Super Smash Bros Melee

Some games are just more fun to play with friends who are actually in the same room as you and not some random chap with a mad name who you get pared up with online. Someone who you can punch in the arm when he or she cheats and talk smack when you kick them around the place. We may live in a world of advanced communication, but some games are just more fun the old fashioned way.

Super Smash Bros Melee is one of those games. The game is packed full of classic and obscure Nintendo characters and it has a huge selection of stages based on locations from the Nintendo games and a soundtrack made up of remixed and remastered Nintendo tunes.

I played the first Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo 64 and got addicted to it straight away. After getting kicked out of my friends house for staying there too long I decided to get myself an N64 and a copy of the game but by this time they had stopped selling the consoles but lucky for me the game cube was due to come out in a couple of weeks and I heard they were releasing melee for it and my decision was already made for me.

The gameplay is what makes it all so much fun. It is easily the most unique and user-friendly fighting series on the market. The object of the game is to kill your opponent by knocking them off the screen. The more you hit your opponent, the more damage they take and the higher their damage is the easier it is to knock them out. Its accessibility doesn't make this a mindless button masher there's a surprising amount of depth to the game. It is easy to enjoy for casual newcomers and the hardcore gamers.

Melee is packed with so much stuff that it's shocking that the little GameCube disc doesn't spontaneously combust.

Melee has three campaign modes. Adventure Mode, All-Star Mode and Classic Mode. Adventure Mode is a platforming/ fighting hybrid. All Star Mode is by far the most challenging it places the player against every fighter in the game one after the other with limited health pickups. Classic Mode sees the player go up against a series of increasingly difficult fighters in the attempts of getting to the end boss, Master Hand {who is a giant white glove that can shoot lasers out of its finger tips, top boss!}, while participating in a number of fun little events along the way. The difference here is that all the fighters you encounter are completely random their sizes and abilities are completely different so you'll never play the same way twice.

The single player options don't stop there. There is a Challenge Mode with loads of stuff in it and some other fun diversions like the Home Run Contest where you have to smack a punching bag as far as you can with a bat and there’s Multi-Man Melee were loads and loads of opponents come at you consntaly and you have to see how many of them you can kill without dyeing as they progressively get harder and harder.

The main attraction for me is the super sick whopper deadly multiplayer!!!. Everything can be customised, from the length of the match and number of lives to the amount of damage you start with. Individual items can be turned on and off, and the frequency with which they appear can be changed.

All together there are 25 characters, dozens of stages, and nearly 300 trophies to collect; this is one game of which you won't soon grow tired.

But as if that wasn't enough, in addition to the standard time/ stock/ team matches. There are a number of other things that Melee set the foundation for, the most fun of them being Special Melees. These crazy matches allow the player to put ridiculous twists  like fast-motion, low gravity, or making all the players invisible on the already frantic gameplay.

Even if you're playing by yourself you can still get in on the multiplayer madness by swapping friends for computer players.While it may not be as much fun but the challenge of it is very good you can customise the difficulty on the AI.

Its class single player and multiplayer are still a great crack to play even years later later. Also it's a nice reminder that even in a world where online multiplayer often takes the front seat, playing with your mates in the same room, on the same couch, will always be more rewarding.

Great Game!!!