Former Nintendo employees say that Super Smash Bros. Melee HD is 'absolutely, 100% never going to happen'

Though it’s been over 21 years since Super Smash Bros. Melee was released for the Nintendo GameCube, there are plenty of Super Smash Bros. fans that are still playing the game competitively. What’s particularly noteworthy about this is that players continue to play Melee even after later entries in the series — Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — have been released.

In a recent podcast by former Nintendo employees Kit & Krysta (previously the hosts of Nintendo Minute), the duo received a question from a fan that asked about the possibility of some sort of remaster of Super Smash Bros. Melee. For some, a “Super Smash Bros. Melee HD” seems like a logical thing to do considering how there is still a community behind the game even after over 21 years.

“Super Smash Bros. Melee HD basically,” begun Kit. “On one hand, makes a lot of sense. On the other hand, it’s never going to happen.”

“It’s absolutely, 100% never going to happen,” said Krysta in agreement to Kit’s comment. “Melee is one of those things — when we were at Nintendo — that’s sort of this thing that whenever someone brings it up…”

“It’s a Mother 3-level game where you kind of tense up,” added Kit. Once again, Krysta very clearly agreed with Kit’s thoughts on the subject.

Mother 3 was originally released on April 20, 2006, but Nintendo has been heavily criticized regarding the game as it has never seen an official international release outside of Japan. Despite the fan demand for an official translation and port to current generation consoles, it doesn’t appear as though this will ever happen at this point.

“I think one of the reasons not to do this game is how annoying the community would be around it. If you change even one minuscule detail about this game, it’d be like ‘Oh! This game is not viable!'”
— Kit

As such, it’s easy to see how something like Mother 3 might be a sore subject for those working for Nintendo. Evidently, the idea of a Super Smash Bros. Melee rerelease is in the same category as Mother 3.

In particular, there’s this negative stigma about Melee that’s developed internally within Nintendo. This seems to be attributed to how most Super Smash Bros. Melee players have rejected all other Smash titles over the years.

Since Super Smash Bros. Melee has never be rereleased, tournaments have to either run with CRT televisions or run the game via emulation. In recent years, the modding scene has also developed new ways to play Melee. While this might be great for the community, these methods don’t really align with Nintendo’s policies.

“Yeah. There are so many negative things from a Nintendo perspective around Melee that it’s just like… now there’s this ‘black market emulation’ around it and all this other stuff that Nintendo does not like,” continued Krysta.

Krysta appears to be indirectly referencing Slippi which introduces the implementation of rollback netcode and online play for Super Smash Bros. Melee. Needless to say, Super Smash Bros. Melee isn’t a game that natively supports online play so it isn’t something that Nintendo directly supports.

“I think one of the reasons not to do this game is how annoying the community would be around it,” declared Kit. “If you change even one minuscule detail about this game, it’d be like ‘Oh! This game is not viable!'”

“There’s no way you can satisfy the zealousness of that community. I think Nintendo totally knows that.'”
— Krysta

“There’s no way you can satisfy the zealousness of that community,” added Krysta. “I think Nintendo totally knows that.”

Indeed, there’s this belief that Nintendo (or anyone for that matter) wouldn’t be able to perfectly replicate what fans would want for a theoretical remaster of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Additionally, there’s nobody outside of the Super Smash Bros. Melee community that would realistically want a remaster of the GameCube classic considering that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate exists.

“It’d be like ‘The end of Melee is here because Nintendo put out Melee HD and it’s not like… 2,000% accurate to the original,'” continued Kit. “From [Nintendo’s] standpoint, there’s actually no incentive for them to do this. If you can’t satisfy the Melee fanbase, there’s no point in doing the project.”

“Just have to do the ‘sweep it under the rug’ tactic,” tacked on Krysta. “Don’t talk about Melee. You let them do their thing and you just move on.”

“Because for everybody else, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is great,” said Kit. “They don’t have this affinity and they don’t want to lug around a CRT, so they don’t need it.”