I think I want to give VRChat my first and only five-star rating largely out of principle. I've only spent roughly 20 hours ingame so far, and half of that time was spent pirating an entire HBO series in a media world.

I'm an anthropology student who just downloaded the game in 2022 but I am utterly fascinated with the social interactions that occur here.

Freshman year of college I did a small ethnographic project on social interations within Town of Salem's game chat, and I really regret that I hadn't studied VRChat instead. There was one world I went to where you spawn on a train that moves forever, and there were two people sitting on top who were edating. I could basically hear their whole conversation. They must have been aware, but they didn't seem to mind. My friends and I also explored a virtual art museum, while our artist friend gave an explanation of the famous pieces.

There are so many interesting layers to peel back when it comes to people watching. And if you don't want to do that, you can always just pirate an entire TV series, because it's way too easy to do that.

VRChat isn't my favorite game, not by a longshot. I don't even own a VR headset, I play this game in desktop mode. But I've never explored a virtual space with more childlike wonder than when I wander the nooks and crannies of this game's many worlds. Meta and Mark Zuckerberg could never accomplish creating a space like this. While VRChat worlds contain a couple semi-ironic and easy to ignore advertisment posters, and creator bulletins thanking loyal patrons, Meta is creating a sterile, work-friendly environment backed with tv ads promoting virtual Jon Batiste tshirts and NFTs. VRChat isn't necessarily a videogame, but its association with Steam, Oculus, and gaming as a whole works as a natural gatekeeper from corporate takeover. Of course, this skews the playerbase in an unfavorable direction (creepy gamers can flood certain spaces) but the silver lining remains: VRChat is a virtual space largely untainted by the real world. As a result, exploring the game is captivating.

TL;DR: I pirated all of HBO's The White Lotus within a week on VRChat. If anything, get it to do that.

So I'm a classically trained violist, and I've been playing since I was around 9. Yanny vs Laurel really helped me grow as a musician because it was when I first understood ear training and aural skills. Upon first hearing the sound, my inclination was Yanny. I was a kid surrounded by the company of other kids, and I played an instrument with a semi-high register. It was only natural that I heard Yanny. But it was brought to my attention by my friend who played double bass that he heard Laurel. I decided to listen for the lower register, and there it was, clear as day! It was a really powerful moment for me and it really goes to show how two things can be true at the same time. Have a blessed day, everyone.

20+ years later and it Melee is still, by far, the best Smash game. Has the best single-player content in the series, to start. Adventure Mode does a great job at showing the worlds of the different fighters (Subspace eat your heart out), and is very replayable, unlike something like Ultimate's World of Light or Brawl's Sub-Space Emissary. Also, it's just fun. REALLY fun. Classic mode is also a great time, and the fact it's different each time (and that the Break the Targets is customized to every character) keeps it feeling fresh every playthrough. Melee's Event Mode is also my personal favorite Event Mode in the series (though Brawl's ain't bad). Most events feel really creative and unique from each other, other than the occasional blip here and there. Some of my favorites are having to defeat Pikachu using only Pokéballs, protecting a Yoshi Egg, defeating two Nanas, battling 128 tiny Marios, and The Final Showdown against Mewtwo, Ganondorf, and Giga Bowser. There's also All-star & Stadium which are very fun side modes, and I'm glad you can access the Break the Targets stages without having to play Classic Mode to play them lol.

Moving on from Single-Player stuff, Melee is also extremely fun with multiplayer, and where the game truly shines. One of the big misconceptions about Melee I see people have now is that the only reason people like it is because of the competitive scene, and I think that's blatantly just false. Even if you don't know the first thing about how to do some of the advanced tech in this game, it's still very fun to just casually play with friends! It's easy to pick up, even now. The roster may be small, but I feel like most characters are very fun, which I can't say about some of the later games. Ultimate is surperior in the size of it's roster, but you also have some characters that just... aren't very fun, like Banjo & Kazooie & Piranha Plant.

Moving on to extras, GOD I love the trophies in this game. Maybe it's because I'm so used to the extremely lack-luster spirits of Ultimate, but going back to Melee and seeing all of these trophies (some of characters that never had 3D models previously) and neat little tid-bits of information about them is really cool. Getting a Sound Test after unlocking everything, while hardly revolutionary, is much appreciated with how good this game's soundtrack is. Many of the remixes in Melee are still the definitive version of those songs for me, especially (going off the names in the sound test) Great Bay, Temple, Brinstar, Corneria, Pokémon Stadium, Big Blue, EarthBound, Icicle Mountain, Fire Emblem, & Dr. Mario. Also the original music is amazing. I really don't think there's a single bad song in this game.

To finish this off, Super Smash Bros. Melee absolutely still deserves the legacy that it's held for the last 20 years, and is still the "Ultimate" Super Smash Bros. game to me. I hope Nintendo can make another Smash game that can recapture everything that makes Melee so beloved one day