Super Smash Bros. Melee - How Sakurai Made His Magnum Opus 

“Why is the spacing like this?” It’s always made sense to me. When you tilt the menu, you realize the outer characters are literally on a lower level. You’ll notice that these characters are all clones that are positioned right next to the character that they are based on. This idea shows the clones as an extension of the characters they’re based on in the menu itself.

This video really couldn’t have released at a better time.

Man I loved watching Kirby Right Back at Ya on 4Chan.

Super excited for the new series!

“Melee was the game that made me a gamer” And LEGO Star Wars made me a gamer.

"My anxiety can be expressed by this one screen." Yep.

Wait, if this Magnum Opus title is now a series, knowing this channel... *nervously glances to Sonic the Hedgehog*

That quote at the end is truly beautiful.

4:52 As painful as it was to see Nintendo take down The Big House, this clip of the disc getting SLAUGHTERED kinda hurts more honestly

The timing on your jokes have been perfected, goodness sakes fam. Really diggin' the writing too. Much love

I remember fondly staying up an entire night with my best friend growing up to unlock Mewtwo. Definitely a memory I cherish since he passed away.

-Hey Alax, long time fan. I want to say thank you for this video. No other video sums up and captures the essence of everything about this game and Smash Bros. as a whole quite like this. I feel like I'm taken back to the day where my older friends showed me the game, and I was mesmerized by the box art alone. Thank you.- EDIT: Just found out you play Yoshi. Never watching another one of your videos

Incredible video. I'm so glad you made this. So fun fact, the reasons the clones were set a part from the others on the CSS is originally they were going to slide out from underneath the characters they cloned. The animation can still be played via a Gecko code. Also with unlocking Mewtwo, if you use four controllers and play Lighting Melee special mode, you can unlock Mewtwo in just 4 hours. I love how the N64 and SNES era is what inspired the art direction and movesets of these characters. This game is a masterpiece. It's without a doubt the magnum opus of the Smash series. It's incredible both as a casual game, and as a competitive game. The opening cinematic for Melee is by far the best. It was an amazing introduction to many series I didn't know about, just like your experience. What a great watch. Thank you.

I did literally every single cleaning tactic possible (yeah even toothpaste) to save my Super Smash Bros Brawl disc, and by some miracle of God it worked

Alax: Melee is Sakurai's Magnum Opus Schaffrillas: Are you challenging me?

Booping Cat for an Amazon order ROFL XD

"I didn't play the versus mode. Who did outside of birthday parties?" Me, who has seven brothers: *Looks at the screen*

Really felt the Scott the woz inside you when you got upset at the spine of the game case

When I saw him put the butter on the disk, I physically cringed.

“pretty sure kirby right back atcha was on 4chan” i laughed so hard omg

“It gets more and more technical” shows Falco shineing 6 times

Documentary of Melee is coming out today! Great day to talk about a game that's perfect to so many people

"What the fu*k is a Ness?!" -Me, in Europe, as a Kid.

30:45 I'm not crying, YOU'RE CRYING.

I know what a magnum Opus is, defined as the most important work of a studio or series ect, not always the best, but the most important. Before i click the play button, what I believe is that the magum opus of smash for general audiences may have been brawl, since that one pioneered how the games would be played in the future, what reveals were like, and all. but I believe the unintentional magnum opus of the platform fighter genre is melee for sure. Does that make sense?

cmon everyone knows project m was where sakurai truly perfected his craft

19:20 the quote you didn't realize you needed to hear more often

To tell you the truth that's exactly how my story went with smash bros

The fact that games this old can be more expensive than a modern switch game scares me

“Babe, wake up- there’s a new RelaxAlax series”

"What if the gamecube failed miserably?" Well it was technically a commercial failure... nintendo lost money on the gamecube actually lol

I'll forever miss the Know Your Moves series, Alax... 🥺

Alax, your editing and comedic timing is an absolute joy to behold. Thank you for doing what you do man.

“When someone says Beyonce, I don’t ask why! I say thank you!” A king!!!

