The reasons you've stuck with Melee.

[victra♥]

Now, I don't want anything like "cause brawl sucks lol" responses, I want something deeper than that. I want to know what keeps you going, even if you're not that great. I want to know why you decided to put in your melee disc instead of your brawl disc. This especially for the newer players who've stuck with Melee after starting off with Brawl. As we all know, Brawl and Melee players alike, Melee takes a long time to become good at and even longer to become great. When I see Brawl players pick up and stick to melee when it's so difficult to learn the ATs, it really warms me up. I have a lot of respect for these people. There are 3 people in Alberta who started playing Melee roughly around August, and they've been sticking with it since then. Not only that, but they've already gotten really good. One of which (Halcyon.Days) got 25th place at CAST4 and went toe to toe with a lot of the veterans. Even Fastfox who's been retired for nearly a year, came to CAST4 and did well. There are a handful of people in Alberta who have quit because it was too hard for them to keep up, or that they've been absent from tourneys for too long, but it's people like Fastfox and the others I mentioned earlier that inspired me to make this thread.

I've seen a lot of posts from anti-brawl players, and their main reason for preferring Melee over Brawl is because of wavedashing, or hitstun (and in turn combos). My one and only reason for liking Melee over Brawl is because of the fluidity. Through my smash career, i've gone through a lot of mains. I've finally secured myself with Fox as my main in Melee mainly because i'm giving so much options to move freely and quickly across the stage. Thanks to wavelands, and DDing, I'm given so many spacing options which are otherwise extremely limited in Brawl. I can live without the combo's, but it's this movement, this freedom, that really makes me love Melee. That, and I love the community. =3

So, i'd like to hear the opinions of you guys. Did you ever go through depressions where you just wanted to quit but didn't? Why do you play Melee instead or along side with Brawl?

 

[Cinder]

My main reason? It's mainly because it has a more fluid feel to it, as well as combos...

Actually, I wrote a little mini-essay once...lemme find it real quick...

At first, I enjoyed Brawl...I won't deny that...I wanted to be a great Lucario user and make a name for myself...but then, as I continued to play, I felt like something was missing...no matter what I did, or what kind of "combos" and things I pulled off, I never felt satisfied...I never got that feeling of pure ecstasy I did when I did amazing shine combos with Falco or the "Stairway to Heaven" (I think that's what it was called) with Doc...I usually refer to it as that "OH MY GAWD DID I JUST DO THAT?!" feeling...at that point, I switched back to Melee (albeit a little late compared to a lot of my friends, who feel the same way I do)...I didn't hate Brawl, but I stopped playing it...

The rest was removed due to possibility that it may set off a flamewar :B

And add Dair-->Falcon Punch on spacies to that :B

 

[Kevin]

2 words

Meta Knight

 

[-taco]

Well I'm one of those "isn't great" players that stuck to Melee rather than Brawl. The level of excitement is different when compared to Brawl matches and tournaments. I hadn't started going to tournaments or actually smashed with other players prior to Brawl's existence. It was always friends from school and no one else. With Brawl's release I saw it as an opportunity to be a part of the community and finally attend tourneys and say how I faired against the SoCal greats.
I knew basic Melee but never really understood what it ment to really play Melee until I played outside my little group. I actually contacted Atlus on the boards (a well known Melee player here in the 818) and he agreed to let me come over and play Melee with him Nes & Morb. I obviously got ***** but enjoyed learning new ****. It was crazy. A few days after that a local 818 tourney was underway and of course DSF took the money...we had some good Power Ranked players come and the environment was very new to me. Atlus brought a Melee set up and I got to play MikeHAZE and Lovage in some friendlies along with a few other Melee casuals...once again, it was fun.
I started attending Pat's smashfest/Melee Mecca and wow did I suck...lol.
But after countless losses I still come back for more...
I've attended about 4 Brawl tourneys with a 30+ minimum.
I got no kicks...other than hanging out with new friends...I saw no reason to really attend them...Sure Brawl can be fun sometimes...but I don't get that crazy *** adrenaline rush from Melee.
I've been putting off not traveling for Melee because I was discouraged...(partly still am)
But I really gata get out there to get better.
I wana be a part of the Melee Revival in 09.

