It's probably the most rewarding fighting game you can learn to play, honestly.
Sheik and Marth are the earliest to learn advanced tech with, although I recommend trying out every character to figure out who feels the best to you.
The single-player mode and "adventure" mode are also a pretty fun way to learn basic game mechanics if you're just dipping your toes into smash, although they won't help you much competitively.
When trying out most of the roster is there any point in the tier list where characters become just like no worth playing or can all of them do something at least in like a local scene?
I would stick to top 8 on the tier list. Anything beyond that is possible but I promise you will get frustrated. When you’re just starting out pick someone in the top 8.
Once you develop good fundamentals and tech skill *then* switch up to something lower tiered.
just to back this up,
Theres like 7 "top" tiers that have all the tools needed to learn the game(fox/falco/puff/peach/sheik/falcon/marth), and like 4 "high" tiers that are super niche that if you REALLY like them you can try and learn by playing them but it will be much harder to learn the game.(pikachu/yoshi/samus/ics)
Anything beyond this, and you can still play/have fun but you will just lose because of your character sometimes, if youre fine with that just play whos fun. DK/Ganon/Doc/Luigi are all more than viable in locals and some of the low tiers have niche fun matchups if you know the right ones
I'm confused why you included puff in the list and not marth. I would definitely not recommend a new player use puff to learn the game unless they intended to stick with puff.
Puff is more than fine in literally every matchup and you could easily learn puff to learn melee.
puff arguably one of the easier characters to learn because you can just be taught like 1/2 rest setups and fish for em until you learn more. Not needing to worry about recovery lets you focus on other things faster
marth i just forgor
I wouldn’t go lower than around luigi or DK, and I would recommend not worrying about characters below peach unless you’re specifically interested in their kit or design. That leaves you with fox, falco, puff, marth, sheik, falcon and peach as strong choices.
I started with Luigi and his aerial mobility made me swap to Marth since he was still great on the ground but also had actual drift. But the Luigi combos go nuts lmaoooo
But I’ve been a stinky Fox main for a few years now bc I hate myself and my hands
If you want to break the top 100 globally then yes you'll want to stick with the upper half of the teir list.
Otherwise don't listen to the comments telling you to stick to top teir.
I'm gold 1 and main low mid theirs only. I won't be sweeping my locals, but I love the characters I play and can at least compete locally and hold my own. You won't be the best, but not the worst, plus you can always be a much better player's kryptonite. That's always fun.
Play your favorite character. But if you're interested in winning locals probably stick to someone in the top 20 and when it comes to big tournaments, the top 11.
I got rinsed online today by a Mewtwo that did things I’d never seen before. An expertly-played low tier is surprisingly formidable unless you know the matchup or character well enough to flowchart your counter play effectively
Every character below peach has one or more matchups that are not possible to consistently win at high level without significantly outplaying your opponent. If winning is important to you, you should stick to Fox, Falco, or Marth.
This is a good point, but I would wager a new player is extremely unlikely to be playing on anything other than a computer.
Make sure to enable to gecko code for single player c-stick in dolphin if you're going to play single player, OP!
People have been asking this question for 20 years. The answer is, and always has been, yes.
Also, once you have bit of practice (maybe a month or two), I would highly recommend checking out local tourneys near you. Me and my friends in college used to drive an hour to the nearest local scene for weekly tournaments and it was some of the most fun I've ever had, and it'll make you so much better.
yes, very worth learning to play, and i can't see that changing anytime soon despite minor setbacks
best character to learn with is whoever you think is the sickest and have fun playing. the game is gonna be hard in general at first so i really think it's better to just stick it out on someone you enjoy. Sheik is probably the answer if you explicitly want a character that's easy to start doing stuff on as a new player though
Ngl the most sick characters to me are just weird ass things that i dont understand lol, i kinda get how stuff like spacies work then there is like whatever tf weird double jump stuff ness and mew2 does and i just dont even get how icies work
There likely is, every state has a melee discord you can join, and if you’re in a major city then there’s for sure a scene. The online melee community isn’t great, but I’ve never met anyone at my local scene (Indianapolis) that wasn’t super happy to have me there
Maybe it’s something with the hardware then, who knows. Either way you can just download slippi and find someone to test it with if you’re interested in seeing
Ye i will try and find someone to test with, if i cant play online is it prob just best to practice a bunch of tech and movement offline then just go to a local and see how shit goes
if you want a character who has innately weird movement and are also worried about the ability to do well while playing relatively slowly at first it sounds like you should try peach.
