After almost 20 years, a Super Smash Bros. Melee player hit all 190 names in the credits sequence after a $3,000 bounty was posted. Super Smash Bros. Melee is the second game in the beloved fighting franchise, but it’s still played regularly in competitive scenes. The most recent installment in the series, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, released in 2018, but a very dedicated community refused to leave the beloved Nintendo GameCube classic behind for newer releases.
It’s no understatement to say that players still adore Super Smash Bros. Melee even though the game will be turning 20 years old this November. Passionate competitive and modding communities still orbit the game, with a recent mod making Wolf from the Star Fox series fully playable. Though its competitive side has recently been rocked by internal allegations of abuse and Nintendo continues to hamper its efforts to gain legitimacy, Super Smash Bros. Melee players are still perfecting their game in 2021.
As reported by Polygon, a Super Smash Bros. Melee player has set a new world record by hitting all 190 names in the game’s credits sequence. The player, Martin Zarate, responded to Nathaniel Bandy’s bounty of $3,000 and posted a video in which he hit all 190 names, the first time the feat has ever been recorded since the game launched in 2001. Bandy set a deadline of March 31, the start of Nintendo’s fiscal year. Zarate said that it took roughly 90 hours to accomplish this feat, and practice for individual sections took approximately 12 hours each. Notably, the closest anyone had come prior to this was 182 names in 2007. Zarate said that he’ll use his earned $3,000 for his school tuition in the hopes of becoming a park ranger.
Watching the video of Zarate hitting all of the names is astonishing. Getting all 190 names takes laser-sharp focus and precision, and the fact that it’s taken nearly 20 years for this to be accomplished says a lot about its challenging nature. It’s no surprise that this achievement took hours upon hours of practice, and with a new world record recently set for Super Smash Bros. Melee, it only speaks to the game’s longevity in competitive scenes.
This challenge is especially difficult because of how quickly and arbitrarily the names pop up, particularly during the voice actor section. These names are coming from all angles of the screen, and it takes a great deal of practice and patience to know exactly when and where all of these names will appear. Kudos to Zarate for finally accomplishing what no Super Smash Bros. Melee player has done before.
