Poll of the Day > Do you remember when Super Smash Bros. Melee was released?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I do. I was almost 16 years old when Melee released. I was on IGN when it happened.

Melee was one of my most anticipated games after enjoying the original Smash Bros. One of the playable characters I was anticipating was a new Pokemon (especially from the new Gold and Silver games.) I was hoping for cuter Pokemon like Marill or Togepi, although tough looking Pokemon like Scizor would suffice, too!

But once I heard that the only new playable Pokemon would only consist of Pichu and Mewtwo, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Mewtwo was cool, but not exactly who I was looking for. But Pichu was more disappointing because it was another 'chu, and the baby form of Pikachu.

But over time, I grew to accept both characters and was happy to see them both return in Ultimate.

And Melee was a cool game nonetheless. All the characters were cool and the gameplay was great, too.Lots of stuff to do in that game.

---

No. I only remember watching people play it in my Junior year of High School as I thought the Gamecube was awful because it had no JRPGs.
Only Smash game I ever played was 64 and I didn't own it and only played it 2-3 times.

---

Judgmenl posted...

No. I only remember watching people play it in my Junior year of High School as I thought the Gamecube was awful because it had no JRPGs.
Only Smash game I ever played was 64 and I didn't own it and only played it 2-3 times.

Hmm...interesting. I take it you're not a fan of more action-y games?

---

Mewtwo was one of the biggest characters to interest me in the game. Unfortunately, he was underwhelming.

I hadn't expect a Poke-heavy roster so the fact that only 2 Pokemon entries showed up was like whatever.

---

Zeus posted...

Mewtwo was one of the biggest characters to interest me in the game. Unfortunately, he was underwhelming.

I hadn't expect a Poke-heavy roster so the fact that only 2 Pokemon entries showed up was like whatever.

Well Mewtwo was (and still is) a fan-favorite, so I guess that fact made me certain he would be in the game. I guess my teenage self could be too greedy....

---

PikachuMaxwell posted...

Hmm...interesting. I take it you're not a fan of more action-y games?

In general I do not like (or play) action games.

---

Yep. I was a junior in college. We were all looking forward to it, since we played Smash 64 all the time... there was even a campus wide tournament that started the previous year.

I was a Fox main in 64, and I remember being frustrated with Fox at first in Melee due to just how much faster he was in the new game. Took a little bit of time to get used to, but once I did... yeah, its Fox in Melee.

---

Yep. A GameCube with Melee was my first console in 2002, and I had played it and Smash 64 with my friends all the time before that.
---

No, but I remember the commercials from the original game, and the hype leading up to Brawl (especially the Sonic reveal).

---

I've never played Melee (or the franchise) but I remember that period in time - groups I hung with had intertwining discussions of Melee and Invader Zim. Good times.

---

I don't really remember Melee coming out, because it wasn't a huge deal at the time for anyone I knew (and I wasn't really hanging out on any online video game sites at the time), and I personally didn't give a damn about the franchise as a whole (not helped by the fact that the N64 and GC were a hard pass for me in general). The only time I ever really remember people talking about Smash Bros as a franchise at all were when people were complaining about how it wasn't a real fighting game because it was too much randomness and BS to be legitimately competitive.

The most I ever remember people talking about Melee specifically and in a positive sense was when Brawl came out, when half the people seemed to be complaining about how it wasn't as good as Melee.

In my case, it doesn't really help that I was already in my 20s when the original Smash Bros came out, and very much on the tail-end of my interest in the fighting game genre as a whole (we mostly played Street Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat Trilogy, and Tekken 2 in college, and by the time Soulcalibur came out in 1999 we were mostly losing interest). By the time Melee was out, I was way past caring about anything it was offering.

If it had come out 10 years earlier (or I'd just been 10 years younger at the time) I might have been more open to it.
---

Yeah, I was like 12, rented it, had to leave it on all night cause I didn't have a memory card yet.

---

I played the crap out of the original back when it was relevant and I remember really looking forward to get Melee and a Gamecube for Christmas.
I got the Super Mario Sunshine bundle instead though and Melee had to wait until my birthday which was just half a month away anyway.

