Grabbing a copy of Melee

[Victory.IsMyDestinySSB4]

Finding a copy of Melee is hard. Sometimes it can be near impossible. A used copy will go for $60 on Amazon, and a new copy is worth $200+ dollars. Like, WHAT? I understand that Dolphin is a thing, but I don't have the graphics card necessary. In addition, it just seems like a hassle to engineer. So, what should I do? Should I hack my Wii and get the 20XX pack? Or should I just cough up the $60?

 

[Smashplayer11]

20XX............

 

[Lola Luftnagle]

Well, what did y'all expect? Melee is arguably the most popular Gamecube game after all. ****, Mario Party games are just as popular despite their generally mixed reception and they can be just as expensive. A couple years back, I bought another copy of Melee (fourth one in a span of ten years) from Amazon for about $78 ($49 actually since I had a decent gift card balance remaining). If y'all are aiming for the 20xx pack, I'm praying for you. Be careful not to brick your console. Don't want to take that risk? Then purchase gently-used from Amazon. The price will not be dropping any time soon.

 

[Pauer]

I'd always go for softmodding the wii, especially since you already have one. Even if you didn't have one, a used wii is much cheaper than a copy of melee and you get access to 20XX so it's always worth it imo.
It's very easy to softmod a wii nowadays and there are lots of good tutorials - check out the "Guide" section in the 20XX hack pack thread.
Among the smashers I know, I've never heard of a wii getting bricked and that includes dozens of wiis that never had any issues.

I understand that Dolphin is a thing, but I don't have the graphics card necessary. In addition, it just seems like a hassle to engineer.

Actually, dolphin performance mainly depends on the single core performance of your CPU. Most integrated graphics are enough to run dolphin. Dolphin is also very easy to set up. Check out the dolphin-related guides on smashladder.
I would not recommend playing on it offline because input lag is always an issue. But having a netplay setup can be a good way of getting experience quickly so I recommend looking into it.

 

[Smashplayer11]

I'm just saying I'd go for 20XX if you want the enhanced training, but benefits of live disc is that it can be brought. To tournament (so you get a discount) so if you are new to the game I would go for 20XX to train but later along if you want to take it more seriously than buy a physical copy.

 

[Captain Phobos]

I got mine for $40 about 6 months ago, but I've been playing on Dolphin for much longer. I would just recommend 20XX unless you really want to be a true Melee player.