This article has a talk page!This page details bugs of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
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Because of its 13-month development time, Melee has a rather high amount of bugs. Some would be fixed in later versions of the game, such as NTSC versions 1.01 and 1.02, or the PAL version.
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General Bugs#
Name Entry glitch#
Watch on YouTubeThis glitch allows for several exploits to be performed; to perform this glitch, the first method is press A and B at the same time, release A when the Name Entry menu shows up, but still hold B, and then press the A button on the correct frame to go to the Name Entry screen when the game tries to go back to the previous screen. If timed correctly, the game will skip the character select screen. A second method requires less precise timing, though can only be performed in the Versus Mode; when the Name Entry menu shows up, one player's cursor must hover over the "Back" button. Then, the A button has to be pressed on both controllers; doing this correctly will cause the game to skip the character select screen and go straight to stage select.
List of exploits#
Master Hand glitch
Perhaps the most known exploit of the Name Entry glitch, this glitch allows the player to control Master Hand, which is the only way to select him outside of the Debug Menu. However, only player 3 can control Master Hand. When playing as him, performing any of his moves requires a combination of two buttons. Because Master Hand cannot be knocked into the blast zones to take away any of his stocks, he is unbeatable when playing outside of Stamina Mode. In the majority of the stages, Master Hand will go to a different spot when trying to perform a move, so it's recommended to play as him on Battlefield or Final Destination to make sure his moves don't cause him to go to a strange spot.
When playing in Versus Mode, the game will crash if Master Hand wins the match due to him not having a victory animation, though Stamina Mode allows for fair matches with him due to every character having 150 HP. When defeated, Master Hand will do his defeat animation, except that the game won't zoom in when he's defeated, and he won't scream. Strangely, on Brinstar, when defeated, Master Hand will rapidly bounce on the acid in the background. For some reason, the game does not crash when Zelda is selected only in Lightning Melee, Tiny Melee, Slo-Mo Melee, Camera, and Stamina Modes. Despite the game crashing when Master Hand wins a match, on timed matches, it is still possible for him to lose; when he loses, the game won't crash, though he won't appear in the box that shows the character's "clapping" animation, and his name will show Sheik's.
This glitch can be also done in the 1-P Mode, though in the majority of modes, the game will crash; for example, selecting Master Hand in Classic Mode or Target Test will cause the game to crash, though in the latter, Master Hand's laugh will still be heard, as the game is actually attempting to load the stage with ID of 0, which is used for the "DUMMY" stage, but without the use of Action Replay codes, the game will crash due to the stage not having a background music. While some modes do work, doing this in All-Star Mode will cause Master Hand to be stuck in the Rest Area, and he cannot access the portal to get to the next stage, and he cannot achieve any distance in the Home-Run Contest, because his intro will waste half of the time the game gives for the player to rack up on damage on Sandbag.
Black character glitch
This exploit can only be performed in the Versus Mode; on the character select screen, Teams must be enabled and all characters must be the same on the same team. If done correctly, the fourth character will be present in pure black, as the next sub-color the game loads happens to be pure black, which also happens to be the sub-color that was meant to be exclusive to a CPU Link in the event match "Link's Adventure".
0-Second Melee
This exploit, exclusive to Versus Mode, can be performed if there's only a single player or a team of characters in one team; the game mode must be set to Stock for the glitch to be performed. If done correctly, the announcer will say both "Ready..." and "Game!" at the same time, followed by "Go!", before cutting to the results screen. This happens because there's only one team remaining, causing the match to end immediately.
This glitch can be also combined with the Black character glitch mentioned above.
Single Person Melee
To perform this exploit, in the Versus Mode, there needs to be only one player and the game mode must be a timed one. When performed, there will be only one player in the match, and the camera will follow the player's character.
All-floats glitch
This exploit can only be performed on Poké Floats and must be combined with the 0-Second Melee exploit; when the stage loads, all of the floats will appear on-screen at the same time, which can occasionally cause the game to crash.
Unlike the other exploits mentioned above, the All-floats glitch is exclusive to version 1.0 of Melee.
Same color glitch#
In the Versus Mode, this glitch allows two or more players to have the same alternate costume without the need of being in Team Battle or having the shaded versions of the color scheme. To perform this glitch, one player must select a character and the desired alternate costume, and then the second player must highlight the same character, and must choose a color scheme adjacent to the desired costume in cycling order by one spot. Once that's done, the player with the desired color scheme must deselect their character, and the other player must quickly press either the X or Y buttons to highlight the desired alternate costume. Doing this correctly will cause the players to have the exact same color scheme, and it can be repeated in case more players would wanna have the same color scheme. In the match, the characters will not have a sub-color. However, once the match is finished, the glitch must be performed again because the player with the highest port takes the color chosen and from there each port takes another color.
Stock glitch#
This glitch allows the player to play as a character with a stock icon from a different character. To pull this off, the player must first select the character they want to play as, then press the B button and hover the cursor over a different character's icon, then press Y to highlight a different alternate costume, then press L + R + Start to return to the main menu. Doing this correctly will show the character with the portrait from a different character.
Interestingly, performing this glitch with Mewtwo, Ness, or Pichu allows Marth and Roy's fifth costumes to be seen even before being unlocked.
Daisy's third eye#
In the Japanese and NTSC 1.0 and 1.01 versions, positioning the camera behind Daisy's hair in her trophy reveals a third eye. This was fixed in NTSC 1.02 and PAL versions.
Freeze glitch#
If the player is using the Ice Climbers, grabbing the opponent with Nana and then performing either forward or up throws (due to them having a pre-release hit), or a pummel, and then use Squall Hammer with Popo while Nana is frozen in hitlag will cause the opponent to be frozen in place if timed well. As a result, it is possible to rack up on damage up to 999%, the maximum amount. The only way to free the opponent is by grabbing them or by throwing a Screw Attack at them.
