Ask anyone who owned a Nintendo Gamecube at the turn of the millennium, and they’ll gleefully tell you Super Smash Bros Melee is one of the best fighting games of all time. Then they’ll complain about how much their back hurts. Because, they’re, y’know, old.
That game could soon be on the way to an Android device near you. A fan-made Android port of one of Nintendo’s best ever games is on the way, thanks to the efforts of an emulator developer at melee-pc on Github (via Android Authority).
Unofficial port comes from a dev with previous success
Though it isn’t finished yet
We knew it wouldn’t be long before efforts to bring the legendary game to Android and other platforms bore fruit, since it was only last week Super Smash Bros Melee was successfully decompiled. However, we don’t think anyone expected it to come so quickly.
Github developer 999sian has burst out of the blocks with ports for Nintendo’s classic game for Windows, Linux, and Android.
As is usual for unofficial emulation projects like this, the developer is not supplying the necessary game files to actually run the game, only the surrounding software that takes those files and makes it work. The intention is for you to use your own disk image of the US-version of Super Smash Bros Melee (v1.02), which of course everyone has.
The Windows and Linux ports allegedly work well, and the emulator comes with internal resolution tweaks, antialiasing, an FPS counter, gamepad support, and all the other essentially software support emulators need.
Unfortunately, the Android port is not currently working, even though you can download it.
It’s easy to assume the worst at this point, and presume this v0.1.0 beta won’t go much further. However, this particular developer has previous within this space, having previously ported The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap to PC and Android. They also provided a bunch of support and patches for that release, even after the final version was released. So it’s fair to say this port is in good hands.
Are we likely to jump on this the moment it’s released? You can be sure we will.
We all feel nostalgic for times past, and the video games of our youth hold a particularly strong grip on us as we age. It’s why so many of us dive into retro gaming consoles, and indulge ourselves with our old collections.
So while Melee isn’t quite ready for release yet, you can be sure it’s on the way. This is definitely one to keep an eye on.
