The Bizarre Case of Super Smash Bros. Melee

From the moment of its conception all the way until the modern day, Super Smash Bros Melee has had a bizarre, utterly insane story surrounding it. From a rocky development cycle producing a masterpiece to the very company that created it constantly standing in the way of its success, the story surrounding Super Smash Bros Melee is one that never stops turning. And so in the next step in my Super Smash Bros Series Retrospective, we're taking a look at the Gamecube Gem: Melee.
0:00 Intro
3:28 You've Survived Development on Hard! Get to Fighting!
15:42 A One-Player Star-Studded Slam-Fest
27:45 Continue?
I have a Twitter you can follow: / ceegans
Music list: imgur.com/XYPzUcp
Channel showing off the professional Melee techniques: / @ssbmtutorials

[@DuoStuff]

Correction: Wave-dashing and L-canceling aren't glitches. Anyways- Hope you enjoy the video and have a good day.

[@Quackra]

Anyone who says L-canceling is a glitch is actually just wrong entirely, it is a feature that was just a nerfed version of z-canceling from Smash 64. Wavedashing is just an exploit that was left in the game because no one developing the game thought it would be as useful as it actually is. Anyone calling either a glitch are just uninformed about a lot of stuff about gaming or the mechanics of the game.

[@prodMAggs]

​@@Quackra exploit = glitch 🤣 you didn't choose your words correctly

[@neetdemon]

@@prodMAggs Exploit =/= Glitch. A glitch is an unintended and an unknown hiccup within the game during development, whether it be through UI or the physics of the game.

[@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos]

the line between glitch and exploit tends to reside in the eye of the beholder

[@anothenblue2630]

@@ms.aelanwyr.ilaicos no, it's very clear. Glitch is when something goes wrong, e.g. 2+2=5. An exploit is when something works perfectly fine, but has unforseen applications or effects. Wavedashing is just momentum from air dodge being carried into landing, it's not even exclusive to air dodge since ANY burst movement causes it, air dodge is simply universal and efficient.

[@gtothee5723]

This game is top 10 of all time. As a kid, playing this one the GameCube it seemed incredibly modern and futuristic. From the model gallery, to the scoring system after story fights… amazing mechanics that blew my mind as a kid

[@DuoStuff]

Actually yeah, that is a good way to describe the vibe of the game. Like even to this day, the UI design is just so... "Futuristic."

[@user-lv8lt8gu4g]

Where are the tiktok gen whiners on this comment lol. Let me help, Brawl was slow and awful after playing 🙌 Melee 🙌, even with all the glitches.

[@isambo400]

Top 2

[@CampeaExposedTV]

I thought the trophy system was fascinating as a kid. I’d spend so much time just going thru all the trophy’s and reading the descriptions.

[@MC-bd5ub]

It's definitely a solid game, and I enjoyed many hours of playing it, and it has replay value, but it isn't top ten or even close.

[@izecjaxn9971]

When he said "I'm a Poke Floats....kinda guy," my heart smiled. This guy gets it.

[@Quackra]

I love poke floats as well, it is my favorite casual stage

[@AlaskaBoyAlex]

I've watched countless videos about why melee is so unique and cool, but I was delighted to see one come in my inbox and loved the video. Bravo man

[@DuoStuff]

Well I'm glad you enjoyed it, and I hope you continue to enjoy my future content as well.

[@matiaspereyra9375]

I grew up with melee in a world without guides or internet wiki's so everything about melee was an absolute surprise I knew nothing about and my imagination and folk tales from older friends was all I had. So more than just organic, all the charactersm trophies, modes and secrets that I discovered along the way from the secret star fox codec conversations, getting Mew to unlocking sound test, thinking that Sonic and Daisy were legitimatley in the game, getting to fight crazy hand, It didnt feel like I was finding unlockables It felt like i had somehow accessed a nintendo nexus that was activley evloving or creating new content as i went along with it and it made this game feel limitless in every way. This was reinforced when the first thing you see in brawls trailer are the melee models literally evolving, almost like my gamecube disc was going to magically morph into a brawl disc at some point. But when I saw giga bowser im not gonna lie. I thought satan himself had corrupted my gamecube because there was 0% chances that the developers who had set a tone for the entire game were responsible for this contrasting anomaly design which was so brute and demonic I thought it was going to rip right out of my screen. It was just so edgy, ugly, sickly looking and beastly that it almost felt like some sort of glitch in the system had accidentally created it

[@viscountrainbows2857]

I just about pissed myself on first seeing Giga Bowser. I don't know how I beat him first try but I felt like "...What the hell was THAT all about?!"

[@handolo1266]

*THIS* OH YES MY FRIEND, MANY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND...BUT I DO.

[@HistoryandReviews]

Uhh there were MANY guides and internet walkthroughs. Did you live in a barn?

