Despite the age of the game, many people still love the innovations and competitive play nature of Super Smash Bros. Melee. It also has a strong competitive scene that is still being maintained and kept alive by professional players for the past 20 years. While the games after Super Smash Bros. Melee have prominent modding scenes, adding fan favorite or obscure characters and skins to the game, Melee still has modders adding playable characters to the roster. This includes Cloud Strife from the ever-popular Final Fantasy 7.
Cloud Strife's appearance in the Smash Bros. franchise was a pipe dream back in 2001, when the mainline console Final Fantasy games at the time were being released on for the PlayStation, Nintendo's competition. Still, since Final Fantasy 7 was a massive hit that popularized the series in the eyes of many, demands for Cloud to be a part of the roster of Smash Bros. was high. It wasn't until the DLC of Super Smash Bros. 3DS and Wii U where the series would get its first playable Final Fantasy representative. Since his addition, Cloud has been a popular pick amongst the playable cast - so much so that one fan decided to mod him into the playable roster of Super Smash Bros. Melee.
This mod was created by GhostsPumpkinSoup, a prominent member of the Smash Bros. modding community. According to him, this backport of Cloud from Ultimate to Melee took a lot of work, requiring the help of other modders to create the model and rigging. Cloud himself looks like if the models used in Final Fantasy 7's CGI cutscenes were the basis for his design in the game. While the first preview footage shows that he seems to be cloned using Marth as a base, Cloud's techniques from Smash Ultimate were also ported over into Melee with some appropriate visuals.
With early footage seen here, most of the things like hitboxes and Cloud's Limit Break Specials were retained from Ultimate, but only in this preview. GhostsPumpkinSoup said that everything will be adjusted and changed to fit how he sees Cloud in Melee's competitive context, which means the removal of certain mechanics like Cloud's Limit gauge. He included it in the preview to demonstrate that such a mechanic is possible, however.
Despite Smash Ultimate's success, mods like these show that the love for Melee is long-standing. Fans of this game in particular are still adding characters into the game, such as when one modder added Wolf as a playable character. It will be exciting to see not only the completion of Cloud, but whatever other playable fighters come to Melee as well.
Super Smash Bros. Melee is available now on GameCube.