Super Smash Bros Melee's Mundane, yet Weird Stage Details

[@PretzelYT]

please don't make fun of how bad i am fighting the cpus

[@RandomGreenKirb]

Imagine not being able to fight cpus :troll:

[@PretzelYT]

🫠😶‍🌫️

[@ReynLynxPSI]

skill issue :) Nah jk I haven't played Melee in years, you're better than me by default XD

[@dragonstar912]

You have basic knowledge of the game, which at least makes you better than almost everyone who's never played Melee, at least.

[@KMSTGerm]

Lmao bodied by CPUs

[@Reinoiro]

The thumbnail made my soul leave my body

[@PretzelYT]

well i hope it comes back sometime soon. i think you need that

[@b44442]

​@@PretzelYTmeh, it's very overrated imo

[@cool_bug_facts]

Cool bug facts: make soul noises. That's how you attract animals I think

[@BareBandSubscription]

The thumbnail gave me a soul.

[@darioelsinapodo8448]

Almost gave you a like, but 69 is nice.

[@CynicalScorpio]

As a kid, I always wanted to explore the "entire" level. Like to able to leave the arena and venture into all the set pieces in the background. So even as a kid I was noticing all the little details you noticed in the video. My favorite detail was the little village on the mountain side in Rainbow Cruise.

[@mandatorial]

Oh yes, I had the exact same experience. Always wanted to explore it, a la Great Bay in MM, and was sad to learn that, just like Temple, it's not taken directly from a game, only a loose reference.

[@CynicalScorpio]

@@mandatorial I had a similar experience with the Donkey Kong themed Melee levels. When I finally played DK Country and learned they were only loosely based on the aesthetics of the game, and weren't full blown levels.

[@SillyLilFella]

I wanted to explore Onett so badly that it eventually led to me discovering the Mother series, they're my favorite games to this day

[@mandatorial]

To clarify, I was referring to Rainbow Cruise and Temple only being loose references. Great Bay was not like that, it was a great representation of the actual game.

[@CynicalScorpio]

@@SillyLilFella The only thing is the Onett map in Earthbound is layed out completely different. So the Melee version ends up feeling like this alternate version of the level that you never get to explore

[@DanielSantosAnalysis]

Melee has such an interesting vibe to it, I think you illustrated that when talking about how some of the levels feel pretty close, yet not quite to whatever it was from.

[@PretzelYT]

It's always cool to see the smash interpretation of a familiar location. Though I guess that happened less in the later games where areas were more faithfully recreated like the Great Plateau Tower or Garreg Mach Monestary.

[@LOL-gn5oh]

I really like the glossy, plasticky look of Melee's 3D models. Not only does it reflect the technology of the time, but it also makes sense, considering that the characters are trophies/figures beating each other, and the stages are like toy dioramas.

[@kylespevak6781]

When I was a kid, Brawl's realism blew my mind. Mario having denim was nuts

[@PretzelYT]

@@kylespevak6781 It's honestly so cool how Smash games have such distinct identities through their visual style. Mario's denim defines the Brawl era. Ultimate is kind of the outlier because it seems to pull a lot of inspiration from Smash 4, but I'm curious to see if the next Smash game (whenever that may be) goes for another style or is similar to Ultimate.

[@NoshuHyena]

I love that Temple is like an entire huge temple complex, and it's left entirely up to the imagination what each building is supposed to function as, and what's inside. If someone would 3D model this as a playable space, filling in all the buildings to make them feel useful and lived-in, I could probably sit there and explore it for hours and hours, just vibing.

[@ehhorve857]

there's a banjo kazooie mod for that.

[@SuperMario2401]

I would buy that thumbnail as a painting and hang it in my house

[@Garden0flowr]

Right in front of the front door, too Keep your guests on their toes

[@jackpijjin4088]

Having Ness fight Mewtwo is such a deep reference-

[@TahuNuva2008]

because gigue from mother looks like mewtwo?

[@jackpijjin4088]

@@TahuNuva2008 Ye.

[@swisserty]

Because my mom caught me smoking weed ?

[@TahuNuva2008]

based@@swisserty

[@swisserty]

@@TahuNuva2008 thanks my trigga, I really do dis.. revealed my straight up thong when that bizznarch caught me w tha rollup a dro, puffin to the gullet. Huh sorry mama, a g like me punks

[@_barabara]

thumbnail’s ganon look like that greened out homie in the backseat who went nonverbal 40 minutes ago but needs to get your attention at the drive-thru

[@Monafide3305]

One little detail about Fourside that I think should be mentioned is how the more dark, moody, and bizarre vibes (with the UFO and all) present in the Smash stage also serve to represent Moonside, an alternate version of Fourside which exists in Earthbound. In Moonside, the city is almost entirely black with neon outlines. Smash doesn't replicate that exactly, but I think the resemblance is definitely intentional.