[@matiaspereyra9375]

@@HistoryandReviews I did have a desktop. I just didnt know those things were available on the internet

[@Scharfster]

@@HistoryandReviews my brother in christ not a lot of people had access to internet mid 2000s

[@joeysummers8830]

This game was such an important and special part of my childhood. I played it all throughout elementary and high school. There were so many secrets and unlockables that made the game unique and fun. Fighting Giga Bowser, trying to unlock all the characters, trying to unlock all the trophies, all the characters, stages, modes and music. There was never anything to get bored with. I still play to this day. My favourite play session is going to temple and the Fire Emblem theme plays. That was my favourite song from the game. We're lucky this game came out when it did. Nowadays all the characters and unlockables would be spoiled on twitter day one. It was a great time to be a 10+ year old playing melee. Love those days!

[@DuoStuff]

For real though. It was kinda magical getting to discover all of this stuff on my own. It lent the game a sense of mystery the later games (4 and Ultimate specifically) didn't have, even if I did enjoy the character speculation that came with the later games.

[@fluffcake]

I only played Melee after Brawl and even with the scaled down graphics and less characters, I found myself really enjoying its quirky and special manner. This game is a treasure.

[@DuoStuff]

It definitely has a style that's uniquely its own, and I mean that in a good way.

[@Alph4Falc0]

In terms of artistic choice, melee wins out in the graphics department for me, the characters may have less polygons but I prefer it over brawls dirty realism

[@DuoStuff]

@@Alph4Falc0 I think both have their charm. It's kinda like the Wind Waker vs. Twilight Princess thing where one definitely ages better, but there's a certain rustic charm to Brawl's visual design that can't really be replicated because it's entirely a product of its time.

[@viscountrainbows2857]

Brawl in some ways just felt sorta borked The phycics were a little off, the random slipping, the colour palette looked a little washed out and leaning too grimdark, they took out MewTwo, and the level editor was so bare bones that it may as well have not been there, for me at least. So yep, I was content to keep playing Melee even when my mom did get a Wii eventually.

[@LiquidPr1d3]

teared up at the end ngl. melee means everything. from goofing around with friends, to playing high level games at local tournaments, i'll nver stop playing melee. its the best game of all time

[@LeetTron5000]

young link is a clone but he feels immensely different to Link. They did a solid job at making the clones not feel the same at all to paly.

[@peregrinecovington4138]

They really did. Even doctor Mario plays different from Mario

[@khaj214]

(8:43) Marth's design in Super Smash Bros. Melee is based on his design in Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem (Fire Emblem 3). Melee decided to go with Marth's most modern design at the time which was from that game meaning we were "spared" for Fire Emblem 1's pantless Marth

[@DuoStuff]

Trust me, I'm glad. His old design was... Odd. Whereas his design from 3 (which from my awareness is pretty much his design from the remakes as well) looks much more distinct. That's my opinion at least.

[@Itstime1231]

sounds like we were robbed

[@mambo2982]

Great video! Two underrated aspects of the game are the end credits for the modes where you shoot the names that pop up. Absolutely mind blowing as a kid, never had I seen an interactive credits sequence like that. And two being the post victory screen, where it shows the characters clapping and the scores with the winning characters celebration. That was so unique and added such charm to the game. I could honestly talk about this game forever, I’ve been a part of the competitive scene since 2013, but this video brought back so many memories from playing the game during my childhood. When I first got the game I remember being like awe-struck that I finally owned it.

[@ThePlopem]

My favorite part about the roster was that it had question marks to make you think there was only a few characters to unlock but then hidden ones started appearing and it made me feel like I never knew who might come next. Discovering the roster was my favorite part about this game and its just not possible to go in that blind with modern games anymore.

[@iamafish7]

That home run hit was *chef kiss* glorious.

[@DuoStuff]

Glad you liked it.

[@AF-nb1ry]

The intro and art style of the cutscenes is a good reflection of the time.

[@connorking1386]

My childhood feels so validated by this video

[@HotelMari0Maker]

I'm glad I watched the video to the very end because I haven't heard that little jingle at 34:14 in I don't know how many years and it brought me right back to my childhood. Made me teary-eyed 🥲

[@xboxgamer474246]

I spend so much time in comp melee that it’s refreshing to hear a review of the game from outside that space. This is how most of us played it in 2004 :)

[@DuoStuff]

Yeah I like watching comp Melee from time to time, but I'm definitely more of a casual player. It's been "interesting" to see how the more dedicated sides of the Smash community take these retrospectives. (So far comp Melee fans have been mostly chill with a couple odd angry outsiders, whereas the small group of comp 64 fans were quite unhappy with *any* critique I made of the game, no matter how insignificant. lol)

[@minizimi3790]

@@DuoStuff You should go check out the competitive homerun contest and break the targets (and all the other modes).

[@Toniooo1700]

23:47 this description was so vivid I got pretty emotional from it, being one of my favorite gaming memories

[@DuoStuff]

Wow, that's nice to hear actually.

[@ShonieBoy]

14:46 😂😂

[@DuoStuff]

Legit my favorite part of the video right there.

