#Competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee

[spirefan]

From "one more video" to playing Super Smash Bros. for five more minutes during study time, it's easy to cater to our child ego state when high-life priorities are in our current situation. And even if we can't see it now, let's talk on this warming Monday about how honing self-control skills with structured breaks will help us not only for the project due tomorrow but also for getting us ready to catch the many curveballs life can throw at us down the road:

[tgoldwalker]

It’s very funny to me that “no items, final destination, fox only” became a meme in the smash community for making fun of tryhards, cause having played competitively off and on for several years I can pretty safely say FD is one of the least balanced stages allowed in comp, existing as the eternal home of lame gameplans and cheesy bastards

[neomel]

today in Melee

for context: Coinbox is a series of online Super Smash Bros. tournaments organized by Hungrybox

Cody Schwab is currently ranked as the second best player in the world and he has promised to wear a maid outfit for a tournament livestream with many of the best players in the world entering

However!!!! My GOAT Magi has other plans!!!

THE MAIDS ARE FIGHTING

[justjakesfine]

I just watched a 1.5 hour video essay on Hungrybox and his story in the Melee community, and can I just say that despite all of the hate he’s received, I think he’s one of the most inspirational players I’ve ever watched. As a kid whose grown up watching video games get bigger and bigger, and as a person whose aspirations have always been intertwined with video games, whether with entertainment or competition, Juan DeBiedma is one of, if not my number one, inspiration for playing games.

Thank you Hungrybox. And thank you to all of the other competitive players, or streamers, or YouTubers, or game devs, or music composers, or coders. You all contribute to a community that has been able to connect people from everywhere in the world, and it’s truly remarkable how people sometimes forget that.

I can go watch a livestream of an event on the other side of the us, then cut on a video of a game I’ve never heard of made by a person from across the world while I play a game made by a team of people, all of them doing what they love to do, and it’s inspiring.

I grew up being told to be embarrassed by how much I play video games. By being told to “get serious” or to just give up altogether, and it’s always been the friends I met online or the creators I’ve watched my entire childhood that inspire me to keep going.

So join that local tournament. Code that game you think would be fun. Make that mod for a game you enjoy. Record a video to post to YouTube or TikTok. And enjoy yourself. Because no matter what, no matter if you have a “real” job or you do what you love…

You are unique, you are special, and you can do anything you believe you can do.

[cherrynasb]

GOMLX defined Aang's future

There are many certainties in life, death, taxes, and most importantly getting hit by Aang’s charged Up Air. This last certainty couldn’t have been proven more than by Hockey at his recent run at Get On My Level 2024. Featuring top players from around the world, NASB2 @ GOMLX was absolutely staked. Despite how many great players there were, only one could walk away victorious, and that’s exactly what Hockey did. 

TOP 8 - Nickelodeon All Star Brawl 2 - GOML X (Aang Jimmy Spongebob Ember Garfield) NASB2 Tourney

Hockey stuck to what worked as per usual breezing through his first few opponents using his air bending master Aang the whole way through his bracket run. Defeating Ry-X, Spiral, and even Sundra 2-0. However this would only be the first Aang ditto hockey would play as he would go onto top 8 and immediately fight Pixie Gangstereo. Hockey who at one point was coached by Pixie, became the master defeating Pixe Gangstereo 2-0 by sticking to the same consistent simple yet effective game plan he had been using the entire tournament thus far. Hockey’s combo game all revolves around hitting Charged Up Air. Comboing at low percentages with Light Up Air or Up Throw as the starter, and at higher percentages going for UpThrow Up Special Slime Canceled Charge Up Air. Pixe, often resorted for some of the more optimal Aang starter combos one of his signatures being the double grounded Up Charge not working effectively, due Aang being so floaty he actually was able to di and escape the multiple multihits. 

