I wanted to talk on a lighter note about a game and group of people that effectively saved my life more on than one occasion. Also want to know which older games people still enjoy on a competitive level and why. There are a lot of factors to why im still playing and watching this one in particular all these years later, and it feels like its somehow the best its ever been.
Recent Tournament Results
-Captain Falcon (wizzrobe) and Pikachu (Axe), neither considered top tier characters, placing first in super majors, as well as both taking 2nd at other majors.
-Zain was the first Marth player to win using solo Marth in 2018 since Ken back in the day.
-Amsa has 2 set wins over Hungrybox with his Yoshi
-New players having breakout performances and causing upsets in bracket (Albert over Hbox)
-Usually at least 10 different characters represented in top16 brackets. Your favourite character likely has at least one amazing character specialist including less used ones such as Game and Watch (Qerb). Mario (A Rookie) MewTwo (Taj) and even the lowest ranked character Kirby (Triple R) so there's no excuse to not follow their journeys.
I want to mention Axe in particular being the sole Pikachu representative of the top players and the lowest tier character to win tournaments. After being a top10 player for years he won the last supermajor and after following his journey since the early days was a pretty heartfelt moment that I can only imagine meant the world to him and everyone who helped him get there.
Isn't there a large barrier to entry for hardware and skill level?
Due to the accidental nature of this games competitive aspect, in the early days you would have learned largely from who you knew in person and going to events to get as much experience as possible, and while that's still important there are more tools than ever to make learning and playing accessible:
-If you're lucky enough to be in the USA you can make great use of Anthers Ladder, an online ladder designed for netplay sessions.
-Training tools such as the 20xx and Uncle Punch's training mode offer more training mode options than many multiplayer games out there and work on both console and pc
-Project Slippi, software that automatically records matches for playback and viewing useful statistics. This is used for both Netplay and Tournaments now.
-Huge amounts of tutorials and guides on Youtube and Smashboards as well as match vods of most past major tournaments.
-Play the physical copy using either a Gamecube or Wii. There are alternatives
-Your local scene will likely be very helpful getting you started or helping you with anything in particular. If not feel free to message me here or on Discord.
Is this still played and streamed on non HD, non widescreen? That seems really outdated in this day and age!
Via some impressive software engineering, tournaments can now broadcast in widescreen HD, as well as display detailed statistics post match without modifying the original hardware.
What gives this game seemingly endless depth and sustainability? Why don't people just play the new Smash games instead?
While the newer Smash games have a comparable competitive scene (which is also hype in its own way), this thread isn't about those in particular. Though Nintendo might have deviated from what drew people to Melee, a few indie games such as Rivals of Aether and Slap City have had some success, but where is the competitive depth coming from? This part would take a short novel to go into detail but a few things in particular, some of which stay true for other Smash bros games:
Analog inputs: Blocking in this game uses both analog direction and strength via the main control stick and Gamecube's analogue shoulder buttons. many moves can be angled or manipulated in an analogue sense. Movement speeds, movement in the air and type of normal that's thrown out depend on the direction and strength of the main stick. Dodging in mid air can be done in any angle, which can be used for recovering back onto the stage, sliding on platforms and mixing up your ground movement.
Damage % meter: Your characters damage changes how far they're knocked back, when they get knocked onto their backs and when they will do a much slower recovery move. This changes per character and per move, as well as individual moves becoming slightly weaker if they're used multiple times in succession which is a lot to remember.
No buffer: A lot of modern fighting games have a few frames of leniency for inputs. This mostly does not exist here, meaning every characters individual animations and actable frames must be learned and practiced. Doing something 1 frame early might mean your character just standing in place doing nothing, and in a game with an immense APM count and physics based interactions you're constantly being tested on your character knowledge and ability to push buttons. A constant and intricate execution check. The APM varies greatly by player, and reaches Pro Starcraft numbers.
Consistent Player agency: While being combo'd in most games it becomes almost a single player ordeal. Every time you're hit during Melee you influence both the trajectory and for the first few frames the ability to move your character slightly which can you help to escape.
Character differences: There are far too many to list, but essentially the games physics based fighting and mechanical depth has allowed new techniques to be discovered even in 2019. From small differences like weight, fall speed and jump heights to less obvious differences in move interactions, hitboxes, differences in shield size etc.
Physics Based Combos: Combos in Smash bros games are not predetermined inputs since there are so many variables at any point in time. Certain moves stun longer than others and some are faster, weaker moves that will chain together into stronger ones. For examples of how fast someone can be vaporized in these games.
Recovery Mechanics: Getting knocked off stage in a Smash game affords you a chance to attempt to recover. Melee was the last game in the series where not only did you have to be facing the edge to grab it, but you generally had to perfectly space your recovery because you will overshoot, and there is minimal snapping to the edge. Air dodging off stage meant losing your stock.
But what about Items and all the other characters and stages? Why do you all hate fun?
Casual SSB rules can be great fun....just not for competitive tournaments. While some characters are more tournament viable, items and a bunch of stages are turned off, this game somehow has more stage variety than even the newest Smash.
Thats not to say that competitive players dont find other characters and more casual style play to be a lot of fun. They're just not really an option for a level playing field.
Smash the Summit has wacky side events each event during the first days. The most recent included an around the world all characters, all stages, all items Iron Man between Axe and Mango. This was the first in person version of something they do every Wednesday on their Twitch channels, as well as other similar fun like RNG Thursdays with Pewpewu.
Useful Links:
axe.pizza redirects to axes Twitch stream (Mango and Pewpewu who were mentioned earlier)
Resetera community thread
The original Smash Brothers documentary that helped revived the scene and bring in new players such as Zain who has since placed first at a super major, defeating some of these legends in the process.
