‘Melee’ or SSBM is short for ‘Super Smash Bros. Melee’, a fighting game released by Nintendo in 2001 for the GameCube which became its best-selling title. 26 familiar characters such as Donkey Kong and Pikachu battle it out on 29 platform-like stages with 4 players at once. Unlike other traditional fighters like Tekken, there are no health bars. The objective? Knock your opponent off the edge or blast them to the clouds. You don't need to learn button combos to use your attacks. It's remarkably simple on the surface.
“What draws me in is building relationships with people and being part of a community” animia, Leeds
Players quickly saw more than a ‘family friendly party game’. Game stores hosted tournaments with new rules to increase competitiveness. No items, stages removed, and 1v1 matches with 4 lives each. Endless advanced techniques were found (still being discovered today), pushing the limits of possibility. Its physics engine allows for ‘freestyle’ movement and human expression, with long-time fans able to distinguish players from one another by gameplay alone. Top talent often average over 500 controller inputs per minute. It’s blazing fast. With a vast tree of options to choose from, no one match is ever the same.
“I went for the people and stayed for the game (but also the people, they’re great)” - Layo, Huddersfield
Establishing itself on MLG Circuits alongside Halo 2 and others, it would also feature at EVO, the biggest annual fighting game tournament in the world. In 2016, 15 years after release, and years after the later Smash Brawl and Smash 4 released, EVO still saw 2372 entrants for Melee alone. Players opt to play Melee for its unique gameplay over newer Smash titles. Top players believe the game will never be ‘solved’. YouTube videos document iconic moments through its history. Today, ‘WOMBO COMBO!!!!’ has 21 million views and ‘The Smash Brothers Documentary’ has 3.7 million, with 4 others reaching over 5 million.