Hockey wouldn’t meet a true challenge until his Winners Final opponent Senpac. These two meet constantly in online weekly tournaments with a respectable 16 sets being played against each other. While Hockey led in sets won over Senpac, it was Senpac who had won 2 of the 3 most recent sets they had played. This set would mark the start of hockey deviating from his gameplan thus far of simple yet effective, as Hockey would start using options like Slime dash Up Special, and the effective “Neutral Skip” Technique. To do this you start by using Aangs Neutral special and then slime canceling into forward strong to have an unpunishable approach + damage option. This opening of different play ended up securing game 1 in what would be an otherwise challenging best of 5 set.

After two dominating games Senpeezy would show signs of life, using Jimmy’s best pet Goddard to help him keep ahead. The various uses of Goddard from using him as an explosive combo extender to having lazer shots snuff out aangs recovery options were just enough for Senpac to keep ever so slightly ahead of Hockey. Forcing a game 5 set that unfortunately ended with Hockey resetting back to the effective basics and just wiping the floor with senpac in game 5. This wouldn’t be the last time we saw the loveable Senpeezy, who made quick work of Revilo2112 with a 3-0 win proving he was the one who deserved to be fighting against Hockey in Grand Finals.

Once again Hockey would start by forcing Senpac into the spincycle that is Charge Up Air, and forcing Senpac down 0-1 into game 2. For Game 2 Senpac would choose to play on Food Dreams. This stage gave him a large enough space with tall enough blast zones to avoid for the most part what Aangs charge up airs intended to do to his stocks. Similar to Winners Finals, Senpac had to get creative with how he landed his own finishing moves using mechanics like slime dash and slime cancel to chip hockey into the blast zone. Finally with each on their last stocks, senpac mid aerial scramble, Senpac hit hockey with a trusty upair SC into light down air. This would tie up the set 1-1 and cause hockey to go to his fav counter pick stage, Pariahs Keep. This flat no platform stage normally is great for extending Aangs combo game thanks to the lack of platforms to interfere. This definitely was proven true once again because as soon as hockey took his first stock from senpac hi just didnt stop. With multiple Zero to death combos dragging senpac from the right to the left with charged up air into up special. In response we saw Senpac answer in game 4 with his own busted stage in Mericle City Valcano. Where Jimmy can thrive thanks to the large stage, triple platforms, and smaller side blaszones aiding in early Kills via Fair Fair Slime dash Fair. This forced a game 5 where Hockey went back to Pariahs Keep and Senpac had to once again fight the bald demon at his strongest. This final game displayed a fully awoken hockey. Finishing stock 1 of senpacs with a trusty neutral skip, only for Senpac to continue to fight and quickly answer with his own Strong charge air, forcing hockey to ONCE again finish a stock of hockeys with strong up airs. These two went back and forth nearly 0 to deathing each other twice before hockey put a stop to it via a smart neutral skip. Hockey followed this up with potentially one of the biggest war crimes ive seen. Comboing Charge up air 4 times into itself across the entirety of PK to finish off senpac and win game 5 last stock against Senpac. 

Overall Hockey had alot to prove with this tournament, he was fighting to secure himself as the best Aang in the world which he did beating the likes of, Pixie Gangstereo, and Sundra, as well as win his first Offline NASB2 Major. There couldn’t have been a better time to do it too considering this was the first of two majors that would bookend this second season of competitive NASB2. Hockey also proved something else to the world that day. He provided proof that Aang is not a pacifist and instead is an evil war criminal. Oh how his ancestors would detest his actions. Roku offers his wisdom to Aang on the Giant Lion Turtle

So there you have it, another major finished for NASB2, what were your fav moments from GOMLX? Make sure to to let us know in the comments below what you enjoyed the most, and don’t forget to like and Subscribe to cherrynasb for more platform fighter content. 

