Well, I suppose a fighting game fitting nicely onto my childhood nostalgia shelf makes a lot of sense. I won’t lie when I say I have a temper. Not sure if this game contributed to that, or I was just like that the whole time.
Let’s talk Super Smash Bros Melee. First off, it’s been over nine years since I’ve played this, mostly because I lost the disc - god, I’m upset about that. If I find out someone stole it, I’ll lose my mind.
You see? My love for Melee makes a lot of sense with my personality.
Melee is one of the games I got for Christmas alongside the grand purple gamecube itself. It was one of the first ones I played, right after Double Dash and Luigi’s Mansion (which I’ll be talking about next). I was immediately taken by the sheer amount of options at my disposal. There were so many characters (granted, a lot of them from IPs I’d never played or heard of) that I spend ten minutes just on the character select screen.
At the time, I was barely familiar with Link, plus I liked the sword and the yelling, so I pretty much always chose him. I also favored Captain Falcon despite having no idea who he was or what he was from, because the “falcon PUNCH!” was oh so much fun. I can still hear him do that battle cry in my head.
Imagine my glee when i finally picked my character, and then entered the stage selection screen. I had never seen so many options before. Where the heck were all these places from? What have I missed from not getting into gaming before? (I was still 8 years old at the time, why was I exasperated with myself for something that I literally had no awareness of or money for?) My favorite stage, pictured below, was picked before I knew the reason behind why it was the place you chose to really settle some scores - this was ground zero.
I was a big fan of button mashing until I found that one move that really did some damage, then I would abuse that move. Yeah, I was one of those people. I’ve since changed my strategy, don’t worry. For a while, I think I’d play at least every other day, usually to reward myself for finishing my homework.
Remember having homework? Hated that. Beating up virtual friends? Loved that.