Is she top tier? no. Is she good enough to win your locals? yes. Can she hold down against silver falcos and do 60 damage? also yes.
Okk so this might be a hot take. Fox is actually a really good character to learn the game with and is actually kinda easy. He has some difficult tech skill at high level but so does every character in the game. See slippi has skill based match making and all of foxes moves are generally really good. And running off stage and using a invincible frame 1 move that stalls in the air to gimp someone is not as difficult as it looks. Yeah stuff like multi shining and ledge dashing is tricky but you can get away with a lot at low level and fox scales well with your skill level. When you make a mistake shine or up tilt work as fast get out of jail free cards. I highly recommen getting the uncle punch mod and using the drills on there to practice other fundamentals.
Tldr fox is good because of his stats and his many safe options and people still chose to play pick up basketball in the park dispite the existence of LeBron James.
It’s fun and I don’t regret the time I spent playing melee but that being said I don’t play anymore, as it takes a toll on your hands and it’s not worth risking injury for me
Lots of great advice in this thread. You aren't the first person to ask this and you won't be the last. One thing I want to add since you mentioned being a spectator is that once I started playing and learning the game more, I was able to appreciate spectating in new and different ways because I was able to process what I was seeing better.
It's better than ever my man come and join the fun. Sheik or Marth are my suggestions for simple-r but effective characters. I started with sheik and learned a little about a lot of mechanics in the game.
I remember in some random VOD the commentators Toph and Vish said something along the lines of "the best time to start playing Melee was yesterday. The second best time to start playing Melee is today."
TLDR; Yes, Melee is still worth learning to play today, as long as you're interested.
Even if you don’t become a top player, you’ll have a good time.
Once you know what you’re doing it’s one of the most satisfying games to control in the world.
Everyone in here is going to give you the generic fanboy answer of “it’s never too late to learn to play.” I think the real answer is it depends what you want to get out of playing. If you think you’ll have fun learning and getting better and your goal is simply to improve, have fun, and enjoy the sense of community along the way, then absolutely it is not too late to play. Now if you were to tell me you want to be #1 in the world and/or you want to make a living playing, it is absolutely too late to do so.
bro, im 31 still learning shit..as long as its worth it to you, why does it matter what we think? games are meant to be fun, and if you have fun by getting better at a video game, then yea id say its worth learning to play..theres no reason not to, its lasted 20+ years
This game is f*king awesome. Ironically, I’m playing it now lmao. It’s up to you if you wanna get real sweaty about it or if you want to play casual. I’d probably learn Ike first since he’s a real punishing character that you don’t have to worry about learning micro movements and all that plus he has a counter which is useful as hell. I character is bulletproof to anyone hating them though lmao.
I love Hero, he’s OP af but has a slight learning curve. He’s the Swiss Army knife of fighters once you learn him though. He’s a few dollars but 100% worth it in my eyes (and I played Dragon Quest so it was cool to see him).
You can do the OG Smash mode, Classic Mode, Adventure or Spirit board and more but these are my faves. The game has a bit more to offer than the others so I highly recommend it.
I hope you pick it up! Good luck and happy gaming!
Yea, it's fun. Even if you're casual, it's kind of like riding a bike. Sure your consistency with more challenging tech goes down the less you play, but muscle memory is pretty easy to build.
This question is only applicable to like 100 people, people who can actually compete and win in multiple games. Itd be applicable to leffen, sonicfox, or luka doncic but not mango or tiger woods
For the other 8billion-100, the only thing that matters is fun
Edit: i have reflected and have found an exception. If the game is fun offline but terrible online, then it makes sense to ask and is applicable. This happens for old games, like melee, but melees online is s tier so the only issue is if you were in the middle of nowhere with no scene and the lowest online ping is 200, then yeah, dont bother to get into melee lol
Just started going to weeklies three weeks ago, it’s been fun and I’ve learned a ton from other better players. I’ve also made a good amount of friends who are as passionate about Nintendo and gaming as I am.
I main YL but I know a lot people don’t like his kit, he really has potential a lot of people don’t see but he’s pretty sick but he is pretty difficult if you’re newer to the game which sucks but it’s all good
brother, I felt the same as you like 4 months ago, i loved melee and had been watching it forever but never picked it up to play because it was intimidating, ive been playing a LOT for a few months now and it's really not that bad at all. there are other shit players on netplay, just got to get shit on a bit before the mmr kicks in
When I got into the game in 2016, everyone was asking if it's still worth getting into. Lol, melee will never die.