[@mrgreenboy644]

Honestly I'm amazed by the quality of this video. You deserve way more subscribers

[@DuoStuff]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@davidvkimball]

Pretty good overview of the game. Melee is such a masterpiece - from the visual design, to the sound design, to the gameplay... every bit of it is wonderful. And I feel you captured that, so thank you. Especially the wonder of wanting to explore everything Melee had to offer. The best casual and competitive Smash experience you can get. ♥ My critiques of your video: wavedashing is not a glitch. It's a physics exploit, and was known by the developers prior to release, Sakurai even claiming it was a utility that could be used "as a kind of backdash."

[@aurora_x86]

What did he mean by “a kind of backdash”? I mean you could use it that way, but you’re better of just das dancing instead

[@davidvkimball]

@@aurora_x86 hard to say. He didn't expound on that from what I've seen.

[@Michael_Dominic]

oh hi david >:)

[@davidvkimball]

@@Michael_Dominic Hey!

[@Alph4Falc0]

Not to mention in smash 64 L cancelling is officially titled “smooth landing” on the website and the move got carried over into melee without documentation on melees webpage

[@playc.holder6432]

20:38 Trophy's were an underrated aspect of SSBM and should have carried over to every future iteration

[@DuoStuff]

For real. Even if they didn't, at least a description would've been nice. *glares at spirits*

[@lloydirving6209]

I like that it didn't carry over, as now it is a unique thing that gives melee some of its charm.

[@King_Luigi]

@@lloydirving6209 How is it unique when literally every Smash game has them, except for 64/Ultimate?

[@TrueYankeeFan]

This is the first video of yours I've seen, and it's very well-made. I just have a few nitpicks: While it's true that clone characters share the same animations, they do NOT simply feel slightly different to play. Most of them feel significantly different from each other, and actually I think the strongest example is the one you mentioned in the video: Ganondorf plays like, nothing like Captain Falcon. Other people have already commented this, but L-Cancelling and Wavedashing are not glitches - the former is 100% an intended mechanic and the latter is more of an engine exploit than a glitch. The main reason us Melee fans are so adamant about that correction is because a lot of anti-Melee people like to shit-talk it on the grounds that everything we like about it comes from glitches, which is a little true but not completely. I also lowkey disagree that 64's SFX were better, but that's such a small subjective thing lol. Anyway, nice video!

[@ariesomega2487]

best smash game by far last smash game with actual movement

[@lapplandkun9273]

Last smash game with actual movement? Not really. Smash 64 was kind of slow as well. Melee was the only one with fast movement. You must've only played melee

[@ariesomega2487]

@@lapplandkun9273 first of all no good movement is not all about speed. 64 has pivots, z canceling low input lag. if you play smash 4 or ultimate you will quickly realise what not free movement means. no dash dancing, huge input lag, no shield drop (in ultimates case), sluggish movement from ledge in few words everything is a commitment and on top of that is is also slow

[@sofotheramensoup7521]

I have every single noise, music, and sound effect burned into my heart, brain and soul this game means a lot to me and reminds me of old good times with my cousins in my old house and all those days of fun, making up stories with the characters like they were toys... I used to main Peach and Kirby (I was little girl so I went for the cute ones) I didn't have internet so I never knew It was a such beloved game. Thanks to my dad the one that bought me the GameCube

[@HistoryandReviews]

Heart burn? Take medication. The heart remembers nothing

[@lindblumpickles3407]

I get the clone argument, but as a kid I was SO FREAKING EXCITED hearing that Young Link was in the game. I always connected with him more as I was like 4 when Ocarina of Time came out. So glad they brought him back in Ultimate 😁

[@lloydirving6209]

the "clone characters" in melee, in all cases, feel and play completely different from their "clones" (yes even mario and dr mario). their speed, weight, hitboxes, power, combo strings, etc etc, are totally different. visually their kits look basically the same but the properties of each move are entirely different.

[@anothenblue2630]

Meanwhile, most "echoes"

[@gokufromfortnite867]

@@anothenblue2630 old smash completely trumps new smash when it comes to characters based on each other for sure. The fact that jigglypuff and ganondorf were clones to Kirby and captain falcon but still aren’t disappointing as daisy almost 17 years later is crazy.

[@anothenblue2630]

@@gokufromfortnite867 modern Ganon is still very disappointing because he's nothing like Ganon and awful in general. Puff never was a real clone either even with reused assets, all of her specials were entirely different from day 1.

[@esthersmith3056]

this is true for competitive players, but the average casual player absolutely does not notice when hitboxes, combo routes, and character weights are different. dramatic differences in knockback will be noticed, and character speed will be, but yeah overall these characters seem very similar to casual audiences.

[@anothenblue2630]

@@esthersmith3056 you don't need to be a competitive player to notice that Ganondorf is way slower, Falco's lasers and Up B are different, Dr Mario hits harder and Young Link has different size. There's an actual difference if you were to choose which one to main.

