Free Melee: Rallying Protest

A while ago, there was a Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament that got canned by Nintendo because of a mod to play online. It caused a bit of backlash. This past weekend was supposed to have a Splatoon 2 tournament with the publisher having some involvement. A lot of players went with names in support of Melee. In the end, it got cancelled with Nintendo citing "operational challenges." It continues the ugly problems regarding emulation and the way they treat fans and gaming in general.

Companies have a right to protect their properties. If it's something on PlayStation 4 and 5, the Xbox One and series line, and Switch and 3DS, that's not a problem. But when it bleeds over to systems that have been dead for longer than a decade, that's where it gets problematic. I can't stand Melee, but it hasn't been re-released at any point since it first came out in December 2001. Nintendo to me goes overboard in the way they protect their properties. Some of it now is getting their fans a little tired of the way they approach things. A number of tournaments have had difficulties due to the stingy attitude.

I get it why they don't want to see piracy run rampant. But when its games that aren't on the market anymore, it makes no sense to me. And Nintendo hurts emulation because what's lost is more than just their games. We're talking sites that have thousands upon thousands of games. Titles that don't even get a sniff of daylight because of copyright issues, companies dying out, etc... for those reasons. Some games are not worth the asking price for. For NES, The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak is not worth hundreds. Little Samson is not worth near a thousand dollars.  Even if its below a hundred, prices for GameCube games are not worth what they go for.

Modders have made Doom levels since 1994. GTA has tons of stuff for their games since GTA II's release in 2001. Sega does not go after the Sonic community's fan games. This arrogant attitude of Nintendo in their Japan division is going to be their demise one day. They'll still have fans, but the approaches they go in gaming is inconsistency and never knowing who they sucker next. Great software, shitty company.

Nintendo v. The Big House

This one is quite late, but its been on the backboard for a while. With the pandemic, you're not seeing tournaments, conventions, or anything. The Big House, a Smash Bros. tournament that has happened since 2011, got shut down by Nintendo for this year. All because they were going to use an emulator so people can face each other in the GameCube Smash Bros. game, Melee. A way to face each other online with netplay due to no online features at the time since no one was doing online in 2001 for consoles. That included a warning and a cease and desist and the tournament was canned.

There are two sides that I see. I'll start with why Nintendo is in the right. It's their property and they have every right to protect it. Even if it's a really old title like Smash Bros. Melee, they don't want to see something altered for something like a tournament. And they have strayed away from the series in terms of tournaments and all the controversy back in the summer regarding underage grooming and sexual assault. There's other bad moments, but nothing to level of those revelations. They are not involved, but they want to avoid any potential troubles. Waiting another year when things are normal should have happened with The Big House.

But that doesn't mean Nintendo is free from criticism either. They have been one of the most stingiest companies when it comes to emulation. Some of the big ROM sites were shut down in 2018 because of them. EmuParadise was heralded for not being a virus filled site before it shut down. Its difficult for people to find what they want and not worry that their computer will lock up because of something in the rom file on a website. Nintendo is hurting the scene a lot more. Yes, they have to protect their IP's, but is anything downloaded pre-DS damaging their bottom line? And it not only damages emulation for Nintendo systems, but others. We're talking Sega stuff, Atari, tons of computer games that will never see a re-release.

When you look at NES, SNES, and so forth, there are hundreds of games that don't show up on Virtual Console or the Switch online service. I don't know if Nintendo has a plan to do their own emulator for GameCube, but there are pros and cons to having something like Melee on Switch. It depends on what kind of fans it gets. But as a whole, they haven't done a good job with bringing older titles to their service. Wii U was a letdown and the Switch only has NES and SNES games with a slow trickling down. Nintendo keeps shooting themselves in the foot and think that emulation is a huge problem. For the modern stuff, it is a problem. Them, Sony, and Microsoft don't want to see their hyped releases getting pirated on their current systems. But for older systems, I'm not seeing how it affects them that badly.

Again, I understand where Nintendo is coming from. But emulation has been around for about 25 years. Maybe a little more. You're not seeing most people go to an arcade or pick up an Atari 2600 and NES. There are ones that want the real article, but it may not be possible to get specific titles without an arm and a leg or are too rare to find. That can be applied to other systems and computers. Emulation will never die out. Nintendo can keep fighting it, but its a losing battle and the damage they bring to it hurts the scene as I mentioned earlier. When people say they are out of touch, this is one of the big examples and its a shame that their Japan offices are stubborn about what their customers want outside of that region.

Smash Toxicity

Even with few titles in its 20 years, Super Smash Bros. has a great concept. Your favorite Nintendo characters fighting each other. Four players or more duking it out. Items, various game modes. There's things that make you smile. But we also see the fandom, which is very obnoxious and some of these tournaments have seen very vicious and disgusting moments.

A lot of this involves sexual assault. Stories have come out over the last few years regarding tournaments. People getting kicked off a team, let go. Possible criminal charges. It's blown up now with accusations of assault. I believe a woman assaulted a teenage boy. When you mix that in all together, it creates an even more toxic group that you didn't think was possible. While Nintendo has no involvement in tournaments, they are probably very disgusted out of all the trouble going on. But there can be some fault of trying to cater to people who just want to play for fun and ones who want a real tournament type game.

But ultimately, the fanboys are ones to blame. It's a toss up between this group, Zelda, and maybe Final Fantasy as one of the worst fanbases in gaming. Hell, I'd say Nintendo in general. The constant complaining about how nothing is like Melee. My thoughts on that game is that it's mediocre and the speed of it was too fast for my liking. Is there issues with all the games? Sure, but nothing that makes them unplayable. The ones that play tournaments take it too seriously. It's meant to be a party game with items and interesting stages that aren't like your typical fighter. A guy I knew in college, he was very chill, but would only want one specific stage in Brawl and no items. He'd let loose a little bit sometimes, but that was very rare. But he wasn't obnoxious compared to other community members.

Where this community goes after this, I don't know. Probably a number of criminal charges on the accused. Major changes to tournaments next year. Treating other people respectfully, but that's a tough challenge. The goal now is to clean up the Smash Bros. community. This can apply to other fighting game tournaments, too. Keep an eye on these people involved, especially with Smash Bros.. There is more kids and teenagers who appreciate those titles a bit more than Street Fighter.

Smashing toxicity may be the only way this community can be saved.

Geeks and Jocks: Episode 3