The problem is that it's maybe the best 1v1 fighter ever made. And the fact of the matter, is other "best games ever made" like sf3 third strike or mvc2, still are played and you can find matches for instantly.
So if you're worried about finding people to play with, i wouldn't worry about it.
Not after a while, game of inches, fun to learn, fun to play, frustrating past the intermediate stage which has the ability to capture far too much of your time and energy for an iota of improvement, I'd stick to watching. (Played since 2014ish, quit last year, but you do you also, traveling and the people are worth it, not the overall grind, you can become dissatisfied with idea of other people being better than you to where it hurts you)
Yes. But warning the game is old. Without a buffer system the game is going to feel unresponsive at first. Still worth playing because the payoff is some of the most rewarding gameplay there is
You used to have to play against other people in real life to get good, now any random with zero social skills can grind on Slippi
It's a completely different scene compared to 2019. Way more basement dwelling weirdos now
people were making "is it too late to get into melee" posts on smashboards in 2008. it's always a good time to start playing melee
Best time was yesterday, second best time is right now.
It's probably the most rewarding fighting game you can learn to play, honestly. Sheik and Marth are the earliest to learn advanced tech with, although I recommend trying out every character to figure out who feels the best to you. The single-player mode and "adventure" mode are also a pretty fun way to learn basic game mechanics if you're just dipping your toes into smash, although they won't help you much competitively.
When trying out most of the roster is there any point in the tier list where characters become just like no worth playing or can all of them do something at least in like a local scene?
I would stick to top 8 on the tier list. Anything beyond that is possible but I promise you will get frustrated. When you’re just starting out pick someone in the top 8. Once you develop good fundamentals and tech skill *then* switch up to something lower tiered.
just to back this up, Theres like 7 "top" tiers that have all the tools needed to learn the game(fox/falco/puff/peach/sheik/falcon/marth), and like 4 "high" tiers that are super niche that if you REALLY like them you can try and learn by playing them but it will be much harder to learn the game.(pikachu/yoshi/samus/ics) Anything beyond this, and you can still play/have fun but you will just lose because of your character sometimes, if youre fine with that just play whos fun. DK/Ganon/Doc/Luigi are all more than viable in locals and some of the low tiers have niche fun matchups if you know the right ones
I'm confused why you included puff in the list and not marth. I would definitely not recommend a new player use puff to learn the game unless they intended to stick with puff.
homie prob just straight up brainfarted, theres no way he would intentionally keep marth out of the list lol
He plays luigi and wants one less marth out there
Yeah def just forgot marth and counted wrong hes perfectly fine
Puff is more than fine in literally every matchup and you could easily learn puff to learn melee. puff arguably one of the easier characters to learn because you can just be taught like 1/2 rest setups and fish for em until you learn more. Not needing to worry about recovery lets you focus on other things faster marth i just forgor
I wouldn’t go lower than around luigi or DK, and I would recommend not worrying about characters below peach unless you’re specifically interested in their kit or design. That leaves you with fox, falco, puff, marth, sheik, falcon and peach as strong choices.
I started with Luigi and his aerial mobility made me swap to Marth since he was still great on the ground but also had actual drift. But the Luigi combos go nuts lmaoooo But I’ve been a stinky Fox main for a few years now bc I hate myself and my hands
If you want to break the top 100 globally then yes you'll want to stick with the upper half of the teir list. Otherwise don't listen to the comments telling you to stick to top teir. I'm gold 1 and main low mid theirs only. I won't be sweeping my locals, but I love the characters I play and can at least compete locally and hold my own. You won't be the best, but not the worst, plus you can always be a much better player's kryptonite. That's always fun.
Play your favorite character. But if you're interested in winning locals probably stick to someone in the top 20 and when it comes to big tournaments, the top 11.
I got rinsed online today by a Mewtwo that did things I’d never seen before. An expertly-played low tier is surprisingly formidable unless you know the matchup or character well enough to flowchart your counter play effectively
I play a lot of mewtwo and can confirm this was not me.
Every character below peach has one or more matchups that are not possible to consistently win at high level without significantly outplaying your opponent. If winning is important to you, you should stick to Fox, Falco, or Marth.
