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Super Smash Bros. Melee

From Fire Emblem Wiki, your source on Fire Emblem information. By fans, for fans.
SSB.png This article or section is a short summary of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
SmashWiki features a more in-depth article.
Super Smash Bros. Melee

Ba america ssbm.jpg
North American (NTSC) box art.

Developer(s)

HAL Laboratory

Publisher(s)

Nintendo

Designer(s)

Masahiro Sakurai

Release date(s)

JPNovember 21, 2001
NADecember 3, 2001
EUMay 24, 2001
AUSMay 31, 2002

Rating(s)

ACB: G8+
ESRB: T
PEGI: 3+
USK: 6

Platform(s)

Nintendo GameCube

Predecessor

Super Smash Bros.

Successor

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

On partnered sites
StrategyWiki Walkthrough

Super Smash Bros. Melee (Japanese: 大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズDX Great Melee Smash Brothers Deluxe) is a 2.5D fighting video game released for the Nintendo GameCube console in 2001 in Japan and the United States, and 2002 in Europe. It is the second game in the Super Smash Bros. series series, a series of crossover fighting games uniting characters, settings, items, and other elements from Nintendo's many video game series.

Unlike traditional fighting games, the gameplay of the Super Smash Bros. series does not emphasize the depletion of the enemy's stamina and instead revolves around forcing one's opponents outside the boundaries of the stage. The damage taken by fighters is represented as a percentage which increases every time they are hit, and the higher a fighter's damage, the further they are knocked back when attacked and the easier it is to launch them off the stage to knock them out. Fighters who are knocked off the stage have the opportunity to recover and climb back onto the stage before they lose a stock, by carefully jumping and using certain special moves, but they are also vulnerable to their opponent's attempts to prevent their return. In both single-player and most multiplayer modes, the goal of the game is to knockout the opponent more times than they knockout the player. Melee in particular has the series' fastest-paced gameplay and, several years after its release, continues to be the subject of a devoted professional competitive scene alongside the series' newest game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Melee features 25 characters from 13 Nintendo game series, and is the first Super Smash Bros. game to include the Fire Emblem series, featuring two playable characters from Fire Emblem: Marth and Roy. This was also the first major exposure that markets outside of Japan had to the Fire Emblem series, and as such the international release of Melee is widely credited as being the catalyst for the international release of Fire Emblem games.

Characters

The 25 fighters of Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Super Smash Bros. Melee features 25 playable characters in total (26 if counting one character's transformed state as a separate character). All twelve playable characters from the original Super Smash Bros. return and are joined by thirteen new characters, including Marth and Roy.

During the Japanese development, Marth and Roy were intended to remain exclusive to the Japanese version and be removed from international releases of the game, owing to their then irrelevance to international audiences; however, the localization teams came to like the two and instead chose to leave both characters in the game, both still speaking Japanese to reflect their Japan-only status.[1][2]

Playable cast

Characters making their Super Smash Bros. debut in Melee are listed in bold. Characters who need to be unlocked are marked with a ‡.

Marth

SSBM Marth.jpg
SSB.png This article or section is a short summary of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
SmashWiki features a more in-depth article.

Marth, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem, debuted in Melee as the first Fire Emblem character to be playable in the Super Smash Bros. series. He is an unlockable character who is obtained by playing 400 VS. matches, clearing Classic or Adventure Modes with all fourteen starter characters, ending up with Game Over using every default character on Regular Match mode in which he is one of the only characters that can be encountered through it, or using all the default characters as a human player in VS. Mode. For his Melee debut, Marth received an updated and more heavily detailed redesign loosely based on his old Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem appearance.

Marth's fighting style in Melee series revolves around the impressive reach he has with his sword, Falchion, and with its ability to deal increased damage with the tip of the blade. With his relatively quick movement speed and the quick, precise sword swings of his ordinary attacks, a well-played Marth is able to pressure his opponents and rack up damage while keeping himself spaced away from his opponent's reach. He is also equipped with several potent potential finishing moves, some of which also share the advantage of coming out and striking quickly. However, he has relatively poor performance when it comes to defenses, and the laggy endings of many of his moves make him easily punished. In competitive tournament environments, Marth has been consistently rated as one of the best characters in Melee, owing to his high speed, rapid combo-attack abilities and good range for a character with no projectile attacks, and is currently ranked in third place on the widely accepted Melee tier list, in its S tier.

Roy

SSBM Roy.jpg
SSB.png This article or section is a short summary of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
SmashWiki features a more in-depth article.

In his debut appearance in any game, Roy, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, is a playable character in Melee. Like Marth, he is an unlockable character, and is unlocked through using Marth to complete Classic Mode without using a continue, or by playing 900 matches in VS Mode. He is a clone of Marth, meaning that he was created by reusing Marth's animations and assets with several modifications, and as a result the two have nearly identical animations and motions while also having very different physics and play styles. Compared to Marth, Roy is lighter but slower, some of his attacks uniquely possess fire effects, and his sword blows are much more powerful when landed with the center of Roy's Binding Blade, encouraging a close-quarters play style. In competitive environments, Roy is viewed as drastically inferior to Marth with the differences between them considered to severely hamper Roy's effectiveness in comparison, and he is currently ranked in twentieth place in the current widely accepted Melee tier list.

Roy was originally placed in Melee at the request of Intelligent Systems in order to act as a promotion for the then-upcoming Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade. Along with the game's other five clone characters, Roy's presence in the game was not part of the original design plans, and he and the other clones were added late in development to help easily increase the roster's size.

