Top 50 Video Games: Number 49

Stats of Import
Platform: Gamecube
Absurdly Specific Genre: Crossover Fan-Fic Fighter (with Pokémon added)
Difficulty: Wait. People played this in single-player mode?
Beaten: What would that even mean?


The idea behind the Super Smash Brothers series is simple. Take some of the most beloved characters in video game history, place them in some of the most iconic environments in video game history, and let them beat the crap out of each other. The results are predictably spectacular.

Pictured: Kirby, Luigi, Bowser, and Samus fighting on Brinstar. I shouldn't have to tell you that this is awesome.

Could Link beat the snot out of a Pikachu? Could Samus beat Bowser in a one-on-one fight? I didn't even own an NES and I wanted to know the answer to these questions. Melee gave us the answer (well, ostensibly, Super Smash Brothers 64 gave us the answer, but Melee easily surpasses the 64 version in both roster and playability). Link could, in fact, beat a Pikachu, though the friend who was controlling the Pikachu would probably make your life hell by spamming those annoying lightning moves. Samus could beat Bowser, unless I was playing as Samus, in which case she would shimmy around like an epileptic rabbit before entering ball mode and roll off a cliff (I never got the hang of her for some reason).

The game lacked pretty badly in single player, and it wasn't the most precise "fighter", per se, but that was never the point. This was a game meant to be enjoyed amongst friends, and for at least two summers, Stu, Jordo, Branny, and I would play this game for hours whenever we got together. I don't think I'll ever another multiplayer party game that matches Melee's approachability and depth.

Also, after a one hour four-player brawl on the Poké Floats, you were pretty much allowed to conquer time and space.

Other notable entries in the series:

Brawl is cool and all, but by the time it came out (and by the time we got a Wii), most of the friends that played Melee with me had moved away from the area. At its heart, it could very well be better, but this is the one that has the memories.