[@mastahbutlah]

Got teary eyed a bit there at the end bud

[@TheUltimateStooges]

Thank you for the video! The ending made me tear up a little bit remembering all the good times playing this game growing up. Definitely one of my top games ever, still to this day!

[@TetraCrystal]

Loved this. Amazing work. So nice to see a fond perspective of melee from a non competitive lense for once

[@Alph4Falc0]

Very nice video! It’s always nice to see someone’s perspective of melee from a casual standpoint but I would like to make some notes. Wavedashing and L-cancelling are not glitches, they are part of the games engine, Sakurai even speaks in an online Japanese forum about Luigi’s long wavedash due to his low traction, and L cancelling was documented on smash 64s website known officially as “smooth landing,” and the technique was brought over into melee

[@OGKidMelee]

As a competitive melee player too, i think he used those to stretch the point across but you are right

[@DuoStuff]

Yeah I already corrected that in a pinned comment. Glad you enjoyed the video though.

[@theviewer9363]

They were sleep deprived, no wonder the game feels like a feverish day dream, and turned into everyones favorite feverish daydream

[@outlawscar3328]

Your editing is beautiful. Great aesthetic and tasteful transitions. And the upload is clean af, don't know how you manage that. No visible artifacts but still loads quickly.

[@bradsbrickpost]

Great video! Watching this was so nostalgic for me!

[@WildlandsGG]

Thanks for bringing me back to being a kid. As a melee player to this day, I had to watch this on a faster speed, but was not expecting it to unlock so many memories of it's beginning years. Cheers!

[@darlingj.canela]

So many shared emotions. You just described me as a kid playing this game. Great content.

[@theinktician]

Damn. Pichu catching strays 10 seconds in...

[@chriskaleta9906]

Super solid video 🔥 Keep up the good work 👍🏼

[@LBVocals]

Melee will always have a special place in my heart

[@obliviouslynormal3664]

Love to see you coming back, super excited

[@DuoStuff]

Glad you're excited. Though technically I already uploaded earlier this year.

[@hihowareya4004]

It’s also noted that some of the trophies in melee have wrong dates in the description box, wrong info on characters etc, because of the short time they had to develop it.

[@darkninjafirefox]

BRRRREAK THE TARGETS! Mele was one of my favorite video games ever as a kid, mostly because it had pikachu, but my friends and I spent hours messing around back in the day. The hyrule temple stage in adventure mode used to scare me so I'd have to get my sister to beat it for me

[@Favk21]

I expected copper but found gold. Absolutely excellent video!

[@DuoStuff]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@mersunarytigre]

@23:28 Super Smash Bros for 3DS almost perfected what would make an amazing Adventure Mode with Smash Run. Beating up enemy monsters each with their own gimmicks was fun, all they had to do was give us actual Nintendo levels to explore and an easy to follow story. I'm disappointed that they didn't expand on such an easy concept fro Wii U or Ultimate

[@harleyjk6031]

I watched the Pokémon anime as a kid and I remember misty throwing out goldeen and saying that she’s only good in water. And I tried so hard as a kid to get goldeen in the water too

[@andreiurizar]

Wow. That giga-bowser thing. For me it was almost exactly as you mentioned. I did not have internet at the time and I thought I knew the game inside out. It scared the hell out of me 😂 great video

[@turtles38x19]

Super Smash Bros melee was a master piece. Top 5 game of all time for sure. The amount of passion the designers put into this game was incredible. You will NOT, and I repeat WILL NOT, have a game in modern time with so much passion and effort put into a game.

[@DuoStuff]

Hmmm... I'm actually not sure about that. Passion isn't really quantifiable. There are tons of games with passion pouring out of them, and Melee is one of them.

[@tonysoprano4883]

"Characters that play the same as each other" - Shows Fox and Falco. TRIGGERED

[@lowpolysunrise]

I never got the chance to play Melee growing up. I had Brawl. But, getting melee a few years ago, I can see why it's so special to everyone. It's a very fun game, and deserves its crown jewel status. Mad respect beyond belief to the dev team and everyone who worked on this game.

[@DuoStuff]

Kinda interesting to see that you still can appreciate it despite starting with a later one. I personally have a lot of trouble doing that myself sometimes. lol

[@RonBruce]

Dude, have you ever played as Captain Falcon or Ganondorf in Super Smash Bros? They might look alike in their stance, but trust me, they're totally different when you actually start playing. Ganon hits like a freaking truck, but he's slower than a tortoise. Meanwhile, Falcon is as quick as lightning, but he's not as strong as Ganon. And it's the same deal with Young Link and regular Link. Young Link is like a little ninja - super fast, but his moves don't pack as much of a punch as older Link's.

