JBarwick
Smash Rookie
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2014
- Messages
- 5
Ok before I start, no I don't play Melee (I'll explain why later), and yes I play Smash 4.
Since the days of Azen to the modern day Smashers like Mango, Melee has been a big face in fighting competitions and has changed the opinion of a lot of the people in the fighting game community. Its made many people realize that fighting games do not have to be placed into the Street fighter 2 design to be competitive and have legitimate combos. Melee stated out much like Street Fighter 2 with it having combos more by accident than by design. It made the game last a long time as unlike other fighting games where all the mechanics for the meta are laid out in 20 minute tutorial, Melee players had to discover the techniques like wave dashing and Directional influence. By time Brawl came out the meta was very fleshed out and the community had legends like Ken and PC Chris but the scene for Melee was almost killed and was just revived by the Melee documentary as no one wanted to play a game over 6 years old at the time. The documentary brought back the community however due to showing people the stories of Smashers like Ken and Isai and they now know of the modern day stories being played out like Mangok.. cough! cough! I mean Mango being defeated by Leffen at Apex 2015.
However there is one problem with Melee that will eventually kill the game. For starters, yes the game is too old. It plays on a console from two generations ago, that's ten years ago! Ten! You know the problem with that? How many 15-19 year olds are gonna have a Gamecube with melee. Answer, not many. That means there is no fresh meat coming into the Melee community. Players like me who where ten when Melee came out most likely didn't buy it then as that generation of kids were more likely pushed towards the PS2 as we wanted to play GTA or our parents had given us an old PS1 and stuck to that system. I have never played Melee because it's too dam expensive! £30 for a preowned copy!? Unless Melee is put on the eshop (pretty please Nintendo) I can't imagine the game getting to many new kids. Also despite the nickname, the Smash Gods won't live forever and will retire just like Ken, Isai, Azen, PC Chris and more recently Wobbles did, So that pool of players is gonna get shallower while the Smash 4 community is gonna either get bigger or shrink with Melee. Because let's be honest games like Brawl and Smash 4 would not have a competitive scene if Melee was not so popular at the time of their release, sure there would be niche but not anything like Apex or EVO. So when Melee goes it's more up to either Nintendo or the community to decide whether we continue on with Smash 4. Hey a Project M 2 may come about and bring back the Melee gang but who knows.
I could be wrong I don't know, maybe an eshop release of Melee will keep it alive or the community will alter the modern smash games to make them more combo heavy while being easy to apply (still waiting for a PAL release of PM as I don't wan to hack my wii). Or maybe the mind game heavy Smash 4 will be able to hold it's own even if the game lacks hype like Melee does. I mean a cool combo looks better than a really smart read. Tell me your opinion as I'm sure there are plenty of Melee fans who know more about the community than I do.
Since the days of Azen to the modern day Smashers like Mango, Melee has been a big face in fighting competitions and has changed the opinion of a lot of the people in the fighting game community. Its made many people realize that fighting games do not have to be placed into the Street fighter 2 design to be competitive and have legitimate combos. Melee stated out much like Street Fighter 2 with it having combos more by accident than by design. It made the game last a long time as unlike other fighting games where all the mechanics for the meta are laid out in 20 minute tutorial, Melee players had to discover the techniques like wave dashing and Directional influence. By time Brawl came out the meta was very fleshed out and the community had legends like Ken and PC Chris but the scene for Melee was almost killed and was just revived by the Melee documentary as no one wanted to play a game over 6 years old at the time. The documentary brought back the community however due to showing people the stories of Smashers like Ken and Isai and they now know of the modern day stories being played out like Mangok.. cough! cough! I mean Mango being defeated by Leffen at Apex 2015.
However there is one problem with Melee that will eventually kill the game. For starters, yes the game is too old. It plays on a console from two generations ago, that's ten years ago! Ten! You know the problem with that? How many 15-19 year olds are gonna have a Gamecube with melee. Answer, not many. That means there is no fresh meat coming into the Melee community. Players like me who where ten when Melee came out most likely didn't buy it then as that generation of kids were more likely pushed towards the PS2 as we wanted to play GTA or our parents had given us an old PS1 and stuck to that system. I have never played Melee because it's too dam expensive! £30 for a preowned copy!? Unless Melee is put on the eshop (pretty please Nintendo) I can't imagine the game getting to many new kids. Also despite the nickname, the Smash Gods won't live forever and will retire just like Ken, Isai, Azen, PC Chris and more recently Wobbles did, So that pool of players is gonna get shallower while the Smash 4 community is gonna either get bigger or shrink with Melee. Because let's be honest games like Brawl and Smash 4 would not have a competitive scene if Melee was not so popular at the time of their release, sure there would be niche but not anything like Apex or EVO. So when Melee goes it's more up to either Nintendo or the community to decide whether we continue on with Smash 4. Hey a Project M 2 may come about and bring back the Melee gang but who knows.
I could be wrong I don't know, maybe an eshop release of Melee will keep it alive or the community will alter the modern smash games to make them more combo heavy while being easy to apply (still waiting for a PAL release of PM as I don't wan to hack my wii). Or maybe the mind game heavy Smash 4 will be able to hold it's own even if the game lacks hype like Melee does. I mean a cool combo looks better than a really smart read. Tell me your opinion as I'm sure there are plenty of Melee fans who know more about the community than I do.