Stages

Melee does not feature a Fire Emblem stage among its twenty-nine stages, although there is evidence remaining in the game's data that one based on the kingdom of Archanea was planned during development. In the duels to unlock Marth and Roy, or when they are faced in Classic Mode or All-Star Mode, Marth instead is fought on Fountain of Dreams, and Roy instead appears on Temple in his unlock battle and Final Destination in All-Star Mode.

Collectibles

Trophies

Six collectible trophies depicting Fire Emblem content are available in Melee, all of which depict either Marth or Roy. Trophies are merely aesthetic rewards, giving short biographies of the characters or items they depict.

  • #55 Marth
  • #56 Marth (Smash; Adventure Mode)
  • #57 Marth (Smash; All-Star Mode)
  • #76 Roy
  • #77 Roy (Smash; Adventure Mode)
  • #78 Roy (Smash; All-Star Mode)
Marth
SSBM Trophy Marth.png The betrayed prince of the Kingdom of Altea, the blood of the hero Anri flows in Marth's veins. He was forced into exile when the kingdom of Dolua invaded Altea. Then, wielding his divine sword Falchion, he led a revolt and defeated the dark dragon Medeus. Afterwards, Altea was annihilated by King Hardin of Akanea. Classic Mode
Marth [Smash]
SSBM Trophy Marth Smash 01.png Marth is a magnificent swordsman. While his swordplay is faster than that of Link, he lacks power, and his quickness is offset by a marginal endurance. His Shield Breaker gains power the longer it's held. The Dancing Blade combination uses both the Control Stick and the B Button to produce a series of up to four attacks. Adventure Mode
Marth [Smash]
SSBM Trophy Marth Smash 02.png The tip of Marth's blade causes the most damage, so you should try to create adequate distance between you and your enemy to gracefully strike with that point. Marth's dolphin Slash is fast and powerful, but it leaves him vulnerable upon landing. Marth uses Counter to block a foe's attack and deal a return strike. If you're fighting a Counter-happy Marth, grab him. All-Star Mode
Roy
SSBM Trophy Roy.png The son of the lord of Pharae Principality, Roy was studying in Ostia when the Kingdom of Bern invaded League of Lycia. His father fell ill at this time, so Roy assumed leadership of Pharae's armies. After his fateful meeting with the Princess Guinevere, his destiny became inextricably linked with the fate of the entire continent. Classic Mode
Roy [Smash]
SSBM Trophy Roy Smash 01.png While Roy's moves are well balanced, he's a little on the slow side, and doesn't excel at midair combat. His blade, the Sword of Seals, gives him excellent reach, and makes his Double-Edge Dance slightly different then Marth's Dancing Blade. When it's fully charged, Roy's destructive Flare Blade delivers an instant KO. Adventure Mode
Roy [Smash]
SSBM Trophy Roy Smash 02.png Roy's blade is different than Marth's: he does the most damage hitting with the center of his sword. So, a fearless advance into the arms of his foe is Roy's best bet. Blazer is a bit slower than Marth's Dolphin Slash, but it's still a mighty attack that sets anyone it strikes aflame. Roy's attack after using Counter differs slightly from Marth's. All-Star Mode

Music

While there is no Fire Emblem stage, there is a Fire Emblem song present in the game, simply called "#33 Fire Emblem". It is a fast-paced medley of the original character recruitment theme, "Meeting Theme", and the standard Fire Emblem Theme. In multiplayer modes it acts as an alternate song on the Temple stage, also being used on other stages when Marth or Roy appear in single-player modes. Marth and Roy also have their own victory jingle, "Fire Emblem Team Victory", again using a fragment of the Fire Emblem Theme.

Trivia

  • Although this game marks the first appearance of Fire Emblem related content in the Super Smash Bros. series, there were plans to include Marth in the roster of the original Super Smash Bros. game for the Nintendo 64.

Etymology and other languages

Names, etymology, and in other regions
Language Name Definition, etymology, and notes
English

Super Smash Bros. Melee

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Japanese

大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズDX

Great Melee Smash Brothers Deluxe

Spanish

Super Smash Bros. Melee

--

French

Super Smash Bros. Melee

--

German

Super Smash Bros. Melee

--

Italian

Super Smash Bros. Melee

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Gallery

References

  1. Sakurai, M., ロイ, 速報スマブラ拳!!, Published: December 4, 2001, Retrieved: February 20, 2015
  2. Sakurai, M., マルス, 速報スマブラ拳!!, Published: December 4, 2001, Retrieved: February 20, 2015

External links

Fire Emblem series
Main series Shadow Dragon & the Blade of LightGaidenMystery of the EmblemGenealogy of the Holy WarThracia 776The Binding BladeThe Blazing BladeThe Sacred StonesPath of RadianceRadiant DawnShadow DragonNew Mystery of the EmblemAwakeningFatesEchoes: Shadows of ValentiaThree HousesEngage
Spin-offs Archanea SagaTokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FEHeroesWarriorsWarriors: Three Hopes
Crossover games Super Smash Bros. (MeleeBrawlfor Nintendo 3DS and Wii UUltimate) • Club Nintendo Picross+Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.Project X Zone 2WarioWareDragalia Lost
Unreleased games and prototypes Fire Emblem 64The Blazing Blade pre-release build 0206The Blazing Blade pre-release build 0219The Sacred Stones prototypeFire Emblem Wii
TearRing Saga series Yutona Heroes War ChroniclesBerwick Saga
Vestaria Saga series War of the ScionsThe Sacred Sword of SilvanisterLucca GaidenChronicles of the Norden Civil War
Related titles Mario Kart: Double Dash!! bonus discLINENintendo Badge Arcade
Versions and releases List of version differencesLocalization of the Fire Emblem seriesVirtual Console
Other References in other mediaReferences to other media