[@TheeGreg]

Just randomly stumbled upon your channel and this video is so well made. I’m also starting to make retrospective reviews and this helped light a fire under me lowkey so I thank you. Keep up the good work man. Do a Sonic Riders video 😂

[@Lionwoman]

I have very fond memories of playing this with a friend in her house on summer days so many years ago. Years later I bought her NGC for this very same reason and still enjoyed melee a couple of years. Still keeping that NGC and of course the game.

[@TheJadeFist]

Nintendo sees people playing their old games as competition to their new ones, I think that's why they are bothered by it. Although I'm pretty sure most of those people going to smash tournaments have a Switch now and probably bought Smash Ultimate, maybe even the 3ds or wii u games too. So instead of taking advantage of it, by have merchandise or special versions of the games being reprinted with like Sakurai's signature on the disk or something neat along those lines, they come not bring to bring joy and merriment but with a sword in hand (much like Smash Ultimate's character roster).

[@DuoStuff]

Yeah it's so weird. There are probably tons of people who've gotten into Smash (and more Nintendo properties by proxy) purely because of their excitement surrounding Melee. You'd think they'd take advantage of that: make a big deal of the community. But nah, they just do petty stuff to get in its way all the time.

[@xenogen372]

That and Nintendo isn't big on their games being considered hardcore competitive games. Specifically Smash. Nintendo sees Smash as a fun 4 player party game that shouldn't try to be put in the same vein as Street Fighter or Tekken

[@mrgreenboy644]

@@DuoStuffhonestly I think the ideal way to do it would be to make a Melee DX edition. A handful of the characters Sakurai wanted but couldn't add, a buffed lower tier roster with the top tiers intact, and an online mode, and Bada bing Bada boom you have a free $60 game to sell. I think it would be a lot more justified to oppose the old game in that scenario since they are reselling it in this hypothetical situation. They'd just have to take care to leave the completive exploits intact

[@dexi6111]

Yes Nintendo does have a monetary incentive to stop people from playing old games, but I think Nintendo wanting to not lose their ips is the real reason. A very long time ago, Nintendo was in a lawsuit with Universal Studios over Donkey Kong, since It was similar to King Kong. Universal not only lost the case, but the rights to King Kong in general, meaning anyone can make a King Kong as long as it wasn't Universal's version of King Kong. Nintendo is basically scared to lose their ip like that and it's almost happened before, due to people calling every console that's not even Nintendo's, a "Nintendo" and lawyers trying to make Nintendo lose their rights to a "Nintendo" console. They are not scared of fan games and emulation, they are scared that lawyers will try to loophole their way to make Nintendo lose their ips. That's why games like coromon and tunic still exist because they brand themselves as something other than a "Nintendo" game while still being almost a clone of Pokemon and Zelda.

[@PhoenixRoseYT]

Melee is such a special game to me. When I was a little kid I had a best friend named Nathan. We would always hang out and have sleepovers, and we’d play Melee CONSTANTLY. So much so that it’s the reason I got a Gamecube and developed a love for Smash and many other Nintendo franchises. I can’t tell you how many hours I played this game, and played all the modes, and read every description for every trophy. I still have my original disc and memory card with save data. Also Marth’s taunt does actually keep me up at night so that part killed me

[@catboygremlin]

I keep having to pause the vid to stop laughing, 10/10

[@DuoStuff]

Glad to hear it! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@annaisntcool]

melee (and brawl, sue me) are such childhood gems. i’ll always love them both

[@Hollowdude15]

Super Smash Bros. Melee and great video man :]

[@justinfriedman2039]

Been a fan of the series since I first saw the commercial for the original Smash 64 series and made my dad get it for my birthday, but none have left an impression on me quite like Melee.

[@RealChaseman17]

Outstanding. Great editing. U got a sub from me

[@Hyushi_sama]

My childhood was melee . My brother and I played this game endlessly . Single player and vs mode was amazing. Also discovering that there was a tournament scene made it even more cooler as a child . Melee, and smash as a whole is a legendary franchise. Brawl story is amazing .. I hope the next smash they make an amazing story, modes, a new mechanic .

[@SirChadofWick]

My friends and I put in literally thousands of hours into this game. We even made up a drinking game in college we called “super smashed bros” where we’d set a timed match for an hour and take a swig at every minute. By the end, no one really cared who was winning

[@arena7656]

I love the aesthetic of this game so much, it really is a special piece of work

[@DuoStuff]

It has a very particular "Gamecube era" feel, which I love.

[@lovemancrashburn6514]

Can't wait for the brawl video!

[@eggabacon]

I remember going to a summer camp that had video games and one of them was a GameCube with Smash Melee. I loved it and I remember when they had a Melee tournament and I spammed Kirby's down special winning several matches until one guy destroyed me by up smashing whenever I would down special. Loved that game.

[@DuoStuff]

It's really funny how Kirby and Pikachu are "OP" when you're a kid, primarily because of their down B. Well, at least until people learn how to actually play the game. lol

[@CurlyMcNulty]

I’m surprised you didn’t talk about the infamous Master Hand glitch where you could play as him.

