The Continued Story of Melee's Development

Hello everyone! In 2021, I uploaded "Elevated: The Development Story of Super Smash Bros. Melee" to this channel. My primary goal was to weave together everything we know about Melee's development at the time into one documentary. Creators Turndown4walt, Samox, and Ludwig each streamed the video on their Twitch channels and gave live commentary, for which I am truly grateful. Since that video, there have been a few key pieces of information that help fill in this story that I'd like to share with you. So today, we're going to go back and look at a few things that I missed the first time, uncover the now-archived HAL Laboratories Diaries blog that documents some of the developer experiences that, to my knowledge, have yet to be covered on YouTube. Then we'll cover some of the discoveries Sakurai himself has revealed in the time since my first video, followed by an interview I did with Johnny Metz, formerly of Nintendo World Report, about what his experience was like at E3 2001 seeing Melee for the first time himself. Then we'll conclude with what happened just after Melee's development. First, let's start with a couple unused sound effects I didn't mention the first time. Zelda has two alternative audio files for Nayru's Love and Din's Fire, which can be heard here respectively. "Huh?!" "Yeah!" Fox and Falco had specific dialogue in Japanese for when one would win against the other, a feature that would only be included in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Here's Fox's, which translates to "Don't worry about it, Falco." [Japanese] And of course, here's Falco's, which translates to "Is that all you've got?" [Japanese] Pikachu and Pichu each have particularly ferocious unused audio clips, heard here. "Boogaah! Pichu!" A placeholder sound effect for the Great Bay stage, likely originally intended for Tingle, remains unused and is simply an audio clip of Boo's laugh from Super Mario 64. "Hehehe!" The filename of Captain Falcon's side smash is "SFXV_Captain_FalconSFXV." Fire Kick, which implies that he originally retained his original side smash from Smash 64 before it was changed in Melee's final release. Now to the hidden food in stages. You heard me right. You may have seen this before with the rice ball hidden on Onett and the sushi in Mushroom Kingdom, but were you aware of the strawberry on Yoshi's Story? Thanks to Chief Neef for sending this my way and to Primal for discovering it in the first place. CJAG, also known as Barry Barrows, also discovered an earlier version of Melee's title screen with Intelligent Systems omitted. This remains on the disc, and there's actually even more to discover, and if you're interested in this, I recommend checking out The Cutting Room Floor's Melee entry. Now I'd like to share what I was able to gather from the HAL Diaries entries on the HAL Laboratory blog. These are just rough online translations, but nevertheless we can get a sense of some interesting stories about Melee from the developer's perspective at the time. Let's read through some of these together. Let's begin with the "SYSDOLPHIN" announcement series of posts where they talk about the unveiling of GameCube. First, the team discusses how technically impressive GameCube was when they initially saw the emulator, or demo, of it in action. It was highly secretive and protected in a locked room. At first they tried porting Sys64 libraries and code, but soon realized they needed to start from scratch and refactor their current project specifically for GameCube. They only had an emulator to work with in the beginning, which only gave them a fraction of the actual hardware's capabilities. By the time they finally got it, they described having to rush to create an impressive technical demo for Spaceworld 2000, and they worked on the famous Meowth's Party demo. It took about 3 weeks of concentrated work to finish it, including working weekends. They completed it just 3 days before the event. They go into more detail about this, but I wanted to read just this section from it. Following Spaceworld, we continued to refine Sys Dolphin. Matsuda took the primary responsibility for the game engine component. By around September 2000, it was functioning in a form close to its final version, So we provided it to the Super Smash Bros. Melee development team, who was working on the game at the time. We made improvements based on their feedback. Finally, in April 2001, we reached the milestone of releasing SysDolphin 1.0 at the Nintendo GameCube Tool Seminar. The seminar response was very positive, and now SysDolphin is widely available to many GameCube developers through Nintendo. So with that context in mind, we know the Melee team got actual kits in September 2000. It also makes sense why the Meowth trophy in the production version of the game is the way that it is with the rigging still intact. Now I'd like to read some select entries and excerpts from the HAL Diaries. May 16th, 2001. E3 Business Trip. From May 17th to 19th, local time, the world's largest game show, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, commonly known as E3, will be held in Los Angeles, United States. Every year, a few members from HAL Laboratory go to observe, and this year, 12 of us, including myself, will be attending. おばかね。Obakane. The E3 team returned safely on the night of the 22nd. The highlight of this year's E3 was undoubtedly Super Smash Bros. Melee, currently under development at HAL Laboratory. After maintaining silence for a long time, the game was finally unveiled in a big way at Nintendo's private show at the LA Theatre on the eve of E3. "It was received with enthusiastic cheers from the global press, game retailers, and developers who had gathered there. At the Nintendo booth in the E3 venue, numerous demo stations were set up, attracting large crowds continuously. It was incredibly gratifying to see our game being so well received. Although it was exhausting, I'm glad I got to attend E3." Obokane. "E3 was packed with people." With poor eyesight and limited English, I could only feel the atmosphere, which was often drowned out by the noise and lights. In the midst of the crowd, the Nintendo booth stood out with many people playing Smash Bros. I was nervous about potential bugs, silently begging for leniency. Despite this, I realized the event was primarily for the industry. Misawa. The Nintendo booth was extremely crowded. The Smash Bros. demo stations were swamped. The positive reactions exceeded my expectations, and it felt worth attending just to see that. Kageki na Kita. August 28th, 2001. English translation of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Amidst the ongoing debates about globalization, the presence of Smash Bros. stands firm. Fun is universal, and Smash Bros. is developed across borders. Recently, two professionals traveling from an American port town, famous for Ichiro and the Great Demon God, to assist with English translation. Leslie. With piercing eyes and incredible concentration, Leslie identified and solved problems with sharp insights. Bill. Fluent in Japanese and with a lightning-fast ability to switch languages in his mind, Bill handled the translation. They arrived with Typhoon No. 11 and left with it, working like a storm. Interestingly, they were both more skilled filled with chopsticks than I, Tanigawa. In any case, Smash Bros. is moving towards completion thanks to the efforts of such individuals. The power of people across borders brings borderless fun. Be sure to reserve your copy once the release date is announced. Tanigawa. Nintendo Space World 2001. A little while ago, from August 24th to 26th, Nintendo Space World 2001 was held at Makuhari Messe. This game show hosted by Nintendo featured 5 titles from HAL Laboratory. Here's a brief overview. Super Smash Bros. Melee. Already announced at E3, this GameCube title featured the game event Premium Fight, which attracted thousands of participants, creating an incredibly intense atmosphere. It's rare for us to have an opportunity to let users experience our in-development products, so events like this are invaluable to us. The high expectations and excitement from everyone were palpable and provided great motivation. We are committed to working together to further improve these titles and deliver them to you. おばかね (obakani) Super Smash Bros. Melee enters the Platinum Hall of Fame. As many of you already have seen, Super Smash Bros. Melee has been inducted into the Platinum Hall of Fame in last week's issue of Weekly Famitsu. Receiving such an accolade is indeed gratifying. The game will be released in just a few days. Whether you play alone or battle with friends, it's going to be a lot of fun. Personally, I find it easier to play and more deeply engaging than the previous installment. I hope everyone will discover various ways to enjoy Super Smash Bros. Melee. November 21st, 2001: Super Smash Bros. Melee will finally be released. November 22nd, 2001: Super Smash Bros. Melee release! This is Ichida from the PR and Advertising Department. The GameCube title Super Smash Bros. Melee is released today. Although the journey was long, my involvement as a PR person was relatively short compared to the development staff, so my struggles were minimal. Nevertheless, I am deeply moved by the release of this game. I've been reading the fan submissions on the Smash Bros. Dojo website. Many posts expressed excitement and impatience for the release. I hope everyone who got their hands on the game is enjoying it now. For those who haven't, don't worry, there's no rush to play it immediately. Anytime you play it is the perfect time. Enjoy Super Smash Bros. Melee not only during happy moments, but also to lift your spirits during tough times. May you have a long-lasting relationship with Melee. Next, we have an entire set of developer interviews dedicated to Melee. Check this out. Congratulations on the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee. First, can you share your thoughts on this project? Sakurai: This project started without knowing the exact release timing for the GameCube or when we could get the development kits. So we made the game plan flexible, allowing for changes based on the GameCube's development status. It was a challenging process in that regard. Kuraoka: Having a large team this time meant that we couldn't pay attention to every detail, which is a regret. Also, the dual language support for Japan and the US in one software title was unexpectedly challenging. Kobayashi: My honest thought is No matter how tough it was, it eventually ended. We had a substantial workload, especially for graphics, and there were times I wondered if we would ever finish, but now that it's done, I feel incredibly relieved. Tsuki: In previous projects, I was also programming, but this time I managed the programmers entirely. Coordinating a team of unique individuals with different strengths and personalities was quite a task. Ando: Before the release, hearing my music in the commercials and knowing that people nationwide were watching was incredibly moving. Q: What was the main goal of this project? Sakurai: We needed the GameCube to sell well. While other companies were trying to create innovative games, we aimed to find the best way to make the GameCube succeed. I believed that broadening the GameCube's appeal was essential, so I chose Super Smash Bros. as the best option within my capabilities. Q: How was developing for the new GameCube hardware different from previous projects? Ando: Previously, we composed music by programming it, but with the GameCube's DVD media, we could use recorded music like a regular CD. This allowed us to use a full orchestra or solo guitar, which was a significant change. However, transitioning from the constraints of programming music to the freedom of recording was challenging. You used an orchestra for parts this time, correct? Ando: Yes. Writing for an orchestra requires specialized knowledge. Unlike programming, where you can directly play a melody, real instruments have physical limitations, such as finger movement speed. Fortunately, a staff member in Tokyo, Sakai, had extensive orchestral knowledge and experience, so I learned a lot from him. What about the design aspect? There was a mention of a substantial workload earlier. Kobayashi: Indeed, the scale was significant. We had about 10 3D modelers, 8 from Ocean, and about 20 people from Creatures Incorporated helping. Additionally, another company handled the opening movie. The project's success was due to the combined effort of all these people. What unique experiences did you gain from such a large project? Kobayashi: Meeting various talented individuals was the most significant aspect. Working with external talents introduced me to different methods and ideas. We also received character settings and data from the creators of the original characters, which was very inspiring. From a design perspective, what should players particularly focus on? Kobayashi: Personally, I want players to appreciate the overall graphics. The quality of the players, maps, effects, etc. is top-notch. Achieving this required everyone to improve their skills significantly compared to the previous game, especially given the GameCube's advanced hardware. How is the programming work divided? Suzuki: "We had 15 programmers divided into teams for players, items, game systems, menus, and maps. While the dual-language support was challenging, designing it to switch languages from the start turned out to be more efficient." Considering the project's large scale and short development period, what were the main challenges? Suzuki: "Programmers worked until the very end, dealing directly with the final touches. Although this is always the case, This time was particularly intense, resulting in some people looking pale towards the end. "What was the most critical aspect of programming for this project?" [Japanese] "The player section is the most critical, since it's what users interact with. While many modes and features are essential, the player control must be flawless." "How did the new hardware impact the programmers' experience?" [Japanese] "It was both challenging and exciting. While some programmers faced new difficulties, others continued working on familiar areas due to their expertise. What is essential when planning a game or creating something? Sakurai: Always consider the user's perspective. Balancing different user needs without compromising on the overall experience is crucial. Even if it makes development harder, the user's enjoyment should always come first. This means considering the game as a product in the broader context of all entertainment and ensuring it stands out in the market. Thank you for all your time and insights. December 4th, 2001: Platinum Hall of Fame Champagne. Last weekend, we received an extra large bottle of Dom Pérignon from the editors of Weekly Famitsu. This was in celebration of Super Smash Bros. Melee being inducted into the Platinum Hall of Fame in their new game cross-review. Thank you very much. The size of the Dom Pérignon was impressive. Impressive, but seeing Super Smash Bros. Melee engraved on the platinum-colored metal was truly moving. We plan to open this champagne at the team celebration party. Now let's talk about what Sakurai has revealed in the past several years that sheds additional light on Melee's development. Unless you've been living under a rock, you may be aware that Sakurai has been uploading on YouTube on his "Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games" channel. These videos have not only provided invaluable insights about the game industry and making games, but also reveal some development details about the key video game titles he's worked on. While they don't go tremendously in-depth, we do get glimpses from a few things we didn't know before. For starters, we were able to see part of Melee's design document, which showed a concept for the then-upcoming GameCube controller with a jog dial. Presumably GameCube's controller design was not finalized at this point, so he included this suggestion in Melee's design document for a more tactile input option. Here's the clip from the video. 我は、タビタビ、ワタシがテアンステイタコトナムですが、コントROLLERをリツuiteよぼうが、はいろがほしいです。ムカちふにえば、じょうごだいやるとか。イマでこそ、マウスにあほいろがホイルがホージンテキニつuiteimasu。ブラッジンがのどしてりしては、そんべにさわかるともろですが.ムし、ゲームキニ、ホイルがつuiteいると、メニューセンタルがもろす [MUSIC] We also got our first glances at the actual opening movie concept art sketches drawn by Sakurai at the end of 2000/beginning of 2001. We also get some more thoughts from him on explaining his regrets about Melee's design and what went into Brawl's development as a result.