This is so inspiring. As a gamemaker myself, I really hope to reach this point. I don't believe Sakurai could imagine the full scale of this game himself. Imagine the creator of chess, they probably didn't know every technique or combination there is. Same goes for this. Thank you for your video Alax, it was a delight :)

I mean they call Breath of the Wild an "open-air" game instead of open-world so it's not the only time they've done stupid shit with genre names

This video... Man, as a Smash fan myself this video just... It touches my heart. Really. It expresses and explains why exactly me and a lot of other people love Smash and Sakurai in such a clear and well-put ways, it honetly brings tears to my eyes. This might actually be your best video yet. Or should I say... Your Magnum Opus. Really looking forward to what you cover next. Hopefully this series itself can become the Magnum Opus of your channel.

Just like how I consider Click to be Adam Sandler's Magnum Opus(fight me)

Sakurai is honestly the person that made me want to start making games. Once I learnt about smash and the man behind it I started creating these ideas in my head, and I loved and still love every second of it. Bless this man, bless this man and his wild ideas.

I've never been super into fighting games (mostly cuz I'm just bad at them), but I still have fond memories of playing both melee and brawl with my brother. Like you had said, some of the franchises these characters come from may not have continued to exist if it wasn't for melee. It's like the ultimate marketing campaign. It introduced me, as it did you and many many others, to characters and games we had never heard of before. I think that's really amazing

Glad to see someone who came from a family as clueless about videogames as mine was. I hear all these stories about people having their parents bring home a new N64 or randomly picking them something up from Blockbuster and I’m like ‘how did you get so lucky?’. When you’re raised with less money or parents who are less tech savvy, it really changes your experience of videogames. People don’t realize how hard it is to get into RPGs or how you may not pickup a game until 2 or more years after launch if you don’t know any better. It took a lot of podcasts and RU-vid videos for me to get really knowledgeable about games and find new ones to play.

Oh no this poor man bought the PAL version oh god oh no

"...Plus, when a new character is added to Smash Bros., it has a reaction and ripple effect that goes beyond the game itself." -Masahiro Sakurai, 2020 Hungrybox: *SEPHIROTH?!?!?!?!?*

17:56 What are you talking about? That's clearly the man who created Kirby.

I always loved the fact that jumping into a melee stage felt like you were really dropping in on a world that always existed inside its respective 2d game but you got to see it in 3d. That, and the fact that the live orchestra gave so much respect to the music from these games that were originally 8 or 16-bit. Truly a celebration of Nintendo's properties to that point.

Confirming the order with Cat was hecking adorable 😂 My copy of Melee was $50 at a flea market 👌

"They should've made Wario fucking Vegeta." I'm sure there's at least one fanfiction that does that.

"Kirby right back at ya was on 4 chan"

my experience upon meeting SSB and Melee was very similar. Knew only Mario and Pika and smash bros syddenly appeared and it was an insanely fun game with a sharp and mysterious aesthetic

I never understood this: If the game is meant for EVERYONE, why are the competitive players screwed? Do they not fall into the category of, “everyone”?

I loved his old intro

I see Melee, I click.

This video made me cry at the end I could feel the passion the pure enjoyment of melee this is truly alax' s best video to me I've watched him for years and this is the best thing to come out of 2020

Sniff... This...This video is absolutely beautiful. I can just *tell* this was made by a true fan of this series! Also, Isn’t it weird that Super Smash Bros not only helped create Relax Alax, but also SMG4?

Melee is a very important entry, it was the game that started the smash competitive scene, Matt deezie made the first smash tournaments in his basement known as Tournament Go. Even if you hate the competitive scene it’s a very important part of smash. I know I would not be as into smash as much if it weren’t the many great figures from the competitive scene like Bobby Scar, Mew2King, N0ne, Axe, HugS, and MKLeo. I just wanted to give some praise because I entered the melee community this year and I can’t describe the amount of joy I have got from scene.

Not sure if you'll see this, but I really did love this video, feels like you really went the extra mile with the effort put into this one

This is a beautiful video. I'm looking forward to more in the series!

"So please stop making fun of me for maining Yoshi" As a fellow Yoshi main, I can understand

This story was so relatable to me, because my first game ever was melee too ❤️ gave me goosebumps

Alax you're a RU-vidr of QUALITY and i say *Q U A L I T Y* if you read this, please never stop making videos. You're one of my favorites RU-vidrs out there that keep me entertained with your quality content. I wish you the best for 2021 ❤️ Happy New Year Alax!

