Super Smash Bros.: Melee

The Good
For one of the the "first" games on the system, the game is beautiful. It still is, even by today's standards. From a Nintendo fan point of view, there is so much that is visually and aurally pleasing that it's more a playable version of Nintendo's history.

The character selection is significantly enhanced from the original game, adding villains and more female characters outside of Samus Aran. The game even takes a nod towards more obscure titles like Ice Climber and the Game & Watch series, as well as introducing the Fire Emblem heroes. Every character is full of the appropriate personality.

The music is a full soundtrack of classic NES/SNES/N64 hit after hit after hit. It's fun to hear which tunes comes next, and repetition is not terribly common.

Control wise, the game does exactly as you want it to. It offers precise control that allows for a strong chance to get out of even the worst situation.

The options are equally as impressive. Playing through the Adventure Mode the first time is just great. Link in the Mushroom Kingdom? Kirby in Hyrule? Pikachu in Brinstar? Again, it's a Nintendo fan dorkgasm that isn't thrown together to simply say "Look! I'm here!" Everything is fun to explore and stays accurate to the individual game's history, and each stage offers creative challenges from within the levels, and are just incredibly thought out.

It's nice to see that they actually took time to make the single player modes interesting. Also noteworthy are all the little challenge modes that players can test themselves to beat. Whether it's endurance modes, breaking targets, or the individual challenges, players aren't left wanting. Even collecting the trophies is tremendously addictive, full of Nintendo history, and just fun to display. It was not uncommon going on a mad quest to collect as many trophies and unlockables as possible. It's equally as addicting as the gameplay itself.

Multi-player allows a fantastic amount of customization options, adding all new aspects to every time you play. And Smash Bros Melee makes for a highly fun party game.

As a whole, the game has aged very, very well, and is still as relevant now as it was 5-6 years ago.

The Bad
A few minor things: The "clone" characters aren't as diverse as one would hope. Dr. Mario is another Mario. Pichu is a bit silly, especially when there are more powerful Pokemon to offer, or even Ash. How different are Roy and Marth, honestly? Why couldn't Luigi be equipped with some of his "Luigi's Mansion" abilities? There are a lot of characters, but some are a little too similar to the others, which is more disappointing as some other characters could have been included instead. The game is very Mario-heavy on its character roster, and some unique characters missed their chance to shine.

Where was Pit from Kid Icarus? Any of the boxers from Punch-Out!! Wario? The sequel is addressing some of these questions, but for the current game, there were a few missed opportunities. But not everyone is going to be satisfied, so it's a tall order to fill.

The Bottom Line
Nintendo's characters are to the video game industry what Disney's Mickey Mouse and company are to animation. You can't think of the medium without a handful these characters springing to mind. It's hard to say much "new" about a game that everyone knows, everyone has played, and everyone is waiting like fiends for the sequel.

Super Smash Bros. Melee is the "Captain N: The Game Master" episode we always wanted to happen on Saturday morning, but never did. It's wild, fast-paced, fun, and so laden with nostalgia, that you can't help but remember those nights of staying up all night long trying to beat some level on your NES.

Super Smash Bros. Melee is a love letter from Nintendo to its fans. That pat on the head for buying their games all these years, and as much as they give you in this game, you keep wanting more, as the imaginations of Nintendo's various designers have given us so many worlds to play in over the years. And while I am admittedly gushing over this title, it's more than justified. This was THE game to own on Gamecube, and it's only built up hype for the Wii sequel to a frenzied pace.

Truly a fantastic and attention worthy game. Highly recommended.

The Good
This game is a zany cross-over of all of your favorite Nintendo characters. Link, Samus, Mario, Kirby... they're all here and ready to play a super-simplistic game that also happens to be a lot of fun. The goal is simple. Hit, wack, throw, pummel, nudge, smash, bounce, launch to try to knock them off the edge. Even if you don't succeed, you might just hurt your opponent causing their damage meter to go up making them fly farther and jump less... between the two effects, the next attack you make has a better chance of knocking your opponent out of the arena!

Now, add the fact that 4 players can play... and the fact that the levels are gorgeous!, even the single player ones (which is greatly improved over the N64 single player modes) and tons of unlockable features and "collecting items"... and you have yourself one fun game!

The Bad
Not very much. If there's one complaint I have with the game it's clone characters. That is the characters that play suspiciously similar to one another... these include Mario & Luigi, Ganondorf & Captain Falcon, Link and Young Link, Pikatchu and Pitchu (although in this case there's enough of a difference to be forgiven instantly).

That and the game is hard to put down! =)

The Bottom Line
Zany cartoon Violence Fun for the whole family... that features lots and lots of Nintendo characters. Almost no skill is required... just pick-up and play! And thank you Nintendo for making my zany cross-over dreams come true!

The Good
First off, the graphics are top-notch. Not the best the GameCube will ever see, but definately top-notch. Special effects, like fire and such, look especially nice. And most characters have very detailed textures. So, graphics. Good.

The sound: Well, although the sound effects aren't something you really notice while taking part in a clash of video game characters, it has all the sounds you'd want including Mario's high-pitched shouting to Mewtwo's demonic grunts. The music, however, is something you'll notice. It's all your favorite music pulled straight out of Nintendo classics, like Metroid, Mario, Zelda, you-name-it, remixed and pumped into one game. It's every Nintendo fan's dream.

The single-player, while being a bit on the short side, still has a lot to do after a month of constant playing. There's the normal modes, Classic mode(Where you compete against every character in random battles, ranging from three characters against one giant character to just normal one on one), Adventure Mode(Which takes you through classic side-scrolling levels, with little fights inbetween) and All-Star Mode(A mode that's only enabled when you've unlocked all the characters, where you have to fight one on one, one on two and one on three matches with all the characters in the game). Then there's unlockable characters, bonus stages(like Sandbag Run and Target Practice) and Event Mode. Event Mode has you do specific missions, of sort, where you, for example, have to kill 128 tiny Marios. And if that's not enough, there's roughly 300 trophies of classic Nintendo characters and objects scattered around all of the modes, so get ready to do some collecting. As you can see there's enough to do in the single-player alone.

But that's not what'll keep you coming back to the game in a year. That'll be the multi-player portion of the game. Two to Four-player battles against your mates which almost always end up in heated discussions over how good a judge the computer was on that KO, and the throwing of controllers at opponents. Be ready to take a pause on your friend-ship, cause once you pick up the controller, you'll be pulling all the dirty tricks in the book in order to win. When it really heats up, opponents will start pulling your controller out of its plug, rendering you immobile, making you the perfect pray. Don't worry, not every game you'll be having will have this level of sportmanship. In time you, and your mates, will grow up and start fighting like men(or women.)

The Bad
For one, there could be more extras. It's nothing to complaing about, really. But the single-player portion of the game will be done in two months.

If I have to find any other flaw with the game, it's that most of the unlockable characters are pretty similar to the default characters. Mario is almost identical to Dr. Mario, and although Luigi can jump higher, there's not much different between them, except for strength. Still, I'd rather see my favorite characters in there, and have them be copies, than not see them at all. Put Wario in and have him identical to even Kirby, and I wouldn't care. (Well, having Wario identical to Kirby, as far as moves go, would be ridiculous, so scratch that idea.)

The Bottom Line
Trust me, this is the best multi-player game you'll get on the GameCube. We tried TimeSplitters 2, Mario Party 4, Super Monkey Ball. But it all ended at the same station. Super Smash Bros. Melee.