Komatobimou medatsu deshou, tojinjuku deshine. Yotte, game no speed wa osaibe. Kakteki hajariyori no chousei ni natimasu.

As of the upload date of this video, Sakurai hasn't stopped uploading to his channel yet, but the end is in sight. With well over 200 videos already, it's amazing how much content he's made in a relatively short amount of time, and I'm thankful for any behind-the-scenes information he, and any other former HAL Labs devs, are willing to share. To close out this section, I thought I'd share some of the early news articles from around the time of Melee's launch as well. Here are some of the highlights. From Nintendo World Report on March 7th, 2001 by Mike Skellens: Super Smash Bros. 2 confirmed! Here's how we know. Hi IGN crew, I'd like to know what the possibility is of a few of the following games to make it to GameCube. "Smash Bros.-type game but with characters outside of the Nintendo universe, like Mega Man, Sonic, Spider-Man, etc." Matt responds: "A Super Smash Bros. sequel is underway by HAL. I have heard nothing of a similar styled game using such characters as Mega Man, Sonic, or Spider-Man though, and I wouldn't hold my breath for one like that if I were you." So that's it, Super Smash Bros. 2 is confirmed. Great day in the morning. Update: Sources close to Planet GameCube state that Nintendo is very interested in bringing the Smash Bros. series to Game Boy Advance.

Yippee!

Smash sequel: Returning so soon just to annoy Rick Powers, Louis the Rumor Cat has his take on the next Smash Bros. game. HAL is working on a Smash Bros. sequel for Nintendo GameCube. It is also making a Game Boy Advance version of the game. Here's another one: Also, we here at P- VGC are hearing that a Game Boy Advance version is being heavily considered, though it'd probably just be a port of the N64 version. Okay, so Planet GameCube Share Thing doesn't like WMV files, but you can't keep the truth down. These links will take you straight to the Windows Media Videos of Super Smash Bros. Melee with close-ups of both Mario and Bowser. It may look like pre-rendered FMV, folks, but it's not. Trust us. We've played it. Ever since it was announced, hell, even before it was announced, people have been speculating on what characters would appear in the next Super Smash Bros. game. Nintendo Box has a movie that reveals a large amount of characters. The movie shows the bio pages for said characters. It's still unknown as to whether or not they will be playable, but this certainly brightens our hopes. Sonic? Joanna Dark playable in Smash Bros. Melee? Not quite. By Rick Powers, July 8th, 2001. Magic Box seemingly uncovered more playable characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee, but something's fishy. Read on for the debunking. In addition to the news that Sonic and Joanna Dark will indeed be playable in Super Smash Bros. Melee on GameCube, there are several other interesting additions. Pit, Kid Icarus, is playable, as IGNcube has surmised before. Other old-school favorites are back as well, including the Battletoads. Newer characters look to be included as well, as Mewtwo, Skull Kid, from Zelda, Conker, and Banjo. While it is entirely possible that the screenshot at Magic Box has been doctored— note the missing picture for Battletoads— with all the already confirmed characters, there's little doubt that all these favorites will be playable when it comes to release. Still, no word yet on the hidden characters, as according to Magic Box, the list does not include hidden characters. Update: this pic is 100% fake, and this is in no way based on official information. Finally, here's an audio recording from Planet GameCube, well before podcasts were a household name. This is a selection from Johnny Metz's experience at E3 2001, some of which he was recording in real time and some he recorded afterwards. Take a listen.

