Super Smash Bros. Melee

Super Smash Bros. Melee (often shortened to SSBM and Melee) is a fighting game for the Nintendo GameCube and the second installment of the Super Smash Bros. series, following after the Nintendo 64 title, Super Smash Bros.. Like its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Melee was developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. It was first released in 2001 in Japan and North America then in 2002 in Europe and Australia. Super Smash Bros. Since its release, Super Smash Bros. Melee has become the best-selling Nintendo GameCube title.

Super Smash Bros. Melee was also the launching point for Fire Emblem characters Marth and Roy around the world. Prior to their inclusion, Fire Emblem was not as popular in the western regions. The inclusion of these two characters in such a popular game brought a large amount of interest into Fire Emblem.

Gameplay
The game play is very similar to that of the original. Unlike other fighting games, where the only way to win is to deplete their health, you'll have to knock your opponent off the edge while harming him.

In the 1P Mode, you will be able to chose from either Adventure or Classic Mode, and later in the game All-Star Mode.

In Adventure Mode, various Nintendo characters will travel across multiple worlds from the Nintendo series. The first one to adventure to is the Mushroom Kingdom, then Hyrule, and so on. The final battle will be with Bowser.

Classic Mode is similar to the single player mode in Super Smash Bros. where you must go through random battles and mini games such as hit the targets, and race to the finish. The final battle, though, will always be against Master Hand.

All-Star Mode will be available once you unlock all the characters. In this mode, you will have to defeat all of the characters in the game with one life. The characters will appear in a random order, and as to progress to the finish the amount of characters you must defeat in one arena will raise from one to two to finally three. In the final level, you will always have to fight twenty five Mr. Game & Watches.

Multiplayer
Like the previous game in the series, Super Smash Bros. Melee is one of the most notable and popular multiplayer games in the video game world. There are tons of options that allow you to expand your gaming experience to a new level. These options include choosing which items will appear, and how many, how much time the match will be, or if you want stock, and so many other options as well.

Time match
Time match is one of the more popular multiplayer modes in the game. In this mode, you choose how long you want the match to be, then try to get the most kills. If you knock one of your opponents off stage, you will get one point, though if you fall off stage, you will lose one point.

Stock match
Along with time match, stock match is one of the more popular modes. In this mode, you will choose how many lives each player has, then the last person standing will win. There is no time limit in this mode. unless you add it, of course.

Coin match
In coin match, you will have to harm your opponent to make coins spur out of him. You will then have to collect the coins to make them go into your coin count. If you get knocked off the stage, you will lose half of your coins, which will all fall on the stage for your opponents to collect.

In this mode, there are three types of coins, gold, silver, and copper. The gold coins are the amount of ten coins, the silver amount to five, and the copper is amount to one coin. Whoever has the most coins at the end of the match wins. There is a time limit in this mode.

Bonus match
In this mode, you will have to get the most bonuses to win in a certain time limit.

Event matches
Event matches are a set of fifty one missions that you must complete. While completing the missions, you will often obtain exclusive trophies and levels for the game. The farther up the mission number is, the harder it will be. On some events you will be able to choose the character to play as, while on others the character will already be picked for you. There are also special missions called All-Star matches and Trophy matches. All star matches are missions where you must defeat a certain amount of characters in the game. If you win a trophy match, you will obtain an exclusive trophy.

Characters
This game features a total of 25 playable characters (not including ones that can be . The game brings back the original 12 playable characters as well as the ten different franchises from the original game, but introduces 13 new playable characters as well as new playable characters three new franchises in the series: Fire Emblem, Ice Climbers and Game & Watch.

Wire Frames
Wire Frames are enemies in the game that consists of both Male and Female versions. The Males resemble Captain Falcon (the attacks), and are more powerful and have better defense than Female Wire Frames. Female wire frames resemble Princess Zelda (the attacks), and are faster and have better jumps than Male wire frames. The Wire Frames appear in a few of the game's modes - Both Adventure mode and in classic mode. In each one you must defeat a certain amount of fairly easy Wire Frames (Both Male and Female.). They also appear in some of the other modes such as Cruel Melee, 100-man melee, and 15 minute melee.

Master and Crazy Hand
Master Hand first debuted in the Nintendo 64 classic Super Smash Bros.. Much like in the previous game, Master Hand is the boss of the whole game. He will appear as the final boss in Classic mode, and will appear in an event match. If you half his HP before you lose a life against him in normal mode, Crazy Hand will appear along with Master Hand. Crazy Hand has more attacks then Master Hand, and is more deadly. It is suggested that you defeat him first. You have to beat both Master and Crazy Hand to defeat Event 50 in Event Mode.

