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Super Smash Bros. Melee (大乱闘 スマッシュ ブラザーズ DX, lit. Great Fray Smash Brothers Deluxe) is the second game in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series, and one of the initial releases for the Nintendo GameCube in late 2001 in North America and Japan.

Development[]

Development of Melee began almost immediately after the release of the first Super Smash Bros. The game was made within thirteen months on a crunched schedule, which series creator Masahiro Sakurai noted was particularly "destructive" to his own personal life and health. This short development window was due to Nintendo's desire to have the game ready for the launch of the Nintendo GameCube console.

Melee was designed to take full advantage of the Nintendo GameCube's higher processing power and feature many characters who could not be included in the first Smash game. The game was first revealed during E3 2001, where a playable demo version of the game was available.

Melee provided the first exposure to the Fire Emblem franchise to audiences outside Japan, specifically through the inclusion of two playable characters in Marth and Roy. Leif was also briefly considered for inclusion instead of Roy, as the most recent Fire Emblem release at the time of the game's production was Thracia 776, but Roy was chosen as a means to promote the then-still-in-development The Binding Blade.

Initially, the developers considered removing Marth and Roy from the international release, as the Fire Emblem series was purely Japan-exclusive at the time. However, the decision to keep them in releases outside of Japan was made based on feedback provided during the localization process. It is due in part to their representation in Melee that Nintendo moved forward with localizing future Fire Emblem titles for official release outside of Japan, beginning with The Blazing Blade.

Fire Emblem Characters[]

Marth[]

Marth, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem. Wielding his Falchion, Marth is a melee-focused character with no form of ranged attack. Marth's best damage is dealt when he strikes enemies with the tip of his blade.

Marth's model is based on the appearance in Mystery of the Emblem. Melee is also the first game in which Marth is voiced, with his voice is provided by Hikaru Midorikawa, who previously voiced him in the Fire Emblem anime.

Roy[]

Roy, the protagonist of Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, and was included in Melee to promote the new title. Roy is a gameplay clone of Marth, but with his moves adjusted to be slower and more powerful. Roy's weapon, the Binding Blade, deals increased damage from the midsection of the blade, as opposed to the tip of Marth's Falchion.

Fire Emblem Music[]

Fire Emblem[]

When choosing the Temple stage, holding the L and R buttons during the loading sequence will cause the normal Temple soundtrack to be replaced with a medley known as "Fire Emblem". The track is an orchestrated remix of two songs, the first being the "Character Recruitment" theme from Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Mystery of the Emblem, followed by the main theme of the Fire Emblem series. The song also plays while attempting to unlock Marth and Roy, and when playing certain event matches with either character.

Trivia[]

  • In the game's debug menu, Marth's name is "Mars", an alternate romanization of Marth. ADV Films used the name Mars when they released the Fire Emblem anime in North America.
  • This is the first and only game where completion of Regular Match to unlocking Marth is optional.
  • The Fire Emblem franchise is the only franchise in Melee with playable characters, but no stages.
    • The game's debug menu includes a stage named "AKANEIA" but not stage data associated with the entry exists. Based on the name, it would have been set in Archanea. According to game director Masahiro Sakurai, the stage would have taken place on a castle under assault from siege weapons. This idea was later revisited for the Castle Siege stage that first appeared in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but without explicit ties to Archanea or any other specific Fire Emblem setting.

Gallery[]

See also[]

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