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Take the long, sleepless, energetic nights of playing Super Smash Bros. on your N64 with your friends to the next level in Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Nintendo GameCube. Melee features all new fighters, modes, trophies, combos, arenas, and utilizes the GameCube's graphical capabilities to up the look of the game. The game will include a grand total of 25 fighters, and even more arenas to fight at. The classic ladder style mode, the new side scrolling Adventure Mode, Stadium Mode, a training mode, all new fighting options, and tons of other things. Gameplay wise, Super Smash Bros. Melee appears to be an average sequel to the best selling n64 version. But a little more exploring reveals that this game is packed to the brim with hundreds of features, that if left out still would have made the game good, are included just to make the game better then good. Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 64 was mainly a multiplayer game, playing alone could be very boring except for a few exceptions. Hal, having realized this, took the old and more or less tiresome 1 player mode of the first Smash Bros. and drastically improved it. It's now difficult to say that you have to have to play this game with friends to enjoy it. The classic mode remains, where you work your way up to the Giant Hand. But now, the course in which you get there is different, and is never the same. Also, a new Adventure mode has been added. This combines classic side scrolling gameplay, with varied battles. While this is a nice departure from the main classic mode, it's the same thing for each fighter you use to beat it. The differences of the mode are hardly noticeable between characters. The changes are slightly bigger, but no much between difficulties. While the way you beat a part of the Classic mode can effect small things, it isn't enough to keep the adventure mode very fresh for to long. The best example I can give without spoiling anything is when you fight Fox atop the Great Fox and defeat him the first time, his team will come up in there crafts in a short cut scene before they fire at you heavily. What they say is dependent on how you defeated them. Also in the one player category is the Stadium option which includes Multi Man Melee, Break the Target, and Home Run Derby. In Multi Man Melee you fight Wire frames in certain fixed battles such as a 10 man Melee, 100 Man Melee, 15 Minute Melee, and others. Break the targets, is basically the same as the Nintendo 64 one, only with new ones for every fighter. Each one if unique and requires you to use the skills of that fighter. To me, these ones seem slightly easier then the ones of the Nintendo 64 version, in most cases. And in Home Run Derby, you inflict as much damage to Mr. Sandbag (A Sandbag, of course) in 10 seconds before using a provided bat to smash Mr. Sandbag as far as you can. And when you hit Mr. Sandbag, you really hit him. With some fighters, 1000 feet can easily be obtained, with a little practice of course. Another One Player time muncher is the Event Matches, 51 pre set matches recreating scenes from Nintendo's past, as well as interesting match ups. Such as the classic Mario v.s. Bowser, to facing hundreds of Kirbys. You start off with only 10, but as you earn new characters and beat the Matches you earn more. Finally there is the Training Mode, which has been greatly improved over the last one. Now in training mode, you can train with your friends as well, not just the computer. Keep in mind these are only the modes you find when you first boot up the game, more can be unlocked later on. Now onto the heart and soul of what Super Smash Bros. is all about... Multiplayer! The classic fun of the original V.S. Mode has remained great, but hundreds of new options have been added making it even better! The original Time and Stock battles are still there, plus the new Coin and Bonus battle options. In Coin Mode, the more intense the hit you deliver to you opponent will effect how many coins will shoot out for you, or anyone else for that matter, to collect. And in the Bonus Mode, you are rated on how well you delivered your hits and are given an overall score, the highest of which being the winner. Melee has 14 fighters at first from Mario, to Bowser, to Fox McCloud. But as you complete certain criteria you'll earn new fighters, eventually reaching 25 in total. All character moves are relatively unchanged from the Nintendo 64 version, but each character has one move added, in most cases located at Control Stick + B. In the first Smash Bros. you basically had to take the beating. But in Melee, new defensive moves have been added. Such as blocking items or moves, throwing items back, and other nice moves. Melee has all the old fighting arenas from the old version which have been renewed with new added features, plus all new Arenas. Plus the fighting arenas are now more interactive then in the Nintendo 64 version of Super Smash Brothers. For instance, at Mute City from F-Zero, you are actually on the race track and every so often a pack full of F-Zero machines will race by, smashing into any one in there way! Many of the Arenas are much larger then ever before, in different ways too. Zelda's Castle is just flat out big, but at the F - Zero Big Blue Track you are on top of the racing machines as they go down the massive track. Melee also features a ton of new weapons including the old Super Scope 6 for the Super Nintendo (Man that thing was great). Weapons are now way more devastating, and Melee includes Pokemon from the newer version of the game. A new mode to Melee Hal has included is Trophy mode. Where you can collect over 300+ highly detailed trophies from Nintendo's past, with short descriptions, and the game and year they first appeared. You obtain them by betting coins you earn in various parts of the game, finding them in the One Player Modes, or by obtaining certain criteria. Some trophies are from games never even released in America. Graphically, Melee is average for the most part. With some high detailed characters and Trophies being nice, everything else remains basic. Melee's frame rate is around 60 frames a second. Melee has absolutely no slowdown during major battles and/or attacks. Real time effects have been added to many of the arenas. For instance you can see many F-Zero machines racing in the background of Mute City, or reflections in the water at the Fountain of Dreams. After reading all of this, I would be surprised if you don't already own this game. Everything I said is just a small part of what is in the game. And did I mention the countless hours you'll have fun playing with friends? Go now, go get this game! Super Smash Bros. Melee is 1-4 players and is currently available.
My Rating: 9.8 Media: By: Alex Zman |
Battle atop the Great Fox
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