Sandbag
Sandbag will appear in the Home-Run Contest mini-game. The objective of the game is to attack the Sandbag as much as you can in ten seconds. Right before the ten seconds ends, you must use the base ball bat and swing to make the Sandbag go flying. The farther you go the better. Despite the fact that it looks painful, the game explains that the Sandbag apparently loves to go flying.

Giga Bowser
Giga Bowser is quite possibly the hardest character to defeat in the whole game. He is big and very powerful. This character is twice as big as the regular Bowser. His appearance looks somewhat odd, though you can see the similarities between him and Bowser. You will encounter Giga Bowser in adventure mode if you beat it on normal or harder in eighteen minutes or less. You will also see him in event match 51, where he will fight alongside Mewtwo and Ganondorf.

Items
Containers
 * Crate - Contains items, or will randomly explode
 * Barrel - Item from Donkey Kong, will first roll and then explode when it hits something.
 * Capsule - Small container with one item inside, has 12.5% chance of exploding when thrown.
 * Chansey Egg - Item from the Pokémon series, Either contains items, used to regain health, or a bomb.
 * Party Ball - Biggest container, has lots of items inside (that can include food and bombs)

Healing Item
 * Maxim Tomato - Item from the Kirby series, replenishes 50% of all health.
 * Heart - Item from The Legend of Zelda series, replenishes 100% of health.
 * Food - Many different types of food, replenishment depending what it is.

Transforming Item
 * Star - Item from the Mario series, gives you invincibility for a short time.
 * Warp Star - Item from the Kirby series, takes you high up, then drops you on top of players at a high speed.
 * Super Mushroom - Item from the Mario series, makes you very large for a short time.
 * Poison Mushroom - Item from the Mario series, makes you very small for a short time.
 * Bunny Hood - Item from The Legend of Zelda series, Lets you jump much higher, run faster, and hit faster.
 * Metal Box - Item from the Mario series, turns you into metal.
 * Cloaking Device - Makes you invisible for a short time.

Bludgeoning Item
 * Beam Sword - Swing it at your enemies.
 * Home Run Bat - Self-explanatory swinging item,which can be used for a one hit KO.
 * Hammer - Smashes enemies, oftentimes one-hit KO.
 * Fan - Small item that you can swing at enemies. Sends enemies straight up when thrown.
 * Parasol - You can swing this item at enemies, and glide back to land safely when jumping/being hit high in the air.

Bludgeoning & Shooting
 * Star Rod - Shoot stars.
 * Lip's Stick - Item from the game Panel de Pon, Puts a flower on your enemies head that gives them damage every second, depending on the size of the flower.
 * Super Scope - Has 3 huge shots, as well as smaller shots. Glitch allows you to have unlimited shots.
 * Ray Gun - Has 16 shots.
 * Fire Flower - Item from the Mario series, will be able to shoot out fire for a limited time.

Throwing Item
 * Green Shell - Item from the Mario series, throw at enemy.
 * Red Shell - Item from the Mario series, after being thrown, it will move back and forth quickly on the stage without falling off.
 * Bob-omb - Item from the Mario series, will blow up when thrown.
 * Freezie - Will freeze the enemy it is thrown at.
 * Flipper - Once you throw it, the item will spin around/damage enemies if they touch it.
 * Motion-Sensor Bomb - Once thrown, it will stay in its spot until someone walks over it, then it will blow up.
 * Poke Ball - Item from the Pokémon series, once you throw it a certain Pokémon will come out.
 * Mr. Saturn - A character from the Mother series that can be thrown multiple times.

Throwing & Transforming
 * Screw Attack - Will be able to spin jump, when thrown at them your enemy will spin jump once.

Other
 * Barrel Cannon - Once you land in one, it will shoot you back out.
 * Smash Coins - Gives you points in coin matches.

Pokémon
Like in Super Smash Bros., you are able to throw Poké Balls. Once you do, a certain Pokémon comes out and attacks or occasionally does nothing. The following is a list of Pokémon that will appear in the Poké Balls.

Trophies
Trophies are obtainable rewards in Super Smash Bros. Melee. There are a total of 290 trophies, and each of them can be collected through various (or sometimes identical) means. The most common way to earn trophies is to insert coins inside the Lottery, once you do a random trophy will come out (note that most of the trophies are obtained by doing other things, only about a hundred or so trophies are obtainable through the Lottery.).