[@sparkarez]

A lot of people don’t know this but in Corneria you can actually break the guns at the bottom if you hit them enough times.

[@gamemaster2819]

It's funny you refer to the Kongo Falls platform as a raft. In the Japanese version of Ultimate, the stage was renamed to "Raft and Waterfall"

[@Zontar82]

7:53 good to know i wasn't the only one to appreciate those night skylines

[@BobTheBob9]

a melee player called rishi actually did come up with a custom competitive ruleset specifically for kongo jungle called "rishi's jungle jam", it's a 3 stock, best of 5 on kongo jungle only with the starman item enabled on the minimum drop rate, the intention is that the starmen prevent people camping the rock, since if someone starts camping the rock you can just wait for a starman and win

[@PretzelYT]

I remember watching that some time ago. It's such a cool idea to take competitive melee as people know it and completely turn it on its head by changing the ruleset.

[@porygonlover322]

its worth noting Sector Z from Smash 64 is basically a proto Corneria, but the big difference is that it is actually to scale - its one of the biggest stages in the game if not THE biggest. it always frustrated me as a kid that the hangar was big enough to enter but they put an invisible wall there

[@BrandonDilbeck]

That stage really was far too large.

[@Boco_Corwin]

At the time, the Nintendo 64 Mother game was supposed to be in development, so the stage in SSBM might have been influenced by possible references from the early versions of that game.

[@WilfredCthulu]

Thank you for this. The amount off odd little homemade details that they bothered to add in such an infamously rushed game always captivated and interested me. As a kid it just looked wondrous then after it's like "Woah I never noticed that! Why and how did they add that!?" It all adds so much to Melee's mysterious (like you're always trying to research a beta) yet comfortable welcoming vibes. You could talk about every stage and model like this. Every asset even. Not enough people talk about what really makes Melee special in the first place and not just the meta.

[@PretzelYT]

It really is insane how well Melee came together despite the rough development. It seems like most of the time, a rushed game turns out bad, but occasionally, it magically works out like Melee or Majora's Mask.

[@megamillion5852]

I'd never played a Zelda game before I found Melee, and I remember being so captivated by the Underground Maze stage in Adventure Mode. It created this horrific image of the series that I would later come to meet in Twilight Princess. I couldn't play Twilight Princess for literal years, because it scared me so much... So I absolutely agree, more people should talk about how these stages and how their details stuck in our minds.

[@SourCandiesArt]

Pretzel's Mundane, yet Weird Thumbnail Design.

[@EricN64]

That thumbnail is maliciously horrifying

[@Gamesforus1]

As a kid, the weirdest part about melee's Peaches Castle was that the top wasn't pointed. I think a lot of the charm of older smash games was that it has its own modern/twisted interpretations of the other game worlds. Like, it's what a kid would imagine the characters/stages being rather than what they really were, which has its own fantasy/whimsical feel to it. I appreciate the modern titles being more faithful, but honestly I like it when there's a stronger core identity.

[@jaggidfire]

This guy has such a sweet and soothing voice.

[@thepwnr935]

I always thought Kongo Jungle’s river was milk lol

[@PretzelYT]

😭😭

[@Scribblersys]

You should do one about n64 smash stages. I never realized as a kid that the Hyrule Castle stage is actually based on how the castle looks in Ocarina of Time, but since you never really need to look up at it (and tend to be more focused on dodging the guards), I never linked (heh) the two in my mind!

[@PretzelYT]

I'd honestly never considered covering that game because of the less detailed levels, but it could be worth a peek. I'll check it out again sometime and see if I'd have anything interesting to say about it.

[@luxordgaming5531]

That thumbnail rocks

[@davidvkimball]

The difference in vibe between Fourside in Earthbound and in Melee was intentional. It also changed the tone of the music! Great video! Subscribed.

[@Treppy_Gecky]

Glad I’m not the only one who gets this cozy yet liminal vibe from Melee’s environments. It’s why I keep playing it all this years later.

[@aceg.rookie]

Honestly, I’d be SO down to see you do this with more Melee stages.

