20 Game Anniversaries Coming In 2026 That'll Age You Mercilessly

Although not the first game in the franchise, Super Smash Bros Melee indubitably provided the template – and benchmark – for subsequent games, especially in its magnificent multiplayer mode. Bringing together an all-star cast of characters from across Nintendo’s games, including Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda, Star Fox and Pokémon, Melee pits you in multi-level royal rumble fighting environments, where you fight for dominance on stages inspired by the different IPs.

Melee came to be not just one of the definitive games for Nintendo’s GameCube, but one of the definitive games of offline multiplayer gaming, pitting family and friends against each other in consistently engaging combat. And, yes, it was definitely a while ago now that we were pwning our pals after school – but in no way, shape or form can it have been twenty-five years…

Unfortunately, for those of us who don’t feel that old, it has indeed been two and a half decades since we were introduced to Melee. The game feels like a close contemporary of 2008’s Brawl, and certainly not seventeen years away from Ultimate, but go back and take another look, maybe play them side-by-side, and you’ll discover Melee isn’t quite as shiny and new as your memory suggests.