| VGLN.com
Gamecube >> Reviews
>> article
Super Smash Brothers Melee
by Julius Bautista
Friday, December 21 2001
Nintendo takes 4-player chaos to another level with impressive results.
 |
|
|
Title:
Super Smash Brothers Melee
|
Platform:
Gamecube
|
Publisher:
Nintendo |
Developer:
HAL Laboratory |
#
of Players: 1 - 4 |
Genre:
Fighting
|
Origin:
Japan
|
Expected
Release:
December 2001 |
Grapevine:
In some ways, the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee parallels the release of Mario Kart for N64: it gives us a reason to join some friends and stay up all night and laugh at a TV. |
There's no reasonable doubt that "console" multiplayer gaming was one of the Nintendo64's few strengths. From Mario Kart 64, to Goldeneye, to Mario Party -- joining some friends, plugging in 4 controllers, and simply killing hours having a blast were the true products of such titles. While we can see Mario Kart 64 as a pioneer of "4-player madness", the original Super Smash Bros. on N64 followed those footsteps by presenting a unique "Nintendoish" gameplay experience that was dedicated to both multiplayer and "party" action: it can be played competitively, yet maintain simplicity and always be "LOL fun". With that considered, Super Smash Bros. Melee is a worthy sequel that excels on all levels. Developer HAL Laboratory kept it true to the original and provided much, much more. About this title, one industry writer simply commented: "This game is nuts!" -- I don't think I can summarize it better than that.
The "Smash Bros." concept is taking a collection of Nintendo's mascots, setting them in familiar Nintendo locations, and have them utterly destroy each other, smacking them back into the Stone Age. It's executed in an animated, comical style that's not truly violent, but is downright hilarious. In a loose sense, we have a 4-player "fighting" game... Practically all modern-day fighting games can trace their roots to trend-setters like Capcom's "Final Fight" and "Street Fighter II", where victory was achieved by attacking an opponent, diminishing their life guage until they were "knocked out". Smash Bros.' roots can be traced to the Mario Bros. series -- 2D platformers, full of running and jumping from one level to the next -- and, oh yes, Sumo Wrestling -- knocking each other off the stage. In SSBM, like its predecessor, in place of life guages are hit percentages. As your character takes damage, his/her/its percentage value increases. More importantly, the higher your percentage is, the farther you fly when you're hit, making it easier to get knocked off the stage. So, using your character's jumps and special moves to return to the stage become just as important as knocking someone out. The idea is simple, but when mixed with diverse & dynamic stages, special items, and good ol' Murphy's Law, the results are nothing short of chaos.
Melee's control and mechanics remain largely unchanged, with a few additions and alterations that make the gameplay deeper and well-balanced compared to the original. Besides some new special moves, modified basic attacks, and an increased sense of speed, characters can now dodge attacks, even in midair. One's ability to dodge can decide life & death, with skilled dodgers proving to be MUCH harder to defeat. In a move that will frustrate some fans of the first game, the developer toned down all the old attacks you could say were "cheap", so some attacks/characters don't seem as "invincible" as they once were. Moves and item's like the Falcon Punch, the DK Hammer, and the Bob-omb are still pretty damn powerful, but they're not "insanely" strong as they were. Even throws seem pathetically weaker in comparison, showing it's been de-emphasized, but overall it shows HAL did a lot to eliminate unfair advantages (and cheap tactics). Players will have to adjust their strategies accordingly, but on a "positive" note it means they'll be demanded of more skill ("haha" to all you Luigi users). As for special items & weapons, there's too many too count. All the old ones return, with additions such as the Super Scope 6, a host of legendary Pokemon, and the Super Mushroom, to add some giant-sized action. There's a lot to mess around with.
Initially, there are 14 playable characters, most of which are old, with a few new faces: Mario, Pikachu, Donkey Kong, Captain Falcon, Link, Zelda/Sheik, Fox McCloud, Peach, Bowser, Ice Climbers, Ness, Kirby, Samus, and Yoshi. There are also 11 hidden characters, 6 of which are unfortunately "Ryu/Ken" clones of other members. In my opinion, half of the hidden characters are welcomed additions, while the others should be tossed (where are my Hammer Bros.??). After looking at the whole roster, I find the balance between size, speed, agility, and power among the characters is remarkable, and helps keep the playing field even. And we must not forget the stages. The total number of stages rivals the number of characters, and together they scream "variety". Every stage is unique in size and has its own set of hazards for players. While some are fairly calm and static, stages like the Mute City racetrack (complete with F-Zero craft that whiz by to smack you) are rediculously dynamic, always on the move, always changing. They're full of surprises, and easily add to the chaos already in place.