Hey, it's Jonathan Metz for the third edition, I think it is, of our E3 audio diary. And, um, wow, today has been incredible. We got there, I guess, about an hour and a half before it started, about an hour before they started seating us. And then they opened the floodgates and let everybody into the press conference room, and it was crazy. Everybody was pushing on each other. It was like a mob trying to get there. Well, Max hung back in the back so he could take video for our PGC E3 video. Pre-order yours today! But the rest of us, pretty much all of us got pretty close to the front. And the most striking thing when you went in there, there's two video screens on the left and the, you know, one on the left and the right with some speakers. In the middle of this is this stage, and right in the middle of the stage is a podium with a GameCube in it and a controller. The new controller, which as it turns out looks exactly like the IGN mockup that they put up the other day. The B button is smaller and it's red and it's a circle, and the start button is this little tiny gray button. Other than that, it looks exactly the— the handles are longer than they showed at Spaceworld, but they're not like really long. They're not as long as I think that clay mockup that Fran made at IGN. It looks, it's like a compromise and it looks really comfortable. So a lot of us were going up to the stage and taking pictures of that. And in kind of an interesting symbolic thing, there was no glass over the GameCube. It was just sitting on top of the podium in like a little nest they had made for it. It was just exposed, you know, and they were making sure that people didn't get up on the stage and try to touch it or anything like that. But we got some really cool pictures of it, and it was, it looks a lot smaller than I kind of imagined it, I guess. You know, this is the first time I've actually seen one in person. The controller is like almost as big as the system, it looks like. And finally they started the show. And Peter Main comes out there and goes on about some sales figures and stuff like that that everybody, you know, nobody really wanted to hear. And finally, they brought out Miyamoto-san and started showing some video footage. And the stuff is incredible. The very first game, the first GameCube game that we saw The first one that Nintendo's really admitted to with video was Super Smash Bros. Melee, and it's jaw-dropping. It looks like CG graphics. It looks like PlayStation FMV, better in some ways, and it's so fast. The special effects are everywhere. I mean, it's just like a visual orgy. All these characters, I mean, the princesses in there, Bowser, Ice Climber from like the really old Nintendo NES game. The only character that was noticeably absent was Luigi, and I can only figure he's a secret character, you know. And Smash Bros. was incredible. They showed probably more video of it than any other game. Um, and it just looks amazing. It's hard to even describe, 'cause I mean Smash Bros. on N64 is incredibly fun, but the graphics aren't that impressive, you know. I mean, they kept them pretty simple to make the framerate really good and all that stuff. This GameCube Smash Bros., I mean, it had the best graphics of any game they showed. And, I mean, that says it all right there. And all 3 of those games, the Smash Bros., Luigi's Mansion, and Pikmin are going to be playable tomorrow. They showed a lot of second-party games after that. You know, Donkey Kong Racing, which is of course the sequel to Diddy Kong Racing, actually looked really good, but it wasn't up to par with like Smash Bros. That's the graphical king of all the ones they showed. It just blew them all away in my opinion.

Hey everyone, this is Jonathan Metz clocking in for the fourth and final edition of my audio E3 diary. I wish I'd gotten to do this more during the show, especially after the first day, but things were a bit hectic, as I'm sure you all know. But needless to say, the show was fantastic. I thought I'd say, you know, just a few things about how the show was overall and what happened while we were there. So as you can imagine, we were the first people there at the doors closest to the Nintendo booth. About, let's see, about 8:30, 9 o'clock, a lot of people started showing up, getting ready. By 9:30, there were probably getting on to about 1,000 people. In the lobby waiting to get in, and we were at the very front. And all the stupidness and, you know, idiocy that you feel when you get there 3 hours early, being at the front starts to feel pretty good when you look back at 1,000 people in line behind you. By the time they actually opened the doors, we had about 10 people there at the front of the line, and Planet GameCube was the first to Nintendo's booth. Or at least the first media. It turns out that when we got there, they'd been letting exhibitors in all morning long, which is normal, because exhibitors have to go set up their booths and get things running and get ready for the onslaught at 10 o'clock. And unfortunately, a lot of exhibitors apparently don't care much for their own booths because there were quite a few of them in Nintendo's booth when we got in there, and even being literally the first through the door, and running full blast all the way to Nintendo's booth, I still had to wait through 2 other people before I could play Smash Bros., which is my first game. But that's how it goes, you know. It wasn't a problem last year, but there are a lot more people this year and a lot more exhibitors. So, and, you know, even business people want to play GameCube, so they gotta get their their shot at it too. Nintendo's booth was absolutely the most crowded thing I've ever seen in my life. There were points where you literally just had to stand there for 5 minutes and wait for the crowd to die down before you could walk any further. The problem is that they would have, for instance, kiosks for Star Fox Adventures on one side, Kameo or Kameo: Elements of Power on the other side, They'd be facing each other and they'd be probably 10 or 15 feet apart, which seems like a pretty wide alley to walk through until you realize that people are stacked up 5 or 6 people deep in line to play these games. And then you basically— it's a matter of stepping on people's feet and saying excuse me or screw you, get out of my way an awful lot to get where you want to go. I'm not going to talk about the games that much. We're putting up impressions like, like madmen, and I've still got quite a few to do myself, actually. And I'm just a lot more eloquent in writing than I am talking. So I don't think I can do justice to games just talking about them like this anyway.

This is a very young Jonathan Metz from 2001, but I had the pleasure of actually speaking with him in 2024. So here's some excerpts from that interview. Thanks so much for chatting with a stranger. I know it's not your first foray in that. Um, if you don't mind— I have some practice. Yeah, you do. You have some practice. I'd love to know a little bit more about you. So maybe give like a quick summary of who you are and what you've done in the past, and then we can kind of go from there.

