Super Smash Bros. Melee is a video game made for video gamers.
At its simplest, it's another fighting game... with the structure of a 2D fighter filled with beautiful 3D characters. Yes, you're stuck on a 2D path (despite what some backgrounds would have you believe.) But the abundance of moves, characters, items and animations keeps you from feeling limited, Street Fighter style.
But at its best, it is a loving homage to Nintendo's entire legacy... which is, honestly, the legacy of video gaming. Nintendo knows this - this combination of nostalgia and future-algia that they have won over time - and SSBM is almost a love letter to all Nintendo fans.
So it goes without saying that Nintendo fanboys are going to copulate with this game nightly. But happily, the fun factor here is large enough that even grizzled "mature gamers" can dig it. Despite "mature gamers" being a complete contradiction in terms these days, if I'm to judge by the last time I played online Unreal Tournament.
Beating on things is fun. Beating on your friends is funner. Beating on friends with a baseball bat or koopa shell is funnest. This essence of SSBM becomes a fast-paced smash-or-be-smashed arena battle. Choose 1 of 25 characters, each with unique special moves (mostly; 6 of the characters are clones, albeit clones with completely different character models and animations) and proceed to the fight. SSBM doesn't use a life meter like most fighting games. Damage is tallied as a percentage, which indicates your character's general level of victimization. A standard punch to an opponent at 10% damage will not do much, but that same punch to an opponent at 263% damage will send them flying across the screen like a firecracker. Sending enemies flying is your goal... because they don't die until they get hit out of the stage boundaries. You better master the double-jump and your character's special third jump if you want to stay on the platform.
Special moves are easy to pull off, if a bit tetchy at times. The B button combined with all 4 compass directions generates a different fun move for each, while B with no direction launches another. Moves that rely on careful timing (like Jigglypuff's killer Rest move) will run hot and cold for you. Button mashing is generally rewarded, so inexperienced players won't feel immediately outclassed. Move animations are fun to watch (and pause - see below), with every character getting their own individualized due. Grabs are especially fun once you master them, and they're all just as unique. Peach hip-bumps enemies away from her, Zelda uses her magic to lift and hurl, Donkey Kong can heave the victim onto his back and walk off with them.
Sooooo... it's in no way a bloody gorefest. Most moves bring out a fiery light show instead of a spine-ripping Finishing Move. It's comic mischief, according to the rating label. Items rain from the sky, laser guns, beam swords, health tomatoes, poke balls... all for additional power, assuming you can get to them first.
That's the gist of it. Nintendo could have stopped there and delivered a spruced up version of the N64 Super Smash Bros., but they piled on an obscene amount of extra modes, secret stages/characters, stats tracking and my personal weakness: trophy collecting.
Classic Mode is just a series of battles, briefly interrupted by bonus stages inspired by the first SSB... Break the Targets, Reach the Finish and a new one for trophy collecting. Adventure Mode inserts some side scrolling levels that are culled from Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and F-Zero. All Star Mode is a string of tough battles made harder by a lack of health recovery items.
You can play Break the Targets whenever you want in another 1P mode, as well as Home Run Derby (where you try to toss a Sandbag as far as possible) and Multi Man Melee (where the Fighting Wire Frames concept from the N64 returns. Although in those days, the Wire Frames were just there to save N64 processing power; here the Wire Frames are on purpose.)
Event mode gives you a list of specific battles - like fighting 25 Yoshis in X minutes - and you can work down the list at your own pace. The Events are often the best way to unlock secret characters and trophies. Be warned: the Events are also the most difficult portion of the whole game. In the last third of the list, the enemies are unrelenting in their attacks and damn tough to hit. You have to really find the right character for the job (when it lets you choose) and the right battle strategy, be it through endurance, avoidance or special attacks.
In VS. Mode, you can manipulate your 1-4P match in various ways... a Time, Stock or Coin match... teams, lives, length, level, stage... you can even control what items appear and at what frequency. The game records numerous statistics (which also eventually unlock secrets), so registering all of your friends' names results in a convoluted list of who's best against who. It's proof for your bragging and I wish all games had similar features.
The character models are all gorgeous. Nintendo even brings back the great Pause Camera so you can zoom in close on your fighter for all the unseen details... like Link's separately-modeled clothes, Pikachu's real mouth (not a paste-on texture), Peach's little pink bloomers, the denim on Mario's overalls. In Camera Mode (a choice under the VS menus), you can snap pictures and save them to your memory card. All characters have multiple colorings/outfits... usually more than the typical primary color palette switches. Peach can easily become Daisy, and you have a complete rainbow of Yoshis to choose from.
None of all this changes the fact that the game's core is beating the hell out of each other... but it's so nice that Nintendo bothered to extend the game's grimoire into something more worth your time.