[plaidos]

literally my hottest take that would have me crucified across tgirl tumblr is that super smash bros brawl is the best the franchise has ever been bar none. sorry melee, sorry ultimate, but being an Actual Competitive Fighting Game is way less important to me than fifty minutes of grainy pre-rendered cutscenes of nintendo characters going "Chhehk... not so fast [wags finger]"

[smashy-headcanons]

Pokemon Natures for the Super Smash Bros. Fighters, + some additional headcanons

Making a new post since my old one was from year 1 and a lot of my headcanons since then have changed. Also because I don't want to have to scroll down for ten minutes to glance at a reference sheet.

Raichu (formerly SSB64 & Melee's Pikachu, now the Alolan Raichu found in a Poke Ball): Rash

Brawl-Ultimate's: Brave

Female Pikachu (Ultimate alt, often referred to here as Pikette): Hardy

Pikachu Libre (Ultimate alt): Brave

Jigglypuff: Adamant

Pichu: Jolly

Spiky-eared Pichu: Naughty (canon ability in HGSS)

Mewtwo: Lonely

Red's Ivysaur: Quiet

Red's Charizard: Bold

Red's Squirtle: Jolly

Leaf's Ivysaur: Sassy

Leaf's Charizard: Adamant

Leaf's Squirtle: Timid

Lucario: Quiet

SSB4's Greninja: Hasty

SSBU's Greninja (formerly Ash's Greninja): Hardy (canon ability in Sun & Moon Demo)

Incineroar: Gentle

Additional headcanons:

With the exception of Red and Leaf's teams, nearly all the Pokemon fighters collectively belong to Master Hand & Crazy Hand. They're all shared between the two of them.

Raichu wasn't intended to evolve at any point, it found a Thunder Stone on its own between Melee and Brawl, so finding a new Pikachu ended up being added to the list of pre-Brawl preparations. (They didn't want it on stage because Alolan Raichu wouldn't be revealed for another decade, give or take.)

Most of Raichu's accessories have been passed down to Pikachu, with the exception of its red and green party hats and its green fedora. Pikachu would eventually follow in Raichu's footsteps and give Pichu its goggles from its Melee days.

While it is in a Poke Ball, Pikachu Libre doesn't technically belong to Smash, instead belonging to either Brendan or May (feel free to decide for yourself). Because it enjoys non-standard forms of competition such as Pokemon Contests or Pokken, it was registered to compete in Smash.

Speaking of Brendan/May, a big reason Pikachu Libre was given entry into Smash is out of thanks for taking care of SSB4's Greninja. While Greninja was obtained to be a fighter much like the others, it only really liked to fight with an audience present, so training it outside of official matches was... a pain. It was given to Brendan/May after the Hands realized it was more partial to contests rather than actual battle.

Jigglypuff and Master Hand's relationship is one where you can definitely tell they're close and have been through a lot together over the years, but they also tend to be stubborn which leads to them butting heads a lot when they don't see eye to eye on something. As a result, many are surprised to learn that Jigglypuff is closer with Master Hand than Crazy Hand.

While Mewtwo is the only legendary to not be found in a Poke Ball in Smash, that doesn't mean the other legendaries (and mythicals, if you want to be pedantic) belong to the Hands; they're all released back into the wild after each competition. Mewtwo not being in a Poke Ball was something it specifically requested, because containment in human-built devices was a major source of discomfort.

On a related note, the vast majority of the legendaries are all pretty trusting of the Hands, and while that makes bringing them back for a new entry easy, it also makes stealth a challenge (it doesn't matter how many layers of disguise you have, you're still gonna get weird looks when the god of the sea starts treating you like a familiar pal).

Lucario, much like Ash's Pikachu in the anime, is very strongly opposed to being in its Poke Ball.

Much like Meowth in the anime, Lucario can speak human language using just its mouth, though it's also capable of telepathy.

[dr-spectre]

Man... I dont know how to feel about Splatoon being the only competitive multiplayer shooter that I'm actually good at. (Currently on S but I'm getting up to S+ again.)