Oh, sure. Yeah. Hi, I'm, my name is Jonathan Metz and, uh, I am an I'm an engineer by trade, but probably the reason you wanted to chat with me about this is that I wrote for and edited and, and helped manage a website called Nintendo World Report for about 15 years. And before that time even, so I started writing for Nintendo World Report in its original form called Planet GameCube, and even a little bit before that, going back to 2000, 2001. So, um, so yeah, I was around when, um, when Melee first debuted.

Nintendo World Report has been an invaluable resource, not just for like the sheer content on there, but the fact that a lot of the original posts from that era, you know, when it was Planet GameCube, it has remained intact, largely untouched. And that's been just a surprisingly fun way to go back and just like kind of go into a time machine. It's fantastic.

I'm so glad to hear that. It's one thing that I love about the website is its longevity and the staff's commitment to maintaining all that archival content because it is like a snapshot in time. And at this point, it's over a really long stretch of time. The site is— this year is 25 years old. And we have 99% of the content, I think, that was ever posted to it is still available, still searchable. It's up there with today's hottest headlines and the latest game reviews. You can go back and read all of the reviews we wrote for the GameCube launch in 2001 and even some stuff from earlier than that. So yeah, I love that that's available and that some, some people find it useful or interesting. I I have fun just going back and browsing through that old stuff, you know.

Yeah, if only the other websites you linked to were just as committed as you guys, right?

Well, you know, it's, uh, it's frozen that way. And, uh, I do think we are a relic of the old internet and, and like sort of a living, a living tribute to that whole legacy. And yet they're still posting new stuff every day, you know, reviews, videos, podcasts, all kinds of articles all the time. And that's so exciting. And I love to, you know, now I've been retired from the site for almost a decade, and I love that it's still going on. It's developing its own personality. It's becoming a new thing for a new generation of people and made by a new generation of all volunteers. And it's a wonderful thing.

How did you end up being chosen to go to E3 2001, or was it another process where you kind of signed up again?

I know that in 2001 we took an enormous team of people. We tried to spread everything as much as we could to everybody, you know, anybody doing anything for the site, because everybody volunteered. So we tried to make sure everybody felt like they were included and got some kind of benefit for all the work they were doing. And for E3, it was like, "Hey, if you want to come, sign up. We'll make it work." And at the time, part of what helped was that we were extremely popular. The site had an enormous traffic profile for the time, for the conditions. It was— seriously, it was competitive with sites like IGN and GameSpot. Probably trailing far behind those sites, but like in the— it was in the tier. It was kind of in the conversation with sites like that. And that certainly was not true within a few years later, you know, so I don't want to make it out like the site's always been this juggernaut. But this was a very particular moment in time back in 2001 where we had a site called Planet GameCube that had been called that since the day the GameCube's name was announced, and it was already an established site from before that. We had updated Planet N2000 to become Planet GameCube, and Planet GameCube was one of the biggest sites for GameCube information several months, maybe even more than a year before the GameCube actually came out. So in the E3 2001, Planet GameCube was in its prime. It was, it was kind of still a fairly new site, but it was more mature than a lot of our competitors, and we had a very passionate audience, and we were putting up very hot updates literally 7 days a week all year round. So it was a very vibrant community and we had a lot of access at an event like E3 where the GameCube was being shown for the first time, really.

I'd love to hear a bit about— you talk a little bit about your experience there and I'd love to learn whatever you can remember from that initial day. What do you remember from that day? And what do you remember about Nintendo and Smash Bros. Melee?

Gosh, you know, we were really stoked about all the games they announced. As I recall, a lot of them, including Smash Bros., a lot of them really, we didn't get much information on them the day of the press conference. They were shown in a trailer or they were shown in a montage. And there was no one necessarily on stage introducing this game, telling you the features, telling you when it's coming out, telling you who's making it. That, you know, in a lot of cases, even for really big games, Nintendo would just sort of show a 15-second video and then the rest of it is, "Well, you're gonna have to play it for yourself because it's on the floor." And so that's kind of my memory of Smash Brothers is like, I don't think we broke down the footage second by second and pored over every detail and tried to figure out, you know, what are all these new items and what are these different levels, how are they gonna play? We didn't have time to go into that level of detail on every trailer. I mean, it was a big deal for us just to get, like, the B-roll. To get the B-roll on a VHS versus a beta back then, you had to, like, ask specifically for a VHS. This is before DVDs, like in 2001. Most people didn't have a DVD player. So we would get the B-roll from the press conference, and that's a lot of additional footage that wasn't actually shown at the event. Like, this is stuff you can splice into a news broadcast where you're trying to show some of the hottest games that appeared at this week's E3. But for us, it's just a treasure trove of extended, uncut video clips from all these games. And this was before video distribution online, so to have this tape and be able to watch all this additional footage of the games that had been announced just a couple hours earlier at the press conference— and most people, even people who attended the press conference, had only seen a few seconds of video. So to have the B-roll and to get to put that in your hotel, uh, TV and, and have a hotel room of 20 people packed in trying to watch it. That is thrilling. That is really exciting stuff. And we're— it's just, we're all— we're not having like a structured conversation and picking apart what we're looking at. It's more like— it's just like people shouting and cheering and arguing the entire time. And a lot of, you know, shh, shh, shh, you know, they're showing Zelda now, or whatever. Um, they probably weren't showing Zelda that year. No, not in 2001. But anyway, It was just really exciting. And then it was like, hey, we've been writing all day, we've been trying to get these news stories out. We're like, we're gonna get food delivered to the hotel to make sure everybody eats something for dinner because it's very easy to skip meals when you're working as hard as we were. And then, hey, let's everybody please, I know you wanna stay up and talk with your friends and chat online and think about and dream about all the things that we're going to do tomorrow, but actually you got to sleep. You really, really, really need to get sleep because tomorrow is another 20-hour day. So it just felt like the next day came so, so fast, you know, like you weren't even ready for it before it's time to get up and go out there and actually play all these things.