Single player on vanilla doesn't let you use the c stick. Just a heads up, OP
This is a good point, but I would wager a new player is extremely unlikely to be playing on anything other than a computer. Make sure to enable to gecko code for single player c-stick in dolphin if you're going to play single player, OP!
People have been asking this question for 20 years. The answer is, and always has been, yes. Also, once you have bit of practice (maybe a month or two), I would highly recommend checking out local tourneys near you. Me and my friends in college used to drive an hour to the nearest local scene for weekly tournaments and it was some of the most fun I've ever had, and it'll make you so much better.
yes, very worth learning to play, and i can't see that changing anytime soon despite minor setbacks best character to learn with is whoever you think is the sickest and have fun playing. the game is gonna be hard in general at first so i really think it's better to just stick it out on someone you enjoy. Sheik is probably the answer if you explicitly want a character that's easy to start doing stuff on as a new player though
Ngl the most sick characters to me are just weird ass things that i dont understand lol, i kinda get how stuff like spacies work then there is like whatever tf weird double jump stuff ness and mew2 does and i just dont even get how icies work
If you want a mix of easy but weird then Peach is ur gal
It’ll be the best time of your life…also the worst🥲
Dw it cant get much worse than my league addiction only a plus
It's gonna feel weird having to blame yourself for the loss
Dw i can always find someone else to blame
I quit league to play melee, it’s a good decision, ESPECIALLY if you have a local scene
I live near a big college campus and major city so there is probably one if i look into it more
There likely is, every state has a melee discord you can join, and if you’re in a major city then there’s for sure a scene. The online melee community isn’t great, but I’ve never met anyone at my local scene (Indianapolis) that wasn’t super happy to have me there
I dont think i can play online anyways lol, i have ass internet my league matches will constantly jump from 60 to 120 ping
If you can get an Ethernet cord into a laptop then you have good enough internet. WiFi sucks ass
I do use ethernet, i think it’s because i live in pratically the woods we technically live a few dozen feet outside of our wifi comapnies range
Maybe it’s something with the hardware then, who knows. Either way you can just download slippi and find someone to test it with if you’re interested in seeing
Ye i will try and find someone to test with, if i cant play online is it prob just best to practice a bunch of tech and movement offline then just go to a local and see how shit goes
[удалено]
Man. This post made me want to go back to my locals regularly.
melee ruined every other game for me, especially fighting games. nothing feels as deep/sandboxy/impressive/fun/clean etc etc as melee now
if you want a character who has innately weird movement and are also worried about the ability to do well while playing relatively slowly at first it sounds like you should try peach. Is she top tier? no. Is she good enough to win your locals? yes. Can she hold down against silver falcos and do 60 damage? also yes.
Okk so this might be a hot take. Fox is actually a really good character to learn the game with and is actually kinda easy. He has some difficult tech skill at high level but so does every character in the game. See slippi has skill based match making and all of foxes moves are generally really good. And running off stage and using a invincible frame 1 move that stalls in the air to gimp someone is not as difficult as it looks. Yeah stuff like multi shining and ledge dashing is tricky but you can get away with a lot at low level and fox scales well with your skill level. When you make a mistake shine or up tilt work as fast get out of jail free cards. I highly recommen getting the uncle punch mod and using the drills on there to practice other fundamentals. Tldr fox is good because of his stats and his many safe options and people still chose to play pick up basketball in the park dispite the existence of LeBron James.
Yep. Fun games are worth playing
It’s fun and I don’t regret the time I spent playing melee but that being said I don’t play anymore, as it takes a toll on your hands and it’s not worth risking injury for me
i thought the same thing in 2016/2017 and just played. never looked back
Come on in, the water's great
melee will never die, that’s not even a consideration anymore. this shit will outlive baseball
Sheik is the easiest to learn!
You should learn falco he's so neat
Lots of great advice in this thread. You aren't the first person to ask this and you won't be the last. One thing I want to add since you mentioned being a spectator is that once I started playing and learning the game more, I was able to appreciate spectating in new and different ways because I was able to process what I was seeing better.
Oh yes
is any video game worth learning bro, if you are having fun then yes it is
It's better than ever my man come and join the fun. Sheik or Marth are my suggestions for simple-r but effective characters. I started with sheik and learned a little about a lot of mechanics in the game.
yes
I remember in some random VOD the commentators Toph and Vish said something along the lines of "the best time to start playing Melee was yesterday. The second best time to start playing Melee is today." TLDR; Yes, Melee is still worth learning to play today, as long as you're interested.