Cause who gives a flying fuck that you're good at Splatoon. It's the only online competitive shooter most people don't take seriously because of art style alone. People are impressed when you say that you're good at Overwatch or Valorant or TF2 or something. When you say "Hey I'm good at Splatoon 3." People go "huh? That game is competitive?"

You know how many millions of people don't even know that Splatoon is this deeply in-depth shooter with a proper competitive scene? You know how many people just dismiss the competitive scene and don't even wanna bother looking into it? Everyone thinks it's a fun Nintendo game made for kids, and it is ofc, but, it also has official tournaments held. Something like Super Smash Bros. Melee was made for families yet that game has a long-lasting and highly serious competitive scene.

I just feel sorta bad that I'm only good at the god damn colourful shooter game made for children.

I absolutely suck at Overwatch, the best i got was gold... ON TANK!!! I HATE PLAYING TANK NOW BECAUSE ITS 5V5!!! The role I have more fun in is DPS yet I'm stuck in silver and playing that game gives an overdose of cortisol.

Oh well... at least Splatoon has Callie in it so... maybe being good at Splatoon ain't such a bad thing...

[fraudulent-cheese]

Uh very specific Super Smash Bros related headcanons for all the characters i think would play the game (just imagine they do at a reunion party or during All Stars Playa des Losers)

Harold:

probably the one that got the idea of playing the game

has sunk the most hours in it

isn't great at wave dashing, desperately wants to hide that fact

mains Falco

Is the most invested competitively, like she's actually pretty good at the game.

Knows alot of tricks and exploits.

Has a custom gamecube controller

Sierra:

was super excited by the idea of actually playing with others

mains Jigglypuff

fucking beats EVERYONE. She insists on fighting against Noah whenever he's being annoying just to shut him up.

SPEAKING OF WHICH! she's very aware of the online discourse around the game and knows Noah (and to a lesser extent, Harold) is invested in it. Considering the kind of player Noah is, they formed a very silly rivalry where both of them just argue about character viability until someone else gets them to stop

Noah:

speak of the devil! He doesn't have much in game experience but he does have way too much investment in the online discourse.

he's very annoying about viability and the "Jigglypuff will ruin Melee" discourse that was going on a while back (probably not around the exact time-frame of TDAS but it's close enough idc)

Obviously a Fox main

He will change his mind on the annoying discourse, but only after he lost against Sierra for the 15th time and everyone else was having more fun than him. Depending on how much of the TDI smartass-ery/stubborness you think he'd have left at this point in time this can take more or less time

Sam:

Plays mostly casually, has sunk the most amount of hours outside of Harold (is trying to 100% the game)

Mostly playing to have fun

Favorite stage is Pokefloats

Is pretty good in the earlier Smash Games (he's very good at Smash 64 for instance)

Mains Yoshi and Ice Climber

Does know how to wobble. Do not piss him off, he will trap you in an infinite combo.

Made custom controllers for both him and Dakota

Dakota:

Absolutely the most casual player, only got into it to play with Sam

is pretty ok at the game

wouldn't say she mains anyone herself but she only plays as Peach and Zelda

will insist on playing with items on because it's more fun for her

Kitty:

Actually played competitively for a bit

Is also somewhat aware of the online community and thinks they should fucking chill

...doesn't mean she will, she is taking this just as seriously as Noah

mains Pikachu

Also has a custom gamecube controller because she actually plays Gamecube games outside of just Melee

Is more invested in Brawl than Melee, also played competitive for that game and managed to win a prize at a local tournament once

[diy-fire-water-pups]

Hey guys, I don't know if you guys like competitive fighting games but if you you to play any versions of super smash bros. Which one do you choose? It can be more than one.

If you don't know the versions I'll put them down for you.

Super Smash Bros. (Nintendo 64)

Super Smash Bros. Melee (Nintendo Gamecube)

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo Wii)

Super Smash Bros. (Nintendo 3Ds/ Wii U)

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Nintendo Switch)

Although if you do wanna play them, I recommend you to play the older games to gain experience.