Yeah, that was an amazing recap. I mean, I'm I'm getting excited just hearing you talk about it. I can't imagine going, you know, rushing to a hotel room with legs that I'm sure were sore and everyone was tired, but there was probably so much excitement and just like whooping and hollering at the sheer spectacle that was the B-roll in the hotel room. That's awesome.

And critically, David, I was a teenager. So, you know, my body couldn't really take all of this, but it managed to soldier on anyway. And now if I did this, I'd, yeah, I'd have to go see a doctor before I could be cleared to go back to the show the next day.

[Speaker:RYAN] So that was day zero. I'd love to know a bit more about day one. What was it like? I remember from your recording, you talk about how you were the first in line, but it didn't matter 'cause other folks from other booths were already playing the game before you were able to.

You know, it's a, it's a very deflating moment. Very funny in retrospect. And I gotta say, I was really curious to play Melee because, you know, we had seen the footage from the day before, and especially when you looked at the B-roll, you started to get a sense of the increased scope of that game and the variety of art styles that they were pulling off on the GameCube that you really couldn't try to do on the N64 in the same way. And you get a sense of just how many items they've added, how many characters and levels they've added, how, how much more complicated all these combinations could, could become in a game like that when you build on it from what they started on N64. So I was very fascinated by the idea of a sequel to that game and, and what they were doing with with it. And, you know, my first thoughts as I approached that demo kiosk were that the game looked absolutely incredible. The graphics on Melee were so surprising to me. You know, I think there were 15 or 20 playable GameCube titles that E3 over Nintendo's booth. I mean, they had a pretty decent launch lineup, I think. And a lot of post-launch stuff. And Melee, I just, I wouldn't have guessed from that N64 game, I would not have guessed Melee to end up being a graphical showcase on the next system. But they pulled off something with the image quality on that game. I think it's the, it's the texture detail. I remember one of the first memories I have of seeing Melee up close at that demo was that someone had paused the game and was spinning the camera around and zooming in on Mario's overalls, and you could see the stitching in his overalls and the buttons on it. And I remember thinking, that is such a weird detail to include, a weird level of detail to have in a game where the camera is zoomed out and you're trying to look at the whole stage at once, you know, and his character is gonna be really small over over there in the corner of the screen. And I didn't understand at the time how much this sort of photo mode where you could pause the game and pan around, you know, how important that would become and how much the presentation of Smash Brothers would revolve around views and perspectives on the action that aren't really possible while you're playing the game. I really did feel that Melee looked crisper than the other GameCube titles there. It ran smoother, it ran faster. The whole game just plays faster than something like Luigi's Mansion, you know, so it's just, it's immediately more exciting. And the variety of characters was already at that time better than what we'd seen in the previous game. And of course there were tons of secret ones that would have to wait to be broken on Planet GameCube. So several months later, a couple weeks before the game launched, and pissing off a lot of fans around the world and Nintendo. Yeah.

Back to your original experience of, you know, the person— you had to wait 5 minutes even though you were first in line, but then you got to play it. You said the graphics really stuck out to you, the art design. Can you describe, like, do you remember anything about the booth itself or how it felt to pick up a GameCube controller for the first time or any of the things like that?

Yeah, the booth that year, I remember pretty clearly that it had sort of a central area with a lot of TVs set side by side, and that's pretty typical, just rows of kiosks to fit in as many people as you could. But there was an outer ring sort of near the, the outer boundary of Nintendo's booth that year where they had theater rooms that were cloaked cloaked in— I mean, they're not true rooms, they're not truly structural, but they were basically booths, sort of, you know, like the size of a small room. And they had them cloaked in big black cloth to shut out everything from outside. And for that reason, it wasn't really clear that they were there or what they were, you know, or that there were games inside, because you couldn't really hear them and you couldn't see what was happening inside. Side, but I happened to notice someone coming in or out of one, and I thought, "Hey, what's that?" And so I slipped in there, and it's like, it's sort of like a private game demo within Nintendo's much larger booth at the show. And I think it's one of those where I played Smash for the first time. And so even though it's a big loud event, you know, tens of thousands of people milling about, and a lot of them concentrated literally in the area where we were, over by the Nintendo and right next to it the Sony booth. But in this little pocket of quiet, relative quiet and darkness, you could really focus on the game and you could have a quieter conversation with someone doing the demo for you. So I think that was the setting in which I played the game for for the first time. And, you know, my feeling on it was, "Wow, I can't believe I'm finally holding this controller. I don't know what to do with these buttons, or why is the shoulder button analog when it just brings up a shield for my character? I don't know what's analog about that." I mean, there were a lot of really basic things to figure out that it's a little hard to appreciate now looking back on it. Um, but yeah, you know, I remember thinking that Melee felt so much faster than the original game, um, and the characters sort of felt like they jumped higher and they, they fell faster and they dashed around more. And oh wow, there's a whole extra special move for every character, so there's just going to be a lot more to remember and to figure out. How do I build my tactics around all this? And yeah, you know, those are the kind of thoughts that I would have been dealing with. My first impression of Melee was just, gosh, this came out of nowhere. You know, the first game wasn't even that old, and it seemed already they had far surpassed what they were trying to do with the N64 game. And that was evident even from the demo. I still think it's one of the greatest E3 demos I ever played because it really did— it captured the fun of that game and the odd feel of that game and the sort of, again, like the very impressive presentation and attention to detail. All of that's captured in that E3 demo, which ended up being just a very small slice of the total content. But the way I feel about Smash now The things I like about it, I recognized from the very first time I picked up the controller and played it. And that's a good demo. That is hard to do.

