Super Smash Bros. Melee is an incredibly popular game, with people playing it even to this day. So it's unsurprising that, even 20 years after it's release, new and unexpected Smash Bros. records are still being broken.
The Super Smash Bros. series is well-known in part for two things: its fun and chaotic fighting mechanics, and its interesting and clever credits sequences. And Super Smash Bros. Melee is no exception. Melee made the credits sequence a fast paced, chaotic first-person space shooter where the names of the various creators of the game fly past the screen and the player has to shoot them with a laser beam.
The minigame isn't easy though, as the credits for Super Smash Bros. Melee have 190 names, and for 20 years, no one has recorded themselves getting all 190. Until this week, when a Smash Bros. player named Martin Zarate managed to do it and put his recording up on YouTube. Which is a pretty big milestone from one of the biggest games celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.
This all started when a YouTuber named Nathaniel Bandy put out the call on YouTube and Twitter on January 23rd. He'd be paying a bounty of $3000 out of his own pocket for the first person who could verifiably record themselves hitting all 190 targets in the Super Smash Bros. Melee credits minigame. According to Martin, it took him over 50 hours of practice before he was able to make the complete runthrough; it took a lot of practice and memorization.
This isn't the first time Smash fans have had more fun with Melee's minigames than with the main game. Late last year a group of fans created a randomizer for the game's famous Break the Targets minigame. It's amazing that, even 20 years later, people are not only still playing Super Smash Bros. Melee, but finding new records to break. This one in particular sounds like it took a lot of hard work and practice, and required a lot of skills not normally used in Smash play. Certainly a different set than is required to unlock every single character in Smash Bros. Melee.
Nintendo hasn't always been the most nurturing of the Melee community though, infamously shutting down a fan-directed Melee tournament. Despite this, Super Smash Bros. Melee is still an incredibly popular game to play, even 20 years later. There are probably still secrets left to discover and records left to break in Melee. Of course, it's possible, probable in fact, that someone has hit all 190 names before, but simply didn't record it, since they had no incentive to. If YouTubers continue to pay bounties for new Melee secrets, it's likely people will keep finding them.
Super Smash Bros. Melee is out now for Nintendo GameCube.