We've played Ultimate at a gaming convention before! It was so chaotic!

We played only a couple matches. It was me, Zuma, Chase and Skye. We spent the first match trying out the controls and skills, learning how to play it. And then...

The second match was absolute cinema. Ah, Skye won. Zuma was the first one out and Chase was blown away right after. Marshall almost won by pure luck, but Skye managed to dodge him and get the Smash Ball, then it was game over for him! Zuma and Chase wanted a rematch but there were a lot of people waiting for their turn, so we had to leave.

[spirefan]

Self-control is an important skill to hone for life-serving benefits. Let's talk about Obi-Wan and how he demonstrates patience being a virtue while being one of the coolest fictional characters ever written on this calm Monday:

[grovelin-green-goblin]

Why Should we Play Glitchy Games?

How many times has this happened to you? You booted up a new game, you got it day one, and it has some glitches, and you aren’t too fond of the graphics, so, as such, you stop playing it and don’t really come back to it. You go back to whatever you were playing before and whenever your friends talk about it with you you always remark on how you couldn’t get past the way the graphics were. Some time passes, and you decide to watch a video on it, and you realize you missed out.

I think we’ve all been there, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of, lots of people judge books by their covers or just by the first few pages. But it doesn’t always have to be this way. Even if a game is unpolished, has poor graphics, or is glitchy, should stick with it. If not for just the sake of seeing what’s on the other side.

Talking about video games, it’s also easy to get caught up in the details. I’ve seen so much discourse about the graphics of games and how powerful the consoles are, it’s almost like the games themselves stop mattering at a certain point. It’s become more of “how close can we get to a movie without just making a movie?” Now, granted, multiple years during the Game Awards, Geoff Keighley and other speakers have spoken about how they hope to see video games get even closer to being like movies. While I’m all for advancements, and granted this is mostly from Playstation and Microsoft’s AAA output, they all play so close to one another, and if that’s not happening, Playstation is remaking The Last of Us again.

So, what’s the point? All these games look the same, and while there’s depth to them, but at the same time, there’s a lack of variety in the actual genres. So many of these games have become samey. There’s not enough variety, but with the actual content of the games, there’s not too much actually covered. So much of this has become a discussion of graphics and less about the games themselves. The discussion, and focus, should start to veer towards the actual content of these games, not just the performance and graphics.

Now, sometimes, the contents of the games aren’t completely polished, but I’ve seen so many stories of people playing these unpolished games and having a great time. A big example is Super Smash Bros. Melee, a game that has become renowned for its glitches such as the Wavedash and L-Canceling along with the roster’s unbalanced nature has made it an enduring classic for two decades, or Pokemon Red and Blue, games that, while a complete experience, are held together with duct tape and a dream, allowing for Arbitrary Code Execution, a way for people to make precise inputs, rewriting the game while the game is being played due to an insecurity in the game’s coding, allowing again for new discoveries to be made and be played for decades. So much so that people are still finding new techniques and the hierarchy of characters' competitive comparisons to one another to this day. Along with games that haven’t aged well or were unpolished, some games are made with glitches in mind, whether for comedy, like Goat Simulator, or simply that a glitch inspires a whole new concept. One of the most influential examples being Street Fighter II, where the designers found that different attacks had ending lags and could also be strung into each other, allowing for concept of combos to be born, and essentially creating the basis for all modern fighting games.

