The latest fan project making waves in the community is a content expansion mod known as Beyond Melee, which adds new characters, stages, balance adjustments and gameplay features to the nearly 20-year-old game.
Without official updates or ports of the game, the community’s brightest minds have been forced to take matters into their own hands revolutionizing the ancient platform-fighter through mods, emulation and user-generated content. Melee’s diehard fans continue to host their own grassroots tournaments and fund their prize pools without help from Nintendo. As the game approaches its 20th anniversary, developer support is still nowhere to be found, but that hasn’t stopped its players from keeping it alive. There are few gaming communities more resilient and passionate than the Super Smash Bros.