Super Smash Bros. Melee

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Pre E3 2001 E3 2001

Early Development#

Scrapped Concepts#

Cut Characters#

Like its N64 sibling, the rapidly growing fanbase surrounding Melee generated a large amount of rumors regarding cut characters, something only exacerbated by the "clone" characters included in the game. An interview with Sakurai from a 2002 issue of Famitsu, as well as comments written by him on the game's Japanese website, reveal a large amount of information on the character selection process. This includes that clone characters were not initially a planned inclusion, and were made much later in development to beef up the roster. However, these write-ups also provide the following information regarding several cut characters and why they were omitted:

• Four other retro characters - Before the Ice Climbers were ultimately selected to be the "retro representative" characters, Sakurai stated that Balloon Fighter, Urban Champion, Bubbles from Clu Clu Land and an Excitebike racer were all considered for the 'retro representative.' Due to their own problems, the Ice Climbers were used instead. Bubbles, the Balloon Fighter, and the Excitebike racer would still be included in Melee, but only as collectable trophies.
• Ayumi Tachibana - According to Sakurai in a NicoNico livestream, Ayumi Tachibana from the Famicom Detective Club games was considered, but was rejected due to lack of familiarity in the West. Tachibana would still be included in Melee as a collectable trophy.¹
• Lucas - Ness was meant to be scrapped as a playable character and replaced by Lucas, the protagonist of Mother 3. However, the multiple delays of Mother 3 as Melee's development began, Ness returned instead. Lucas would later join the roster in Super Smash Bros. Brawl upon Mother 3's eventual release in 2006.²
• Solid Snake - Reportedly, Hideo Kojima (at his son's request) called up Masahiro Sakurai and asked if Solid Snake could be included in Melee. However, the game was too far in development to add another character so the addition was not possible.³
• Sonic the Hedgehog - Like with Snake, Yuji Naka suggested the idea of including Sonic the Hedgehog in Melee to Masahiro Sakurai. However, Sonic was excluded due to time constraints, likely due to overlap between Melee's production cycle and the lifespan of the SEGA Dreamcast, and by extension SEGA's time in the console market. During that time, when SEGA was a console competitor to Nintendo, they likely would have never let Sonic be in a Nintendo game, but when SEGA threw in the towel and stopped making consoles, Melee was likely too far along in development to add Sonic. Both Snake and Sonic would be added to the series in the next game, becoming the first Third-party additions in the series' history.
• Wario - Wario was strongly considered for Melee's roster, but was ultimately not added as Sakurai did not want too many Mario characters.⁴ However, Sakurai did state on the Japanese website that if he could choose one more character to include in the roster, he would have chosen Wario.⁵ True to Sakurai's word, Wario ended up being the first newcomer numbered in Brawl's internal order, noted in said game to represent the WarioWare series, which was not released yet at the time of Melee's release.

Other Characters#

Sakurai would answer some questions on both official Japanese websites for the this game and its predecessor, His comments here imply that most, if not all of the following characters were not seriously considered for Melee.

• Banjo and Kazooie - Sakurai stated including characters from Rare would be difficult, presumably for reasons listed below under the 'Other Scrapped Content' section. (Outside of a scrapped trophy for this game, they would eventually be added to the series as DLC in Ultimate.⁶)
• James Bond - When asked about the possible inclusion of James Bond, Sakurai stated this wasn't very likely due to multiple reasons such as acquiring the full licensing rights and concerns with the realistic weaponry.⁷
• Mach Rider - When asked what character he would want to see in a then-hypothetical Super Smash Bros. sequel, Sakurai listed the title character of Mach Rider, citing their name as the main reason. Mach Rider would appear as an trophy in the final game.⁸
• Takamaru - A fan asked Sakurai about including Takamaru from The Mysterious Murasame Castle, to which Sakurai asked the fan what was more likely: The Mysterious Murasame Castle getting a sequel or Takamaru appearing in Smash, which he concluded was equally unlikely. Takamaru did not appear in the series until the 3DS/Wii U installments as an Assist Trophy.⁹

Other Scrapped Content#

• Sukapon (from Joy Mecha Fight) was planned to be an item in Melee, but was cut. For a short time, the bonus information related to Sukapon was accidentally posted on Melee's website. Players would have been able to ride Sukapon, and attack the other players. Eventually, Sukapon did become an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

• An early rendition of the theme for the Temple stage exists on the game's official website, labelled as "shrin_botsu." Melee composer Shogo Sakai stated that he used the dungeons from the original Legend of Zelda - the eeriness and ethereal nature of which he compared to the famous "Yotsuya Kaidan" tale - as a reference for the tone of his original composition. the theme would later be replaced by a more dynamic remix of Zelda II's Palace theme in the final game.

• Super Smash Bros. Melee was originally going to feature the "8-Player Smash" mode for this game. However, due to technical performance, Sakurai stated "it was more than impossible." Two games and 13 years later, the mode was added to the game series.
• More Fire Emblem trophies were supposed to be included, however they were cut due to being more complex to make than other trophies in the game ¹⁰
• Trophies from games by Rare were in the game at some point, but removed because it was difficult for them to be approved due to Rare being based in England and Melee's tight development. The only characters ever confirmed to have appeared as trophies were Banjo & Kazooie and Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark ¹¹

References#