[@happymonkeyfish]

Melee was such a fun game as a kid, i loved playing against my friends trying to figure out new ways to win, coming back as an adult its still super fun, even moreso now that more of the technical stuff is out there, solid game whether you play coin mode with items on or competitively on battlefield

[@Judex1963]

I agree on the Target track being ace. If you know good remixes of it I'm interested.

[@DuoStuff]

Sadly the track doesn't seem to get many remixes, which is sad.

[@ds.6647]

Great video thank you!

[@KEN-1991]

If I developed the Melee roster: *Starter characters* 1. Mario 2. Toad 3. Bowser 4. Peach 5. Yoshi 6. Donkey Kong 7. Captain Falcon 8. Fox 9. Ness 10. Kirby 11. Samus 12. Zelda / Shiek 13. Link / Young Link 14. Mew *Unlockable characters* 15. Luigi (echo fighter to Mario & Toad) 16. Falco (echo fighter to Fox) 17. Ganondorf (echo fighter to Link) 18. Donkey Kong Jr. (echo fighter to Donkey Kong) 19. Mewtwo (echo fighter to Mew) 20. Lucas (echo fighter to Ness) 21. Excite Bike (echo fighter to Captain Falcon) 22. Wario 23. Waluigi 24. King Dedede 25. Mr. Game & Watch (Both Fire Emblem and Pokémon have huge rosters of characters in their own games, they both needed their own Smash spin-offs. Also, the NES/Famicom characters need their own 2D prequel series of Smash.)

[@qwertyfinger]

Delightful, thank you for sharing!

[@DuoStuff]

You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@blues03]

I used to think of the Trohpy Machine music while sitting in Social Studies class back in the day. Good times.

[@InkyGhoul]

L cancelling is CERTAINLY not a glitch, it was in 64, it is intentional, even wavedashing Sakurai spoke of on his blog, Wavedashing is also in Ultimate, it just sucks.

[@DuoStuff]

This has been corrected in the pinned comment, thank you.

[@9Tensai9]

19:20 I dunno man. The melee one is iconic but I always see people referencing more the smash 4 character announcement style with Brawl music as if they were going to be added to ultimate. I love them. They are all over the place.

[@DuoStuff]

That's the "character reveal," not the challenger approaching screen. I realize the confusion, as that sounds pretty similar, but the reveal trailers are meant to publicly announce the characters prior to the game/character release, whereas the Challenger Approaching scene is the one you get when you're about to unlock them in the game. And the actual Challenger Approaching screen from Smash 4 is fairly forgotten. That being said, yes the Smash 4 Character Reveal thing is probably more popular than the Melee Challenger Approaching scene.

[@Shoxpyre]

A few years ago My 100% memory card got corrupted so I had no choice but to play through the game and unlock everything again nothing prepared me for how treacherous that was actually going to be I can't even tell you how long that s*** took

[@DuoStuff]

It's definitely difficult, but I think that's what made the unlock process so memorable.

[@Shoxpyre]

@@DuoStuff oh it's the best 🥲 tbf I think unlocking the stages was the only big hurdle. Speaking of memorable, reading the gaming magazines back in the day learning all the tricky ways you could unlock things like leaving the console on for hours, staying up all night playing with friends for literally years.. it was such a tradition no matter what the new popular game was. Without a doubt my favorite game of all time.. no game gave me the amount of memories with friends, and better it was all in person sprawled out on a floor or couch and skateboarding in-between or goofing off. Ah the greatest.

[@iamLI3]

little known fact , wave dashing is not a glitch , it is an intended designed mechanic of the game that sakurai made a post about in a smash forum

[@Malkierian]

Break the Targets getting the best track in Melee is like the pause menu getting the best track in Goldeneye. Neither one had any business going that hard.

[@Michael_Dominic]

this truly is melee hell

[@Agent7300]

i remember that door on temple too! drove me crazy as a kid haha

[@DuoStuff]

I WASN'T THE ONLY ONE

[@viscountrainbows2857]

That and the little hole on the the back of the Great Fox in the Corneria stage. Once I glitched a CPU through it with a Falcon Punch. Once. Near every stage has such fascinating bits of flavor and background elements that make it feel so alive.

[@calebbuck331]

Your takes on the clone characters make sense, but your take on ice climbers and Mr game & watch could maybe be a bit more nuanced. The appeal there, is the nostalgia felt by the people old enough to remember these characters when their respective games were new. Back in the day shorter games that ramped the difficulty gave a sense of accomplishment that's kinda missing from the modern-era of gaming. Nostalgia's gonna get you too some day, it comes for all of us eventually lol

[@DuoStuff]

I'm not sure if people are really that nostalgic for either though, or at least for Ice Climber, which didn't exactly light the world on fire sales-wise or reception-wise. Game & Watch has slightly more of an argument, but I'd argue he still feels like a "weird" pick, and purposely so. The handhelds were popular and all, but I kinda doubt anyone was specifically asking for the character. lol But eh, at the end of the day, this video was more about my perspective, and as a kid they were "weird" and so that's how they were discussed in the video.

