Super Smash Bros. Melee 25th Anniversary: A 25-Fighter Roster, 7 Million Sales, and Evo

Super Smash Bros. Melee turns 25 on November 21. The GameCube fighter launched in Japan on that date in 2001, and players still talk about it today.

Melee launched in Japan first, then North America

Melee came out in Japan on November 21, 2001. North America got it on December 3, 2001, according to Wikipedia. Europe followed on May 24, 2002.

HAL Laboratory built the game and Nintendo published it. Masahiro Sakurai directed it, and Shigeru Miyamoto worked as a co-producer. The team spent about 13 months on development.

The roster nearly doubled

The first Super Smash Bros. had 12 fighters. Melee has 25. Only 14 are open when you start, so you have to earn the rest by finishing certain tasks.

Melee also brought in new Nintendo series. Marth and Roy came from Fire Emblem, and the Ice Climbers came from the NES era. Stages match Nintendo series too, such as the Mushroom Kingdom and Temple.

Plenty to do beyond fighting a friend

Melee gave solo players a lot of reasons to keep the GameCube on. Up to four people can battle at once, and the computer players have nine difficulty levels. Here’s what else is in the game:

• 🥊Classic Mode: Fight through a string of matches on your own.
• 🗺️Adventure Mode: Travel through levels based on different Nintendo series.
• ⭐All-Star Mode: This mode is locked until you unlock it.
• ⚾Home Run Contest and Target Test: Short challenges that test one skill.
• 🏆Trophies: Collect them as you play. Japan calls them figures.

Sales made it the GameCube’s best seller

Melee sold fast. In Japan, it moved 358,525 copies in the week ending November 25, 2001. It was also the first GameCube game to pass one million copies. In North America, it sold 250,000 copies in nine days.

By March 2008, Melee had sold more than 7 million copies worldwide. That made it the best-selling GameCube game. Metacritic gives it a score of 92 out of 100.

Nintendo kept it on shelves, too. A Player’s Choice version came out in January 2003. In August 2005, Nintendo bundled Melee with the GameCube for $99.99.

From living rooms to Evo

Melee’s biggest surprise came after launch. Players turned it into a serious tournament game. Ken Hoang, known as “The King of Smash,” was seen as the best player from 2003 to 2006. Major League Gaming’s Pro Circuit also ran Melee from 2004 to 2007.

Evo added Melee to its 2013 lineup after a charity vote. It stayed through 2018. A crowd-funded documentary, “The Smash Brothers,” came out in 2013. It follows seven top players, including Mang0 and Mew2King.

The scene got a tech boost in 2020. Project Slippi added online matchmaking and rollback netcode for a fan-run version of the game. Nintendo sent The Big House tournament a cease and desist letter over Slippi that year.

What Melee left behind

Melee showed that a party game could also hold up as a fighting game. The 25-fighter roster, the huge sales, and a tournament scene that outlived the GameCube all came from one 13-month project. Did you play Melee on a GameCube, or did you find it later?

Image Credit: Eddie Nguyen on Unsplash