Sometimes, a trophy you already have will come out of the Lottery. As you insert more coins into the Lottery, the chance of getting a trophy you don't have will raise. Another way to get trophies are by beating Adventure, Classic, or All-Star, meaning that each character has three trophies. Other ways to get trophies are to do certain missions, or other such things.

Three trophies are exclusive to the Japanese version of the game. Those trophies are the Mario riding on Yoshi one, the helmet-less Samus Aran, and Tamagon. However, it can be obtainable in the American and European version by using special game hackers.

Unlock criteria

 * Brinstar Depths: Play 50 VS. matches.
 * Fourside: Play 100 VS. matches.
 * Big Blue: Play 150 VS. matches.
 * Poké Floats: Play 200 VS. matches.
 * Mushroom Kingdom II: Get the Birdo or Pidgit trophy.
 * Battlefield: Clear All-Star Mode for the first time.
 * Final Destination: Clear Event #51: The Showdown.
 * Dream Land N64: Clear Target Smash with every character.
 * Yoshi's Island N64: Hit the Sandbag over 400 m/1,350 ft in the Home-Run Contest.
 * Kongo Jungle N64: Clear the 15-Minute Melee.

Adventure stages

 * Mushroom Kingdom - A sidescroller which includes many of the Goomba and Koopa enemies from the original Super Mario Bros.. In the middle of the level the player will have to fight 10 fairly easy Yoshis. The end bosses are Peach and Mario, or on some occasions Luigi.
 * Kongo Jungle - The player will first have to fight two mini versions of Donkey Kong, then fight one large Donkey Kong.
 * Hyrule - Go through a maze type level to find the triforce. The player will sometimes encounter easy versions of Link throughout the level. The boss of this world is Princess Zelda.
 * Brinstar - The player must first fight Samus Aran, then escape the world by climbing up a huge cave.
 * Green Greens - Here the player will first fight Kirby, then fifteen Kirbys with random copy abilities. If the player finishes the multiple Kirby level under thirty seconds, the player will fight a large Kirby.
 * Corneria - The player will first have to fight Fox McCloud on the Great Fox. After that, either Fox or Falco will come onto the battle field and call in Arwings to shoot the player.
 * Pokémon Stadium - The player will have to fight fifteen Pokémon.
 * F-Zero Grand Prix - The player must first run across an F-Zero Grand Prix race dodging the oncoming cars. After that he/she will fight Captain Falcon.
 * Onett - The player must fight three Nesses.
 * Icicle Mountain - The player will need to climb up a mountain that resembles the game Ice Climber. The player must fight two pairs of Ice Climbers.
 * Battlefield - The player will first have to battle fifteen Wire Frames. After that he/she is done and they will fight either Metal Mario or Metal Mario and Metal Luigi, if Luigi was unlocked.
 * Final Destination - Here the player will fight Bowser, then he/she will either need to complete the game or fight Giga Bowser depending on what difficulty level that the player is playing on.

Competitive community
There is a large community of advanced Melee players who utilize techniques that casual players may not even know about, such as Wave dashing and L-Cancelling. There is even a school that helps players play the game more professionally, according to the TV show Game Head on Spike TV.

Super Smash Bros. Melee is one of the more popular games to play at video game tournaments. In 2004 was added to the Major League Gaming's game roster. The tournaments have been covered in many gaming and technology magazines, including the popular Nintendo Power. The MLG tournaments were being shown on the American television channel USA Network. It should be noted that Super Smash Bros. Melee was one of two games featured in the MLG. (The other being the popular Xbox game Halo 2.)

A while after Brawl came out, it was deemed too uncompetitive and Melee returned to be the most prominent competitive Super Smash Bros. game with it gathering large viewership. In EVO 2013, Super Smash Bros. Melee returned with the help of many donations. Despite being relegated to the third EVO stream as well as legal troubles from Nintendo lawyers, the Melee portion of the tournament gathered the largest viewership that year.

Super Smash Bros. Melee returned to EVO in 2014, now with the full support and sponsorship of Nintendo. Reggie Fils-Aime even gave a message before the finals. Despite still gathering large viewership, it was the second most viewed game at EVO 2014, falling behind Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

Trivia

 * Ditto was supposed to appear as a Pokémon in this game, but was scrapped for unknown reasons. Parts of Ditto's functionality are still intact, and a cheating device allows for it to be summoned.
 * There is a glitch that allows the player to play as Master Hand. The glitch is caused by setting your name as nothing before a battle.
 * Some of the original 12 playable characters' voice clips were recycled from the original Super Smash Bros. as well as Super Mario 64, Yoshi's Story and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.