Super Smash Bros. Melee

Super Smash Bros. Melee is a fighting game for the Nintendo GameCube. It is the sequel to Super Smash Bros., a popular Nintendo 64 fighting game. The game features many popular Nintendo characters battling both each other and the ultimate boss, Master Hand.

Link
Link in Super Smash Bros. Melee appears to be the same Link in Ocarina of Time, armed with the Master Sword and the Hylian Shield.

Many of Link's moves in Melee have been taken from previous Zelda games. Link's down and up aerial attacks are the Down Thrust and Up Thrust seen in The Adventure of Link and his up+B is the Spin Attack from the many Zelda games. If the spin attack is done while in air you rise which is useful when trying to return after being knocked of the stage.

Some moves include items such as: B (Bow), down+B (Bomb), forward+B (Boomerang) and grab (Hookshot). It's hard to tell which versions of the items Link use, but it's fair to assume that they are all from Ocarina of Time because the models of both Link and the Hookshot strongly resembles the models used in said game. Link's bombs are small and explode upon impact which differs from the way bombs look and work in Super Smash Bros. and Ocarina of Time. The Boomerang can be aimed up or down and is now Link's forward+B instead of standard B which it was in Super Smash Bros. The Hookshot allows link to grab enemies at bigger distances than most other characters. However, if the Hookshot misses, Link has more after-move lag (the amount of time it takes to recover from using a move). Link can also use the Hookshot to attack while in air and if he hits a wall with it he can hang from it.

Link is the only character in the game besides Young Link who has the ability to make a forward smash and then perform a second forward smash (with slight difference for the first) without lag in-between.

Young Link
In Super Smash Bros. Melee Young Link's design is directly carried over from. In Melee, Young Link can use weapons such as the bow and arrow and is faster on foot compared to his older counterpart.

Zelda
Zelda is a light weight fighter and uses each of the spells featured in Ocarina of Time for both offence and defence. Zelda uses a ranged version of Din's Fire and gains extra distance using Farore's Wind which flashes Zelda to another nearby position on the map. Pressing Down+(B) simultaneously will cause Zelda to transform into Shiek.

Sheik
Sheik is the transformation of Zelda. Sheik is much quicker and less "floaty", at the cost of strength. Pressing Down+(B) simultaneously will revert Sheik back to Zelda.

Ganondorf
Ganondorf is an extremely slow but powerful character. His jumps are very low, making reaching high points difficult. His moveset is copied heavily from Captain Falcon, and the moves have been slowed down greatly; however, if they connect with their opponent, the effect is likely to be devastating.

Tingle
Tingle only makes a cameo appearance in the Great Bay stage of Super Smash Bros. Melee and is not a playable character. As in Majora's Mask, one can burst his balloon which acts as a small platform until popped. Upon landing, he will do his dance and eventually blow up a new balloon. He also appears as a trophy.

Characters
There are 25 characters in Melee, 12 of which are unlocked from the start, including Link and Zelda. Many of these characters, however, are "clones": characters with very similar moves and stats, making them essentially the same character, which makes them appear to be unnecessary additions.

Stages

 * Great Bay
 * Hyrule: Temple

Fighting Wire Frames
The Fighting Wire Frames were created solely for the use of testing the player's abilities to perform well under various settings. Of particular interest is the fact that the female wire frames is almost identical to Zelda, though there is no dress, skin, special attack moves and so forth.

The fighting wire frames lack the ability to use Special (B-Button) moves. They are surprisingly light-weight and cause little damage under regular settings.

However, the players should be wary of the Cruel Melee settings. Not only are the items switched off for this mode, but the Fighting Wire Frames come at the player with a passion to see him/her bleed, which is rarely seen in CPU opponents. Few can claim to have conquered more then 20 of these at a time, and those who can are true Smash players.

On a side note: Fighting Wire Frames are quite incapable of thinking for themselves and tend to stick in gangs then go it solo.

Re-releases
Super Smash Bros. Melee is one of many GameCube games that got a Player's Choice re-release, bringing the cost down to $20 USD.

The game was also re-released in a special bundle, packaged with a GameCube system, on August 15, 2005. It was priced the same as a normal GameCube system.