Malik
(4/21/04)
Super Smash Brothers Melee
(GCN)
Nintendo
This review originally was
presented on lazy.GEEKS (7/2/03)
Well, this game is an oldie,
but judging from my own experiences and from sales charts, it must
still be popular enough for me to post a review.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
(hence-forth called Smash) was released only a couple weeks after
the Gamecube was released, way back in 2001 (December for Smash, and
November for the Gamecube). I first took notice of this game when I
used to play the original (N64) with my friends back in college
after my old room-mate picked it up. The original blew my mind with
it's simplistic, yet addictive game play that made it simple to
complicate the game play into a vast variety of playing styles and
strategies.
Then, a few years later, I
still found myself playing this with most of my friends on a daily
basis, and Nintendo started to post information about the sequel
(Smash) and some elusive screenshots started to circulate the
internet. I started to take a lot of notice, but figured the
Gamecube looked like crap, so I'd never play it.
That's when Nintendo surprised
a lot of people by throwing it's pre-release parties around the
country, including one here in Seattle. I ended up attending it one
night and found myself hooked (after I waited for what seemed like a
year for people to stop playing the demo and thus I could get in a
few games). Smash, along with Star Wars Rogue Leader and Monkey Ball
soon convinced me to get the Gamecube and soon after, Smash.
Even after a year and a half
has gone by, I still find myself playing this game with some of my
friends at least for a couple hours per week. Also, I just saw some
sales figures for the top selling Gamecube games out there, and lo
and behold, Smash is still up near the top.
Story
I always start with the story
in my reviews (I'm an RPG person at heart), and thus I will once
again. Long story short (or should that be short story even
shorter), there is no real story. All it is is a bunch of Nintendo
heroes and a few villains brawling. This, however, is not a bad
thing...it's actually quite good since I feel stories just get in
the way of party or fighting games, and deep down, Smash is the king
of party and fighting games...sorry Microsoft, you'll never overtake
party games as long as Smash is around. Story, in 2 words: None,
good.
Visuals
The original was designed with
very simplistic polygon characters that looked good in their time.
However, that was N64 and this is Gamecube. Which means it's good
that these characters have all sorts of details, abandoning their
polygonal looks to take on a more refined shape. You can see details
from the joints of Roy's armor down to (for your perverts out
there...I know you're out there since I play Smash with some of you)
the frilly look of Princess Peach's underwear.
Also, the special effects have
refined themselves greatly in the last few years since the original.
Fire no longer shows up as a blob of orange polygons, but rather
looks like fire. The bullets and projectiles look more like they are
supposed to look like, and special abilities look well refined,
especially when you choose to pause the action and rotate the camera
around the events going on.
Which brings up my favorite
feature of the visuals. When you pause the game play, you can select
who to focus the camera on and then rotate and zoom as you see fit.
This means you can get down to smaller details and check out the
finer points of the superb work done in programming the
visuals...not to mention freezing the action to look at some rather
silly and stupid things (like I mentioned, for the perverts,
underwear or other perverted looking events...like Jigglypuff
emerging from a character's arse or how Yoshi can get his head into
a rather wrong position...thanks, I think, to my friends for
pointing these out to me...sigh...).
Audio
Nothing really special or bad
in here, audio-wise. The voices of the announcer are rather well
done in terms of telling what type of match you're setting up, what
character is being selected, etc. Also, the sound effects used when
a special ability is performed or an item is used sounds like it
should (I charge up of a super-scope sounds impressive, a sword
slashing sounds like a sword cutting through the air, etc). Like I
said, nothing special, but definitely nothing bad.
The truly great thing about the
audio is when you change the system language in the game options to
Japanese and can hear the Japanese names for a few characters
(Bowser becomes Koopa, Jigglypuff becomes Purin), and best of all,
the taunts and victory sayings in Japanese. Mewtwo sounds like a
daemon when he wins, Jigglypuff sounds stranger than usual taunting,
and the crowd (who will occasionally shout for their favorite)
sounds downright insane as their shout for Purin.
Anyways, in a few words;
Nothing special, but insane in Japanese.
Game Play
This is what Smash is all
about; game play. To begin with, you have countless modes to play
in. In single player, you have survival, special challenges,
adventure mode, and classic mode (like the 1-player mode in the
original). Then in multiplayer (or single player plus computer) you
have melee (free for all), team melee, elimination tournaments,
giant mode, small mode, invisible mode, one button mode (only one
button functions; the normal attack button), invisible melee, coin
melee, lightning melee (turbo mode), slow-motion melee...it just
goes on like that for a while more. In the long run, besides
adventure mode, it is you versus a bunch of pissed off cute Nintendo
mascots.
Adventure mode, however, is
rather cool and unique for your first dozen times playing (it offers
a good chance to learn the controls in a safer setting). You pick
one character and then play through a bunch of levels, like a normal
Nintendo game, from various games. You have a Mario type level
filled with koopas and goombas, a Zelda dungeon with re-deads and
octorocs, the end of Metroid (where you must escape the planet in a
short time by ascending a vertical hallway as a timer ticks down),
etc. You'll rarely go back to this mode after you've beaten the game
a few times, but it's fun when you first start, and it's a good and
easy way to unlock some new characters.
Speaking of which, there are
plenty of characters to unlock. The original had a dozen characters
(8 to start with and 4 to unlock), and this Smash is no different.
You start with the characters from the first Smash and can unlock
more than a dozen more. Most of these characters are easy enough to
unlock by just beating the one player modes with various characters
or by successfully finishing different challenges. So within a few
hours of starting you'll have around 20 characters to use. Some of
the characters, though, will require some skill. To get Ganondorf
the quickest way possible, you'll have to play through the special
challenge scenarios until you find him in one of them. After you
meet the requirements you'll then have face the character you're
about to unlock in a non-on-one battle and win. In the end you'll
have a good selection of characters with a wide range of playing
abilities. You'll have the quick finesse fighters, the slow tanks,
the long range snipers, the short range berserkers. Overall, you'll
find a character type to meet any playing style.
Like the first game, you'll
encounter many different stages (many of the stages from the first
one come back along with around 20 or so new ones) with themes of
all the main characters (except there is no level tied in to Roy or
Marth...boooo!). In these stages you'll also find a ton of power-ups
and items both new and old. Most of the old items have been tweaked
to make them more balanced. Best of all, some characters hand items
in unique ways. If Falcon has a star rod, he can fire three stars at
once and if Peach has a beam sword, she has some variation to its
usage.
Long story short, this game
will offer enough variation in stages, characters, items, battle
types that you will be able to come back and play this game for
years (I know, I've played for the last year and a half and still go
back for more). Just make sure you have friends to play with and
some controllers to sacrifice (they will get worn down/broken on
this game).
In a word: Fun
Conclusion
Well, after a year and a half,
Smash Brothers Melee still is selling good and keeping all of my
friends (except Velveta) thoroughly entertained; and with good
reason. Smash is a perfect blend of party type fun with a brainless
fighting brawl. The graphics and sound never take away from the game
play, and the lack of story only helps to keep your brain off and
your adrenaline on. So, for Smash Brothers Melee, I
give a score of 9.5 out of 10. This
is the ultimate party experience if you have the friends and the
controllers to expend.
Malik
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