Super Smash Bros. Melee

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Data

Platforms:	Nintendo GameCube
Genre:	Fighting
Players:	1-4
Developer(s):	HAL Laboratory
Publisher(s):	Nintendo

Release dates

November 21, 2001

---

Original release:
November 21, 2001
December 3, 2001
May 24, 2002
May 31, 2002
August 23, 2002
2002
Player's Choice:
April 4, 2003
April 4, 2003
2003

Super Smash Bros. Melee, often shortened to SSBM or Melee, is a fighting game for the Nintendo GameCube. It is the second installment of the Super Smash Bros. series. Like the first Super Smash Bros., the game is a crossover featuring several Nintendo characters battling in different stages while trying to win. The gameplay is very similar to the previous game, but several improvements have been added. The game introduces game modes such has Adventure and All-Star Mode.

Game modes

1-P Mode

Regular Match

Classic

Main article: Classic Mode (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

The player must win 8 battles, each against a different fighter, but the order of battles against are not always consistent. There are also three bonus stages: Break the Targets!, Snag trophies!, and Race to the Finish!. Before starting, the player must choose their fighter, the number of stock (ranging from 1 to 5), and the difficulty level (either Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Very Head).

At the end of the mode, the player must battle Master Hand. If they reach the boss on Normal or harder difficulty with three or more stock and have not used any continues, they also have to fight Crazy Hand, who assists Master Hand.

Adventure

Main article: Adventure (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

The player's fighter has to complete 12 stages based on settings from various Nintendo series and franchises. The fighter, number of stock, and difficulty level are select first, like in Classic mode. Some of the stages are unique to Adventure mode, particularly those where the player has to go from start to finish. The regular stages feature a battle with predetermined conditions.

Unlike Classic Mode, the levels in Adventure mode are the same for all characters. They are accessed in the following order:

• Stage 1: Mushroom Kingdom
• Stage 2: Kongo Jungle
• Stage 3: Underground Maze
• Stage 4: Brinstar
• Stage 5: Green Greens
• Stage 6: Corneria
• Stage 7: Pokémon Stadium
• Stage 8: F-Zero Grand Prix
• Stage 9: Onett
• Stage 10: Icicle Mountain
• Stage 11: Battlefield
• Stage 12: Final Destination

If the player manages complete the twelve stages on Normal difficulty or higher with a total playtime under 18 minutes, they face Giga Bowser for the second part of the Final Destination stage. If the player defeats Giga Bowser, they receive the bonus "Giga Bowser KO" (worth 100,000 points), as well as a trophy of Giga Bowser if they finish without using any continues.

All-Star

Main article: All-Star Mode

All-Star is the only unlockable mode. It becomes available once the player has unlocked every fighter, and the goal is to defeat all 25 fighters.

Once the player's fighter is chosen, they have to fight a random opponent, with only one stock. After finishing a battle, the player's fighter goes to a room without enemies, where they can refresh as needed. The Rest Station also has three Heart Containers, the only three recovery items usable in the mode, and a screen showing the opponents for the next battle. The opponents are fought in a random order, except for the last one, which is always Mr. Game & Watch.

Event Match

During event matches, the player has to select a predetermined challenge from a list of events and complete it. Many events have a predetermined fighter whom the player must use, but a few allow the player to choose their character, like the All-Star Matches.

The player unlocks events along the way. At first, the number of events goes only up to 30, but it increases to 39 after unlocking certain fighters (Jigglypuff, Luigi, Dr. Mario, Falco, and Young Link) and again to 50 after unlocking all fighters and completing these events. The 51st and final event is unlocked by completing the previous 50.

