We take a look at what makes Super Smash Bros. Melee so special and how the game rose to esports fame over the years.
[dropcap size=small]T[/dropcap]he Super Smash Bros. franchise has had a very strong and dedicated fan base that has only grown exponentially since Super Smash Bros. Melee was first released back in November of 2001. What started out as one of Nintendo’s most popular games where the company pitted some of their most well-known characters against each other in a brutal free for all or an intense match of team combat, Super Smash Bros. Melee has proven that a devoted and enthusiastic fan base can make any video game relevant ten years after its release date. Moving from your living room television screen to esports fame, let’s take a look at what makes Super Smash Bros. Melee so special.
When Super Smash Bros. Melee was first released it was regarded as the near-perfect successor to the original Super Smash Bros. that was released on the N64 in the spring of 1999. Super Smash Bros. Melee did everything a sequel should do, stay true to its origins while revamping its play style, adding additional content and improving the graphics. The original Super Smash Bros., or Smash64 as it is referred to in the Smash Bros. community, had only twelve playable characters when it was released. Super Smash Bros. Melee added even more characters, bringing the total of playable characters to twenty-five. Nintendo introduced several fan favorite characters (Marth, Ice Climbers, Mr. Game & Watch), significantly buffed a few characters (Jigglypuff, Captain Falcon) and nerfed others as well (RIP Smash64 Pikachu and Kirby). There were new items, new stages and while different from Smash64, Super Smash Bros. Melee was simplistic. Nearly anyone could pick up a Gamecube control and after a half hour of gaming, they would understand the mechanics involved and the goal of the game. Beat the hell out of your opponent and knock them off the stage.
Before Super Smash Bros. Melee became an esports treasure and one of the most popular games to watch on Twitch, it started out as just one of those games that you invite your friends over to play and proceed to beat the living daylights out of their favorite characters until one of you have asserted your dominance. The fast-paced, combo-based, action-packed combat was thrilling and incredibly addictive. Even with Nintendo releasing Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for the Wii U and 3Ds several years later, Super Smash Bros. Melee has remained the most popular and the most played Super Smash Bros. game to date. Super Smash Bros. Melee would even go on to become the best selling Gamecube game to date, selling over 7 million copies by 2008.
As more and more people began to play Super Smash Bros. Melee players quickly realized that they would have to push the limits of the game themselves. Unlike today, where developers can release patches that add additional content, fix bugs and help improve a game’s performance, Super Smash Bros. Melee was limited to what the developers created originally. From here new players began to shape their own play styles and discover new ways to become better. Terms like Dash Dancing, L-cancelling, D-Ing and Wavedashing began to pop up in chat forums. As time went on, what was previously seen as a simplistic game of bashing your opponents into oblivion (and it is if you don’t play it religiously/professionally), it was revealed that Super Smash Bros. Melee possessed an enormous amount of complexity and depth to it that no one knew. Not even the original creators.
One of the reasons why Super Smash Bros. Melee didn’t phase out like many other popular games have over the years is because of its fan base. Nintendo never realized when they first released Super Smash Bros. Melee that the game would become one of the most popular fighting games of all time in North America. The game began to evolve from something much more than a video game you played at home and soon communities of players began to pop up all across America, mainly on the east and west coast. Some players began to host tournaments in their middle school and high school gyms, heaving large tube television sets onto tables, hooking up multiple Gamecubes and then proceed to test their skills in singles and doubles tournaments.
Eventually, players began to travel around the United States to take part in tournaments with large sums of cash promised for those who took first place and of course, bragging rights. In the early stages of Super Smash Bros. Melee tournaments, the amount of people that participated in the tournaments was relatively small compared to today but there were players that could play the game better than most. Players like Ken Hoang, a seventeen-year-old kid from California, was widely regarded as the best Marth player at the time. Ken won the majority of the tournaments hosted by Major League Gaming when Super Smash Bros. Melee wasn’t as popular as it is now and became an icon for the game. With the help of Major League Gaming and a nine-part documentary series that explains Super Smash Bros. Melee’s rise to fame, more and more people began to play Super Smash Bros. Melee, propelling the game into a league of its own.
Over time Super Smash Bros. Melee became so popular that it was able to take part in EVO or the Evolution Championship Series . EVO “represents the largest and longest-running fighting game tournaments in the world.” The tournament brings the best players from around the world to compete against one another and prove that they are the best Super Smash Bros. Melee player at that time. There were a few bumps along the way and at one point Nintendo objected to Super Smash Bros. Melee taking part in EVO but the furious backlash from the Smash Bros. community was enough for Nintendo to retract their decision. This allowed Super Smash Bros. Melee to become a cornerstone of EVO and remain one of the most popular fighting games held at the tournament.
While many fighting games like Street Fighter and Tekken became overshadowed by their sequels and are forgotten shortly thereafter, Super Smash Bros. Melee did not. The game is suitable for players of all ages and held true to its origins of fun gameplay with simplistic controls. Today, Super Smash Bros. Melee continues to be the most popular Super Smash Bros. to date. It reminds us that we don’t need a perfect internet connection and fourteen-year-old boys with their pubescent voices screaming into our headset about how they banged your mom after you spawn camped them all game to have fun. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy annoying those kids just as much as the next guy, but Super Smash Bros. Melee will always hold a special place in my heart. It was the game I used to play with my friends from sunset to sunrise, pounding Mountain Dews and shoving our faces with Doritos. We didn’t play the game because we cared about our kill death ratio or because we wanted to achieve a higher rank. We played the game because we wanted to have fun.