[@otherverge]

Why does Ganon in the thumbnail look so damn horrifying lmfao

[@Garden0flowr]

He looks like a blue eyed person trying to make sure you know they have blue eyes lmaooo

[@Maximumax977]

That thumbnail made me go 💀

[@JKTCGMV13]

about the castle being built on a lake: I've been to a castle in France built on a river. So it's not entirely impossible, but definitely the exception

[@Spudtron98]

I really like how Melee did the textures for the Star Fox levels. They have that Star Wars-y vibe of being dirty and patched-up in all the right places. Every other Star Fox appearance has just made them all so... _clean_ and geometric, when that wasn't the vibe Lylat Wars was trying to go for at all.

[@LinktoSonic]

Man, this video gave me nostalgia to 11 year old me watching CrappyCaptureDevice smash history videos back in 2006. Good times

[@catethps]

very epic video, i had no idea the stages got this wild also you should render these in actual 4:3 so its CRT friendly, that would be amazing

[@PretzelYT]

I had another comment suggesting that. I used to do it, but decided to stick to 16:9 for whatever reason. I'll go back and reconsider. BTW, looking at your name, I think you might be interested in my next video... keep an eye out later this week

[@catethps]

@@PretzelYT EPICCCCCC

[@Cammymoop]

Wow the background in icicle mountain is so half-assed it's kinda hilarious how that made it in the final game

[@Gamesforus1]

13 months development and it being made for crt did a lot of heavy lifting

[@professionalclown7166]

Ganondorf

[@ozmond]

Ok Recommended page, I’ll click on this

[@gabe5918]

Ganon’s face forced me to

[@LalitoTV]

As someone who grew up woth brawl, melee stages are also unique in that they appear in brawl completely unchanged, and that always added to the uncaniness, its not a weird uncaniness, its like a dream, everything is so empty, like we're trespassing an abandoned McDonald's playground, but we did turn on the lights, and as it turbs out, its all clean and well mantained

[@DiagonalTanooki]

that intro made me sub immediately omg

[@josiahgonzalez5533]

Ganondorf looks scary

[@kylespevak6781]

The divide in Peach's Castle is better in 4 player Smash because it divides it to two 2v2s

[@ColonelPanic0]

When I was a kid, the place I loved most was the All-Star Rest Area. I loved that little park with the fountain in the back. When I bought a Steam VR headset and discovered Dolphin VR existed, I went into it in VR and just sat there for a while and fulfilled a childhood fantasy.

[@pv2]

If I ever noticed that about the scale of the great fox, I can't remember when. Wild.

[@K16711]

4:51 That hangar opening was in super smash bros 64 as well, I remember I used to pause the game to try to pan the camera inside the hangar opening.

[@aroma1620]

Its wild that Sakurai and his team put this much detail in the stages including everything else in a little over a year. Wild AF.

[@bastel_art]

4:06 the stage's lighting primarily affecting the wall right as you mention it is a great editing touch 👍

[@Neptunequeen42]

I remember my friends and I also hated the ice climbers stage because of how easy it was to die on it, but that’s exactly what its role was in the stage rotation. You bring it out when it’s time to stop being competitive and start fucking around.

[@MegaMacX]

back in the day, when i was playing with my friends, we always would choose temple as the stage. down in the caverns, you can have super hard fights, sometimes we even got to 999% and still surviving, if you were slammed against a wall and managed to jump off from it (also, sometimes you would still keep your momentum, keeping you sticking to the wall or the ceiling and if you moved to much away from it, still flying off into the abyss, even after saving yourself) It was a different experience down there. you were able to fight with flaws, getting hit all the time, but still manage to survive a lot of times. Usually you try to avoid damage at all cost, but down there, it was just a brawl until you werent able to rescue yourself anymore.

[@Spunney]

3:54 Everyone knows you don't go down there. Those who refuse to listen to such advice end up like SilentSpectre. *[Ghostly echoes of "Don't go down there, Jeff!"]*

[@ouroya]

i love your very chill delivery and overall calm vibes, keep up the good work man!

[@Fopera]

This was really imersive! Felt like I was on vacation being given a tour through all these locations haha

[@pinkdarkman]

This video series is so fun. I especially like this video because it reminds me of being a kid and reading about Smash Bros in EGM. I think it was Smash for wii. Based on the way it was described and the selective pictures they had in the magazine, I thought Smash was a 3D arena type fighting game where you ran around in a 3D space. I would imagine Link and Pikachu running around in giant arenas with hidden secrets and little hidey holes and all that good stuff to explore. Imagine my surprise and disappointment when I eventually saw normal screenshots of Smash once I was old enough to use the internet and found out it was just a normal 2D fighting game lol. This video is a nice reminder that you can still "explore" the backgrounds mentally at least. I'm sure if I had Smash as a kid I would have spent hours just staring at the backgrounds, imagining what would be going on in them.

