Super Smash Bros. Melee received critical acclaim from reviewers, most of whom credited
Melees expansion of gameplay features from
Super Smash Bros. Focusing on the additional features,
GameSpy commented that "Melee really scores big in the 'we've added tons of great extra stuff' department". Despite a mixed response to the single-player modes, many reviewers expressed the game's multiplayer mode as a strong component of the game. Similarly,
Nintendo Spins Clark Nielsen stated that "Melee was too fast for its own good", and "skill was more about just being able to wrap your head around what was happening as opposed to really getting into the combat". In regards to the pace of the game,
Edge commented that it even made gameplay features such as "
blocking" redundant, as the player is not given enough time to react to an attack. Despite the new features added to the game, some reviews criticized
Melee for a lack of originality and for being too similar to its predecessor,
Super Smash Bros. Caleb Hale from
GameCritics.com noted that while it was "every bit as good as its Nintendo 64 predecessor" he also felt "the game doesn't expand much past that point". On a similar note,
Edge stated that "it's not evolution; it's reproduction", in reference to a perceived lack of innovation.
Sales When released in Japan, it became the fastest selling GameCube game with 358,525 units sold in the week ending November 25, 2001. This success continued as the game sold more than a million units only two months after its release, making it the first GameCube title to reach a million copies. In the United States,
Super Smash Bros. Melee was the 19th best-selling video game in 2001 according to the
NPD Group. By July 2006, it had sold 3.2 million copies and earned $125 million in the United States alone.
Next Generation ranked it as the fifth highest-selling game launched for the
PlayStation 2,
Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Approximately 4.06 million units have been sold in the country as of December 27, 2007. With a software-to-hardware ratio of 3:4 at one time, As of March 10, 2008,
Super Smash Bros. Melee is the
best-selling GameCube game, with more than seven million copies sold worldwide. It has been estimated that at one point in time 70% of all GameCube owners also owned
Melee.
IGNs reader choice chose it as
Game of the Year,
Electronic Gaming Monthly chose it as Best Multiplayer and Best GameCube Game, and
GameSpot chose it as the Best GameCube Game and tenth best game of the year. During the
5th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the
Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences nominated
Super Smash Bros. Melee for "
Console Fighting Game of the Year" and "
Outstanding Achievement in Animation", which were ultimately awarded to
Dead or Alive 3 and ''
Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, respectively. It also received a nomination in GameSpot''s "Best Music" and "Best Fighting Game" categories.
GameFAQs placed it sixth in a poll of the 100 best games ever and was in the final four of the
"Best. Game. Ever." contest. In the 200th issue of
Electronic Gaming Monthly, the editors selected
Melee as the 92nd most influential game in their "Top 200 Games of Their Time" list, defining
Melee as "Billions of things to unlock, plus Yoshi pummeling Pikachu with a bat". In a similar competition,
Nintendo Power named
Super Smash Bros. Melee the 16th best game ever to appear on a Nintendo console, and selected it as the 2001 "Game of the Year".
IGN named it the third best GameCube game of all time in 2007 as a part of a feature reflecting on the GameCube's long lifespan, citing it as "the grand stage of fighters, much like
Mario Kart is for racing fans".
GameSpy chose it as fourth in a similar list, citing that it had "better graphics, better music, more characters, more gameplay modes, more secrets to discover" in comparison to its predecessor. The game was ranked 58th in
Official Nintendo Magazine's "100 Greatest Nintendo Games Ever" feature. In 2019,
Game Informer ranked it as the 2nd best fighting game of all time.
Edge ranked the game 91st on their 100 best Video Games in 2007. == Legacy ==