This is the best fighting game ever created, the multiplayer will keep you honing your skills to best everyone you meet.
Many fighting games have a sort of stagnant feel to them. You stand in one place or you can shuffle a bit with very limited movement. You whack your opponent and try to block at many attacks as possible before your health runs out. Cue next round.
Super Smash Brothers for the N64 changed that, and passed it along to the Gamecube version of Super Smash Brothers Melee. You are freed from the usual attack/block style of fighting games and are given freedom to move about very different unique levels with very unique characters.
The one player is enough to keep you entertained while you frantically unlock new characters and stages. The Event mode starts out fairly easy, but ends up getting very difficult toward the later stages. Adventure mode is another new addition but it doesn’t quite flow as well as it could. It’s fun, but it lacks something that would give you more freedom.
Each character you unlock (usually) plays in their own unique way. No character feels better than any other while no character feels any worse. They are very well balanced though some match up against specific characters better than others. Unfortunately many characters play as clones of each other, as if they were the same character with a different costume rather than a different character. While this tosses in more variety, it would be beneficial to see more unique characters enter the game.
The stages are all very colorful and feature segments of many Nintendo games. All the stages play well, but you will find that you prefer a select few and will most likely not chose randomly very often.
The AI of the computers is impressive and a bit of a let down at the same time. The higher level AI’s can smack you silly before you have a chance to figure out what is going on, but they will also step right into a fully charged attack. Luckily the AI doesn’t seem unfair; none of the moves they use are too cheap to get you frustrated easily. If you don’t have friends to play with in the Multiplayer, the AI makes a worthy opponent to keep you busy as a replacement.
All the modes of SSBM are great, but only one truly stands the test of time. Multiplayer. There are endless hours of fun in playing your friends in the multiplayer. Some fighting games don’t lend themselves to getting much better or worse than when you start out. SSBM is easy enough to pick up and learn immediately, but has its hidden more complex maneuvers which takes time to master.
The more you play this game, the better you get. You won’t find yourself getting to the point where you can’t get better very soon. Another player will always have enough gusto to put you in your place.
Another great feature is the trophy section. This features a multitude of trophies with characters in a still position allowing you to read a short blurb about characters from many Nintendo games, new and old.
All said and done, Super Smash Brothers Melee is a masterpiece. It works from the start to the end and keeps you gripped all the time. You may set SSBM aside to play another game for a while, but you will always pick it back up for some more rounds. SSBM is a game you absolutely must have.