[@PsychedelicPenne]

Love the concept of this video - overanalyzing all the little idiosyncrasies in a very personal way. I will say: if we’re talking about Melee stages that give off certain vibes, it blows my mind that Poke Floats isn’t included here. I also love the early 2000s digital aesthetic of Melee shown in stages like Battlefield, Final Destination, and many of the “Break the Targets” stages.

[@anitabath8315]

Excellent video as usual! However, I would like to elaborate a little bit more on why Kongo Jungle is banned. Whilst the rock is a big part as to why the stage is banned, but there are a few more reasons. The barrel cannon underneath the stage makes recovering much easier for a lot of characters, the log briefly shown at 10:45 is platform that, to my knowledge at least, spawns randomly, and the red klaptrap being a little bastard are all reasons as well.

[@mandatorial]

I like the idea of the small platforms changing the layout dynamically, they should just telegraphed better, like moving platforms (which I believe are legal).

[@hawkticus_history_corner]

Fun fact, there is a castle in Europe that is built on a large pond like Peach's Castle. It's completely surrounded by a fair bit of water and is accessible through one bridge. Wish I could remember the name of it, but I've only seen it in pictures

[@twelvevoltage]

HUGE Melee player who found you through the GTA video a couple days ago and man am I glad to see this upload

[@quagsirefan8946]

I just found your channel and this series feels like if Joe Pera covered video games, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. It is so chill and relaxing, and really got me to notice more about these stages. I love it!

[@RomanB-m1y]

Nice visuals and perspectives. I used to question graphics, character to environment comparasions and different textures on this game as well. Nice video

[@minhv5513]

Watching top level players compete on Poke Floats and Temple would be so cool. Just the most ridiculous scenarios like an anime fight

[@megamillion5852]

This was the video game that made me truly interested in game worlds and their backgrounds. Awesome video to help refresh that sense of curiosity!

[@citizenofhyrule]

14:55 oh that one is simple, its to make the fight more visible since some of these happen to be in the foreground. its a compromise

[@SillyLilFella]

When all the boys get together for Smash Ultimate, we always end up going back to Temple. Doesn't matter how competitive we're trying to be, it eventually devolves into a brawl on Temple. That skill gap between you and your friends means NOTHING if they can catch you with the right attack in the right place. It's just so much fun and so iconic. It's an upset ending every time.

[@SheaUndisclosed]

Temple is easily my favourite of the "big" stages (also including stages like New Pork City from Brawl, and Palutena's Temple & The Great Cave Offensive from 4). Something about it just works in a way the other big stages don't. I especially love the chaos of the lower area - my friends and I always used to call it "the Rumble Pit" and gravitate there during Temple matches.

[@trevise684]

but we have asumsaus at home! asumsauce at home:

[@mrdasjo]

The uncanniness of Melee's stages is part of why I love the game so much.

[@themapcartographer5952]

Things I noticed about Temple - Temple has actual doors you can see on many of the buildings. The doors are actually too small for normal players to fit through. Once you shrink players with the tiny mushroom you can fit the size of the doors and see the actual intended scale of the Temple its far larger than anyone could of imagined. - Even though its based off Zelda 2s dungeons its clearly has the Ocarina N64 style of detail and door designs that are similar to the gates in Hyrule Castle in Ocarina. - One of the buildings on the far right in the background resembles the Temple of Time. - Temple could be the remains of a scrapped dungeon idea they might of had for Ocarina but decided to use it in this game instead just like Ganondorf tech demo model. Id like to know what this place suppose to be and explained more by the devs if anyone could ask them.

[@BasementDweller_]

I loved looking at the stages as a kid. Good times.

[@Angel_Flash]

the stage sizes being disproportionate to your characters makes a lot of sense when you remember the story of smash bros (at least in 64 and melee) is just someone playing with their toys

[@marthaf691]

When I saw Venom again for the first time in like 15 years I was kinda creeped out to be honest, I didn’t really know why it felt creepy to me, but now I do. Seeing this bulky ship from that angle somewhat resembles a strange robotic CGI creature with spiky wings. It’s not graceful like a fighter plane- from here it’s like a mutant robot bird. And the camera frozen on the ship while the environment moves basically makes it appear like the ship is not animated. It kind of looks like a scary, t-posing CGI creature floating through hell. These elements combined, along with the dark colors and the early 2000s low-poly feel makes this stage reach the edge of the uncanny valley.

[@GreenChillZone]

I’d love to see one of these looking at areas in the Soul Calibur games. Ever since I was a kid I always wanted to explore the backgrounds in those stages.