This glitch was fixed in the PAL version.
Soul breaker#
The soul breaker is a bug involving Mewtwo's Confusion and using it to grab the opponent and reflect an item that is too strong to handle, causing the reflector to be broken and the opponent get stuck on Mewtwo. The most common way to pull this is to reflect a Red Shell five times, and then grab the opponent just until the shell comes in contact, which will cause the reflector to be broken due to the shell being too strong. It is possible to do it with other projectiles, but is much harder to pull off.
The soul breaker occurs due to Mewtwo having its reflector broken while grabbing another character; with the animation interrupted, the code to release the victim is never reached. Since Mewtwo is not being attacked and damaged, it does not allow the "release victim when hit" code to run.
Kamikaze glitch#
If Mr. Game & Watch absorbs three fully charged PK Flashes, using Oil Panic on a shielding opponent will cause Mr. Game & Watch to be knocked back with great force, which can result in him being launched straight into a blast zone. Doing this near a wall causes Mr. Game & Watch to stop at the wall and the rest of the momentum of his attack will not occur. However, jumping over the wall before the momentum disappears causes him to continue going back, despite seemingly coming to a complete stop, as the shield pushback does not disappear when he hits the wall.
This glitch can also be performed using Samus' Charge Shot, Mewtwo's Shadow Ball, or a fully charged Super Scope, but with decreased efficiency.
Whispy blink glitch#
Exclusive to version 1.0, this glitch can only be performed by Marth and Roy. On Dream Land, right before Whispy's eyes are closed for the first blink, they must execute a jab, forward tilt, up tilt, down tilt, dash attack, or standing grab. Doing this correctly will cause Marth and Roy to swing their sword in an unusual way, with the attack lasting as long as it normally would and the corresponding hitbox still being attached to their arms and swords for a brief moment; the only exception to this is the grab, which acts independent of Marth's or Roy's arm movement.
Character Move-specific Bugs#
Roy's dash attack#
Roy's dash attack is infamous for not working properly; the hitbox appears at the very beginning of the attack, then disappears as Roy swing his sword upwards. The reason why this happens is because the animation of Roy's dash attack is reused from Marth's dash attack and slightly slowed down, but the hitboxes were not changed to be consistent with the slower animation.
Luigi Cyclone charge glitch#
Due to a programming oversight, Luigi Cyclone's charge parameter to determine if Luigi Cyclone is charged or uncharged at the beginning of a match is left blank, which causes the game to determine if the move should start charged or uncharged.
Luigi's dash attack#
Luigi's dash attack was supposed to have a hitbox on the last hit, but an oversight causes no hitbox to appear, leaving Luigi unsafe on hit or block when performing the move.
Donkey Kong's forward aerial#
Donkey Kong's forward aerial is the only aerial attack in the game that cannot be autocanceled. This is because the move has an animation of 59 frames, but the move is programmed to not be able to be autocanceled until frame 85.
Bowser's down throw#
In the NTSC version of the game, Bowser's down throw does not work correctly on Jigglypuff and Mr. Game & Watch; because the throw is weight dependent, it plays faster on lighter characters, though on certain weight values, it'll play the animation at such speed that the hitbox will not come out due to it coming out on frame 47. One of these is weight value 60, which both Jigglypuff and Mr. Game & Watch weigh. In the PAL version, the throw was made weight independent, causing Jigglypuff and Mr. Game & Watch to be damaged by the throw.
Mr. Game & Watch's aerials#
In Melee, every character can perform a technique known as "L-canceling", where pressing the L, R, or Z up to 7 frames before landing reduces the landing lag from an aerial. However, Mr. Game & Watch is the sole exception, as he can only L-cancel his forward and down aerials, as his back, up, and neutral aerials are erroneously coded as special attacks, which cannot be L-canceled.
Link's neutral aerial#
Link's neutral aerial has a bug where the hitbox does not disappear on the frame it is supposed to, causing the hitboxes to stay even after Link retracts his legs, allowing him to edgeguard an opponent easily with it.
Strangely, Young Link does not have this bug, as his neutral aerial's hitboxes are active until frame 28, suggesting that Link's neutral aerial's hitboxes were supposed to end on the same frame as Young Link's.
Mewtwo's Confusion#
Mewtwo's Confusion has an ability to reflect projectiles; unlike the other reflectors in the game, however, Confusion has a bug where the projectile ownership does not change, resulting in the projectile still hitting Mewtwo and/or its teammates.
In addition, due to Mewtwo still falling when it performs the move, combined with the fact that the characters being thrown are not checked for terrain collision, allows Mewtwo to pull the opponent through platforms, especially on Battlefield.
Item-specific Bugs#
Ganondorf's Bunny Hood#
Exclusive to version 1.0, if Ganondorf has a Bunny Hood equipped, he can perform an otherwise unused second jab, which happens to be an apparent leftover from Captain Falcon's moveset due to Ganondorf being a clone of him.
Infinite Super Scope glitch#
Despite the name, this glitch does not really give the Super Scope infinite ammo, but still gives a very large amount. In order to perform this glitch, the player must grab a Super Scope with full ammo and fire 15 individual shots with it, which is done by pressing the A button 5 times, as a single press of the button fires 3 projectiles. Then, the player must charge and fire two fully charged projectiles, and finally, charge one more shot and then get attacked by a different character before they fire, neither too early nor too late. Doing this will allow cause the Super Scope to receive much more ammo than it is supposed to have.
Bowser's giant hand#
If Bowser is holding a capsule, performing a short hop and then an air dodge will cause Bowser's hand to become gigantic for a brief second. This can be seen if the player pauses the game on the same frame as Bowser lands.
