Super Smash Bros. Melee

This was definitely one of the most anticipated games for the Gamecube. It had everyone in awe from the first video preview. I for one actually waited the 2 weeks after the GCs launch to get this game (as I could only afford one game). And believe me, it was one of the best decisions of my life. It is in-fact a game that I believe never stops entertaining. Even after playing melee I bet I could still have fun with smash one. The VS mode is the most well-known and used element of the game. This is the mode where one to four players will duke it out in a star-studded celebration of all things Nintendo. You pick your characters then your stadium and you're off. And speaking of characters heres the first 14:

Mario
Donkey Kong
Peach
Zelda/Sheik
Bowser
Samus
Kirby
Ice climbers
Pikachu
Link
Captain Falcon
Fox Mcloud
Yoshi
Ness

As you can see were already of to a flying start with our fantastic list of Nintendo greats. We have all the old team and some new. I heard a lot of people comment on how they were disappointed that Bowser didn't appear in the first game so here he is! The Ice climbers from there Ness game (bet you don't remember that) were another interesting choice. Zelda and her alter ego sheik make an appearance with completely different moves. To switch between them during play you simply hit down B. Which brings me to my next point in the game….. the controller. Nintendo have utilised the little baby quite well giving you the fun of a fighting game that still works without an arcade set-up. This was the problem in Bloody roar but rest assured that there will be no problems here. A performs your basic attacks whilst B is your special moves. X,Y or up on the control stick is your jump and Z your grab. Now when you grab an opponent you can also hit them up a-bit before you throw them and they can only get away if you hold them for too long. So give them some extra damage then send them flying. Bliss. Also introduced to this instalment is the wonderful dodge. Pressing (L,R) down makes you invulnerable for a split second, giving you the chance to avoid attacks then hit back (when the your opponent least expects it). Something I should probably introduce to the new comers of the wonderful world of smash is the percentage system. Smash bros has (instead of HP) a percentage system. When you give damage to an opponent there percentage increases. The higher it is the further they'll fly. So beat em up and throw em off. Score points by throwing people off the arena and lose them by going off yourself. VS also now has some special modes. Tiny melee, Big Melee, Slo mo melee, HP (instead of %) melee and the list goes on. Plus there's a tournament melee where you and more than 60 friends can fight in the ultimate battle. If you'd rather one player fun than you could take the adventure. Its set out like a genuine side scrolling game with surprises along the way. You start off in Mushroom kingdom where you must make your way through the goombas and koopa-troopas to the fight in the middle with a yoshi team. Then once you've done that you must make your way to the end and fight Mario and Peach on top of the Princesses castle. There are many battles and mazes and Marathon runs and so on to follow. But if that's not your style you could always play the classic mode. Just like the 64 version you meet foes that slowly become harder with some bonus stages along the way, meeting our good friend, the master hand, at the end. But it doesn't end there. You can have a shot at the home run derby. You are given a bat and have to do as much damage to Mr Sandbag (in 10 seconds) before you belt him off into the distance for the furthest distance you can get. You could revisit the target tests from classic mode as well. Then there's the event matches. These are a series of matches were you are given a situation then set loose. For instance in one you meet two Zelda's in the wonderful Termina Bay. You have to KO them both in a time limit but there's a catch. It only counts if they are as Sheik when they go soaring off the stage. Otherwise they'll just comeback. Then there's 128 Mario's. 128 tiny Mario's to nock off before they nock off you. There's 51 event matches in total to unlock. Whilst playing the game (Wether it be VS or one player) you will earn coins depending on how well you did and how tough it was. These coins go into the lottery. The lottery is where you get trophies. That's right over 300 trophies of Nintendo memorabilia to collect. There's everything from pokemon to the ducks from duck hunt. There are even a-few trophies from future releases. Every time you get a trophy though your chance of getting a new one decreases (in the lottery). You can fix this by putting in more coins at once. So as you can see smash bros is truly THE GAME that will never stop entertaining. Now on to the more Technical side of things

GRAPHICS: 9/10 Smash bros 1 was some of the worst graphics on the system because of how much space the actual game took up. With GC hey are nothing short of jumping out of the screen and attacking you. It's missing one point for some-things, which cant be helped due to its huge size like 2D explosion effects and so forth (oh by the way all the items are now 3D!). Plus I haven't actually seen any other GC games in action yet so I don't want to be too much of a 64 comparison.

SOUND: 10/10 Hal got a professional orchestra for the game and by god its fantastic. Every stage has a unique sound with fantastic backing for the ultimate fight. The actual FX is also superb. You can really feel the explosions and hear the characters screams as the battle rages on.

GAMEPLAY: 10/10 The set out is great for button control. You can play with ease and believe it or not there is no slow down. None what so ever. Nope none. And it runs so damn fast. Did I mention that it was fast? Damn fast. You can play without even really thinking about this, which in itself is a good thing.

LASTIBILITY: 3 billion/10 If you manage to get through all the one player mode stuff and open up every character and every stage then you can still amuse yourself and your friends with VS mode for years to come. Oh and by the way the game is fast.

Reviewer: Moon Unit