm pretty sure most of those people going to smash tournaments have a Switch now and probably bought Smash Ultimate, maybe even the 3ds or wii u games too. So instead of taking advantage of it, by have merchandise or special versions of the games being reprinted with like Sakurai's signature on the disk or something neat along those lines, they come not bring to bring joy and merriment but with a sword in hand (much like Smash Ultimate's character roster).
Yeah it's so weird. There are probably tons of people who've gotten into Smash (and more Nintendo properties by proxy) purely because of their excitement surrounding Melee. You'd think they'd take advantage of that: make a big deal of the community. But nah, they just do petty stuff to get in its way all the time.
That and Nintendo isn't big on their games being considered hardcore competitive games. Specifically Smash. Nintendo sees Smash as a fun 4 player party game that shouldn't try to be put in the same vein as Street Fighter or Tekken
@@DuoStuffhonestly I think the ideal way to do it would be to make a Melee DX edition. A handful of the characters Sakurai wanted but couldn't add, a buffed lower tier roster with the top tiers intact, and an online mode, and Bada bing Bada boom you have a free $60 game to sell. I think it would be a lot more justified to oppose the old game in that scenario since they are reselling it in this hypothetical situation. They'd just have to take care to leave the completive exploits intact
Yes Nintendo does have a monetary incentive to stop people from playing old games, but I think Nintendo wanting to not lose their ips is the real reason. A very long time ago, Nintendo was in a lawsuit with Universal Studios over Donkey Kong, since It was similar to King Kong. Universal not only lost the case, but the rights to King Kong in general, meaning anyone can make a King Kong as long as it wasn't Universal's version of King Kong. Nintendo is basically scared to lose their ip like that and it's almost happened before, due to people calling every console that's not even Nintendo's, a "Nintendo" and lawyers trying to make Nintendo lose their rights to a "Nintendo" console. They are not scared of fan games and emulation, they are scared that lawyers will try to loophole their way to make Nintendo lose their ips. That's why games like coromon and tunic still exist because they brand themselves as something other than a "Nintendo" game while still being almost a clone of Pokemon and Zelda.
I cannot count the number of times I have heard that intro. I was 5 when my older brother and I got the game for Christmas. We poured so many hours into Melee and got quite good at it. We would set silly character restrictions in order to switch things up. A big one we would do was clone vs. clone with some of the pairs. Ganondorf vs. Captain Falcon was a big one we'd do. I grew to enjoy fighting with Ganondorf 😂I still have the same copy of the game, same memory card, and the same console even 23 years later and they all still work like a charm. Love me some Melee. Never enjoyed any other SSB nearly as much as this one.
Also, glad to know my brother and I weren't the only ones that would go to the bottom of the Temple for some epic showdowns lol
the spirit of Melee lives on in Project M & its various forks. Legacy TE being my personal fave.