Yeah. And by the way, uh, anyone listening, or you, if you have a copy of this demo, please contact me.

It would have been definitely distinct from the one they took around public at the cube clubs because that was much— that was probably September, October October of that year, and I remember that being a much bigger demo where they had Zelda and Sheik and Samus was in that demo. A lot of characters had been added, so the E3 demo was really much more limited, and I think that, that was the first time it was playable.

Yeah, um, I'm really interested, what was like the— what was the crowd like? What was everyone around you like in that environment that you can remember?

Um, oh my gosh, I, I don't remember the crowd a whole lot. I mean, it is such an ocean of humanity when you're at those E3s. Um, it's— you can't— I always had the feeling like you can't really look at someone's face for too long because there are too many faces, you know what I mean? Like, my, my brain wants to try to remember what people look like and what they're wearing and what's the name on their name tag and all stuff, and there are too many people there for you to possibly remember or even process it all. And so it's kind of like when you live in a big city, you know, at some point when you have to get used to the crowds and you just sort of have to learn to navigate through them to where you're going and try to respect other people on the way. But like, I'm not really paying that much attention to the people around me because it's overwhelming. Um, and, and the sound— gosh, in those days, now Nintendo's booth was the best, one of the best places to be for sound. But if you walk to the other side of that room, or if you went over to South Hall with all the third-party publishers, it was deafening. It was louder than a rock concert in there. What? It was like several rock concerts happening at the same time, and they're trying, trying to drown each other out because the convention wasn't enforcing any kind of rules about volume, about, you know, flashing lights back in those days. I mean, a lot of it was competitive spectacle, you know. 2001 was probably around the time that Activision had an entire skating halfpipe built up in their booth, and they had Tony Hawk and other people dropping from cranes at the ceiling of the building. Down into the, into the pipe and doing tricks there with, you know, with like Konami and EA's booths and Ubisoft blasting all kinds of crazy stuff around them while all this is going on. And that would— that was an environment that most people couldn't really stand to be in for very long. Like, you had to go in there and do your business and then go, go somewhere else. It's just too much. I say all that so that you understand that when Nintendo provides all their hottest demos in private theater booths where you can go inside and sort of close a curtain behind you. It, it's miraculous. Like, that is a place you want to be. You want to stay there, you know. You want, you want E3 to be only that once you've experienced it.

Oh my gosh, there's probably so much more to say, but I don't want to take up too much of your time. Um, I guess looking back, what's your most vivid memory of maybe something specific about Melee and then just more Brawl at E3 2001 that really sticks with you to this day?

My memories of the show at large are really complicated because it was the first time I met so many people, the first time I did so many things. It was so big you had to live it to appreciate it. I mean, it really an incredible moment in my life and some, some really cherished memories from E3 2001. About the game in particular, I guess, you know, like all those super detailed thoughts that I had about playing Smash that year are written down and still online, or maybe even I spoke them into a microphone at some point. But I guess looking back now, the thing that I kind of take away was that Smash Bros. went from being a game that I honestly definitely did not expect that it would get a sequel. I didn't know really what I would want in a sequel to Smash other than like very obvious stuff like, "Yeah, let's put in more characters," you know? But like nothing— I couldn't have imagined the kind of overhaul and expansion that they did for it. It, you know, it was It was striking. It's kind of like if you went from Brawl to Ultimate, directly to Ultimate. It's just like, whoa, what happened? How did we get here? You know, Melee just felt like, wow, this is the premier launch title. Presumably at that time it was presumed to be a launch title. Turned out to be not quite, but it's like Where did this come from? Like, it was pretty much a consensus game of the show for Nintendo at E3. And, you know, it's a game that we didn't know existed a day before that, a day before the show. We didn't know that game existed, and, and all of a sudden it feels like the highlight of their E3 showcase and turned out to be one of the biggest-selling games of the system and of that whole generation. And really the true start, I think, of a massive franchise that's still going today. Yeah, it was wild to go home from E3 obsessing over Smash and replaying the Smash demo in my head. That's not something I would have predicted.

That's so cool. Also, other last question, what happened to your Southern accent?

You know, I moved around the country. I lived with people from other parts of the country and other parts of the world, and it just melted away over time. And it comes back a lot when I'm around family or when I go back to Alabama, definitely it comes out. And all I can tell you is I'm not in charge of it.

Yeah, we just need some kind of evidence that you and the person from 23 years ago we hear out of the E3 account are the same person. You know, that's all I'm saying.

I mean, it's the same person plus a whole lot of living.

We'll take your word for it. Johnny, thank you so much for chatting with me, and it was just really fun to hear you talk about that.

Yeah, no problem. Yeah, it's been a pleasure speaking with you.

Alright, Johnny, take it easy.

Yeah, you too.