GR Smash. The biggest collection of themed videos from years of Smash clips.
The Reads is an entertaining youtube show where pro players make guest appearances
Recent Tournament Results
-Captain Falcon (wizzrobe) and Pikachu (Axe), neither considered top tier characters, placing first in super majors, as well as both taking 2nd at other majors.
-Zain was the first Marth player to win using solo Marth in 2018 since Ken back in the day.
-Amsa has 2 set wins over Hungrybox with his Yoshi
-New players having breakout performances and causing upsets in bracket (Albert over Hbox)
-Usually at least 10 different characters represented in top16 brackets. Your favourite character likely has at least one amazing character specialist including less used ones such as Game and Watch (Qerb). Mario (A Rookie) MewTwo (Taj) and even the lowest ranked character Kirby (Triple R) so there's no excuse to not follow their journeys.
I want to mention Axe in particular being the sole Pikachu representative of the top players and the lowest tier character to win tournaments. After being a top10 player for years he won the last supermajor and after following his journey since the early days was a pretty heartfelt moment that I can only imagine meant the world to him and everyone who helped him get there.
Isn't there a large barrier to entry for hardware and skill level?
Due to the accidental nature of this games competitive aspect, in the early days you would have learned largely from who you knew in person and going to events to get as much experience as possible, and while that's still important there are more tools than ever to make learning and playing accessible:
-If you're lucky enough to be in the USA you can make great use of Anthers Ladder, an online ladder designed for netplay sessions.
-Training tools such as the 20xx and Uncle Punch's training mode offer more training mode options than many multiplayer games out there and work on both console and pc
-Project Slippi, software that automatically records matches for playback and viewing useful statistics. This is used for both Netplay and Tournaments now.
-Huge amounts of tutorials and guides on Youtube and Smashboards as well as match vods of most past major tournaments.
-Play the physical copy using either a Gamecube or Wii. There are alternatives
-Your local scene will likely be very helpful getting you started or helping you with anything in particular. If not feel free to message me here or on Discord.
Is this still played and streamed on non HD, non widescreen? That seems really outdated in this day and age!
Via some impressive software engineering, tournaments can now broadcast in widescreen HD, as well as display detailed statistics post match without modifying the original hardware.
What gives this game seemingly endless depth and sustainability? Why don't people just play the new Smash games instead?
While the newer Smash games have a comparable competitive scene (which is also hype in its own way), this thread isn't about those in particular. Though Nintendo might have deviated from what drew people to Melee, a few indie games such as Rivals of Aether and Slap City have had some success, but where is the competitive depth coming from? This part would take a short novel to go into detail but a few things in particular, some of which stay true for other Smash bros games:
Analog inputs: Blocking in this game uses both analog direction and strength via the main control stick and Gamecube's analogue shoulder buttons. many moves can be angled or manipulated in an analogue sense. Movement speeds, movement in the air and type of normal that's thrown out depend on the direction and strength of the main stick. Dodging in mid air can be done in any angle, which can be used for recovering back onto the stage, sliding on platforms and mixing up your ground movement.
Damage % meter: Your characters damage changes how far they're knocked back, when they get knocked onto their backs and when they will do a much slower recovery move. This changes per character and per move, as well as individual moves becoming slightly weaker if they're used multiple times in succession which is a lot to remember.
No buffer: A lot of modern fighting games have a few frames of leniency for inputs. This mostly does not exist here, meaning every characters individual animations and actable frames must be learned and practiced. Doing something 1 frame early might mean your character just standing in place doing nothing, and in a game with an immense APM count and physics based interactions you're constantly being tested on your character knowledge and ability to push buttons. A constant and intricate execution check. The APM varies greatly by player, and reaches Pro Starcraft numbers.
Consistent Player agency: While being combo'd in most games it becomes almost a single player ordeal. Every time you're hit during Melee you influence both the trajectory and for the first few frames the ability to move your character slightly which can you help to escape.
Character differences: There are far too many to list, but essentially the games physics based fighting and mechanical depth has allowed new techniques to be discovered even in 2019. From small differences like weight, fall speed and jump heights to less obvious differences in move interactions, hitboxes, differences in shield size etc.
Physics Based Combos: Combos in Smash bros games are not predetermined inputs since there are so many variables at any point in time. Certain moves stun longer than others and some are faster, weaker moves that will chain together into stronger ones. For examples of how fast someone can be vaporized in these games.
Recovery Mechanics: Getting knocked off stage in a Smash game affords you a chance to attempt to recover. Melee was the last game in the series where not only did you have to be facing the edge to grab it, but you generally had to perfectly space your recovery because you will overshoot, and there is minimal snapping to the edge. Air dodging off stage meant losing your stock.
But what about Items and all the other characters and stages? Why do you all hate fun?
Casual SSB rules can be great fun....just not for competitive tournaments. While some characters are more tournament viable, items and a bunch of stages are turned off, this game somehow has more stage variety than even the newest Smash.
Thats not to say that competitive players dont find other characters and more casual style play to be a lot of fun. They're just not really an option for a level playing field.
Smash the Summit has wacky side events each event during the first days. The most recent included an around the world all characters, all stages, all items Iron Man between Axe and Mango. This was the first in person version of something they do every Wednesday on their Twitch channels, as well as other similar fun like RNG Thursdays with Pewpewu.
Useful Links:
axe.pizza redirects to axes Twitch stream (Mango and Pewpewu who were mentioned earlier)
Resetera community thread
The original Smash Brothers documentary that helped revived the scene and bring in new players such as Zain who has since placed first at a super major, defeating some of these legends in the process.
GR Smash. The biggest collection of themed videos from years of Smash clips.
The Reads is an entertaining youtube show where pro players make guest appearances
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