01	Trouble King	02	Lord of the Jungle	03	Bomb-fest
04	Dino-wrangling	05	Spare Change	06	Kirbys on Parade
07	Pokémon Battle	08	Hot Date on Brinstar	09	Hide 'n' Sheik
10	All-Star Match 1	11	King of the Mountain	12	Seconds, Anyone?
13	Yoshi's Egg	14	Trophy Tussle 1	15	Girl Power
16	Kirby's Air-raid	17	Bounty Hunters	18	Link's Adventure
19	Peach's Peril	20	All-Star Match 2	21	Ice Breaker
22	Super Mario 128	23	Slippy's Invention	24	The Yoshi Herd
25	Gargantuans	26	Trophy Tussle 2	27	Cold Armor
28	Puffballs Unite!	29	Triforce Gathering	30	All-Star Match 3
31	Mario Bros. Madness	32	Target Acquired	33	Lethal Marathon
34	Seven Years	35	Time for a Checkup	36	Space Travelers
37	Legendary Pokémon	38	Super Mario Bros. 2	39	Jigglypuff Live!
40	All-Star Match 4	41	En Garde!	42	Trouble King 2
43	Birds of Prey	44	Mewtwo Strikes!	45	Game & Watch Forever!
46	Fire Emblem Pride	47	Trophy Tussle 3	48	Pikachu and Pichu
49	All-Star Match Deluxe	50	Final Destination Match	51	The Showdown

Stadium

Main article: Stadium

Stadium is a game mode featuring various minigame modes, from which the player can obtain unlockables, such as trophies or even stages.

Target Test

Main article: Target Smash!!

The player's fighter must destroy ten targets before time runs out. Each character has a different stage.

Home-Run Contest

Main article: Home-Run Contest

In this mode, the player's fighter has to try and launch the Sandbag as far as they can. Before launching the Sandbag, the player must inflict as much damage to it as they can within ten seconds while trying to avoid knocking it off of the platform during the countdown. At the last second, the player must swing the Home-Run Bat at the Sandbag to launch it, and the distance that Sandbag is launched depends on how much damage it received during the countdown.

Multi-Man Melee

Main article: Multi-Man Smash

The mode involves a variety of challenges against the Fighting Polygon Team, some of which must be completed to unlock game content.

• 10-Man Melee: The player's fighter must defeat ten opponents within the shortest time possible.
• 100-Man Melee: The same as 10-Man Melee, except the player has to defeat 100 opponents. After completing the challenge for the first time, the player's fighter must defeat Falco in a match to unlock him.
• 3-Minute Melee: The player's fighter has three minutes to defeat as many opponents as possible.
• 15-Minute Melee: Same as 3-Minute Melee except the player has fifteen minutes to defeat as many opponents as they can.
• Endless Melee: The player has to keep fighting opponents until they are defeated.
• Cruel Melee: Same as Endless Melee but with a much higher difficulty level and without items.

Training

Main article: Training (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

A mode where the player can practice fighting and performing moves. If the player does an average of 15 combos, they earn a trophy.

When entering this game mode, the player chooses their fighter and stage. Upon pressing the Start button, the player can modify some of the settings, which are similar to debugging features:

• Speed: The player can set the gameplay speed at either 1/4, 1/2, 2/3, x1, x1.5, or x2.
• Item: The player can choose which items to practice with.
• No. of CPUs: The player can choose from one to three opponents.
• CPU: The player can modify the behavior of their opponents. The options are: Stand/Stop, Walk, Jump, Evade/Run, Attack/CPU, and Human.
• CPU Damage: Changes the damage output on opponents.
• Camera: The player can adjust the perspective of the game camera. The options are Free, Normal, and Zoom.
• Reset: Reverts the settings to default.
• Exit: Returns the player to the fighter select screen.

Melee

Main article: Versus Mode

Melee has some of the main modes, featuring battles between two to four human players, or alternatively human player against up to three CPUs.

Tournament Mode

Main article: Tournament Mode (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

Tournament Mode allows for the participation of up to 64 competitors. The player has to defeat their opponents until someone reaches the final round.