[@calebbuck331]

@@DuoStuff Yeah I hear ya man not trying to knock ya or anything. Ice Climbers was a great co-op game back in the NES days, mind you this was a time when co-op was less common. Balloon fight was another great one, but really with slim pickin's that adds to the rose-tinting a lot. Game and watch missed me as a kid, but I can see how at the time kids might have loved having them. I'm sure if had my hands on 'em I'd look back fondly on the memories. Try a co-op ice climbers some time, you might see it in a bit of a different light if you're chilling with a buddy and don't mind the insane difficulty.

[@prayerblack]

Melee Has The Best OST Out Of All Smash Bros

[@thatguymiggle9958]

They need to bring game cube to the switch because I missed most of the melee area by like 2-3 years and I need to experience it fully

[@mikemath9508]

love me some Melee. my friend got it the day it came out. we both immediately latched onto fox who we played a lot in n64 but we unlocked falco and i stuck with him for a couple years.

[@jakec3172]

I’m glad they added young link. Ocarina of time and majoras mask were huge and people were attached to both versions of the character. I especially love their design in this game. They are both by far the closest iterations to official ocarina of time artwork. We’ve seen HD OoT links a handful of times but I’ve not seen a more accurate representation outside of this game. Was great seeing an HD version of my favorite characters!

[@RyomenAyeni225]

This games intro gives me chills because my introduction to smash was super smash flash which at the time had that opening

[@DuoStuff]

I did not realize Smash flash used Melee's intro theme. Neat.

[@RyomenAyeni225]

@@DuoStuff it used every single smash opening until brawl to show the increase of its production it was awesome RIP flash

[@ZaBreaker]

Duostuff isn't wrong about the Break the target ost 14:36 ,hes objectively right since apparently Sakurai later used that same/Similar sound design for his next title being Kirby Air-Ride. The song in question from Kirby Air-Ride I'm referring to is the maim menu ost

[@TeshiKyoshi]

This was the mvc2 for me at a young age. I loved this game dearly

[@zakkonieczka6811]

I was never competitive, very rarely fought human players but I still put hundreds of hours into this game. Thanks for this video, it gave me an amazing blast to the past!

[@lapplandkun9273]

No shit. It's way too time consuming and committal.

[@fc2rs]

@@lapplandkun9273 a child's perspective

[@Dee_micl]

Melee is sick, sick vid, I love seeing these kind of videos about my favorite video game, I love hearing ur opinions about single player mode. I mainly had to play that mode for years until slippi, so I love seeing this! Thank you.

[@DuoStuff]

Glad someone appreciated the singleplayer discussion.

[@jonathanhoffmansanchez2723]

I agree with almost everything you said. Such a good video. Hope you get more views on it some day soon

[@DuoStuff]

I mean honestly, I think it did really well personally. Still, glad you enjoyed it!

[@kingsyrex]

I literally spent hours on this game as a kid! Even when I got to high school I still played this just cause I couldn’t get enough of it and i graduated in 2017 😂 definitely my all time favorite game

[@joeysummers8830]

Side note bring back poke floats!! It's the best chaotic stage they've ever done!

[@DuoStuff]

I'm still sad that they didn't bring it back for Ultimate.

[@willlauzon3744]

Dr Mario was actually one of my favourites.

[@psiforce8342]

