Melee is the greatest competitive video game ever made, and it was by mistake. This game is so good, if casuals did not know the competitive scene existed, they would never complain about it. Melee gets hate for being popular and liked, which I've never understood.

If you break it down at a game level, it x2's everything smash 64 had to offer. Larger Cast, Stage list, Item list, Single Player and Multiplayer offerings... trophies even. The list just goes on and on for improvements made between 64 and Melee.

Melee is so fascinating to me because its hard for me to find individual flaws in a game so deep. Sure you can complain about balance... which maybe affects 1% of people who've actually touched melee since release.

People point to Brawl being the best casual Smash game and I do have to agree, but Brawl only got there because it was able to build off melee, same way Melee built off of 64. Brawls subspace, does not exist without the success of Melee's adventure mode.

Melee now has some of the best online play any fighting game currently has. The rollback netcode from Slippi truly elevates melee even further into the GOAT status.

In my opinion, Melee is the GOAT of fighting games, and perhaps even games in general.