 

[Zodiac]

Melee is just a much better game, Im not just saying that comparing it to brawl but ALL games, Among the world of video games it is built nearly perfect from top to bottom, the gameplay shines, the music and all audio is GREAT, the level selection is soooo varied, you have so many different game modes its amazing. When it came out it was amazing, and it is still amazing till this day. That is what a normal gamer would see. now us smashers see everything beyond the surface of melee, the mindgames, the l-cancel's, the fluidity the advanced techniques, the mind games applied with advanced techniques. It goes on and on and on and on.

Now anyone who has even scratched the surface of the deeper gameplay of melee will look at brawl and know, this game is slow, its like they worked to reverse engineer melee, (Which is exactly what sakurai did) I stuck with melee for of all of these reasons.

 

[Vts]

cus i'm addicted to cartoon characters comboing and the fact nana is so hot i can't look away.

edit- and there isn't a game with this much depth out.

 

[Farguade]

For myself, I stick with it for a few reasons, but namely one. There is seemingly no bar to hit when you think about your level of play. This is a game with a huge learning curve, as there's so many things for you to experience and grasp. It's truly amazing when you see it come together in people like M2k, Ken, Isai and Hugs. And you know what? Those amazing people STILL make mistakes in there game play, still have room to grow, and still have the possibility of "one upping" themselves. You don't see that in many games these days, at least in my opinion, the only thing i can think of to rival it would be Starcraft. I for one love both of them to an extreme level.

And also, who doesn't like watching a classy falcon running around unleashing some massive combos

 

[Discolicious]

Ive played melee for 2 years and I'm still pretty mediocre but I learn something new every time I play when they are hundreds of different possibilities after every move...seeing what works and seeing what makes me eat a smash lol

EDIT - and CF's knee, the shines, sheiks fair and samus's smash missiles

 

[Doggalina]

In Melee, new and exciting stuff happens every match. Crazy **** happens on a consistent basis.

Also, comebacks are possible. In Brawl, defense is overpowered. In Melee, a 3 or 4 to 1 deficit can be overcome with good plays. In Brawl, huge deficits are really hard to overcome.

I also feel that Melee has more character variety than Brawl. Sure, Brawl has more characters, but Melee has at least just as many tourney-viable characters. They all play differently, as well. Falco, Fox, Falcon, Marth, Sheik, Samus, Peach, ICs, Doc, DK, Jiggs. They all have distinct playstyles. In Brawl, playstyles are less distinct (although there are some VERY unique characters such as Snake.)

EDIT: Added my sig for another reason.

 

[The Immortal Sir NZ]

Because i can't practice my Mewtwo in Brawl.

 

[Anonymous.]

The community is the best out of any game I've played competitively.

I've played many, many games in my time, may I add.

 

[Backward]

I wrote an article about it. It's in my signature.

I want to pick up Melee again.

 

[EPsilon933]

...Because relentlessly attacking is **** fun in Melee.

 

[Radiation]

I recently started playing Melee again (a week ago) and I just got my *** handed to me for about five hours by some pretty amazing players. I'm addicted to it again (shame I don't have anyone to play with consistently). The ridiculous amount of reaction time, the life-or-death feeling you constantly get, the incredible speed, the huge amount of practice and skill that all come together... I don't think anything can reach that. I dunno, I think if I became ridiculously good the game might deteriorate into running around until I get a 0-death combo, but I don't see that happening at any point in my lifetime, really.

I dunno, really. There's a lot of different factors, but it's really freaking deep. And if any game can make me have fun even when I'm LOSING and not make me think "wow that was lucky/********/cheap" and instead make me think "wow, how I just lost was AWESOME" then it's definitely a game I really like.

Talking purely about the game, the community's ridiculously nice to boot.

 

[Fly_Amanita]

I should first note that I started going to Melee tournaments in late 2007. When Brawl came out, I was disappointed that a lot of really great players stopped attending Melee tournaments, but I felt that I still had so much room for improvement. The SoCal Melee community was still fairly strong in spite of being smaller, so I was able to keep improving. For a while, though, starting around June, I started playing Brawl more.