Special Melee

Main article: Special Smash

Special Melee allows for one of several types of custom battles:

• Camera Mode: The mode requires a Nintendo GameCube Controller in the fourth slot. Once the player has input the controller, the other three fighters must be selected, either by humans or as CPUs. In battle, the Nintendo GameCube Controller in the fourth player's slot can take photographs to save to the Memory Card and later view in the Snapshots section of the Data menu.
• Stamina Mode: All fighters start with 150 HP and must damage their opponents until their health drops to zero. The last fighter standing wins.
• Super Sudden Death: All fighters start with the damage counter at 300%, so nearly all attacks can defeat an opponent.
• Giant Melee: All fighters are gigantic, effectively providing the effects of the Super Mushroom to fighters the entire battle.
• Tiny Melee: The opposite of Giant Melee, in which all fighters are tiny, which is essentially the effects of the Poison Mushroom applying the entire battle.
• Invisible Melee: All characters become invisible, nearly as if the Cloaking Device applies the entire battle, except fighters do take damage.
• Fixed Camera: The game camera shows a view of the entire stage from a distance.
• Single-Button Mode: Only the Control Stick, A button, and C-Stick are usable.
• Lightning Melee: All fighters move very fast.
• Slow-Mo Melee: The opposite of Lightning Melee, in which fighters move very slowly.

Rules

• Rules: The player can choose the type of battle: Time, Stock, Coin, and Bonus.
• Handicap: To modify the handicap of the participants: Auto, On, Off.
• Damage Ratio: Modifies the knockback of attacks, ranging from 0.5 to 2.0.
• Stage Selection:
  • On: choose the stages manually
  • Random: the stage is chosen at random
  • Ordered: the stages are chosen in a predetermined order
  • Turns: to rotate the selection between fighters
  • Loser: the losing player chooses the stage
• Item Switch: Choose which items appear in battle and their frequency of doing so.
• Additional Rules:
  • Stock Match Time Limit: Modifies the number of stock or duration of the fight.
  • Friendly Fire: Teammates can damage each other, something that cannot occur by default.
  • Pause: Choose whether players can pause during gameplay or not.
  • Self-Destruction: Toggles how many points are lost upon falling beyond the blast line: The default is -1 stock, but this can be changed to -2 or 0.

Names

Main article: Name

The player can input a name to apply to their fighter.

Lottery

Main article: Lottery (Super Smash Bros. Melee)

One of the ways the player can earn trophies, by spending coins they have earned.

Collection

Main article: Collection

The player can view all of the trophies they have earned in a room with game consoles and a television in the background. As the player collects more trophies, the size of the room increases.

Data

Main article: Data

• Snapshots: This option allows you to view photos taken in Camera Mode of Special Melee.
• Archives: Within this section, the player will see an intro to the game and an explanation of how to play.
• Melee Records: The player will be able to view all the records achieved in the game.
• Special: In this section, the player will see the date and time they unlocked the special features in the game.

Characters

Super Smash Bros. Melee features 26 fighters, 15 of whom are available from the start and 11 of whom are unlockable. All 12 characters from the first Super Smash Bros. return, and some of the added fighters like Peach and Mewtwo were cut from the previous game's roster.

Default

Mario	Peach	Bowser	Donkey Kong	Yoshi
Link	Zelda	Sheik	Kirby	Pikachu
Samus	Fox	Captain Falcon	Ness	Ice Climbers

Unlockable

Dr. Mario	Luigi	Young Link	Ganondorf	Falco
Jigglypuff	Pichu	Mewtwo	Marth	Roy
Mr Game & Watch

Stages

There are 29 stages in total, 18 of which are available from the start and 11 of which are unlockable.

