32_Footsteps's Full Review: Super Smash Bros Melee for GameCube
While the system struggled overall, one of the N64's clear winners was the original "Super Smash Brothers." Finally allowing people to test their theories on which Nintendo character was superior, it also showed that Nintendo was willing to do the kind of free-for-all that only Capcom had been willing to wade into before.
When I first found out this game would be a launch title for the Gamecube, back at the system's American unveiling at E3 2001, I was impressed that Nintendo actually thought ahead and picked a sure winner to go along with question marks like "Luigi's Mansion" and "Pikmin." That, and the game, even at E3, showed promise in having Bowser, a villain at last, appear as a playable character. Surely, alot of promise was there.
And, honestly, most of it was met. And while it's clearly the class of the initial release of the Gamecube, Nintendo should have put a bit more work into the game, because they left some big mistakes in.
First, to the play itself. It's a bit non-traditional, as the first was. Instead of a fighter with complex button presses that require you to eliminate your opponent's life bar, Smash Bros. Melee asks you to pound and whack your foes off the screen, and you just take damage in terms of percentage. Thus, you can see someone with a paltry 30% take a fall, while the absurdly hurt 250% person is still in the fray, though likely not for long.
The game play is still simple, with no motions more complex than pressing a direction and one button to perform a move. The idea is still for people to be able to jump in quickly, and be able to do decently right off the bat. For the most part, the game still succeeds at this.
One nice addition is that normal attacks are a bit beefier. Most notably, the game's signature "Smash attack" can now be charged by holding the attack down, allowing you to build more power, and thus flying distance. Even players like me, who formerly didn't use many smashes in the first game, find that they are vastly more useful here. Brawling just works much better now.
However, two problems do arise. For one, new moves have now been added by pressing forward with the special attack button. This is a good addition, but with the old characters, some of their formerly plain special moves are now "Smash B" moves. Ness, for example, finds that his classic PK Fire is now a Smash B attack, which many Ness players will initially forget, and some still will forget in difficult situations. It can be frustrating.
The second is incredibly mind-numbing for me, though. As anyone who played much of Super Smash Bros. knows, one of the best tools at your disposal in a fight were throws. They could do decent damage, and they would really send someone flying far. Plus, you could always throw opponents into fun things like bombs to be incredibly rude. Now, however, you have to remember to press a direction when you throw, or you'll otherwise just start a weak grapple attack that isn't worth your while. Even worse, the throws simply don't manage to give the same distance as they used to, with only a few exceptions. Which means alot of the first game's veterans have to radically alter their fighting styles.
In terms of the battles themselves, the only thing that radically changes is the number of items that appear. All of the old items return except for the one useless item, the bumper. But they've also added new items, which manage to give new ways to play things out without being absurdly unbalancing. For example, the Metal Box, from Mario 64, allows anyone to become ensconced in metal (because let's face it, the Metal Mario fight was one of the best parts of the first game). However, the side effect of being almost impossible to be sent flying is that gravity works extremely well on you, so it's easy to fall off stages.
One thing that is nice is that healing items have been made less absurd. The tomato heals only 50% damage, and the heart only heals 100%, as opposed to the first game, where they healed 100% and all damage, respectively. One or two well-timed healing items could extend a match for way too long before. While the game compensates by providing plenty of small-dose healing items, it is nice to see that the game now focuses more on the beating of others.
The obvious star of the game, of course, is the multiplayer mode. The game is perhaps the premier fighting party game, and it is alot of fun in that regard. The game brings back all of the versus modes available before, plus several new ones. The most notable is the Coin match, in which you collect coins that appear whenever anyone gets hit. You have to decide what is more vital - grabbing the coins, or retaliating against your foes? Another good mode is the new bonus mode, in which you try to earn as many points as possible by earning as many of Melee's absurd list of bonuses during the fight.
However, the game's one-player modes are no longer simply practice/secret unlocking modes. The classic mode of the first game is back, with the exception that they no longer give you a fixed line-up to fight. In addition, hidden characters do show up as potential opponents in this - So you can fight Jigglypuff for something more than the right to unlock it. The special fights, such as the team battle and the giant battle, are still in there, but again these can be varied. Dare to see a giant Kirby, or a team of Captain Falcons? Now you can.
More fun though is the Adventure mode. While it is fixed, so you'll always hit the stages in the same order, not all of them are straight battling. One requires a run through a traditional Mario level, while another is the classic post-Metroid planetary escape. It does require players to learn more about their characters, and how to handle them in different situations, which does help when doing regular brawling (knowing the fastest way to get from point A to point B gets you items faster, after all).
Absolute best, though, is the All-Star mode. Once every character is unlocked, you then have a new mode which you take on every character in a random sequence, in ever-expanding teams. In addition, you only get to heal between battles, and only 3 times at that. This is probably the most enjoyable mode for me, since it requires some planning over the entire brawling, along with figuring out how to beat the current setup running at me at the moment.
Finally, the game has specific event battles, in which you try for a very specific goal. Some are simple, such as keep Bowser from knocking off a Peach drone for one minute. Others, like using Jigglypuff against a horde of Jigglypuffs, are maddenignly difficult. Overall, though, the events are much fun.