It was pretty enjoyable, but after a while it just started to bore me. I realized that a lot of the enjoyment I derived from tournaments had more to do with the recognition I got as a player, the competitive atmosphere that big tournaments always have, and my friends who also attended tourneys than the game itself.

I started entering Melee tourneys again recently because when I do well, I feel like I actually accomplished something. There's so much more variety, so many more seemingly plausible reactions to any given situation, and a much more notable element of stage control in Melee than in Brawl (especially with ICs) that I actually need to think about what I can do and I need to be creative to get around certain tactics. In Brawl, I just spammed blizzard, shield, squall hammer, and looked for grab opportunities, and that alone got me really far in tourneys. In Melee, I can do so much more and I just can't get away with having a really simplistic playstyle, and that is why I keep playing Melee.

 

[jugfingers]

L-Canceling.

and the ability to travel quickly and smoothly in any direction.

wavedashing, wavelanding fastfalling, doublejumping quickly etc.

 

[Keblerelf]

I didn't like how Brawl was so floaty. Are there even such things as fastfallers in brawl?

 

[Foxy]

Melee is the one game out of many, many games I've played, single- or multi-player, that has fascinated me constantly since release. I've played it for 7 years, and for the first 5 of those I played constantly, but only with my sister, and while we were competitive with each other, we didn't know any advanced techs; even at that level, we never stopped playing and beat the game 100%.

The next two years I spent getting into the competitive scene and I can absolutely say that Melee is the best competitive game I have ever played. It's almost perfect: while there are countless broken things, tech is difficult enough that matches contain boatloads of variety and ingenuity, and you can always think of something new to do. There's an amazing balance between mental and technical skill, and it seems that there will NEVER be a point where I can't keep learning and improving.

I still play for about three hours a day alone, and I go to all the tournaments I can. After 7 years of obsessive play, I'd say that means it's a darn good game. The engine is simply perfect.

I'm sure we all feel some kind of magic when we play Melee. It just feels right. How could we give that up?

 

[Binx]

I'm gonna say that I stuck with melee because there always feels like there is a huge consequence if I mess up, I play at a pretty competitive level with some of the best people in my state so when I do a predictable attack, or I miss an L cancel, I die within seconds, I get grabbed, chain thrown / tech chased, edge guarded and killed. And it's fun.

The speed and freedom of movement is awesome and contributes to the adrenalin feeling, I love being able to dash dance, pulse dance, short hop forward waveland back and juke my friends, it's crazy fun. I also love tech chasing and combos, up throw my friend on to a platform, wave land up, up smash him to the next platform, predict his get up attack and up air him out of it and then again for the kill on Yoshi's you just can't do that in brawl.

Also when I play other fighting game, including brawl I feel like I don't have options, the only other fighting game I don't get that feeling in is GuiltyGear but I still don't really enjoy the game as much, probably because I don't want to learn FRC and things.

 

[NickTheGreat]

I didn't like how Brawl was so floaty. Are there even such things as fastfallers in brawl?

I don't think so

I guess I stayed playing Melee because it was faster paced, but i've always seemed to like the older games better then the newer games.

 

[metaXzero]

I stick with Melee because enjoy being on the offensive. I like approaching, which you usually can't do in Brawl.

Spoiler

But I hate Melee Kirby very much

 

[RaynEX]

The community is the best part about melee, hands down. Its so fun chilling with everyone and meeting other players that love the game like you do. Traveling and seeing what melee has done and how it has formed other communities is really, really interesting too.

The game itself is obviously amazing. There is no other fighting game like it. Its different to the point where we should just be thankful we were exposed to it at all.

 

[mostwins]

I have not picked up a smash game before Brawl when it first came out, and i did only because my friends told me it was a good idea, I played it casually for a month then put it down.Then my brawl sat around collecting dust for the next several months, that all changed when I played my girlfriends brother, he showed me the competitive side of brawl and I was amazed. For the whole summer i brawled all the time and lurked around the boards for any tips to improved my game. That was the story of my summer, towards the end i decided to play Melee not expecting to enjoy it much, the SPEED of this game is so intense i would never even dream of popping Brawl in again and going into slow motion.

Sorry for going on for too long, but my point is a week of Melee made me hate a whole summers worth of fun i had playing Brawl

 

[KirbyKaze]

Nair shine.

