Super Smash Bros. Melee is the second installation of Super Smash Brothers, created for the Nintendo Gamecube in 2001. What is thought to be the best Smash game of all time by the majority of older Smash players, Melee is where the first competitions were publicized, where the hugely popular Gamecube controller was introduced to the Smash community, which is still used by the majority of Smash players, competitive and not, and where many new characters (listed and shown at the bottom of this page) and maps were added. Gameplay was changed drastically from the Nintendo 64 version to this one, and when it first came out, it was still seen as a friendly party game for families. That was changed very soon, however.
This version of Super Smash Bros. has twenty-six characters! Fifteen of these characters are unlocked automatically, and the other eleven must be unlocked through gameplay. The fifteen characters unlocked automatically are: Bowser, Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong, Fox McCloud, Ice Climbers, Kirby, Link, Mario, Ness, Pikachu, Princess Peach, Samus Aran, Yoshi, and Zelda/Sheik. The other eleven unlockable characters are: Dr. Mario, Falco Lombardi, Ganondorf, Jigglypuff, Luigi, Marth, Mewtwo, Mr. Game and Watch, Pichu, Roy, and Young Link.
Game options were changed, increasing the amount of options you have. Two new options for single player modes were introduced, Adventure Mode from the previous version was renamed to classic version and a new Adventure mode was introduced, as well as an All-Star mode. The newly introduced All-Star mode is a fight against all fighters in Super Smash Bros. Melee, where you are allowed a single life and damage is accumulated over time. There is a new tournament mode, where up to 64 human players can battle against each other in a tournament-style game.
The stages available at the start of Super Smash Bros. Melee are: Brinstar, Corneria, Fountain of Dreams, Great Bay, Green Greens, Ice Mountain, Jungle Japes, Kongo Jungle, Mushroom Kingdom, Mute City, Onett, Princess Peach's Castle, Pokémon Stadium, Rainbow Cruise, Temple, Venom, Yoshi's Island, and Yoshi's Story. The unlockable stages in Super Smash Bros. Melee are: Battlefield, Big Blue, Brinstar Depths, Dream Land (Past Stage), Final Destination, Flat Zone, Fourside, Kongo Jungle (Past Stage), Mushroom Kingdom II, Poké Floats, Yoshi's Island (Past Stage).
With the first widely-advertised popular competitions for Smash games, Super Smash Bros. Melee was widely renounced as one of, if not the best, fast-paced fighting games by a vast majority of gamers in the early 2000's. From 2004-2007 even MLG welcomed Super Smash Bros. Melee as a Pro Circuit game. Melee was also introduced to Evolution Championship Series (Evo) in 2007, which is a large fighting game competition. It then came back in 2013 after a vote and has stayed in Evo up until 2019, where it will no longer host Super Smash Bros. Melee competitions, only proceeding games. Tons of money has been earned by competitors through these competitions, with Ken Hoang, the "King of Smash" from 2003-2006 earning over $50,000 from Smash tournaments alone. Aside from competitions, Smash has been on multitudes of media platforms, even MTV in an episode of True Life.