One thing refreshing overall, though, is that the computer is no longer mentally retarded. Think I'm joking? Compare Very Hard mode in the first game to Melee's Normal mode. Normal mode isn't that hard - Very Hard used to simply be that easy. Now, though, Very Hard is actually hard. In other words, it's actually worth playing.
One other refreshing thing is that the game actually will adjust the difficulty in Classic and Adventure depending on how well you've done to that point. Enemies will be scaled up or down in difficulty depending on how much beating you've done. And when you first see Giga Bowser match against you in Adventure mode, or see the ever-difficult Master Hand (again returning as the main boss) call for his mate, Crazy Hand, you'll appreciate the game for finally bringing on a good fight against the computer.
Graphically, the game is almost perfect. From the intro, you'll notice the extra amount of detail that went into several characters - Mario is actually wearing denim, faded in patches. Other characters are also similarly detailed. Fox looks fuzzy, Bowser has supple scales, and Ganondorf's cape is embroidered. However, not all characters got this treatment. Pikachu, for example, has a sheen, despite frequent references to his soft fur in various Pokemon games. However, this is fairly minor, as the characters are finally detailed and fully rounded. Nothing looks polygonal anymore, and the game's subtle touches (like the four giants of "Majora's Mask" appearing in Termina Bay on occasion) make this game very pleasing to the eye.
I'm personally most fond of the music, though. Instead of just doing basic renditions of characters' themes for all of them, there are also medleys of various themes, as well as at least two themes for each stage/character. While the Mushroom Kingdom has the classic Mario theme (start humming.... now), Onett, Ness' hometown, features a mix of Earthbound's battle theme, the Earthbound town music, and the Sound Stone's melody. The only gripe might be in regards to the two from Fire Emblem, as they only have the one theme between them. It's a fine theme, but I bet they had other good songs in the game too.
Finally, we come to the character line-up itself. Of course, the entire cast from the first returns, mostly the same as before. The only difference is that Jigglypuff was made much stronger while Ness was defanged, so the characters are much more balanced now. In addition, Nintendo took two suggestions, one of which was my own. First, for fans of them, the two classic Nintendo females, Peach and Zelda, are now joining the fray. Zelda can ever turn into Sheik, her alter ego from Ocarina of Time. For fun, you can even anoint a ladies' night. Samus can join too, of course.
Even better, though, is that villains are in the game. Bowser is the most notable, but it's good to see that both Mewtwo from Pokemon and Ganondorf, perhaps my favorite Nintendo villain, made it in. While it's still absurd that Wario and Waluigi, Nintendo's new 'big franchise vehicles,' are absent, I can finally be the villain. To quote the epitome of styling, early 1990's villains, Shredder, "It feels so good to be so bad."
However, with the sudden influx of characters, now at a beefy 25 faces, comes the scourge of the modern fighting game - duplicate characters. I can excuse one or two, but a grand total of 7 of the game's characters are redundant, including the two fellows visiting American shores for the first time, Marth and Roy. I know that every fighting game nowadays has either a small cast or redundant characters. Still, I honestly don't think it would be too much to ask that a 128-bit game have more variety in its cast of playable characters. I'm not asking for anything radical, like world peace or a good title from Acclaim. Just a little less redundancy.
Actually, one interesting note about Marth and Roy, from the Japanese RPG "Fire Emblem." At first, it seems that Nintendo mostly threw them in to please Japanese fans, for much the reason Ness is also included. Hey, Samus is in there mostly because she's popular in America. But Nintendo is clever, and take note of additions like this, because they will do it more for the future. Nintendo, by bringing these two to American shores, has whetted the appetite for Fire Emblem games here. Is it any wonder that Fire Emblem Advance has been announced for the GBA, a game that will feature Roy? My only hope is that Nintendo will take note Ness' popularity in the game and bring over the other "Earthbound" (or "Mother" in Japan) titles.
One minor thing, which also is a bit annoying, is that the control scheme has been tweaked with all the old characters. Link moves noticably slower, for example, while Ness' moves are vastly tighter than before. While it doesn't take long to get used to the new controls, I really think Nintendo didn't need to tweak things that much.
One slight odd thing to note - three stage layouts from the first game return as hidden layouts in this game. This is odd mostly because these layouts were rather pedestrian and mostly duplicated with 'new' stages in Melee. Why, for example, was Whispy Woods brought back and Saffron City left behind? I honestly think that maybe, in the end, Nintendo was rushed to get this game out. That also might explain the redundant characters. However, such things are common in launch titles.
Much like the original, Super Smash Bros. Melee will ultimately be remembered as one of the best games for its system. And while most of the changes are improvements, the game does feel like it was a bit rushed, like Nintendo wanted to put more into the game. Since there will be an inevitable sequel (my prediction: called Super Smash Bros. Royale), I hope Nintendo again listens to people like me and varies things between characters much more.
To finish, one of Nintendo's director's said, before unveiling the system, that stagnation is what kills the video game industry. Take note, Nintendo, and make the sequel fresh. Otherwise, you're just treading water.
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