Default

Stage	Image	Universe	Description
Mushroom Kingdom: Princess Peach's Castle		Mario	The stage takes place on the roof of the iteration of Peach's Castle from Super Mario 64. Either a red, a green, or a blue button can appear on the stage, and activating them causes platforms or blocks of the same color to appear. A Banzai Bill sometimes charges into the center of the stage, resulting in a big explosion.
Mushroom Kingdom: Rainbow Ride		Mario	Fighters ride on a airship named the Rainbow Cruiser until they reach a series of fixed platforms, falling platforms, flying carpets, and pendulums. The location is based on another location from Super Mario 64, Rainbow Ride.
Mushroom Kingdom		Mario	The stage is a reference to the overworld levels in Super Mario Bros. There are a few rows of Brick Blocks, which have a few Coin Blocks hidden within that contain items instead of coins. There is also a platform that falls it stood on.
DK Island: Kongo Jungle		Donkey Kong	The stage takes place on a wooden raft stuck on the edge of a waterfall. It consists of a base platform made of logs and four smaller log platforms above it. Klaptraps sometimes appear to try and attack fighters, and logs sometimes come downstream, and are used as temporary platforms. There is also a Barrel Cannon at the bottom to help fighters return on the stage.
DK Island: Jungle Japes		Donkey Kong	The stage features a wooden hut in the center and platform in front that is below a smaller one. There is a short, wooden platform on the left and right sides each. The main hazard is a rapid, strong stream of water at the bottom of the stage that drags fighters beyond the blast line almost immediately. Like Kongo Jungle, Klaptraps also appear at times.
Yoshi's Island: Yoshi's Island		Yoshi	It is a stage themed after the levels of the Yoshi's Island world in Super Mario World, especially from the terrain, an unusable Pipe Cannon on the left, and three Rotating Blocks in the very center. To the right is a large, sloping platform. The Rotating Blocks can be passed through if hit, but this could lead to an unintentional KO.
Yoshi's Island: Yoshi's Story		Yoshi	The stage is themed after Yoshi's Story and its pop-out book aesthetic. Several elements from the aforementioned game can be seen, including Fly Guys that drop food when hit, a Pak E. Derm in the background, and Lakitu's Cloud that is usable as a small, moving platform.
Hyrule: Temple		The Legend of Zelda	It is a stage based on the palaces from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and takes place at a large ruined temple. The Temple is the largest stage and features a large platform on the left, another on the right, and another below.
Termina: Great Bay		The Legend of Zelda	The Great Bay is a stage that takes place at the The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask location of the same title. The Turtle sometimes shows up to be usable as a temporary platform. Tingle also appears in midair, suspended by a red balloon that can be either popped or used as a temporary platform. The Moon appears in the background, not affecting gameplay, and it is seen being stopped by the Four Giants.
Dream Land: Green Greens		Kirby	It is a stage based on the first stage of Kirby's Dream Land. There is the central large platform and a smaller one on each side. In the background is Whispy Woods, spits a gust of wind that moves fighters slightly. Apples sometimes drop from Whispy Woods for fighters to either eat or use as a weapon.
Dream Land: Fountain of Dreams		Kirby	A simple stage taking place at the Fountain of Dreams from Kirby's Adventure. It does not have many features, other than the fountain, which has three platforms on it.
Kanto: Pokémon Stadium		Pokémon	Pokémon Stadium is based on stadiums in the Pokémon games. The stage can change form, taking on up to four designs inspired by four Pokémon types: Fire, Water, Grass, and Rock. There is a large screen in the background that shows some battle data.
Planet Zebes: Brinstar		Metroid	Based on the underside of Planet Zebes. The stage has three platforms, two of which are connected to the center of the stage by a breakable cord. Breaking the plates in the center of the stage will split it in two, leaving a chasm in between. There will always be an acid at the bottom of the stage that can burn players.
Lylat System: Corneria		Star Fox	The stage takes place on the Great Fox as it flies through Corneria, and fighters are sometimes attacked by a few Arwings during combat. The Great Fox has two small cannons on the front, which can serve as a platform, but it can also cause a strong blow when fired, leading to a potential one-hit KO.
Lylat System: Venom		Star Fox	The stage takes place on Great Fox, this time flying through Venom from a frontal perspective, so fighters mostly battle on the wings. Like Corneria, Arwings sometimes arrive to attack fighters.
F-Zero Grand Prix: Mute City		F-Zero	The stage is based on the F-Zero track of the same name. Combat takes place on a platform that transports the fighters around the circuit. The platform stops at times, leaving the fighters on the track and vulnerable to being hit by F-Zero machines. Additionally, if a fighter touches the track as the platform move, they take damage.
Eagleland: Onett		EarthBound	Takes place at the hometown of Ness in EarthBound. Besides the ground, fighters can also fight on the houses and trees. The only hazards are cars that sometimes drive by individually, inflicting heavy damage and knockback to any fighter they hit.
Infinite Glacier: Icicle Mountain		Ice Climber	An endless vertical auto-scrolling stage that takes place at an icy mountain. The stage is based on the mechanics from the game Ice Climber. Any fighters who do not keep up are KO'd.

