the Smash Bros Diaries Week 5 – Super Smash Bros Melee (Gamecube)

This week was very frustrating. The first night I continued to try to beat the Ness Event Match 36 and the Jigglypuff Event Match 39. No luck. On Nights Two and Three I gave up on that and decided to just try each event match three times to see I had any better luck. I did not, though I did get a little closer to completing the Jigglypuff Event by just grabbing items. And I was able to defeat one Pichu in the Event Match 48 Pikachu and Pichu.

On Night Five I tried three times on about eight event matches. Then I turned the game off. On Night Six I played the last four Event Matches about three times each. Got a little closer to winning a few of them. On the last night I didn’t play any Event Matches, because at that point I didn’t want to beat one and then have to play the others more.

The remaining Events Matches are not fun in any way. Playing them started to feel like a chore. In the previous Event Matches at least I felt I was getting better and progressing; in these remaining ones the conditions are so annoying and the CPU so perfect I felt like I was getting worse each time I played them. Or that I was just getting a little better at figuring out the “trick” of the Event Match, not actually improving in the game.

On Night Two I thought I’d check out the VS Mode against the CPU. Before I did so I turned it back to the default settings. I did appreciate that I had turned off certain items years ago and they remained turned off. You have to edit the items each time in Smash 64, but that might be because I’m playing on the Virtual Console. I turned on all items, set them to medium, and played nine 2-Minute KO fests against the CPU. Started with a Level 1 CPU and worked up to a Level 9 CPU. I played as Ness as per usual. I was able to defeat the levels 1- 8 CPUs, though sometimes it was only by 1 Stock. I lost to level 9 CPU. What struck me about playing on “default” settings is how much just staying alive on the level and grabbing items contributed to winning. I don’t know if this is just because I’m playing it now, but Melee seems to have more stage effects than any other Smash game. Or maybe it just had the most where you can’t turn off stage effects? Anyway, the Levels 1- 8 CPU did progress a little better than they did in Super Smash Bros. I was able to actually tell the computer was progressing. Playing against Level 9 CPU was insane though. I randomed into a Yoshi and it was just impossible to play against, no human could non-stop perfect input commands like that.

After that, I headed over to Training Mode to practice with Ness. I do enjoy the addition of the side B special move, which started in Melee. Ness was given the PK Flash as his neutral special and PK Fire was assigned to side B. I didn’t really look at advanced techniques, but I was able to get some combos in. In terms of recovery via, the PK Thunder, it’s pretty trash in this game, to be honest.

After training, I went back to VS Mode to play as Ness against Level 9 CPUs in “tournament conditions”. Turned all Items off and set Stocks to four. Then I played as Ness on every “tournament-legal” level I have unlocked. So all of them but Final Destination. And I got demolished. I just could not react fast enough against the frame perfect CPU. Long story short, Ness is bad in this game, I’m even worse with Ness in this game.

On Night Three I went in to Training Mode again, this time with Fox. As Fox is universally accepted as the best competitive character I want to be able to use him as my secondary. I tried to practice advanced techniques with him but was really struggling with it. A lot of them are hard to recreate in Training Mode. I really need to get better at teching, smash directional influence, and tech-chasing but it’s really hard to practice those in this game. The CPU attacks are very slow in Training Mode and just basic moves. Playing against a Level 9 CPU in an actual match, their attacks are too overwhelming to really practice against.

After Training Mode and attempting to practice the more advanced moves, I played through the tournament legal stages again against Level 9 CPUs, this time with Fox. I did better with Fox; I never won but didn’t get 4-0’d again. I’m really bad with Fox’s Up B Recovery though, I kept hitting the bottom of the stages instead of the ledges.

On Night Six, I played some more competitive VS against Level 9 CPUs. The last two nights I eschewed the WaveBird for a normal wired GameCube controller. I was able to react better but that may have been in my head.

Using Fox again, I had much better success. I was able to get a few combos in. And I was able to actually get a win against Bowser. However, I think that’s because the CPU would stand there and soak up blaster shots while trying to hit with the Fire Breath from too far away. I was also able to beat Pichu on the second attempt, though I feel like I can chalk that up to the CPU messing up using Agility to recover a couple of times.

On Night Seven, I continued to practice competitive, with both Ness and Fox. Ness is still really bad, his reactions are too slow in this game, and the CPU’s kept gimping my offstage recoveries. I was only able to defeat Yoshi, but that was because he kept jumping offstage for no apparent reason. I finished out the week playing through the tournament legal stages again with Fox. I didn’t win any of these matches, but I was generally getting the CPU down to 1 or 2 Stocks. And I feel like I’ve gotten the hang of Fox now and could play him pretty reliably against my friends.

To be honest, I’m glad to be through with Melee and don’t think it’s as much fun as Super Smash Bros. I felt like I gained no or very little traction on the Event Matches despite playing them over and over again. I struggled with some of the advanced techniques introduced in this game. I feel like I improved my skills in this game, but I also feel like to it’s much harder to improve at this game than the N64 game or Ultimate. When I play Level 9 CPU’s in Super Smash Bros. I feel like I’m continuously improving, and also I’m able to react. In Melee I don’t feel like improvement is possible playing against Level 9 CPUs, they are too perfect and I’m never going to be able to react quickly enough.

Right now if I was ranking the games it would be Super Smash Bros. and then Super Smash Bros. Melee. I’m just done with Melee and don’t have any desire to play it anymore. I don’t have the same fatigue with the 64 game, I think I would still enjoy playing it. Though I may be running into Smash Bros. fatigue in general

Or maybe it’s just nostalgia and realism mixed. I played much more Super Smash Bros. with my friends than Melee. It was like Goldeneye, just one of those games we played all the time. By the time Melee came around we didn’t play as much video games period and had moved on to other types of games when we did play.

And realistically, there are people 10 years younger than me that have been playing Melee since it came out. I’m never going to be able to compete with them. I’ll probably never be able to compete in any of the Smash Bros. seriously, but I think I could go a tournement and at least have fun while losing two games in Ultimate and 64 if I keep practicing.

Of course, if I was playing 64 on the N64 with that insane controller I might feel differently. I may have to dig out the old N64 eventually and find out.