The Many Secrets of Smash Bros. Melee

Via Joystiq, N-Philes has an article delving deep into the secrets of Super Smash Bros. Melee for the Gamecube. A Developer Mode is accessible within the game which allows for battle tweaking, setting changes, and access to dozens of otherwise inaccessible battle maps. From the article: "Notice the stage is completely horizontal. Not only that, it's easily the longest fighting arena in Super Smash Bros. history (with the exception of the Home-Run Contest stage). Along the stage lie several moving platforms and multicolored grounds with different amounts of traction when walked across. It's clear that HAL used this area as a virtual playground to experiment with several different aspects of gameplay. Did you take note of the background? Confused? So is everyone else. The background is a giant picture of a pub. If you look closely you can spot several people enjoying tall glasses of beer atop the bar and tables. Despite the fact that it seems a little strange, it somehow adds to the illustrious prestige of Super Smash Bros. We wouldn't have it any other way."

Comments

Easter Eggs

[turtled]

I love when games add things in, and I just busted this game out yesterday. This'll come in handy tonight.

Re:Easter Eggs

[Pxtl]

Of course, what I always wonder is - why hide them? Oh are you afraid your players might, y'know, have fun playing with the game?

PC titles often come with a full devkit. Console titles? If you're lucky, you can pick your character. Yay customisation.

Re:Easter Eggs

[Paladin128]

The average console user is a LOT less tech savvy than the average PC gamer. These things are hidden for lots of reasons:

1) lack of time for QA -- some stuff is buggy, and doesn't make the final cut. If it can cause the game to crash, it shouldn't be accessible to end users. Period.

2) Breaking game balance -- if some characters in a fighting game, for example, are simply too good, and make the game not fun to play, they shouldn't be allowed.

3) Flavor -- sometimes some stuff used in early stages is really dumb, or the vision on the project changes. If something doesn't fit, it shouldn't be in.

Hyperbole or ignorance?

[Intellectual Elitist]

"I always believed [Super Smash Bros. Melee] was the deepest fighting game of this gaming generation, but from then on, I was convinced it was the deepest fighting game ever."

I guess this guy's never played a Virtua Fighter game before. Or any of Capcom's later-era 2D fighters. Geez.

Re:Watch out! here comes ESRB

[Iriel]

Actually, what you can add into a game and Hot Coffee were two completely different things. The reason for that is because Hot Coffee was already completely assembled: models, responses, sounds and everything. The only part of the game that was actually hacked was a few lined of code in the PC version to allow that part of the game to be accessed. In case anybody needs clarification, think of it like this:

In SSB:Melee, you have to meet certain requirments to 'unlock' features in the game. Hot Coffee was a feature that was already built into GTA:SA, but the requirment to get it was never set, so you could never unlock it. All the 'hackers' did, was fill in that line of code. (It's over simplified, I know)

The reason you can't change the rating for a game that somebody added content to is because the distributor never lisenced that content and never created it to begin with. Users had to have built it and found a way to plug it into the game. GTA:SA's Hot Coffee was already good to go if you changed a few lines of code.

I think it will become too stupid to enforce things like this, though, when hackers could possibly remove a model from the character to leave them exposed, when that would normally violate the terms of use to begin with. Games are always trying to look more realistic and enforcing something like this could only hold them back.