On Nov. 21, 2001, the “best smash game ever” was released for the Nintendo GameCube. Super Smash Brothers Melee was the second installment in the smash series and was developed in only 13 months. The development task was very fast and due to that, the game had many oversights and glitches. These glitches, however, were good for the game and made the competitive scene thrive. Before I get into what made the game so competitively played, I’m gonna talk about the basic things.

So what is Smash Bros? The games consist of gaming icons such as Mario, Donkey Kong, Kirby, Princess Peach, Link, and Bowser. There are 26 characters in all. You have many moves at your disposal and your job is to knock everyone flying off the stage. It sounds simple when put like that, but it takes mental processing to know what your opponent might do next and how you will react to it. If you want to play casually, you can play with items, any stages, and unlimited lives for five minutes and whoever gets the most KOs at the end of it wins the game. The way that most people see fit to play though is 4 stocks, or lives, 8 minutes, and a set of stages that don’t have hazards. Out of the 26 characters, there are 12 that are seen as competitively viable and those characters are Fox, Falco, Jigglypuff, Marth, Sheik, Captain Falcon, Peach, Yoshi, Luigi, Samus, Ice Climbers and Pikachu. These are the characters that are seen as the most viable because they have major tournament results. They all have great damage dealing moves and large hitboxes with a quick cooldown. With the addition of wave dashing, an exploit left in the game which allows you to airdodge into the ground and slide along the ground giving you more momentum, everyone is extremely fast. There’s also a technique called L-Cancelling, which allows you to move quicker in the air and cancel a lot of lag on your moves. That being said, it’s much harder than it seems and is very hard on the hands and takes years of practice. The competitive scene is very serious and even plays in real tournaments for prize money.

Being part of the competitive smash scene myself, I think it would be really cool if we had our own e-sports team where we played competitively. Who knows, maybe one day… While Melee is a great addition to the smash series, I don’t think that it is the best one. I think Super Smash Brothers Ultimate takes the cake for the best one. It’s a great time with friends and is bound to make you have some fun. That being said, if you want to play competitively, you have to practice, practice, practice. I give this game a solid 8/10