I love how smash bros is always something you discover at your cousins house

Mewtwo is based on his Gameboy sprite, thus the larger head.

The pacing of the "cutscenes" in the game, like the Giant Kirby, Luigi appearing out of nowhere, and Giga Bowser making his grand debut happen very suddenly and when they end, it awkwardly hangs on the last frame until the match starts. It gives everything a weird, creepy, unfinished quality.

The 6th generation consoles was really obsessed with this cold, dark techno-nightmare aesthetic that were so prominent in the console menus themselves as well as its earlier game line-ups. With that said, Melee going for this ambiguous simulation was so perfect for 2001, it helped push this "WE ARE IN THE FUTURE" vibe so well. Great video!

OKAY FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE WHO NOTICED. This is why I love Melee so much though. No other Smash game feels as "off" and Y2K as it does.

The metal Bros was so legit though. I love how they just shut down like missiles, and they just get up ready for the next task. Like they totally have zero empathy for themselves, the player, and probably like it’s whole existence.

Smash 64 had a workshop after closing feel.

11:26 most accurate description I’ve heard about melee’s art style. It’s like seeing those late 90’s/2000’s silicon graphic renders you’d see on posters and magazines come to life. That’s what made me really appreciate melee as a kid

The Announcer VA said that the echo is meant to sound like an Circus Announcer or something along those lines

Melee’s aesthetic was fucking 2000’s to the core. Visually, execution and thought stimulating.
Mf heros locked in a simulation.
It all makes sense now!!

The biggest thing about melee vs all the other games, is that it feels alien rather than fantastical

the Gamecube in general had a vibe no other console could replicate. it truly felt like years of gaming had all led up to Melee, a celebration of everything Nintendo up to that point.

while Brawl was my first Smash game and will always hold a special place in my heart, much of its content owes a debt of gratitude to Melee.

This video is so validating to my younger self, who simultaneously loved and feared this game with no explanation as to why. The continue and game over screens made me run upstairs and hide for a few minutes just to make sure it was over, but I always looked forward to playing the game, despite my fears of it

I've always called it "gamecube era crust"

I love the way that CONEY described it in one of his videos where it doesn't feel like you're playing as Fox or Ness, but like fox.exe and ness.exe being loaded into a stage for battle, as the characters spawn in with a loading animation that all characters use instead of unique intros, which they never do in any other Smash game.

I always felt that Melee's asthetic was different compared to titles before and after it. I'm glad someone took the time to dissect and analyse it.

It gets even better: Melee was supposed to be the first Smash Bros game to feature a third party character because Hideo Kojima was desperately trying to get Snake to be included - the plan fell through though because HAL laboratories was already too far in development to add another character in. Metal Gear Solid 2 wound up being released roughly around the same time Melee did, and the narrative of that installment was all about how digital manipulations of information and sensory details can muddle anyone's perception of reality.

... I dunno what it was about early 2000's surrealism but I want it back

The “Challenger Approaching” screen was absolutely SINISTER and triggered my fight or flight response as a kid 😂

One interesting thing to note about the Fighting Wire Frames is that it's implicated that Master Hand did not create them, but rather some mysterious character or entity that we never see or hear about again, creating false characters, not unlike Tabuu or Galeem/Darkhon.
"Who built the Fighting Wire Frames and to what purpose remains a mystery. They're a simple collection of wires which house a sparse framework of bones and organs that lends them a rather disturbing appearance." - Male Wire Frame trophy description.
This description is present in both English and Japanese versions. There's a possibility that there's a greater evil at play in Melee that never really gets expanded upon.

Don't let the Super Smash Bros. Melee renders distract you from the fact that Princess Daisy had a hidden third eye at the back of her head as one of the trophies.