Super Smash Bros. Melee
2000's Era Game
Class of 2019 Inductee
Super Smash Bros. Melee is a 2001 crossover fighting video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the GameCube.
It is the second installment in the Super Smash Bros. series.
It features characters from Nintendo video game franchises such as Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Pokémon, and Donkey Kong among others.
The stages and gameplay modes reference or take designs from these franchises as well.
Like its predecessor, Super Smash Bros. Melee is a platform fighter that differs from traditional fighting games as the objective is to force their opponents beyond the boundaries of the stage. Most attacks inflict damage and can, if enough damage is dealt, knock back the enemy. Each character’s health is measured by a meter that represents damage as a percentage.
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Sales
When released in Japan, it became the fastest selling GameCube game with 358,525 units sold in the week ending November 25, 2001.
This success continued as the game sold more than a million units only two months after its release, making it the first GameCube title to reach a million copies.
The game also sold well in North America, where it sold 250,000-copies in nine days.
In the United States, Super Smash Bros. Melee was the 19th best-selling video game in 2001 according to the NPD Group.
By July 2006, it had sold 3.2 million copies and earned $125 million in the United States alone. Next Generation ranked it as the fifth highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country.
Approximately 4.06 million units have been sold in the country as of December 27, 2007.
With a software-to-hardware ratio of 3:4 at one time, some have attributed the increasing sales of the GameCube near the launch date to Melee.
As of March 10, 2008, Super Smash Bros. Melee is the best-selling GameCube game, with more than seven million copies sold worldwide.
It has been estimated that at one point in time 70% of all GameCube owners also owned Melee.
Awards and Accolades
In their “Best of 2001” awards, GameSpy chose it as Best Fighting GameCube Game.
IGN’s reader choice chose it as Game of the Year.
Electronic Gaming Monthly chose it as Best Multiplayer and Best GameCube Game.
GameSpot chose it as the Best GameCube Game and tenth best game of the year.
GameFAQs placed it sixth in a poll of the 100 best games ever and was in the final four of the “Best. Game. Ever.” contest.
In the 200th issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, the editors selected Melee as the 92nd most influential game in their “Top 200 Games of Their Time” list, defining Melee as “Billions of things to unlock, plus Yoshi pummeling Pikachu with a bat”.
In a similar competition, Nintendo Power named Super Smash Bros. Melee as the 16th best game ever to appear on a Nintendo console, and selected as the 2001 “Game of the Year”.
IGN named it the third best GameCube game of all-time in 2007 as a part of a feature reflecting on the GameCube’s long lifespan, citing it as “the grand stage of fighters, much like Mario Kart is for racing fans”.
GameSpy chose it as fourth in a similar list, citing that it had “better graphics, better music, more characters, more gameplay modes, more secrets to discover” in comparison to its predecessor. The game was ranked 58th in Official Nintendo Magazine’s “100 Greatest Nintendo Games Ever” feature.
In 2019, Game Informer ranked it as the 2nd best fighting game of all time.
Edge ranked the game 91st on their 100 best Video Games in 2007.
International Video Game Hall of Fame Class of 2019 Induction Speech:
Competitive Scene:
Super Smash Bros. Melee is a widely played competitive video game and has been featured in several high-profile tournaments.
Many consider it to be the most competitively viable game in the series.