[@Mr__Jack]

My headcanon is that Temple is the Sacred Realm with one of the buildings being the Temple of Light that we physically visit in OOT’s cutscenes. The artwork of the Sacred Realm from ALTTP shows it consisting of isles floating in the sky as does the backstory of Hyrule from OOT where the Triforce is shown to have been created way up in the sky. Additionally, the final scene of Link and Zelda shows them standing way up in the sky (albeit with no islands). Just my little theory

[@omegawario7479]

Huge HUUUUUGE missed opportunity for tears of the kingdom to not include a sky island resembling temple

[@mimimechanism]

I like to think the UFO is slippery because it's made to reduce friction so that it's more aerodynamic~

[@dukepaulus2132]

"venom is blasphemy, corneria is holy" i felt these words in my heart of hearts

[@jamesprumos7775]

5:15 it's scaled down compared to 64. That was actualize size for the most part but they probably decided it was too big and shrunk it down for Melee.

[@wesleyrussell8386]

I was at work yesterday and missed the release of a new pretzel vid? Bah! Watching now!

[@PsychoJosh]

The UFOs in Fourside never actually appear in Earthbound, apart from the intro. But the intro is the only time they appear and it is never mentioned again. Their existence is at best implied due to the existence of enemies called "Li'l UFO"s which are smaller cuter metallic UFO-like entities with Mario-esque dot eyes, but I still don't know where the idea of them comes from as Giygas is an entity attacking through time, not through space.

[@TheRealPOTUSDavidByrd]

I really like your videos, Pretzel! This video got me thinking, "What if Pretzel did a video on Paper Mario?" Lots of little details in those games owing to their pseudo 2 dimensional nature. :)

[@343Films]

The Great Bay stage also has tons of amazing details

[@bowserknight]

I always found it weird how Corneria uses the Venom music from the original Starfox game, which sounds really frantic and action-packed. Meanwhile, Venom uses the regular Starfox Theme, which just sounds chill and adventurous. Both stages portray the complete opposite if you look at the background, Corneria seems rather pleasant looking, while Venom looks like you're flying through hell itself. Yet the music for both levels in Melee give a completely different vibe, but it still fits somehow.

[@spoopyweeb326]

I always wanted playsets of these stages and a smash figure line to play on them with

[@randoncourter4923]

warning: earrape at 11:08

[@Nick-up5wv]

I'd think that Temple could NOW exist in cannon as being part of the Skyward Sword Universe. Considering it's all destroyed maybe Ganon or perhaps a war destroyed it long ago. Maybe it was part of Hyrule and black magic elevated it into the sky. There are MANY theories you could come up with for it, but either way it's just a really cool and unique stage to fight on.

[@rayryde1724]

This feels like a nature programme

[@AlonzoTompkins]

Aww. No Rainbow Cruise. Would’ve loved to hear you talk about the small mountain village.

[@arc1279]

If you ever make a sequel to this video, include the single player stages. the Race to the Finish stage is one of my favorite with how futuristic and abstract it is

[@thefalselemon579]

The Kongo Falls raft is being held up by the rainbow

[@jimmygarza8896]

I heard that lower section of Temple was called "fight club"

[@tonk990]

Você conseguiu expressa bem o que eu sinto jogando nesses estágios, deixando o fator gameplay/artístico de lado e tentando entender o conceito e razões do porquê cada coisa é objeto está ali.

[@ultraspinalki11]

5:08 Smash Bros for the N64 made a far larger version of this stage that's still perfectly playable.

[@gasketbasket8982]

I personally headcanon that Melee's "universe" is just a dream due to how odd the vibe of the game is. I wish it didn't set the tone for the rest of the series, but not fully a bad thing. I played on Infinite Glacier a lot as well when I was younger too.

[@sithlordmikeyp]

How about the DK outhouse with the hole underneath it on Jungkele Japes

[@wavvy94]

Finally. A channel that GETS me

[@swisserty]

Recall tooting while playing that game cub gayme

[@zitrodivad]

i like that you never mentioned the future games

[@mandatorial]

I had really hoped they would recreate Temple in Totk or at the very least made a nod to it.

[@geschnitztekiste4111]

And then there’s this deserted version of SMB‘s 1-1 in Brawl…

[@ryancox5651]

I don't mean this in a negative way, but your voice/delivery sounds like a young and geeky Charles Bukowski.

[@fourohsevenfishing]

how is it the red headed step child of nintendos library when its one of the most beloved games of all time

[@PretzelYT]

I love Melee, but Nintendo definitely doesn't look favorably upon it 😅

[@Bakedbeans780]

This video made me feel like im in peaches castle 10/10 ign

[@SamanthaC641]

This feels a lot like joe perra, and i love it.