Unlockable

Stage	Image	Universe	Description
Mushroom Kingdom II		Mario	The stage is based on Subcon, the main setting of Super Mario Bros. 2. There are three platforms, and the middle platform is lower. Sometimes, Birdo shows up to spit eggs, as well as Pidgit, which flies around on a magic carpet that can be used as a platform.
Kanto Skies: Poké Floats		Pokémon	The stage takes place in the skies of Kanto. The platforms consist of various large Pokémon floats, which move over time, requiring fighters to jump between them throughout the battle.
Planet Zebes: Brinstar Depths		Metroid	A circular stage floating over a lava field. The stage hazard is Kraid, who sometimes arrives to hit the stage, moving the stage in the process.
F-Zero Grand Prix: Big Blue		F-Zero	A moving stage based on the F-Zero stage of the same title. Players start in the Falcon Flyer, and more F-Zero machines gradually show up below, usable as temporary platforms. Because the stage moves fast, if a fighter falls onto the track, they are quickly pulled to the left, easily causing a KO.
Eagleland: Fourside		EarthBound	A stage taking place at the city of the same title in the game EarthBound. The three main platforms are each the roof of a different skyscraper. A UFO sometimes appears at the top for players to ride, although the traction is slippery and the UFO retreats after a while.
Superflat World: Flat Zone		Game & Watch	A stage that takes place inside of a Game & Watch. During the battle, platforms appear at random and some objects fall from above, damaging characters or hindering their movement. To the right is a house with a roof serving as a platform. If the game is paused, one can see that the fighters are two-dimensional.
Special Stages: Battlefield		Super Smash Bros.	A simple stage featuring three platforms suspended above a main one. The stage is popular in competitive tournaments because it has no gimmicks.
Special Stages: Final Destination		Super Smash Bros.	The stage has a simple, flat shape with a dynamic background. It is also where Master Hand and Crazy Hand are fought.

Past Stages

Stage	Image	Universe
Past Stages: Kongo Jungle		Donkey Kong
Past Stages: Yoshi's Island		Yoshi
Past Stages: Dream Land		Kirby

Gallery

Main article: Super Smash Bros. Melee/gallery

• 

  Logo

• 

  Japanese logo

• 

  Japanese cover

• 

  North American cover (Player's Choice version)

• 

  All characters appearing in the game (with the exception of Sheik)

• 

  US title screen

• 

  European title screen

• 

  Japanese title screen

Names in other languages

Language	Title	Translation
Japan	大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズＤＸ (Dairantō Sumasshu Burazāzu Derakkusu)	Great Fray Smash Bros. Deluxe
Korean	대난투 스매시브라더스 DX (Daenantu Seumaesi Beuradeoseu DX)	Great Fray Smash Bros. Deluxe

External links

Official websites

• Japanese site

Wikis

• Super Smash Bros. Melee on Smashpedia (in Spanish)