In regards to certain characters (and I'm going to be legit defender here), particularly Dr. Mario, Young Link, and Pichu, they do have their own significance in their home series, particularly Dr. Mario basically representing how Mario is literally an all-rounder, with him being a doctor being the most notable role he has other than a plumber, and also until now is the only puzzle game rep in Smash Bros. (could a literal Tetris block work as a fighter? who knows, it'll be funny to see). Young Link may not standout in his debut in Melee as all the characters shared a unified design based from Ocarina of Time, but by the time Young Link returned in Smash Ultimate, the Zelda character designs are now diverse and based from different Zelda time periods, allowing Young Link to standout more as he's the Hero of Time from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask especially with Link being based from Breath of the Wild and Toon Link being based from the Adult timeline (Wind Waker, Phantom Hourglass, and Spirit Tracks). As for Pichu, while Pichu was initially added to be the joke character for Melee with Jigglypuff growing out of it, Pichu does represent Gen 2 of Pokemon, which is also the generation where baby Pokemon were introduced, and if you are to consider the anime Pokemon logic, Pichu had a fun short with Pikachu, particularly the Pichu Bros. So yeah, Pichu was more than just a joke character, especially when Pichu returned in Smash Ultimate. It also really helps that Dr. Mario, Young Link, and Pichu are now way better designed in Smash Ultimate, Dr. Mario was supposed to be designed to be a slower yet does more damage and kills earlier than Mario in Melee, but his attributes were largely the same with Mario albeit with way too subtle differences, which were already addressed in Smash 4 and later on in Smash Ultimate, more polished. It also helps that when Mario had gameplay changes, particularly when Mario lost his Mario Tornado for his down special in favor of FLUDD in Brawl as well as Mario being faster and more combo oriented in Smash 4, they allowed Dr. Mario to be a lot more differentiated to the point he now plays vastly differently than Mario. Dr. Mario basically uses Melee Mario's moveset (with the exception of his new stomp spike dair and a completely new and different back throw), though wish Dr. Mario's Final Smash is unique and really pays homage to the Dr. Mario games and not just a stronger Mario Finale. Young Link now (while he should've had a more uniqe moveset, especially to base from Majora's Mask) is not just a faster, nimble, and more combo oriented Link, but like with Dr. Mario, uses Melee Link's moveset as well as using Link's old Final Smash (which is honestly also a missed opportunity to make it a unique Final Smash where he could've become Fierce Diety Link, especially when Toon Link also uses Triforce Slash). Lastly for Pichu, like with Jigglypuff, has grown out of his joke character roots, especially when Piranha Plant joined and is the definitive joke character, and Pichu is now the glass cannon of the Smash Bros. roster, lightest character in the game who hurts itself using electric attacks still, but Pichu (weirdly) has stronger kill power than Pikachu, very definition of "uncontrollable power being dangerous". As for how Nintendo treats Melee, this isn't just exclusive to Melee, Nintendo's treatment of competitive Smash has always been bad in other Smash games, those of which honestly had worse. Brawl really was problematic as not only is it the slowest Smash Bros. game, but it also had the least hitstun out of them all, a complete opposite of both Smash 64's and Melee's hitstuns, combined with the infinite air dodging in Brawl, combo game is drastically the worst of all Smash Bros. games (can certainly tell you, unless you're just a casual gamer, you'd much rather have fun in Smash 64's limited, but combo galore gameplay than in Brawl's very slow-pace and worse character balancing gameplay. Smash 64 low tiers will pretty much beat the hell out of Brawl's mid to bottom tier characters), so Melee players were rightfully upset of Brawl's changes (let's not get started with random tripping and the character balance in Brawl). As for Smash 4 and Ultimate, Nintendo's been very weird on how they balance the characters in their patches, both games' balance patches feeling like lottery on who gets to be buffed and nerfed as well as especially for Ultimate, the balance patch changes were way too miniscule and just don't really properly address issues. And to top it all off, Nintendo has been handling competitive Smash events so bad, especially with the recent controversy of the Panda Cup and Smash World Tour (just to keep it short, Nintendo and Panda Global had completely screwed Smash Ultimate's competitive scene big time and with 2023 being the last year of Beyond the Summit due to financial issues, the Smash Ultimate scene is now in a very dire spot. At least for Melee, the playerbase is too passionate to be extinguish. Smash 4 didn't share the same feel as Melee and Smash Ultimate may likely share the same fate of being outlived by Melee). So yeah, the issue with Nintendo isn't specific to Melee, this is an issue to the entirety of Smash Bros.

[@BossFFX1]

Absolute masterpiece, the game and this vid! The more vids I can show people about this game the better :D

[@DuoStuff]

Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@Spider_Mike023]

This and animal crossing. The two gamecube games I devoted sooo much my youth too trying to do and discover everything. Think these games came out at just the perfect time to skirt with rumors, and adolescents at the right age to really divulge into them.

[@DuoStuff]

Oh man Animal Crossing also took so much of my time. Very similar to Melee, I also tried to see everything the game had to offer, even using my Gamecube Action Replay to get to the GBA island without having a GBA. lol

[@Betaleikz]

Melee was the masterpiece, and to this day i'm still impressed with the game. I hope nintendo can have a meeting with HAL and let them produce the next upcoming Smash game, they really brought the soul to it. Brawl and Ultimate are not bad by any means, it's good games, but it's something about the design the gameplay and music ect that didn't hit it as hard as Melee tbh.

[@milymilo]

14:40 oh dang didn't know that's where that theme is from, it's heckin good tbh

[@DuoStuff]

Straight up the best track in the entire game. Super underrated too.

[@nz7166]

thanks for making this

[@DuoStuff]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Big_Human]

i've been naming Link "Zelda" lately. because of this inside joke, it makes it more sentimental. like you parent's calling your console a nintendo even tho you have a gamesphere

[@Ozzianman]

Mum was the one that initially told me Zelda was not the name of the main character. My stubborn Non English speaking 8 year old ass did not believe her and I continued calling him Zelda until my friends started telling me he is not named Zelda.

[@Big_Human]

@@Ozzianman it's okay. I used to call game and watch gallery, "Gatorade"when I was a child

[@sav3133]

This video is great, I'm surprised it only has a thousand likes so far.

[@GodWorksOut]

Unfortunately people are more likely to click dislike on a video than like on a video they actually like.

[@DuoStuff]

@GodWorksOut I have noticed that actually, but honestly I'm just glad people are enjoying the video to begin with.