Okay, I did NOT know about the 20 hours Mew Two thing. What's hype is hell is that I was at a friend's birthday party as a kid, and he unlocked MewTwo DURING THE PARTY. Whole new context for that moment.

This is what sonic 06 should've been in terms of really good buggy messes

Gotta say this is one of your best videos yet, Alax! It definitely hit me in the nostalgic bone, which I usually try to avoid but this one hit me in a good way. Keep it up :D

Nintendo: I'm not a big fan of Melee, I personally think the physics are too Slippi.

Don’t you just love it when a sakurai quote gets interrupted by the Carl’s Jr. monster angus thickburger

0:20 Even with the new videos, he is still RelaxAlax.

Melee for me was playing with my friend who was just as good as me and making all of my other friends not want to play with me. I played this game so much as a kid. It's a game that just holds so much memories for me!

So to conclude. Smash bros N64 is the Magnum Opus of the smash bros series. . . . or is it? *Vsauce music.*

These videos are really insanely well made

Unpopular opinion: Brawl is the best Smash game

You've genuinely made this video on the same 2-in-1 rinky dink TV I used to play the game on as a kid. Hitting your boy with a nostalgia bomb.

When you're about to comment "it's not melee" But it is melee

RELAXALAX SMASH CONTENT

Can't wait till Sepiroth know your moves

This is a really cool series so far. Can't wait to see what other legendary games get declared!

I love your new art style, it’s amazing

Well look, it's smash melee. Would be cool to play it using online emulation..... Oh wait

2:50 I really love that you decided to use this sound effect with that

I like this series, I'm interested in where you'll take it!

I bought a GameCube and Super Smash Bros. Melee at a retro game store two years ago. They both cost $60. Because that makes sense.

Still waiting on that Persona 4 review

Honestly I feel melee is the peek of smash mechanics and technical stuff whilst ultimate is much more of a love letter to gamer and something that Sakurai has enjoyed the most making showing his passion for games in the detail and characters for ultimate

honestly spent most of my time in vs playing against a level 9 computer when I was a kid cause I thought that's what would make me "good" at the game xD

Glad to see you making content. This video is great

15:08 they called kk by his japanese name in the game? never knew that. did the ac not come out yet?

this series is interesting, can't wait to see what you do with it next!

Dude I played melee for the first time at 4 years old. It’s rated T. What Edit: and oh yeah #freemelee

I like this series. It's not the traditional "Melee is better than Brawl" review. It also is trying to get in the mind of the creator, understanding their journey of growth in mastery of their craft. I for one find it inspiring to learn how a creator through determination gets better and better until they create something special.

4:14 you know this happened to me too. When i tried to replay melee, gamecube wouldnt read the disc. I figured out that the wii would run it but not the gamecube so i didnt have to buy a new copy.

"what. is. that. That is ORANGE" really hit home

I just realized there will NEVER be a Byleth know your moves, and I am very sad

Fans: *Why won’t Nintendo make a HD remaster of a game known for it’s glitches and technical oversights?*

You really outdid yourself on this one Alax!

As a long time viewer, YOUR CONTENT IS INCREDIBLE! Just added that final Sakuri quote to the top of my professional LinkedIn page! Much love!

Melee was not only my first smash game but also my first video game. Without melee i might not be the person I am today, it’s legendary to me and it introduced me to a large part of the Nintendo series, I became interested in Zelda, Metroid, mother, and even fire emblem even though it didn’t exist outside of Japan at the time, when I only knew Mario and pokemon. It will always hold a very special place in my heart and I will go my grave saying it’s one of the best things to ever happen to me

I didn’t even play Melee and after watching this I now have a new respect for it.

Melee is easily in my top 5 favorite games of all time. Maybe even number 2.

Free Melee, my fellow he's she's and they's

Im excited for what this serious has to offer!

16:27 "Do you think this game was rushed" Melee fanatics:no, the game is perfect Me, a smash bros series fan:yes, rushed for sure.