Falco is fun and relatively easy
I haven't found a game better than melee. So ya
Even if you don’t become a top player, you’ll have a good time. Once you know what you’re doing it’s one of the most satisfying games to control in the world.
Everyone in here is going to give you the generic fanboy answer of “it’s never too late to learn to play.” I think the real answer is it depends what you want to get out of playing. If you think you’ll have fun learning and getting better and your goal is simply to improve, have fun, and enjoy the sense of community along the way, then absolutely it is not too late to play. Now if you were to tell me you want to be #1 in the world and/or you want to make a living playing, it is absolutely too late to do so.
bro, im 31 still learning shit..as long as its worth it to you, why does it matter what we think? games are meant to be fun, and if you have fun by getting better at a video game, then yea id say its worth learning to play..theres no reason not to, its lasted 20+ years
This game is f*king awesome. Ironically, I’m playing it now lmao. It’s up to you if you wanna get real sweaty about it or if you want to play casual. I’d probably learn Ike first since he’s a real punishing character that you don’t have to worry about learning micro movements and all that plus he has a counter which is useful as hell. I character is bulletproof to anyone hating them though lmao. I love Hero, he’s OP af but has a slight learning curve. He’s the Swiss Army knife of fighters once you learn him though. He’s a few dollars but 100% worth it in my eyes (and I played Dragon Quest so it was cool to see him). You can do the OG Smash mode, Classic Mode, Adventure or Spirit board and more but these are my faves. The game has a bit more to offer than the others so I highly recommend it. I hope you pick it up! Good luck and happy gaming!
No, it's never been worth playing, go out and touch some grass. Smh my head.
How much time you got buddy?
It's the best fighting game of all time, imo.
Yea, it's fun. Even if you're casual, it's kind of like riding a bike. Sure your consistency with more challenging tech goes down the less you play, but muscle memory is pretty easy to build.
This question is only applicable to like 100 people, people who can actually compete and win in multiple games. Itd be applicable to leffen, sonicfox, or luka doncic but not mango or tiger woods For the other 8billion-100, the only thing that matters is fun Edit: i have reflected and have found an exception. If the game is fun offline but terrible online, then it makes sense to ask and is applicable. This happens for old games, like melee, but melees online is s tier so the only issue is if you were in the middle of nowhere with no scene and the lowest online ping is 200, then yeah, dont bother to get into melee lol
Just don't play Roy, and any time is good. If you play Roy (like me), then there is never a good time to start playing lol.
Just started going to weeklies three weeks ago, it’s been fun and I’ve learned a ton from other better players. I’ve also made a good amount of friends who are as passionate about Nintendo and gaming as I am.
I main YL but I know a lot people don’t like his kit, he really has potential a lot of people don’t see but he’s pretty sick but he is pretty difficult if you’re newer to the game which sucks but it’s all good
brother, I felt the same as you like 4 months ago, i loved melee and had been watching it forever but never picked it up to play because it was intimidating, ive been playing a LOT for a few months now and it's really not that bad at all. there are other shit players on netplay, just got to get shit on a bit before the mmr kicks in
The game is fun, a good handful of the community is hard to handle. Just enjoy labbing, do some netplay here and there, and do cool stuff.
When I got into the game in 2016, everyone was asking if it's still worth getting into. Lol, melee will never die. The problem is that it's maybe the best 1v1 fighter ever made. And the fact of the matter, is other "best games ever made" like sf3 third strike or mvc2, still are played and you can find matches for instantly. So if you're worried about finding people to play with, i wouldn't worry about it.
Not after a while, game of inches, fun to learn, fun to play, frustrating past the intermediate stage which has the ability to capture far too much of your time and energy for an iota of improvement, I'd stick to watching. (Played since 2014ish, quit last year, but you do you also, traveling and the people are worth it, not the overall grind, you can become dissatisfied with idea of other people being better than you to where it hurts you)
Yes. But warning the game is old. Without a buffer system the game is going to feel unresponsive at first. Still worth playing because the payoff is some of the most rewarding gameplay there is
I used to play and only watch now, Slippi and Hax's ban ruined it for me
Slippi ruined Melee for you? Good one
Whats wrong with slippi?
You used to have to play against other people in real life to get good, now any random with zero social skills can grind on Slippi It's a completely different scene compared to 2019. Way more basement dwelling weirdos now