Now some may say that, no, playing unpolished games leaves you with a frustrating experience, with constant crashes and choppy, inconsistent frame rates. An example of this that I can think of is the Steam version of Fallout New Vegas, a game that, in general, is colloquially considered one of the best video games in the Fallout series, if not in its genre. But, due to the game not being developed for PCs first because it was first developed for the PS3 and Xbox 360, the game’s development being 18 months, and how old the game is, the Steam version is riddled with lots of bugs and frequently crashes. Despite this, however, the game still sits with an overall review average of “Very Positive” on its store page. Why is that? People found that, despite all the issues, players still love the game and found ways to not only work around the crashes, whether through toughing it out or modding the game to tighten up the experience, preventing these crashes from happening. This even happens now, with online games, like Fortnite and Fallout 76. These games, for as popular as they are, there’s always glitches that come with new additions and get fixed as they come, and they release with these glitches. People still play them. Even a game that came out three days ago, Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, has framerate drops and a strange lack of anti-aliasing, but guess what? I’m already halfway done with it, and I believe it’ll get fixed within time, whether as a patch or it was intended to work better on whatever this Switch successor will be. The point is, even if these games have these problems, a lot of the people who pull through usually end up at liking games like this.

Of course, this doesn’t work for consoles, but usually these don’t go that far as an issue.

All in all, even if the games aren’t polished or have glitches, it may still be worth it to play them. While, that doesn’t mean you can excuse extremely poor performances, you might find that you can still get enjoyment out of them, and can still be worth your time.

[smashhole]

If you've ever played Immaculate Grid (or similar games like PokeGrid), here's a version all about Melee trivia. Fun!

Immaculate Melee is a Super Smash Bros. Melee trivia game inspired by the baseball triva game Immaculate Grid. Select a player for each box that matches the criteria for both its row and column category. Each player can only be used once per puzzle. For each puzzle, you are given 4 stocks. Making an incorrect guess will cause you to lose a stock. The game ends once you lose all of your stocks or you complete the puzzle.

[mokeymokey]

F zero X deserves to be an esport honestly.... It's like honestly such a shame that racing games have become this like marginal part of gaming culture such that the only ones that see competitive play are sim racers which have more of a social & cultural overlap with real motorsport than with the rest of video games. In another more beautiful world they play f zero X at competitions to this day alongside super smash bros melee and so on

[white-guy-energy-swag]

white guy energy swag round 1 battle 1

In this corner we have!

Super Smash Brothers!

while it is ultimate being shown here, do not worry. Melee is not forgotten for having a chokehold on the competitive fighting scene for a long time. Known to be either super nice when you play with family, or hell when you try to win a movie ticket from the local library. What is super smash bros but a game that is E for everyone, including white boyus

In the other we have!

Fight Club

This movie has changed a generation, if not two. This movie has changed how white guys everywhere interact with media and annoy their film studies professors. Do not bring this up on reddit if you aren't acquitted with the art of white boyism.

[noitsnotkyle]

there's honestly a lot of games i want to improve at and learn.

street fighter, of course, is a big one

super smash Bros melee too.

guilty gear strive is also the list, I'm fucking stoked for venom to be added

Tekken is also on the list, but the primary thing i want to spend time on there is really just learning to move. once i get that down then I'll practice more serious stuff like learning throw breaks and such

competitive pokemon is also there, but there's so many mons that i just have no idea what they do. when I'm playing this i have to really work on reminding myself that I'm learning. definitely am only learning vgc style (bring 6 pick 4) doubles though, i think it's the most fun format

Tetris is there too, it's just a great game and i want to be able to play competently and be able to read the screen quickly.

trackmania i just want to improve my car control, it's a really fun game and i just want to be competent on any surface.

i also want to get competent at the attack on Titan tribute game - the sequel released and the control is basically identical to the original - it's so fun and having good movement makes it even more fun.

and there's also Gunz the duel. tbh I'm not sure if i want to play against people or just learn K-Style, but it looks incredibly fun.

then there's marvel and 2xko and fighterz that i want to get some basic competence in too.

then on top of those i have my ffxiv character to maintain and raid to keep up with, as well as my wow character to keep up for mythic+

then on top of all that is the single-player/casual multiplayer games i wanna play. i think i just need to dedicate specific learning time and playing time. i think i feel like i don't have enough time when in actuality i do and I'm just paralyzed by choice