If you'd like to listen to the entire interview, I have it on my bonus channel linked in the description below. It was an absolute pleasure talking to Jonathan, and if you're down for some core nostalgia, I definitely recommend checking it out. Something that would greatly improve our research is getting a copy of the E3 2001 Melee demo disc. If anyone knows anyone who might If you might have a copy of this, please, please reach out to me. I would absolutely love to cover it in a video. This now brings us to the period just after Melee's release. Let's start with a few more diary entries from the HAL Labs website. July 19th, 2002, Tokyo Game Lounge. Our director Sakurai appeared on the show Tokyo Game Lounge with Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Hizakazu Hirabayashi on radio. The discussion started with the concept behind the creation of Kirby, touching on the ideas and feelings that went into it. Then it delved into the development of Super Smash Bros. from its inception to completion, guided by game analyst Hirabayashi and UGA's Mizuguchi. They also covered general topics about game design, offered insights that you don't usually hear. It's a must-listen for aspiring game creators and industry professionals alike. August 28th, 2002: Super Smash Bros. Melee Orchestra Concert. Hello, I'm Sakai from the sound team. This is my first time writing for the staff diary. I haven't kept a diary in decades, so I'm quite nervous. Yesterday, we successfully held the Super Smash Bros. Orchestra Concert. It might sound self-serving, but it was incredible. —under the passionate direction of conductor Taizo Takemoto, the orchestra delivered an intense performance that resonated even backstage. It gave me goosebumps. I genuinely believed it was an outstanding performance. Sakurai, our host, even remarked it was a once-in-a-lifetime performance, a sentiment I wholeheartedly agree with. Between the afternoon and evening sessions, Nintendo's Mr. Kondo and Mr. Todaka visited our dressing room providing a valuable and enjoyable time. We rarely have the opportunity to interact with sound professionals from other companies, so it was a delightful experience. This concert was made possible thanks to the cumulative efforts of many people, especially Nintendo's Mr. Kondo and Mr. Todaka, whose iconic works provided the foundation. Without Mario's music, for instance, this concert wouldn't have been possible. Since yesterday, I've received many thank-you emails from guests staff, and orchestra members. They all mentioned how impressed they were with the hospitality of HAL Laboratory staff. Our team dressed sharply in suits and greeted the guests warmly at the entrance, which made a great impression. I was particularly surprised and pleased to hear similar feedback from backstage. Hosting this concert made us happy, pleased our audience, and delighted the participants and organizers. It was an ideal outcome, and I hope we can hold such an event again in the future. To everyone who attended, thank you, and to the sound staff, great job. Maru. Takamoto Taizo posted in 2018 reminiscing about this experience at the concert. Here's what he said: In February 2002, we held the Final Fantasy concert, followed by the Super Smash Bros. Melee concert in August. This marked the beginning of my journey in game music concerts. 16 years have passed since then, with Super Mario and Zelda concerts following in subsequent years. This year, I am committed to staying true to my roots, enjoying the process, and giving it my all. This was a smaller find, but I recently noticed Peach's portrait in the beginning of Mario Luigi: Superstar Saga on Game Boy Advance has a striking resemblance to her portrait in Melee. I haven't seen any other examples of Melee portraits reused in other games like this, so I wanted to call it out. Something else fairly obscure but interesting is that the showcase for the early version of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! uses placeholder karts and Mario and Luigi models, which happen to be the Mario and Luigi models directly from Melee. As stated in an Iwata Asks interview, Melee was nearly ported as-is to Wii with no character balance changes and with the addition of online play. This would have been Nintendo's backup had Sakurai not agreed to make a sequel title.

Nijiru kutei no faiitani wa matakkute wo tsuketsu sono wa mawii de dasarete ita ka mo shirimasu. Katsute, yuuta-san wa sono yo ni katattidasu.

To make Brawl's proposal document, Sakurai used Melee screenshots as placeholders to illustrate his vision for the next game. Here you can see Melee Mario on Yoshi's Story, with some effects drawn on to illustrate a Final Smash, clearly something he's had in mind since the beginning of the series. In a talk Sakurai gave at GDC 2008, he talked a bit about the difference between Melee and Brawl's art style. Take a listen.

Now, something that's more difficult than just creating character graphics was making sure all the characters felt the same. While the Wii is not a high-definition console, you still run into a stylistic gap when increasing the detail with which you represent different types of characters from different series. For example, I think you're familiar with Bugs Bunny. So, if we had Bugs Bunny fighting against a photorealistic character, the result would be unnatural and visually disruptive. So, how do we go about closing that gap? That's what I'd like to talk about next. Colors from Smash Bros. Melee look something like this. And now I say something something like this because it's not an actual screenshot but just something to represent what the colors look like in the game. To deal with the problem of a unified character feel in the last Smash Bros., we added accents like the feel of denim, etc. But we didn't have the same flexibility with colors. They were clearly defined. Mario's red is red and green's Link was green. Now, for this game, image— this is what we are looking for. So this image we put together to illustrate what we're aiming for is made up by adjusting a lot of things through the extensive use of intermediate colors, strengthening of textures, focusing on light sources, etc. We try to reduce the sensation of things not fitting together by unifying the feel of the materials. As you can see here on the left, here is the official Mario, and on the right is the Smash Bros. version of Mario. The overalls of the official Mario are cobalt blue, and the small details have been reduced. It's not like a cartoon, let's say, but again, the details have been reduced. Now, of course, this is a great model, and Nintendo requires a strict observance of this design. However, for us, they allowed us to add details, and that's where we came up with the Super Smash Bros. Mario shown here on the right. Here's a close-up of Mario's midsection. Look closely and you can see scuffs and scrapes in the materials of his overalls. This isn't because we wanted simply to add realism, but because we thought it was natural. And so when we put the characters side by side, we wanted them all to feel like they belong together. I'd like to stress that it's not the additional graphic power of the Wii, but the improvement in staff ability that enabled us to carry out more detailed presentations this time around.

You can see a version of Ocarina of Time Link with Brawl-styled textures. Pretty interesting. You can also see a simpler version of Brawl's battlefield stage and background with more vibrant colors. I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. If you enjoyed it, as always, please like, comment, and subscribe to the channel if you are able. Thank you so much for watching, and God bless.