10chars

 

[ridikulus]

The community is the best part about melee, hands down. Its so fun chilling with everyone and meeting other players that love the game like you do. Traveling and seeing what melee has done and how it has formed other communities is really, really interesting too.

The game itself is obviously amazing. There is no other fighting game like it. Its different to the point where we should just be thankful we were exposed to it at all.

^^^^^^^
i like melee for this reason.
i hate the brawl community.
also, its the fact that i have people like him and a bunch of my other friends that keep me playing XD
i've its like a goal that has nothing to do with brawl XD the competition,
like a month or 2 ago, i took 2 sets from raynex's falco, it may not be much since he mains fox, and he was probably sandbagging, but i saw for once how far i've come since i first started playing melee, it was a milestone. i dont see any goals in brawl. or at least none that
i can acheive while having a good time w/ cool people XD
i just want to improve, i want to travel, and improve, while meeting cool people and playing a game i love =D

meleeee> bbawrls

(also melee is so much deeper, its ridiculous what brawler players consider technical and hard, it honestly makes me feel dumb for practicing things in melee when i could just go play brawl and not have to lmfao )

 

[wisl]

I dunno really.. Just the past few weeks, I've been to my first two tournies, and I got crushed by almost anyone there. But i still had a lot of fun, and the game and community keeps me interested.

When I first started 3 months ago I wrote this and that has something to do with it too:
"I've got a different perspective on melee than most of you guys. I'm just starting with melee, because I love the long history it has. I love watching games from old tournaments and looking for threads about them, and seeing how excited people were about matches between big names. So I bought a gamecube, gave up on the wii, and picked up melee."

 

[halcyon.days]

I will admit, I don't mind playing brawl. It's just that I prefer Melee over brawl.

The speed, the combos. Everything makes melee just that more enjoyable. Also the fact that if you make one slight mistake, it can mean your death.

 

[Blea Gelo]

because the game is to deep, and i love smash? i dont know, i just want to keep playing, i just love playing this game..

 

[Proverbs]

This (Originally posted by me in Scar's debate):

I wish to speak on the subject of Melee vs. Brawl. I don't have any credentials, I'm not ridiculously well known here, and I don't have 2000+ posts, but maybe that's why I have the right to speak on this. I suppose I'd like to say this because I am the average player (although I'm moving closer to doing tournaments as of recently).

Let me begin by saying what I think we have already established:

Melee is more competitive than Brawl. I would even go so far as to say that it is more fun than Brawl (Although that is more subjective).

The thing is about Melee is that from 64 to Melee, in only two years, they added a ridiculous amount to the game. They added airdodging, downthrows, upthrows, spotdodging (I think downsmashes too), forward special, and lightshielding. That's just off the top of my head, and only the things that are immediately recognized from playing the game (Basically I'm excluding wavedashing and the like here).

What did they add from Melee to Brawl (which, by the way, was a span of seven years)? About nothing. They changed airdodges and they added stooljumping. That's all I can think of--and tripping, let's not forget that. Otherwise they just let you grab the ledge from both sides and there isn't much else.

But they took out lightshielding, l-cancelling, non-fastfalled d-airs with the c-stick, and I think the ability to let go of the edge with no DI by hitting the c-stick away from the stage. This I don't even understand. They actually removed some things from Brawl that were in Melee. Even on the simplest level, there are less options in Brawl. That's not me talking about wavedashing or whatever. I'm talking about with just the very basics, the game has less options.

And to go deeper? No combos (almost), no wavedashing (I usually am really annoyed when people mention this one, but I have to admit it. After playing Melee again I do realize that wavedashing allows for just even more options), no DECENT chainthrows (realize that basically all of them are absolutely ridiculous. Need I mention the release grab?), and no directional airdodging. While regular airdodging seems like it would make the game more realistic or whatever, it just detracts from the game. Directional airdodging made your approaches less predictable and added much easier wavelanding than the wavelanding in Brawl (which is basically just doing non-swordplant aerials on slopes. Big whoop). And approach strategies in general are lacking in Brawl (in quantity, quality, and depth).