I played the shit out of Sunshine because it was a great game as well so I wasn't disappointed for getting Sunshine instead because I really wanted that game too.

Now the wait for Brawl was torturous. EU had to wait an additional three months after the North American release as well.

Loved every single minute of playing Brawl and it's still one of my favourite game in the franchise.
---

lulz, my memory card thing just reminded me of this story



---

Obligatory "Pepperidge Farm remembers" post.

---

PikachuMaxwell posted...

I do. I was almost 16 years old when Melee released. I was on IGN when it happened.

I think I was about 16 too. I was walking in Toy R Us to buy an unrelated game and I saw it playing on one of the demo stations the kind where it was set to like a 2 or 3 minute melee and kids were playing it. I was blown away because at the time it looked so much better than Smash 64.

---

I do, I was super hyped for it. I couldn't wait to play as Bowser and Young Link.

---

It's my second favorite game of all time. I got excited for every scrap of news they released on it, I played it almost daily throughout high school, still played it frequently for a few years after that, and i've put more hours into it then any other game.

---

That memory card shit ain't no joke. I remember for several months after we got a PS1, we couldn't afford a memory card. Thanks to that and not having many games, a lot of time was spent on demo discs, or getting about 1/3 of the way through Mega Man Legends before having to turn it off.

---

Hey do you all know that you can play Melee lag free with a decent computer now?

Some genius added something called Rollback to a program called slippi and now people are playing across the country with each other.

Its a pretty big deal right now.

---

Takes around 15ms to ping half across the state of Massachusetts, let alone somewhere in California.

---

keyblader1985 posted...

That memory card shit ain't no joke. I remember for several months after we got a PS1, we couldn't afford a memory card. Thanks to that and not having many games, a lot of time was spent on demo discs, or getting about 1/3 of the way through Mega Man Legends before having to turn it off.

My cousin gave me a Pokemon Crystal cartridge that couldn't save, my brother and I had to beat the game without turning it off. I was more invested than he was and whenever we got into an argument, he would threaten to turn it off. Good times

---

Fourth year of university, and I lived in a dorm full of gamers. For almost everybody there, it was like the Second Coming of Jesus, except, y'know, Jesus was Mr. Game & Watch.

---

I do and I thought it was the greatest game ever.....hahaha boy what an idiot i was back then.

Brawl > May Lay

---

I remember my cousins and I were playing Grand Theft Auto 3 and didnt have a memory card at the time. So, we just had to leave it on. I remember we got to a certain part, and then it turned off and on. My younger brother had hit reset. We still have no idea why he did it...
---

I was 11 when I got Melee and it was my favorite game ever. At the time there wasn't nearly as many spoilers are there are today, it took time for people to explore the game to write walkthroughs, so every unlockable was unexpected. And there was tons of unlockables to collect. Not to mention the game was surprisingly deep.

Judgmenl posted...

Takes around 15ms to ping half across the state of Massachusetts, let alone somewhere in California.

Except this new Rollback method isnt based around delay based inputs.
We got pro players saying they are playing across the atlantic with pretty good results.


---

PyroBlade1985 posted...

I remember almost everyone playing Fox only.

With No Items and on Final Destination?
---

LeetCheet posted...

With No Items and on Final Destination?

Yeah. I got bored of that real quick. Haha. But I was always the person that liked moving stages(or at least interactive i.e. changing, hazards, etc.), all items on high, and total chaos! When it was like no items and a static stage, I was bored. I didn't mind certain static stages every once in a while, though...
---

LinkPizza posted...

LeetCheet posted...

With No Items and on Final Destination?

Yeah. I got bored of that real quick. Haha. But I was always the person that liked moving stages(or at least interactive i.e. changing, hazards, etc.), all items on high, and total chaos! When it was like no items and a static stage, I was bored. I didn't mind certain static stages every once in a while, though...

I actually prefer the chaos.
Playing with only Smash Balls on crazy or large stages where it's possible to survive a lot longer.
And four players of course.

This is why I still really like Brawl. Even the balance between the characters were thrown out the window.
---

mewtwo (when available), marth, and zelda have been my most consistently played characters since melee. didn't care how good or bad they were.

---