Examples of regional differences as demonstrated in the Collection mode; the image on the left is from the American version, while the image on the right uses the Japanese language setting.
The text found near the center of the back of the Melee game disc indicates the version of the game.
Version
Text
1.0 NTSC
DOL-GALE 0-00
1.01 NTSC
DOL-GALE 0-01
1.02 NTSC
DOL-GALE 0-02
KOR
DOL-GALE 0-30
PAL
DOL-GALP 0-00
MD5 hash
The version of a .gcm or .iso file of Melee can be determined by checking its MD5 hash.
Version
MD5 hash
1.0 NTSC
3a62f8d10fd210d4928ad37e3816e33c
1.01 NTSC
67136bd167b471e0ad72e98d10cf4356
1.02 NTSC
0e63d4223b01d9aba596259dc155a174
KOR
315d6c0f5f6a0b778af7858a0a19c24e
PAL
5e118fc2d85350b7b092d0192bfb0f1a
1.0 NTSC-J
378be81bb6c38febd847fc4b7f7dc36f
1.01 NTSC-J
f590cbc155097468d7f04e126d7bd898
1.02 NTSC-J
dc07abd4b6a5e1517da575274ceefcf8
General revisional differences
Version 1.0
All glitches exist, including one that can overwrite Multi-Man Melee scores.
If the player plays as one of the clone characters, lower scores can overwrite higher ones, and if the player plays a clone and then a regular character, the score can duplicate itself on other characters.
In the Home-Run Contest, the track ends at 1521.0 m (4990.0 ft), and if Sandbag isn't already on the track when the player strikes it with the final attack and it goes over 1389.0 m (4556.9 ft), it will result in No Distance. In the Japanese version, it will start to say No Distance from about 890.0 m (2920.0 ft).
The Screen KOs' camera is slightly zoomed out and angled as the character's body is more shown yet upward and hits the screen before visibly falling to the blast line.
Version 1.01
Home Run Contest track was changed to 4990.0 m (16371.0 ft) long, but the bag can't land anywhere past 3458.5 m (11347.2 ft).
The Screen KOs' camera is at a precise normal angle and the character hits the screen in the center.
Version 1.02
The Multi-Man Melee glitch was fixed, the Superjump Glitch was removed, and many other glitches were corrected.
The announcer now says "A New Record" if a new record is achieved in Multi-Man Melee.
The crowd now says "Ohhh" when the announcer says "Failure" if the player fails in Multi-Man Melee.
The game is now able to record and store negative scores in the single player modes; finishing with a negative score will count as 0 instead of the maximum of 999,999,999.
Many methods of freezing the games no longer cause freezing.
Attacks that deal less than 1% damage now cause hitlag.
KOR version
Identical to 1.02
PAL version
Lag and loading times have been reduced.
Character stock icons shown at the bottom of the screen during a match, as well as target icons shown in Target Test, are considerably smaller.
The progressive scan query shown during the booting of the game if B is held is replaced by a 60 Hz query, which lets the player select between PAL50 (576i50) and PAL60 (480i60).
The "Special Movie" was removed, as was the Archives section in the Data menu (But has data replaced by Captain Falcon's Congratulations cinematic). A dedicated menu selection for the How to Play video replaces the Archives submenu.
Player markers now follow the character's position perfectly, instead of lagging by one frame.
Player markers are not shown above Star KO'd characters or elsewhere after getting KO'd.
Inert hitboxes no longer disable article hitboxes
In Home-Run Contest, when the Sandbag lands on the track it becomes unhittable.
In the main menu, when going to the next screen and then switching to a different entry too quickly, the game now shows the correct information at the bottom of the screen.
Clean hit has 24 base knockback Late hit deals 13% and has 18 base knockback Clean hit has slight negative disjoint
Clean hit has 32 base knockback Late hit deals 14% and has 26 base knockback Clean hit has slight positive disjoint Late hit less negatively disjointed
Down smash
Outer hitboxes have 20 base knockback
Outer hitboxes have 22 base knockback
Forward aerial
Landing lag is 20 frames (10 if L-cancelled)
Landing lag is 18 frames (9 if L-cancelled) Disjoint increased
Opponents hit subsequently by the same attack will experience the staled version of the attack.
Opponents hit subsequently by the same attack will experience the same attack as the first hit opponent.
PK Thunder
Stays active when Ness is hit
Despawns if Ness is hit
There is a long-standing rumor that Ness can charge his up and down smash attacks further over ledges in one version of the game and not others. This is false; in all versions of Melee, Ness can charge his smash attacks over a ledge to the same degree.
The NTSC version allows changing between two languages: English and Japanese, while the PAL version covers five languages: English, German, French, Spanish and Italian.
In the NTSC version, the text at the top of the Lottery screen reads "Chance of getting a new trophy"; in the PAL version, it simply reads "New trophy chance".
Trophies
1.0/1.01 NTSC-U to 1.02 NTSC-U
Banzai Bill's trophy name corrected from "Bullet Bill".
Master Sword's trophy's listed game corrected to "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past" from "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time".
Various Pokémon had their categories corrected and various text changes.
PAL
None of the trophies have release dates.
Kirby Super Star is referred to as Kirby's Fun Pak.
Star Fox is referred to as Starwing; Star Fox 64 is referred to as Lylatwars.
The NES game Yoshi is referred to as Mario & Yoshi.
The EarthBound trophies have "Not released in Europe".
The GameCube's trophy has May 2002, its release date in Europe. The trophy name is "GCN" instead of "Nintendo GameCube".
The Tamagon trophy is completely removed and unobtainable altogether.
Roy's trophy is listed with "Future Release", despite Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade never seeing an official release in PAL regions.
Character names
The character selection screen in Japanese (left) and English (right).
The following character names are written differently depending on the language selected:
Purin
Jigglypuff
Rondoudou
Pummeluff
Young Link
Link Enfant
Junger Link
Koopa
Bowser
Ice Climber
Ice Climbers
D.KONG
DK
Mewtwo
Mewtu
Sheik
Shiek
Voices
The Italian and Spanish versions use all the same voice tracks used in the English version.
The Japanese version has some different announcer calls. This includes character names: Bowser is "Koopa", Jigglypuff is "Purin", and Ice Climbers is "Ice Climber".
Japanese
International
Japanese
English
French
German
Jigglypuff has unique selection announcements in German and French to reflect its different names; the announcer calls come from Pokémon Stadium 2. Jigglypuff also has a unique crowd cheer in the German and French versions; the crowd says "Go! Go!" and claps three times.
Sheik and Mewtwo's Japanese dialogue is absent from the non-Japanese versions.
Fox and Falco have different spoken dialogue in Japanese and English, while Peppy and Slippy are fully dubbed in both languages.
Jigglypuff is fully dubbed in four different languages: Japanese, English, German, and French. The chart below shows all the voiced Poké Ball Pokémon and if their voice clips are different from the Japanese version's:
The Japanese discs also have three different known versions, although there are some aesthetic differences exclusive to the Japanese release. This includes graphical changes such as the title screen, certain videos, seal Topis rather than yeti, and some references to Perfect Dark (such as the Proximity Mine design). In addition, the language is set to Japanese on default with only minor alterations in the English setting's text, and the Tamagon Trophy was originally available in-game. Switching languages between English and Japanese will not affect these changes.
In the French versions of both Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Pokémon names are in all caps, referencing how Pokémon names before Generation V are formatted, as well as being changed. In the PAL version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the names of the Pokémon are in all caps in all languages.
118
Cannot perform
Knocks Marth down, due to his changed weight
Hits on frames 7-8 then 20-21