Melee demands more of the mind. That's not my evaluation at the end of this--I actually feel that my brain is more involved and that I have to THINK more when playing Melee. I like to think, how about you? I don't want to play some mindless game. If it's not challenging mentally, why play? Let me even rephrase that. If it's not stimulating mentally, why play? They're about the same thing, really.

So we've heard the technical side. What about the 'casual players' ? I myself mostly only play among my friends, and let me say: I have a lot more fun with Melee. Because it gets me more involved I flip out more when I lose in ridiculous ways (which is part of the fun) and feel more satisfied when I win (Or when I, even, pull of combos ;p ). The game is just...better. I can still have fun with Brawl every now and then, and might even do a Brawl tournament or two for fun. But, I do have to say, Brawl leaves me dissatisfied and bored.

So, now I wonder, what are we still debating? I don't think there is anyone who can say and prove that Brawl is or ever will be more deep or more competitive than Melee. It's pretty easy to see the game is more fun than Brawl. As I said earlier, I still play the game, but I enjoy it far less than Melee (and this is coming from a guy who not only played solely Brawl for the first few months after it came out, but also didn't even want to go back to Melee even if it were more competitive).

I have more to say, but I think it doesn't even need to be added. Melee is an amazing game, and Brawl is a good game in its own right.

However, Brawl does not have the competitive level, the longevity, or the allure that Melee has retained for the full seven years it has been out.


And with that, I'm out.

At the time I posted this I decided to mostly play Melee again and only play Brawl occasionally. Soon after I decided I never wanted to play Brawl again. Playing Melee again made me see the light.

And also this (also originally posted by me in Scar's debate):

I don't think has been pointed out yet, and figured it needed to be.

"Nintendo's Best in 4-Player Action" Huh, I wonder why Brawl doesn't say that...

 

[DtJ Jungle]

trufax proverbs trufax

 

[iMichael]

Melee's cover looks way better to be honest and I'm not just saying that because I like it more. I do like how Link and Mario are more serious on the Brawl cover though...

 

[Gigan X3]

^I Agree.

I've Stuck with Melee because of:

Mewtwo: Even though he's bottom tier, he still owns anyone from Brawl
Faster Gameplay: Allows better combos and more strategy.
No Tripping: No Tripping.

I still have fun with Brawl every now and then just because Wolf and Snake are badass and the soundtrack is awesome.

 

[KosukeKGA]

cause brawl sucks lol

 

[Fletch]

And also this (also originally posted by me in Scar's debate):

No Falcon on the cover is fail, no wonder Brawl sucks.

 

[smash superstar]

To me....Competitively at least, after about 5 months straight of brawl it just got boring...


It wasnt growing, where you look at melee and even after 7 years it is still growing.

So that is why I switched back to melee, because it is obviously the more competitive game to play

 

[goateeguy]

i played brawl for 2 weeks then went back to melee. it just plain wasn't as fast as melee. i'd learned to like the pace of the matches, and when it takes like 5 seconds to fall (no, not fall, float) to the ground with someone who was a fast-faller in melee, you know it's gonna be really slow, and the insane amount of attack lag is going to make comboing incredibly difficult.

combos are the fun parts, the parts where you get to intelligently and skillfully make a mockery of your opponent. without those the game isn't the same.

oh, and items are allowed in brawl tournaments xP

 

[Da Shuffla]

Melee... The feeling of accomplishment I get from mastering a tech is truly rewarding. But mostly, it is the speed. The thrill of pushing yourself to the limit. Mastering every technique you learned, and using the combos you know are capable of, and maybe pulling some off-mid match that you did not know you were, is an amazing felling. You have to know different matchups, stages, percentages, and pit this knowledge against someone else. Melee is like speed chess, on steroids. The game rewards knowledge, creativity, and technical precision. All of this at an insane speed. I love Melee.

 

[DtJ Jungle]

you could write a poem

 

[Corigames]

The first time I picked up Melee I didn't yell at it or fight it, it just flowed. Going into it competitively became a battle of who could tame the white water rapids of the game. Who can flow the best wins. The first time I played Brawl, it felt like I was fighting the game instead of the players.

Obviously, I came back immediately.

 

[DtJ Jungle]

I got da flo doe