The Best Nintendo Game Every Year 1983 - 2024

Whilst the GameCube era might not have been Nintendo’s strongest financially, it produced plenty of solid gold classics. One of the best came in just the first few months of the console’s time on the market.

Super Smash Bros. Melee was the wine squeezed from the grapes of its predecessor but its true strength was the perfect balance of its content. The character roster felt massive but not intimidating and the various modes - Classic, Adventure, All Star, that one where you take your middle school angst out on a sandbag - kept players entertained whilst helping them to get better at the fundamentals.

Or you could just turn all the items on “very high” and let chaos reign.

It made for a deeply replayable package, assisted by its superb engine that far outlived the GameCube itself. Even with multiple sequels in later generations, Melee’s swift, heavy and exploitable engine set the groundwork for Nintendo’s first eSport - accidental or otherwise.

More than anything, Melee took the concept of the Nintendo party fighter to a level that made it gaming’s premiere crossover event. Just the opening video weaving through the likes of Zelda, Kirby, Star Fox and surprising choices (to Westerners, at least) like Ness. That first 90 seconds was Nintendo hype like we never had before, and it became the console’s killer multiplayer app for a long time.