Obviously the weakest aspect of the first Smash Bros. was its painfully short single player mode. It was a basic series of stages and opponents with a final boss at the end of it, and could last a quick 10 minutes. Naturally, sticking with multiplayer was your only option to keep the action fresh. Everyone will be happy to see that Melee blows its predecessor out of the water in that respect. Melee starts with a Classic mode, an Adventure mode, Event Matches, and Stadium tests. Classic mode is identical to the old singles mode, pitting you against a series of opponents. Adventure mode is a refreshing twist, featuring side-scrolling stages based on classic games, followed by a match with a particular opponent based on the theme. Event Matches are "dream matches" of sorts with preset rules, themes, and characters. About 30 event matches are initially open to you, with more (more difficult) matches to be unlocked. The Stadium contains bonus tests like the old "target breaking" for completion by each character. There are no engaging story modes and such, but overall singles is fairly extensive. And in case we forgot, Melee is all about multiplayer. Thanks to all the characters, the items, and stages, the action is intense with constant, mind-numbing screen activity. Quite a few extra VS. modes have been added for extra flavoring, but in the end Super Smash Bros. Melee is a multiplayer experience about pure, insane fun.
Despite living in the confines of 2D gameplay, SSBM is still a pretty game. All the characters are well polished, with great detail, texturing and lighting. Mario is obviously wearing jean overalls, and even Yoshi bears a shiny, almost scaly look. Character animations are fluid and unique, complete with clothing animations and minute facial expressions that really bring their personalities to life. Donkey Kong is known to be a "dumb" ape, and it shows. Clothing also react to gravity and other forces. Explosions, particle effects, reflections, shadows, and transparencies are cleanly done as well. A few stages are remakes of old stages, while the rest are new to the series. Generally, the modeling and texturing of the foregrounds are well-done considering they're recreations of classic settings, like Peach's Castle, from Super Mario 64. However, often they do feature low-rez textures and lack complexity in the backgrounds. Stages like the Mushroom Kingdom are forgiveable since it's meant to mimic the classic styles, but other areas like Yoshi's Story could've used some more objects. Lastly, the graphics never, ever slow down when it's not meant to. Despite the large amount of activity, Melee runs at 60 fps, and moves quickly and smoothly the entire way.
Melee's audio carries as much variety as its visuals, with a suitably high degree of quality. Every character has its own signature voice acting. Every item, every Pokemon, attack, and action has its own unique sound effect. Nothing is dull, and it's all loud & clear. Music throughout the game is excellent, largely composed of remixes and orchestrations of classic themes. One Donkey Kong stage plays a jazzy rendition of DK's theme; the Star Fox stages have "heroic" space symphony; and the orchestration of Kirby's theme is simply grand and beautiful. Themes of Captain Falcon and Kraid (from Metroid) are remixed nicely as well. In some cases you're treated to the actual MIDI tunes from the 8-bit glory days, in others you'll hear re-instrumented MIDI that are meant to sound close to the original version. The variety of musical styles is extensive, suiting the stages & events nicely, with nostalgia riding high as a result. Hell, the "DK Rap" is included. Even with a solid sound package like this, Melee doesn't utilize surround sound. Then again, it has no use for it.
If we took away the gameplay elements from this title, we'd simply be left with ~25 years of Nintendo game history. Sure, it's Smash Bros., but all the stages, the characters, the sound track -- all together it forms a monument to Nintendo. Because of that, and Nintendo's usual high standards, SSBM's presentation is excellent. Melee lets players visit characters and locales from Nintendo's past, and present (and in one case, the future). One of the game's features is the ability to collect "trophies" of characters, items, and places from Nintendo's games. The trophies are detailed 3D models (some are sprites) that can be viewed from a gallery complete with background info of it's game origin and what game/year it first appeared. There are roughly 300 trophies, and they range from Nintendo's beginnings with Donkey Kong to as far as the recently released Pikmin. A number of them are from games we've never heard of, but they're included anyway, and interesting to see. Back to the normal stuff, Melee opens with the CG video from E3 2001, where the game was unveiled to the public. All the menus are fancy with little "Flash-like" animations, yet are easy to navigate. All music tunes, sounds, and announcements occur at appropriate times, and load times are truly kept to a minimum, usually no more than 3 seconds of waiting. Every character has a few unique victory "dances" for completed matches. There's even some bonus pre-recorded video showcasing the playable characters, plus a video tutorial on how to play. It's a solid, quick & clean package with lots of flare.
SSBM's replay value is, for the most part, endless. The beauty of the single player setup is there's so much #$%& to unlock. Besides trying to collect all 300 trophies (whoever tries that must be nuts), aquiring most (not all) of the hidden characters & options requires a good amount of time spent in singles play. The big idea here is we have a game that's centered around multiplayer, whose single-player game is designed to enhance the multiplayer experience -- even though the multiplayer is already awesome. And like the first game showed, destroying Nintendo's franchise characters never gets old quickly. It's a competitive multiplayer engagement with party-gaming satisfaction; people will be playing this for a long time.
In some ways, the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee parallels the release of Mario Kart for N64: it gives us a reason to join some friends and stay up all night and laugh at a TV. SSBM is a highly addicting sequel that delivers one of the most enjoyable multiplayer experiences this year, sealed in a thick sugar coat. It already seems to be the absolute must-have title for GameCube, and thank your lucky stars that we got it so early in the console's life. Honestly, I haven't touched Rogue Leader for the longest time...
--- Julius Bautista
|
