This is by far the most addicting, fun, and engrossing multiplayer fighting game ever made.
Gameplay 10/10
The battles themselves are the major highlights of the game. For basics, the Y or X button is to jump, and you could jump twice in the air in a row for most characters. If you are knocked off the battlefield, jump to, of course, save yourself. The A button is the standard kick and punch method and if you hold your analog stick in the four major directions while holding A, you can charge up attacks to make your foes "percentage" go up. The % system works quite well. When you or a foe have a low % (like 0 to 50), you or a foe can't be hit off the battlefield that easy. However, if you have a high % of damage (100+) you are at a risk to be knocked of the screen and lose a life. Back to the controls, the B button is your "special attack" button. You can hold the analog stick up, down, left, or right while holding the B button to create attacks specifically for each character. For example, Mario has his magic cape that could deflect projectiles (left/right + B) that was from Super Mario World. Also, Kirby can swallow different foes and copy their abilities and looks (B). Then, you can grab your foes (L+A or Z) and chuck them anywhere, and create a block bubble (R). Careful, for if you stay in blocking position for too long, the bubble could break, and leave you dazed and confused. New additions to this game from the other SSB was that you could side step (when you enemy was attacking you, L+A) to get out of harms way. The controls are responsive, the moves are helpful (some are down-right awesome), and just the thought of 4 characters battling on one stage working so well and crazy-like....well....thats insane. Other games couldnt get that right. This one does.
Graphics: 10/10
It's phenomenal how the characters look and give them this kind of mean attitude like " It's-a-me Mario! Let's kick-a-some ass!" THAT is what Mario and the other characters tell me. From the little beady eyes of Ness, to the mean and grisly look of Bowser, this game has great graphics, but not just from the character models. The stages you fight on are fromNintendo's
past games, and let me say, they did this like the true levels they were way back when. From the seemingly endless Icicle Mountain from Ice Climbers, to the dark and sometimes death-defying Brinstar of Metroid ,the backgrounds and the certain feel to the level mix in and a great solution comes out. The textures of the faces up close are also very smooth and satisfying. Graphics are a high point in this game.
Sound: 9/10
Beautiful. That's all i have to say, beau-ti-ful. When you listen to the intro and the main menu audio alone, it gives you that feeling the your ready to fight....ready for melee. However, most of the music is basically just remixes of old and new Nintendo games. From the old-school remix of Super Mario Bros., to the beautiful orchestration of the Fountain of Dreams from the Kirby series, they all have some magic in them to make each piece shine and make you remember all of the old, good music. Also, the characters also sound quite superb, from their little jump huffs and puffs, to their winning chants and dying screams. The only thing bad about the sound (the only thing bad about the entire game) is that some of the remixed songs like the DK rap, are pretty disappointing, they could have been a little bit better. Overall, the sound of the game is almost flawless.
Value:10/10
There is so much to unlock in Melee, its not even funny. For one thing, there is this new trophy system in which you collect....you guessed it....trophies. These trophies show.....well....basically everything that has to do with Nintendo's game franchises, from items, to characters, to even enemies from any Nintendo game either sponsored in this game, or one no one has even heard about (like something in Japan, etc.) Where are these trophies you ask? Well....in many places. For starters, you can collect them in Classic mode, during Bonus levels, you have to hit the trophies in a little container thing while they are falling.....yeah....thats it. Next, the trophies can be found almost anywhere in Adventure mode....they just have to appear, thats all.......you can also get them by completing certain tasks in almost any mode. For example, to get one of the 3 Mario trophies, beat Classic mode with Mario on any difficulty, or complete 1000 Melee matches to get the Coins trophy. And last, the Lottery. Depending on how you do in single player or melee mode, you can get coins. You use these coins for the slot machine and whenever you put in coins, a trophy will come out. At first, trophies can be extremely easy to collect here. But as you get more and more new trophies from the slot machine, the chance of you get a new one will decrease, forcing you to collect more coins to increase your chance of getting a new trophy. In all, there are a staggering 293 trophies to collect. Good luck. Another thing that is new are, of course, new characters. Some new characters will start out as default characters. Princess Peach, Zelda, Bowser, and Ice Climbers to name a few. Even Ness and Capitan Falcon, who were locked in the original Super Smash Bros. are now default characters. And there is the locked characters. To get them, you either have to play melee a certain amount of times, or complete an objective. I think these characters are awesome and bring Melee a lot of variety, so you can test out which one to see which one suits your fighting style best. Maybe you like the powerful-but-slow Donkey Kong. Or, maybe you prefer the quick and nimble Fox McCloud. Or even the all-around average, boring......BUT SUPERSTAR MARIO!!!! There are 11 new locked characters in this game, so happy hunting! Now, onto the new game modes. Lets go to Single player first. There is Classic mode, the original mode from the original SSB, where you fight people, do some mini-games, and beat up the evil Master Hand (remember him?) Also, there is a new adventure mode, which is interesting, yet very cool. You go through different worlds, like a 2D side scroller, just to complete the level, or complete a certain task. Once you have completed all of the worlds, you then face the final boss, a big version of Bowser. When you unlock it, All-Star mode is just facing every character in the game, including yourself. During All-Star, instead of facing one character after another, later you will face two at a time, even three the most. When you complete any of these 3 modes once, you will get a trophy showing the character that you beat it with. Since there are 25 characters in the game, you will get 75 trophies just from these 3 modes. Training mode is what the name implies, you train yourself with a computer opponent.
Event mode gives you certain challenges for you to complete and while some are easy, some are so frustrating, they make you want to kill yourself. Honestly. I know from experience. The Stadium is just some mini-games you can complete, for fun or for extra stuff. Target Test is what you do in Classic Mode, just break the targets in the fastest time possible for each character. Home-Run Contest is when you have 10 seconds to hit a bag with a face on it (i know, its weird) and power up your lethal home run bat (you know, the one that when charged up can kill your opponent in one shot) and fire the bean bag away to see how far it can go! Also, there is Multi-Man Melee, in which you can choose different settings and battle out with these wire frame dudes you also battle in Adventure mode. This is all JUST FOR SINGLE PLAYER. Now, you got Multiplayer Melee, the crowning achievement for this game. You and 3 other friends can battle with your favorite characters with dozens of settings, from 99 lives, to the new collect the coins, to Giant Melee, to Slow Melee, to.....everything your mind can imagine (almost). This is what you will be playing long after you've unlocked all of the stages, characters, and well....just everything. All in all, the replay value is endless my friend, endless.
Tilt:10/10
I love this game. My best character is Link. You can't beat me. HaHa
I love everything about it, the characters, the stages, everything.
Super Smash Bros. Melee has so much to offer you, and if you like Nintendo, or fighting games in general, this is your heaven right here gamers.